Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

In all the years posting on this blog, I have never done any sort of Veterans Day post which I think is somewhat of a shame considering my hometown Virginia Beach is mere minutes away from  Naval Station Norfolk which is  the world's largest naval base.  Whether I was seeing the Tidewater Tides play or just out and about in town, uniforms were a regular sight growing up! Perhaps the reason for not having done a dedicated post is that I do not own any of the "Armed Forces Day" hats so while I do not have a military uniform themed cap, what I do have is a sort of meta-uniform cap by way of Paul Lukas's Uni Watch Blog which if we are being honest is a big reason why my blog exists. Obsessing over the nuances of uniforms is a tale as old as time. Lukas worked with Ebbets Field Flanels to create this cap featuring the design prowess of Bryan Molloy in this now-iconic cap logo of winged stirrups. Even though this week's cap is not a military-themed cap, the pride of o...

The 2023 MLB season concluded with the Texas Rangers defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks to clinch the franchise's first World Series championship this past Wednesday, November 1. As a San Francisco Giants fan, I am thrilled Bruce Bochy led the Rangers to win it all during his first year managing since coming out of his brief retirement which began ahead of the 2020 season. Another point of elation—albeit on a more petty level— is that the Diamondbacks suffered the loss at home in front of their fans although the crowd reaction in Arizona when the Rangers scored made me forget which team was on the road. Nevertheless, the 2024 season will be here soon enough and I have high hopes for Bob Melvin's first year managing the Giants. My ideal scenario would be Melvin and Bochy squaring off in the World Series but those are the types of ambitions one can really only have a few days into the offseason during that time when every team has a shot. Once the chips start falling in the free ...

I am not going to front: I had multiple Philadelphia-adjacent caps at the ready for this week and the next but the Phillies' elimination in the NLCS by the Arizona Diamondbacks has summarily drained my desire to post photos of those hats thus, this week I am channeling National Black Cat Day energy for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post. And since I don't have any caps with a black cat on the logo we are pivoting by showcasing the embroidery of a white bat on a black hat which I guess which is acceptable because we are staying within the spooky parameters of the Halloween season! I've mentioned this before but I would really like to see some sort of "Clink Room" sweatband  tag on these caps if for no other reason than experiencing the joy of pure symmetry!  See how nice the Clink Kong logo looks in his symmetrically embroidered glory here? I love this! My life is filled with few regrets which is why I have no misgivings about posting Mystery "N" S...

It has been over five years since my  1980-92 Reading Phillies snapback  post so I am extra excited bout this this week's  Fresh Fitted Friday  which is a special one because I am finally able to feature a fitted version of the cap. This cap is one of the many stunning MILB releases by the one and only  @djmach716  from New Era shop in Buffalo, NY. Back in August I featured the  "New Era Buffalo Exclusive" Vermont Expos  which was also obtained from the flagship via an assist from my friend  @yellowsub73 . I was hesitant to name which other caps I wanted to scoop up from the store however this week's Reading Phillies hat marks the first revelation of that set and soon enough I will be sharing more from my recent haul. This is about as close as you can get to the 1980s Reading Phillies logo and I am fairly certain we won't see a retro this good ever again. My fear is based on releases in the recent past where the bigger stores have messed up t...

Now that the 2023 ALCS and NLCS matchups are fully fleshed out, this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post seems like a good time to finally discuss the MLB teams that have had memorable campaigns and have earned the chance to compete in this year's postseason. I'd like to begin by first shouting out the clubs who are not moving forward in the playoffs. As a San Francisco Giants fan, my Schadenfreude was firing into overdrive as the "looking good on paper while winning 100 regular season games"  Los Angeles Dodgers were swept in the NLDS  this past Wednesday although I would have taken greater pleasure in that event had it not also meant success for the Arizona Diamondbacks. To their credit the Dbacks finished the season strong and have not lost a postseason game however they are a division rival so that is the extent to which I will tip my cap. I admittedly enjoy watching Zac Gallen pitch and Ketel Marte was a solid performer on one of my fantasy teams this year but I...

A few weeks back I mentioned wanting to write about teams in the playoff race but instead opted to feature the  "Mystery 'N' Star" post —which in a way is adjacent to the Texas Rangers, who are now in the postseason—however despite the League Division Series starting this weekend, I am holding off on showcasing any of those eight teams until the games are officially underway. Of course, half the teams could be eliminated by the time next Friday comes along but I am taking that risk because today's date is October 6 and any fan of Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland  should associate 10/6 with the Hatter and thus felt compelled to write about a cap where the logo prominently features a hat for National Mad Hatter Day. I write about the Trading Block a lot and while I do hoard a large portion of my caps, there are a good amount that I am willing to move if I can find the right trading partner. And that's what happened recently when...

We are two weeks into Hispanic Heritage Month and calling back to last year's Los Murciélagos de Louisville  post is this week's Abejas de Salt Lake cap, which is another stunning logo created for the Copa de la Diversión campaign which itself is an expansion of the Es Divertido Ser Un Fan ("It's Fun to Be a Fan") fan engagement program that began in 2017. This logo is one of the more understated Copa designs but the clean lines and bright colors—featuring just the right amount of Tealism , by the way—caught my eye instantly and I especially  appreciate how they implement the bee stripes into the "A" here.   The grey undervisor is a special treat due to this cap being a Hat Club exclusive that I purchased in March 2020. Obviously the entire MILB season was canceled that year but even it had not, the team would not have worn this cap as this was a fan only release.  I love how relaxed the Miami Nights/San Antonio Spurs vibe is on this batterman. All of a ...

