There is no MLB-wide holiday to commemorate this week so for this Fresh Fitted Friday post I have decided to highlight what would have been the 66th birthday of legendary musician, Prince Rogers Nelson (aka Prince) with Hat Club's "Grape Jelly" colorway of a Minnesota Twins cap which features a Target Field 10th anniversary patch.
As someone who grew up in the 1980s, Prince's songs figure largely in the soundtrack of my youth however a genuine appreciation of his music would only truly occur as I grew older and it continues to grow to this day. While his mastery as a recording artist is beyond compare, I think there should be more discussion around how strong he was as a performer as well.
I regret never having seen him in concert however I am fortunate in that there are lots of videos out there that document his showmanship. And even though this is a baseball blog, I want to shout out Prince's performance at Super Bowl XLI Halftime Show in 2007 which I highly recommend you check it out whether you have seen it already or not!
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| I love this tribute to "The Purple One" as this Hat Club colorway beautifully references Prince's lifelong connection to his hometown of Minneapolis. |
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| I'm normally not a "patch guy" as they tend to be rather large distractions on a hat but I do appreciate how this one blends in with the cap more than most. |
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| I like that the top and bottom of the visor are not tonal. |
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| I also dig the grapey "flat box" batterman which is nice and crispy! |
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| Here you get a better look at the undervisor which in this light looks almost like a periwinkle and somewhat close to the grey we used to see on New Era undervisors until 2007. |
In the caption for an earlier photo above showcasing the side patch, I mentioned my lack of love for patches however one benefit is they help collectors quickly locate a hat within a stack such as those clear sided duffle bags that cap producers sell. They also provide additional context relevant to the team in case the main cap logo is not enough.
The Target Field patch here is a bit larger than I would have asked for but the embroidery of the stadium design is nicely done as is the "Twin Cities" initials over the state outline of Minnesota. This cap brings back fond memories of my first ever visit to Minneapolis a year ago around this time, where I found it to be a charming city with residents who are proud to call it home.
Of course, the highlight of the trip was the lone game I attended at Target Field on 5/22/2023 in which my San Francisco Giants defeated the Twins with a final score of 4-1. A memorable occurance of that game for me was when Tyler Rogers entered the game to get the final two outs of the 8th inning.
There is a neat Minnesota connection here as Tyler shares a last name with Prince as well as his twin brother Taylor, who spent the first six seasons of his career with the Twins. Before the start of that first game of the series, his former team showed a brief tribute video on the big screen to welcome Taylor back to Target Field.
For a brief moment during the inning in which Tyler was pitching, I briefly envisioned a scenario in which he might give up enough of a lead that Taylor would need to come in to pitch relief as well. I feel terrible wishing for runs to be scored against my favorite team but it would have been special to see two literal twin giants pitching in relief for the Giants against the Twins!
Considering the dumpster fire of a season the Giants experienced in 2023, dropping that game would not have been the worst thing to happen that year. By the way, Taylor ended up coming in to pitch during the bottom of the 8th inning of the third game. And because the Giants were losing going into that inning, it was the final inning of the series since they did not come up with any runs in the top of the 9th inning.
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| One bright spot of this scoreless inning pitched by Taylor Rogers against his former team is he struck out Michael A. Taylor which provided a fun moment where the at-bat featured the names "Rogers" and "Taylor" in the bug box. |
As luck would have it, the Twins are in town facing the New York Yankees this week and I have twinned it up by seeing the first two games of this series. It is doubtful that I attend the third game as I would like to save up some energy to see at least one of the three games in the upcoming series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Yankee Stadium this weekend!
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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