As you know I’ve been wearing caps from visiting club’s minor league affiliates to games I’ve attended this season. So when I went to the Marlins-Mets series finale at CitiField this past Wednesday night, I wore a cap from the Greensboro Grasshoppers, who have been the Marlins’ Single-A affiliate in the South Atlantic League since 2003.
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| The Grasshoppers have stayed true to this cap logo since 2005 and it has appeared on a variety of different colored crowns such as green, orange and this light khaki one which I think suits it best. |
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| This cap was a recent purchase so it's no surprise it's not USA-made but that's still a shame. |
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| I also like the way the orange and green MILB batterman looks on the back of this cap's crown. |
Even though this is not a rare or vintage hat, you can count on me to do some digging to tie in a cap’s present to its past. For me, the biggest connection is the Marlins new owner, Derek Jeter, who played in Greensboro when it was affiliated with the New York Yankees as did a few members of the current Marlins coaching staff who are also former Yankees.
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We’ll start with the current Marlins skipper, Don Mattingly, who was a big hero for all my friends who were Yankees fans in the 1980’s. I like the big cursive “G” that Donnie Baseball is wearing in these images from 1979 1980. |
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| This is a 1984 card of current Marlins third-base coach, Fredi Gonzalez, who was a Yankees farmhand from 1982-1987. When his playing career ended, he coached the independent Miami Miracle of the Florida State League and following that, teams in the Marlins system. |
The current the Grasshoppers logo is similar to the lowercase “G” cap Gonzales is wearing in the photo above so I wonder if the team would be open to doing a retro of this one at some point. I would love a straight up reproduction but would even dig it if they swapped out the yellow brim and letter outline for orange to match the Marlins color scheme.
Another Greensboro alum is current Marlins hitting coach Mike Pagliarulo. I couldn't find a photo of him from his 1982 season but did track down one of former Marlin Giancarlo Stanton wearing this week’s hat during his first year of professional baseball in 2008.
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| Giancarlo was known as “Mike” when he played for Greensboro ten years ago but some things never change as hit 39 home runs that season which is how many he’ll probably hit this year. |
This cap isn't for sale or trade however don't hesitate to reach out if there's something you like on the Trading Block and you are willing to part with any of the hats on my Wish List.
As always, thanks for coming back to read about baseball hat geekery. I've got comments disabled here so if you'd like to discuss a trade or simply just chat about hats, please feel free to connect via the following social sites:
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