Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

In celebration of the first Spring Training exhibition games of 2018, I’ve got something extra special to share for this week’s Fresh Fitted Friday : a 1994 Albany-Colonie Yankees cap. I'm glad to finally check this cap off my wishlist. Well, really it's just moving into the second tier because I'd like to eventually find one without the red button and eyelets but enough with the nitpicking! If you look closely you can tell that the tags that were ripped out are ones that were used from 1994-1996. Because the Double-A affiliate's last season in Albany was 1994, this cap could only be from that year. I've seen the MILB batterman on caps that could be from 1993 but I'm holding firm in my estimation that this cap is from 1994 due to the ripped out size tags used in the photo above this one. If you are familiar with my cap wishlist, you know most are there because I love their logo design but some are also there for the rarity. This cap meets both ...

Before we get back to our regularly scheduled programming, I want to thank anyone who took the time to consider the views I shared last week. I really do love the baseball hat community but sometimes folks get carried away when it comes to "maintaining tradition" but this week's New Haven Ravens cap is a safe Eastern League icon you're sure to love. This cap logo is the one the Ravens wore from 1994 through 2000 and I prefer this version because it's the first one I ever knew and besides that, the other logo was only used from 2001 through 2003, which was their final year in New Haven. I'm usually firm in my belief that the New Era flag began to appear in 1999 but the Colorado Rockies logo embroidered on the wearer's right side throws that notion off since 1998 was the last year of the Rockies affiliation with the Ravens. The most recently made hat that I own which features the white satin taping is a 1999 Capital City Bomber...

I was planning on continuing my deep-dive into Eastern League caps however this past week's discussion over Jim Thome's preference that his Hall of Fame plaque not feature the  Chief Wahoo  caricature sparked something that I need to address here. As much as I love baseball's rich history, that appreciation should never cause someone else to suffer. I understand that Chief Wahoo has been a part of the Cleveland Indians' branding since the 1940's but I encourage everyone to please take a moment to think about how different this country was back then. Racial segregation was still in full effect and people of color were constantly subjected to insensitive language and tormented on a daily basis  in general . We've come a long way since then in terms of treating each other with respect and I would be sad to think the end point for that progress is sports fans unwillingness to recognize that a seemingly harmless mascot or logo can in fact be extremely hurtful ...

The Double-A party continues this week folks and we're not just taking a look at any old Eastern League team this time around. This week's Fresh Fitted is an alternate worn by the Hartford Yard Goats, which as it turns out is a natural rival to last week's featured team, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.  Like last week's cap, this was another gift from my wife. The "Horned H" logo first caught her eye because it represents our last initial but when she learned the cap was one worn by the team in Hartford, that sealed the deal as we had recently visited The Insurance Capital of the World . Unfortunately, this cap cannot proudly boast the Made In USA tag but I haven't found any glaring quality issues with it thus far. The green, white and blue MILB batterman is a fitting tribute to the iconic colorway once used by the now-defunct Hartford Whalers. The team's rebrand by Brandiose in 2015 brought the design firm's calling card  - w...