Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

I’m taking a respite from the National Day themes for this post because there’s finally been some big news in the baseball world this week as David Ortiz was the only former player elected by the Baseball Writers Association of America–BBWWA for short which by the way, note the ridiculousness of the two B’s in the acronym–on this year’s 2022 Hall of Fame ballot. While congratulations are in order for Ortiz, these results mean Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling and Sammy Sosa have missed election for the 10th and final time and next year will be off the ballot. All four of those players deserve plaques in Cooperstown but the tribunal that comprises the BBWWA could not come to a reasonable consensus to recognize that. The Hall of Fame candidacies of these legends now lie in the hands of the “Today’s Game Committee” which looks to honor the players who dominated the game from 1988 through 2016. Luckily that time frame encompasses the years Bonds racked up his 14 All-Star Game appe

Fans of the regularly scheduled calendar-themed posts are getting a double dose this week as today is National Squirrel Day and National Hugging Day. It’s fortuitous that these holidays fall on a   Friday because a holiday to celebrate squirrels is the perfect moment for my Las Ardillas Voladoras de Richmond cap for this week’s Fresh Fitted Friday selection. If you’re still wondering where the hugging part comes in, ask yourself if there’s a creature out there that hugs trees more than the bushy-tailed rodents which comprise the squirrel family!   Richmond already has a zany logo so whoever had to make that amp-up squirrel even more wild for the Richmond Squirrels to wear as part of the “Copa de la Diversion” had quite the task ahead of them.   Luckily there was an in-house plan in place with Flying Squirrels’ Creative Services & Production Manager Nick Elder converting Nutzy into a masked luchador of lucha libre – a term which literally means “Freestyle” in Spanish – wrestling wh

Without MLB game results and general happenings to inspire my weekly write-ups, I typically look to "National Day" holidays and current events to guide me during these slow times. Luckily, there is no shortage of transactions occurring this time of year. As it turns out today's date, January 14, was an eventful one for the two teams I follow the most which are the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees  in 2002 and 2001 , respectively. The big move San Francisco made on this date in 2002 was signing Barry Bonds to a 5 year $90 million contract extension. Getting his team to the World Series that year validated San Francisco's determination to do what ever it took to ensure Bonds was in a Giants uniform while shattering hitting records up throughout the remainder of his career. The Yankees have not make a splash on January 14 in the past 50 years however  their division rivals did in 2001 when the Toronto Blue Jays traded  David Wells–who was the Yankees 1998 ALCS M

I neglected my posting duties last week by not sharing a Fresh Fitted for the first Fresh Fitted Friday of 2022 but that just means this week's cap has to work extra hard to assume that role! For the very special honor of starting the year off right I have selected a 2002 World Series cap which when combined with this particular San Francisco Giants logo, is a bit of a mind-bender. I viewed footage from all seven games of the 2002 World Series and can confirm that this alternate logo was not worn during any of them, which makes sense because it did not appear until the 2003 season. Nevertheless, I have a soft spot in my heart for this one as this design was very popular when i moved to the Bay Area in 2005.  January 7 is National Bobblehead Day so this cap is teaming up with a Tim Lincecum bobblehead that I procured at a special event at AT&T Park in 2011. Fun fact: the orange-brimmed cap Lincecum is wearing was only worn during Game 4 of the 2010 World Series, which in case y