This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a 1974 Washington Stars prototype that I picked up from Hat Club. I think this cap is a nice continuation of last week's "Nationals" theme as that is the name of the current team in Washington as well as the design on this week's cap seeming like a dead ringer for a Nats alternate logo in current times.
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| The single serif is a curious design element here but I am intrigued they chose a logo that so closely resembles the one on the caps worn by the Washington Senators who left for Minnesota in 1960. Interestingly enough, Minnesota is incorporating a nod to the North Star on this year's road caps. |
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| It would be fun if this cap featured a red, white and blue pinwheel crown similar to what the Montreal Expos wore, especially considering the Expos eventually left Montreal for Washington in 2005. Interestingly enough, besides both teams being NL expansion teams in 1969, this article lists out a few other congruities between the Padres and Expos. |
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| I don't normally have much to say about sweatband tags but in this case, it's worth noting that there's no MLB tag present because this cap must not technically be considered an official logo of any sort since the Stars came to fruition. |
The ephemeral history of the Washington Stars is rooted in the struggles of the San Diego Padres as they tried to endure the hardships of not only being a fledgling expansion team in a small market that could not support it but one that was mismanaged from the start by an unscrupulous San Diego businessman named C. Arnholt Smith.
In short, Smith over-promised and under-delivered on his bill of goods to the people of San Diego ahead of the team's inaugural season in 1969. His ticket out of trouble seemed to arrive on May 27, 1973 in the form of a sale offer from Joseph B. Danzanksy, the president of Giant Food Inc. which is a grocery store chain originating in Washington, D.C.
Despite the general agreement between the two businessmen, the City of San Diego took issue with the team breaking its 20 year lease just five years into their contract and began the process of taking legal action against the Padres, thus thwarting their move to the nation's capital.
These roadblocks prompted Smith and the Padres to search for a new way out and eventually found a new potential ownership group emerge which was headed by a horse track owner named Marjorie Everett as well as famous composer Burt Bacharach, who incidentally passed away just a week ago at the age of 94.
Everett's own legal issues led to the demise of that deal but the Padres finally found their savior in Ray Kroc, who could not resist the opportunity to be an owner of a baseball team when presented with the opportunity shortly after stepping down as the CEO of McDonalds Corporation in 1973.
Kroc's rise from being a McDonalds franchise agent in 1955 to eventually purchasing the chain from the McDonalds brothers who founded the company is discussed at length in many articles which I recommend you seek out for yourselves so we can stick to baseball for now.
Not surprisingly, there's less information available regarding the battle over the Padres but this article from mlb.com and this one from sabr.org are where I would steer those interested in learning more about the topic.
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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