Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

At the time of writing, the New York Mets and New York Yankees have both come away as NLDS and  ALDS champions respectively and I could not be more excited about the increased possibility of my first Subway Series as a resident of New York! The rest of the country is more likely to drool at the prospect of a World Series in which the Yankees face off against the Los Angeles Dodgers and even with that, the San Francisco Giants fan in me would be thrilled to watch the Dodgers lose on baseball's biggest stage. And my third best outcome would be for the San Diego Padres to have a chance to avenge their 1998 World Series loss against the Yankees but I'm holding out hope for the Mets as of now! These  scenarios all assume the Yankees come out on top in their ALCS matchup against either the Detroit Tigers or Cleveland Guardians but neither of these teams appear to be the pennant winners for this season in my estimation. Well, hopefully I did not just jinx the whole thing but if I did

Just last week, I attended my final New York Yankees games of the season but unfortunately had to see them lose to the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday and then again to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday for Paul Skenes' final start of 2024. Had I known that the Pirates would pull Skenes after just two innings, my decision to venture to the Bronx on that rainy afternoon might have played out differently but  despite the loss  I am grateful to the Yankees for putting forth their best efforts as well as their fans who by dumping their tickets for cheap allowed me to see the potential Rookie of the Year strike out Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisolm Jr. This "load management" that is de rigueur makes sense to a point but teams not competing because their last games "don't count" is disenchanting to fan. I experienced similar feelings of dismay  the following day when Blake Snell opted to skip his final start for my San Francisco Giants because the game "h

For this week's post, I decided to shift from beer to wine  with this  V iñeros de Tri-City  cap that the Tri-City Dust Devils wear for their "Copa de la Diversión" games. As a former Napa Valley resident, I have a special appreciation for the enological nod in the design and a Copa design seems like a fun way to honor National Hispanic Heritage Month which is annually observed from September 15 to October 15 in the United States. I am also taking a break from trying in a cap of a playoff-bound team and i n fact  going in the opposite direction because if the Detroit Tigers somehow squeak into a Wild Card spot that leaves the Los Angeles Angels—who are the Dust Devils parent club—as the MLB team with the longest playoff drought as they have not appeared in the postseason since being swept by the Kansas City Royals in the 2014 American League Division Series.  I love how the winegrower here resembles a brunet Elroy Jetson and who I like to refer to as Brunellroy as a portm

As we enter the penultimate weekend of the 2024 Major League Baseball season, the Milwaukee Brewers are the only team that has clinched its division which means the excitement will only ramp up as the other division and wild card results unfold. And as a beer lover, I appreciate the opportune timing of the start of  Oktoberfest just after the  Brewers clinching   so I selected their cap from Hat Club's "Cereal Pack" for this week's post. Each hat in the "Cereal Pack" release offers a nod to an iconic cereal box design which in this case is Frosted Mini-Wheats. Of course, wheat is an integral part of beer which makes it no surprise why this version of the Brewers logo was chosen here.   Compared to the younger generation of cap collectors out there I am admittedly a curmudgeon as the seemingly haphazard patches on these exclusive "drops" don't get me too chuffed however they break up the monotony as well as make it easier to locate caps if you h

I had to take last week off because the reentry hangover after the Labor Day holiday weekend and a planned trip to Cape Cod the following weekend ate away at any hope of writing. Nevertheless, I am now back recharged and looking forward to a New York Yankees series win over the Boston Red Sox who are visiting Yankee Stadium for the last time this season. I was in attendance for Juan Soto's walkoff hit in Game 1 which bodes well. But instead of writing about a cap related to either of those teams, I am highlighting this Catalina Flying Fish cap that I picked up at theclinkroom.com   in a recent "Fresh Colorway" drop of this now classic logo that made its debut in a preorder in 2020. I unfortunately slept on that release and have regretted it ever since until now!  Something about the uncomplicated nature of this design has resonated with me and I am sure the same is true for countless other fans of The Clink Room as it has been remixed a few times since that first release.

