This week's Fresh Fitted Friday post might be the last for a little while as I'm about to embark on a busy summer that slated to feature some fun travels as well as a big home improvement project. I don't want to share too many details yet but let's just say the background you see on the Instagram posts will be affected in a major way!
Every year on the first Saturday in June, National Black Bear Day is celebrated to recognize the most common bear in the United States. Since tomorrow is the first Saturday in June, the theme for this week's post is going to be ursine-focused with my 1948 Knoxville Smokies retro from Ebbets Field Flannels.
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| Ok, so maybe the logo isn't even ursine-adjacent at all but for me, whenever I think of Knoxville, the first thing that comes to mind is the Smoky Mountains and my next thought after that is of the black bears that live in the park. |
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| Ebbets branding and the Made In U.S.A. pride comprise the magnificent duo of tags seen on almost every Ebbets cap |
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| The majority of my Ebbets hats are navy or royal blue so a black crown is welcomed here. The New York Giants were the parent team for the Smokies when this one was worn so the orange embroidery on the front of the crown makes this one a "must-purchase" for me. |
I haven't been sharing Ebbets caps with as much frequency as you might have been accustomed to me doing in the past and I think there might be a correlation with their cap release schedule slowing down since the beginning of the pandemic. Nevertheless, I'm hoping that it picks up as COVID case numbers continue to drop and supply chains ramp up again.
I'm also trying to stay optimistic that more of the upcoming caps feature embroidered designs rather than the felt patches. Uniqueness of the logos themselves is most important to me but if I had to choose a favorite method of implementation, embroidery always wins as there's just something about its permanence on the cap itself.
Regardless of the of its execution on the cap, I'm also longing for retro releases of logos from the last 50 years such as the Oneonta Yankees, Jacksonville Expos, Greenville Braves, Jackson Mets, Utica Blue Sox and the red white and blue version of the cap the Denver Bears wore beginning with their their affiliation with the Texas Rangers in 1982.
In fact, those teams are ones that I requested Ebbets to produce when I put my order in for this week's Knoxville Smokies hat back in 2017 and so far, the closest I've gotten is the Denver Bears cap which is currently available on Ebbets' site purported to be from 1983. Only issue is a quick bit of online research will show that one was actually only worn through 1981.
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| You'll see the blue cap—which if you didn't already know, sits at the top of my wish list—is labeled as being from 1982-84 in this photo that was taken at the National Ballpark Museum in Denver, CO (Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images) |
I've written about that Denver Bears logo above a few times in the past and if you're interested in finding out more, click here to view the two most consequential posts on that subject.
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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