Many of the themes for this blog's posts are planned out well in advance however there are times when inspiration strikes or perhaps some current event takes priority and this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection falls somewhere in between the latter two categories. I considered a few ideas related to the playoff race in the mighty American League East, whose second and third best teams will likely be the ones battling during the Wild Card series. At the last minute though, I decided to hold off on the congratulatory posts because I became aware of a significant baseball-related event that happened on this date 30 years ago. When I first starting got into baseball in the mid 1980s, the style and gas of pitchers like Dwight Gooden and Roger Clemens held my full attention however I am thankful to have eventually learned to appreciate the mastery of future Hall of Famers like Nolan Ryan and Jack Morris before they retired. While I have not yet discussed Morris in any previous pos...

The Atlanta Braves clinched the National League East Division earlier this week, however instead of dedicating this week's  Fresh Fitted Friday  to the big news of being the first MLB team this year to gain a postseason berth, we honor the centennial of the birth of Hank Williams—another iconic Southern entity—which is this coming Sunday, September 17. I have recently featured two Hip Hop 50 related hats so now is a good time to temporarily shift gears with a country-tinged cap. As I have mentioned before, I grew up listening to lots of hard rock and rap in the 1980s although sadly never appreciated country music until I went to college in Colorado which is where I first learned about bluegrass and Americana in general. My first exposure to "The Hillbilly Shakespeare" is not a memory I can accurately retrace however I suspect a key catalyst to that moment was my chemistry lab partner, Nathan, who grew up in Nashville, TN. Each of us had diverse musical tastes that we enj...

In addition to being my favorite band as a kid, Beastie Boys are the biggest inspiration for me moving to New York as an adult. As a Beastie Boys fan growing up in the 1980s, I used words like "def" and "ill" without understanding the context behind these slang words so when I saw the embroidered on the crown of this Acapulco Gold hat, I knew I had to have it. Any Beastie Boys fan worth their weight in salt owns a copy of the band's 1989 record Paul's Boutique and associates the southwest corner of Ludlow and Rivington with being the location photographed for the album's cover. This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a tribute to the historical event of that corner being officially dubbed “Beastie Boys Square” tomorrow, Sept 9. I love how the serifs resemble those on the current "SF" logo and I'm already trying to think of names for a fake club I can use as a response to questions such as "what team is that?" which I am...

Many of this site's readers already know that Phish is my favorite band but what you might not know is that a big yearly tradition of their's since 2011 is to play a multi-night run during Labor Day Weekend at Dick's Sporting Goods Park which is home to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. As a former resident of Colorado, I feel obliged to honor this annual event by featuring this 1952 Denver Bears retro cap from Ebbets Field Flannels for this very special Labor Day Weekend edition of Fresh Fitted Friday . This cap was one of my earliest Ebbets caps purchased however the logo from  last year's Denver Bears post ahead of Labor Day Weekend is the one I wish they would retro once again but hopefuly this time with a historically accurate sized logo .  I cannot overstate how much I appreciate that the elegantly understated touchstone elements of an Ebbets cap such as the tags which like the quality of the caps, have stayed consistently great over the years.    ...

Looking back on last week's Riverside Pilots post, I am only now appreciating how the aviation theme of the team's name dovetails with a nautical element of being a former Seattle Mariners affiliate. Similarly,  the bird in the logo of  this week's Staten Island FerryHawks hat meets that flight requirement while the water surrounding their ballpark provides all the necessary aquatic vibes. The FerryHawks logo from New Jersey-based Skye Design Studios falls perfectly in the middle of the quirky  Poochie Effect and the menacing  Brandiose Clench , which is a stylistic theme I've noticed in the work of the legendary firm that delivered Staten Island's  infamous Pizza Rats identity .   This is the first OC Sports hat I've featured here and while I've been a New Era purist for the majority of my time collecting, their recent quality control issues have led me to seek out other producers.  This is also my first Atlantic League of Professional B...

Last week was a celebration of all things hip-hop but at the end of the post, I mentioned how I began this blog's  Fresh Fitted Friday tradition with my 1992 Seattle Mariners post on August 16, 2013 . To that point, it only makes sense that ten years later I'm coming through with a Riverside Pilots retro which to me is undoubtedly one of the best Mariners affiliate logos ever. It's hard to believe it's already been a year since my  Wichita Aeros post celebrating National Aviation Day  and I am glad to showcase this Riverside Pilots hat to continue the tradition as this year the holiday falls tomorrow, August 19. Made in U.S.A. tags are a welcome treat here for sure as they become increasingly more rare by the year with whatever is floating around continues to get snatched up. The teal, navy and silver batterman looks great on a navy crown and especially here. I love all things 90s so of course the current colorway the Mariners have rocked since 1993 is near and dear ...