My posts ahead of Labor Day Weekend from the past two years have both been  Ebbets Field Flannels  retros of caps worn by the  Denver Bears  during different eras of their existence. My reason for highlighting Denver is as a tribute to Phish's annual run of shows which have taken place there over the holiday weekend yearly since 2011, with the exception of 2020 as their entire summer tour had to be canceled due to the pandemic. Onto happier times now and even though I am not there to witness it, I can thankfully follow along from home via webcast and can confirm that Phish is poised to bring the goods over this four-night run. Because I have now written about all my Denver Bears caps, I need to pivot to Denver-adjacent caps with an Albuquerque Isotopes in a Colorado Rockies colorway. When the partnership between the Rockies and Albuquerque began in 2015, I was finally able to stop mentally associating the Pacific Coast League city with the Los Angeles Dodgers who were their parent

Building on last week's Peninsula Pilots post was no easy task as that hat has been high on my  Wish List  for a long while. So it only makes sense for me to now bring attention to an equally important cap in my collection which is a 1989-92 Tidewater Tides retro which was a recent in-store only release from  @djmach716  at the flagship New Era shop in Buffalo, NY. Once again my friend  @yellowsub73  came through in the clutch by no doubt pushing for this cap to get the retro treatment as well as going to the trouble of purchasing it on my behalf but shipping it to me here in New York City. The flagship is the first ever store to retro this design from over thirty years ago and the hype around it will no doubt spawn more releases. After so many years of searching for a vintage version of a cap featuring this logo that is so dear to me, I was just about ready to give up when I caught wind of this release. The green undervisor here is historically accurate, for which I am thankful. I

Summer just started feeling like it was in full swing but the heat letting up in the middle of August is a sure sign the season is about to wrap up. When you think that most MLB teams now have less than 40 games to play, it really does seem like time has flown so with that feeling coinciding with National Aviation Day this coming Monday, August 19, this Peninsula Pilots cap gets the spotlight in this  week's post. I have previously given props to my Buffalo homie  @yellowsub73  who came through in the clutch big time by letting me know about about the listing for this Pilots cap that is in remarkably better shape than the other one I own which  I wrote about over five years ago  and  was signed by former Pilots pitcher Dan Sullivan. Ok so maybe the undervisor is a little tattered but that can be expected for a cap that is over 30 years old! Plus I love that the last place on this cap's journey seems to have been a sort of thrift store within the Kiln Creek Country Club in Newpo

Fans of the Grateful Dead do not need another reminder of this but today is the 29th anniversary of the passing of J erry Garcia who was  the band's principal songwriter, guitarist and vocalist. I can still remember sitting in that summer school geometry classroom when I heard the news on August 9, 1995. I was more into hip-hop and punk rock at the time but the older kids I looked up to thought the Dead was cool so I sort of did too, I suppose. Garcia would have turned 82 this year which is how old he looked due to  his stark white bushy beard and mane of frizzy hair due to hard living however he was actually only  53 years old when he died. At the time I was a teenager and now being three times as old as I was then, I realize I am nearly as old as Jerry was when he died which is a very perplexing realization. At any rate, much like baseball  has had a big impact on my life , so has Garcia's music which is why it makes me so happy to see these two interests of mine intersecting

Today is the first Friday in August and that means beer lovers worldwide celebrate International Beer Day. This is not to be confused with National Beer Day which is a separate holiday I honored here once before on its occurrence in 2023 with a  2011-18 Helena Brewers cap in paying tribute to Miller Brewing Corporation. For this one the focus is on a St. Louis Cardinals cap and Anheuser-Busch who are the titans of beer in the Gateway to the West.  For reference, the US holiday commemorates Franklin D. Roosevelt signing a law allowing Americans to brew and sell beer, and thus creating a path toward the creation of Amendment Twenty-one to the Constitution which would undo the prohibition laws that had been in place since 1917. By contrast, the holiday we are celebrating today was arbitrarily created in 2007 with the following intentions according to  internationalbeerday.com :  To gather with friends and enjoy the deliciousness that is beer. To celebrate the dedicated men and women who

This week's post is another light-hearted one as chicken tender enthusiasts collectively celebrate Chicken Finger Day which happens to fall tomorrow July 27. The holiday itself was coined by Raising Canes which is a fast food restaurant that works painstakingly hard to reach their goal of creating the perfect chicken finger, otherwise known as chicken goujons, chicken strips, chicken fillets as well  chicken tenders which is what they were first called upon being invented at  Manchester’s Puritan Backroom Restaurant  in 1974.  To honor the iconic regional delicacy that was created in their city, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats hosted their theme night where they played as the  Manchester Chicken Tenders on  June 4, 2022. Because they know palate preference for tenders, or tendies as they are also affectionally known as, they created three different flavors for fans to chose their preference: Classic, Buffalo and  Coconut. I have a tendency (or tendiecy) to gravitate toward spicy food