1987 Bellingham Mariners Retro (Ebbets Field Flannels) - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

The last pitstop on the Quarantine Road Trip converts last week's Ebbets Field Flannels "back-to-back" feature into a "three-peat" which is absolutely fitting because like most sports fans around the world, I'm completely enamored by The Last Dance, the 10-part ESPN miniseries documenting Michael Jordan's final season on the Chicago Bulls.

Similar to the Bulls brand gaining worldwide recognition due to Michael Jordan's heroic efforts, Ken Griffey, Jr. aka "The Kid", is responsible for helping to right the Seattle Mariners ship and making their cap the most popular logo in baseball during the early 1990's. 

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a replica of another cap design made famous by Griffey as he wore during his first professional baseball assignment with the Bellingham Mariners in 1987. A vintage Baby M's cap with this design is next to impossible to find but thankfully Ebbets Field Flannels decided to retro the cap back in 2016.

At the end of 2017, I wrote about the cap Bellingham wore during the final two years of Seattle's relationship with their Class-A Short Season affiliate however this week's design is the one the former Northwest League team wore from 1987 through 1991.

As per usual, the inside of the cap is identical to any other fitted cap that you purchase from Ebbets but something I have not have mentioned enough is how much I appreciate the black sweatband as it definitely prolongs the freshliness.

I could pine for a grey underbrim here however I've sang that tune enough yet even still, I can't say with any certainty whether the underbrim was green or grey based on the Baby M's cards I've seen from that time period.

One last item of note is that this Bellingham Mariners cap has something else in common with last week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection other than being an Ebbets retro: each of these former Mariners affiliates from Washington state featured players whose autographs I'd later obtain when they went on to play for my hometown team, the Tidewater Tides!

I was pleasantly surprised to learn just today that Chuck Carr was Griffey's teammate during the 1987 season. Another thing I didn't know is that Chuckie played Shortstop during the early years of his career as I'd only known him as a speedy outfielder when he was on the Tides.

Like Orlando Mercado and lots of other players on those Tides teams, Carr always seemed to make time to sign autographs for kids like me so I will always think fondly of him.

I've said it before and it's worth repeating again now: Ebbets Field Flannels consistently produces the most top-quality retro caps in the industry and I hope that they only continue to improve on their successes. My only wish is that they would try to focus on minor league logos from the late 1970s and early 1980s as I believe there's a huge demand for those designs.

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is not going on the Trading Block however please don't hesitate to reach out if you want any other cap from that list 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:

Instagram: @baseballmilquetoast

Twitter: @FittedFriday

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