Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Do you ever hear a recording of your voice and think to yourself, "there's no way that's me" even though you are 100% certain that the voice is in fact yours? Well, I just had that feeling when I went back and read my blog post for a Hickory Crawdads cap back in 2011 . It was only the fourth hat that I had written about and I suppose I don't recognize myself because it feels like I've learned so much about the history of MILB caps over the last eight years. Frankly, it was somewhat liberating to just be writing about a newly acquired cap that I appreciated simply because it reminded me of my youth. Even though the photography in that post is very cringeworthy and the text at the end of the post is mysteriously cut off mid-sentence, I remember being happy that I was  reacquainting myself with the Hickory Crawdads and I'm experiencing similar emotions as I'm revisiting an earlier version of that cap for this week's post. One thing I...

Dear reader, I feel that now is the time to dedicate a post with photos and descriptions of the caps in my continually evolving "Wish List". I haven't exactly been bombarded with trade offers lately so maybe having them all featured here might change that.  Hat Club has been killing it with their recent releases of retro MILB logos from the 1980's and 1990's so  the first few caps on this list are ones that they'd do well to release (or re-release in the case of the 1993-95 Utica Blue Sox, 1995-2000 Kissimmee Cobras and the 1994 Appleton Foxes). Tier 1, as the name would imply, includes caps that are at the top of my list and I'd be willing to part with any cap in my Trading Block for one of these beauties: 1982-83 Denver Bears (I have a retro of this but would LOVE to have a vintage as well!) 1989-92 Peninsula Pilots 1988-90 Jackson Mets 1983 Portland Beavers (I've never even seen a vintage version of this cap which is why I had to include a image o...

Continuing with the theme of former Toronto Blue Jays affiliates in the South Atlantic League, I'm obliged to discuss Toronto's presence in South Carolina which began in 1981 with the Florence Blue Jays, who in 1987 became the Myrtle Beach Blue Jays. The team rebranded as the Myrtle Beach Hurricanes in 1991 and after the 1992 season, moved to Hagerstown, MD to become the newest incarnation of the Hagerstown Suns where their affiliation with Toronto continued.  Because the team only existed for two seasons, finding an original hat is an exercise in futility so w hen I learned Hat Club was releasing a retro, I had to pick it up. I had some reservations about pulling the trigger on this cap because the logo is noticeably larger than the OG. Based on how fast the hat sold out, I believe this was a conscious decision by Hat Club as perhaps they felt they'd sell more hats with an aggrandized logo.  For reference, here are  some photos of the more dainty logo o...

Unlike the cap shortage that I faced in my Carolina League series a while back, I don't seem to be running out of ammo when it comes to my South Atlantic League reserves. This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a hat that's been stashed away for a few years now but the cap logo design itself goes all the back to 1993. I've mentioned this many times before but it's worth repeating that  I loved collecting players' autographs as a kid . To maximize my collection, I had to stock up on cards from as many different minor league teams as possible and I focused on MLB teams who had a Triple-A affiliate in the International League who would face my hometown Norfolk Tides.  The Tides often played the Rochester Red Wings (who were t he Baltimore Orioles' Triple-A affiliate)  and I had lots of cards from that team as well as other current and former Orioles farm teams such as the Frederick Keys and Bowie Baysox, who replaced the Hagerstown Suns as ...

Y'all know how much I love these little "mini-series within a series" things so brace yourselves for the second part of the Columbus RedStixx celebration within the greater South Atlantic League jubilee! To celebrate this meta-gala proper, I'll be popping the tags on a cap that is about 25 years old! This week's cap is special because it's the logo I remember most from my time as a minor league baseball fanatic in the mid-1990's. The RedStixx wore this one from their inaugural season in 1992 through 1994 but possibly up until 1997. For some reason MILB cards from seemed to become more scarce as the decade progressed. The sweatband tags here are standard issue for the mid-1990's but the white satin taping has inspired me to create a new label that I'll be applying to previous posts as needed. The MILB batterman on the back of the cap here tells me this one's from 1994 at the earliest and the last year it could be from is 1996 ...