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1989-92 Elmira Pioneers

I’m back on a vintage kick for this week’s Fresh Fitted Friday post which is inspired by today, March 11, being Johnny Appleseed Day. The obvious logo to showcase on this holiday would be the home cap that the Fort Wayne TinCaps have worn since their inaugural season in 2009 however I decided to go in a different direction this time around.

Just for some background, the TinCaps logo features an angry apple wearing a cooking pot as a reference to Johnny Appleseed who for some reason wore one on his head as well. I’ve always thought the design was fun but held out on acquiring one for the collection because I was hoping there would one day be a version that incorporated a baseball or bat into the motif.


Well, here we are all these years later on Johnny Appleseed Day and I don’t have the one cap that was inspired by this great American nurseryman pioneer! Nevertheless, I won’t let that sink my spirits because I recently got my hands on an Elmira Pioneers cap from the Boston Red Sox era that is a perfect tribute to the legendary pioneer born in Massachusetts in 1774.



Those who know me are familiar with my Red Sox aversion but I could see myself making an exception for this classy looking cap. This design was only worn for a few years but I've got a strong connection to it because I procured many autographs of baseball cards featuring players wearing this cap in the early and mid 1990s.

A fair amount of hat collectors complain about Pro-Line caps but I don't have a problem with the quality on these caps at all. In fact, I appreciate the soft wool used on these caps. Also, this one is Made in U.S.A. which is a big plus for a ballcap considering they're not made here anymore!


One criticism I do have of some Pro-Line caps is with the ones which feature the parent club logo embroidered on the rear of the cap. Fortunately, that's not a problem on this one as we've got a nice clean back here.


I mostly associate this week's cap with Frank Rodriguez, who was a top prospect in the Red Sox organization in the early 1990s. Rodriguez's first professional assignment after Rookie Leagues was in Elmira in 1991. The following season he was converted to a pitcher which was his position until his playing career ended with a stint in Cincinnati 2001.



I've normally got warm and fuzzy feelings when it comes to memories of classic cap logos such this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection. The one dark spot I do hold is actually related to my encounter with Frank Rodriguez when he played for the Pawtucket Red Sox in 1994.


That year was my last season collecting autographs and a big reason for that has to do with the time that I asked Rodriguez to sign an autograph for me as he was about to board the team bus after playing a game against my hometown team, the Norfolk Tides.


This memory is from almost thirty years ago so the details are a little blurry but what I do remember is Rodriguez being the last player to walk out of the clubhouse that night. I recall him telling me he'd not only sign all my cards featuring himself but that he'd get the rest of my cards signed by the guys on the bus who I wasn't able to approach as they boarded the bus.


In retrospect, I should have known better than to hand over a stack of cards to a guy who was just a few years older than me. He was essentially just a kid out there trying to have fun and not all that dissimilar to me. At any rate, Rodriguez had been on the bus for a few minutes and I started to get the feeling that things weren't going to turn out the way I thought.


The driver started the engine and as the bus began to pull away, I began knocking on whichever windows I could to express my dismay at the situation. I'm sure on the other side of those windows was a whole troop of guys sharing laughs at my expense but I was too full of rage to hear anything other than the curse words streaming out of my mouth.


I kept up with the bus the best I could but could only run so fast and soon enough, I had given up hope of ever seeing those cards again. At that very moment I remember seeing those very cards fluttering out of the window as the bus was exiting the parking lot.


The other autograph hounds who witnessed this were half-laughing but also bemused as well as horrified since they realized this very thing could just as easily have happened to themselves. My ego was bruised after that and truthfully, that might have been the catalyst for me shifting my interest away from collecting autographs which was probably for the best.


Doing normal teenager stuff came easier to me than I thought it would and for that I'm thankful. I suppose I should also be thankful to Frankie Rodriguez for the eye-opening experience but I'm still pretty salty about that sequence of events to this day so maybe I'm not ready for closure on this just yet!


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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