I've enjoyed welcoming the first signs of Fall here in New York lately as the days get shorter and the air becomes increasingly more brisk however it's important to think of our friends on the West Coast who receive no quarter as wildfires continue to rage across those states.
Natural disasters are a possibility no matter where you live but in the five years I spent in the Bay Area, my greatest fear—besides my irrational phobia of getting eaten alive by a shark— was being helpless in the middle of a major earthquake/fire type scenario.
I'm overcome with sadness for those affected by these current happenings, especially since I never experienced any of those things firsthand. In truth, I have a hard time even thinking about those situations so it goes without saying I'm not going to be rewatching Jaws or sitting through any sort of disaster movie sometime soon. Hats are a different story with me for some reason!
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| I've had my eye on a certain (not telling you which one tee hee) Clearwater Threshers cap for a while and then there's the Rancho Cucamonga "Temblores" hat which I've selected as this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection because I'm such a huge fan of the uniform that the the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes have donned since the Copa de la Diversion campaign began in 2018. |
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| One negative of this cap is that it's yet another "Made in China" hat from the folks at New Era. I will never understand why they moved their production overseas as a cost-saving effort yet continue to increase the price of their caps in the States. For what it's worth, the MSRP for this particular hat is $37.99. |
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| The simulated earthquake on the brim is a design element that the Copa cap shares with the Quakes home cap. Because of this, the undervisor stitching that is featured on all other New Era caps is not present here. |
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| Photo and caption of this cap in action cribbed from ThinkBlue LA: Current Dodgers right-hander Dustin May was once a ‘Temblore’ with the team’s Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. (Photo credit – Steve Saenz) |
The Quakes have been a part of the California League since 1993 and despite having such a long-tenured team name, I think they should consider permanently adopting their Copa identity. To be fair, the team has updated their colorway from the Tealism of the early 1990's, however the logo still seems stale even though after this many years, it should feel like a classic.
Also, if you are familiar with my personal policy of cancelling red hats in my collection, you can probably guess wearing a cap with the letter "Q" is completely out of the question. In addition to the visual aspects of my argument, "Rancho Cucamonga Temblores" has a better phonetic flow than the language hybridization of "Rancho Cucamonga Quakes" which I find jarring.
I also think the transition to the Temblores would be a smarter move than renaming the team completely because the Quakes are the only MILB team to have called Rancho Cucamonga home and it might be hard for that town to think of their team as anything else.
Something else to consider though is that before the Quakes, Rancho Cucamonga was never really is a relatively straight twenty mile drive from San Manuel Stadium which is the ballbark in San Bernardino that the Inland Empire 66'ers call home.
In the San Bernardino Spirit post that kicked off the recent run of California League caps, I shared a link to a write-up on Lookout Landing team's history which ends with a mention of how the genesis of the Quakes occurred when the Seattle Mariners ended their affiliation with San Bernardino and thus prompted the team's move to Rancho Cucamonga in 1993.
What's old is new and what's new is old, I reckon. Be that as it may, please remember to keep the West Coast in your thoughts as they are going through a troubling time which is only compounded on top of the global pandemic that the rest of the world is experiencing.
Sorry to end on a bummer but I promise next week's closing the California League run will be brighter!
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:
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