In honor December 6 being National Miners Day, this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is an Ebbets Field Flannels retro inspired by the cap the Joplin Miners wore in 1950. I have had this day earmarked on my calendar for a few years now as I wanted to make sure the post was published on the day itself so cheers to that! And most importantly, thank you to the miners!
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| My preference is to have an embroidered logo on my Ebbets hats but every once in a while I grin and bear it when I have to pick one up with this sort of stitched felt letter. |
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| The "Ebbets" and "Made in USA" tag combo is classic. |
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| I am thrilled to pop the tag on this one and bring it into the rotation! |
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| This is a great team shot featuring Mickey Mantle front and center where he belongs! |
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| This commemorative minor league card of Miner Mantle was part of a special and limited 5 card set Topps released in 2012 using the 1952 style. |
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| Mantle's card is fantastic but I am a Giants fan first and foremost so seeing Willie Mays from his days with the Minneapolis Millers speaks more to me, especially because I have a retro of that cap too! |
The product details for this item's listing on Ebbets' site states Mickey Mantle played for the Miners in 1950 and was promoted to the New York Yankees ahead of the following year. That turned out not to be the final minor (miner?) league stop for "The Mick" who slumped out the gate in 1951 and was sent to the Yankees' AA farm club in Kansas City to get back on track.
The world might never have known the greatness of "The Commerce Comet" as Mantle was on the verge of quitting the game altogether during a rough patch at the beginning of his time in Kansas City. His father was ever the consummate tough love giver who turned his son around simply by saying "You can come back to Oklahoma and work the mines with me."
Mantle being the son of a miner makes this cap even more perfect for today as does the fact that it comes on the heels of last week featuring a Yankees hat as well. And while I haven't written about an Ebbets hat in about two months, another reason for this being such a a timely post is that some newly purchased Ebbets caps have just been delivered to me.
That was a bittersweet purchase as not only did my cart include two of the same cap but the site announced its Black Friday sale the very next day so I spent even more than I needed to. Also, my cart included a few gift cards which apparently are not applicable to the $125 minimum needed to get free shipping so I was charged an extra $9 on top of the $155 subtotal.
Coincidentally two of the caps in that order feature the felt logo which has inspired me to add that as a label now and going forward, in addition to previously published posts. I've been in communication with Ebbets to voice my displeasure in how long it has taken to resolve the issues with this past order but they haven't been as accommodating as I had hoped.
To make things worse, the sale has concluded but I doubt I'll be buying much from them for a long while anyway. Their minor league releases have been far too infrequent and uninspired for my taste if I am being truthful. Thankfully I have a good cache of their caps to write about someday and I hope by then they can make some semblance of a return to their glory days!
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. 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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