Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

This week was a tough one for New York Mets fans but instead of featuring a Mets cap for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post, I figured it would be best to honor Gingerbread House Day with a tribute to my wife's unrelentless strides toward being the most unbelievably talented baker I've ever known! The inspiration for this post is  Clinker Max Almeida G.'s "Tough Cookie" design for The Clink Room and I decided to feature it here today because tomorrow is our friends' annual cookie party where my wife has historically cleaned up in the honors for many years. Even though I cannot share details on this year's entry, I have no doubt the crowd will adore her cookies. 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 . Lastly, if you'd like t check out some of Clinker...

In my last post, I mentioned that I'd be spending Thanksgiving with friends in Baltimore, and as always, it was a fantastic opportunity to catch up with them as well as their son, who is a first-year student at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. I enjoyed hearing about his experience during the semester thus far and decided the first Fresh Fitted Friday selection of December should evoke some holiday cheer as well as be one worn by a team that plays in the Palmetto State. Thankfully, Greenville Drive cap just waiting for the occasion! The Boston Red Sox typeface used here is a nod to the Drive being their High-A affiliate in the South Atlantic League since their inaugural year in 2005. Before setting up shop in Greenville, the team was based in Columbia and played as the Capital City Bombers from 1993 to 2004, and before that was known as the Columbia Mets starting in 1981.  In addition to the red in the cap's front logo, the green on the undervisor as well as in the...

Animal imagery is a prominent theme in many of the cap logos I share here with the most common types lately seeming to be some sort of bird or fish, with the latter being the topic of  last week's Gwinnett Stripers post . As I've mentioned in previous posts around Thanksgiving, a tradition I look forward to each year is spending the holiday with friends in Baltimore and this  Chesapeake Oyster Catchers hat seemed like the fine choice for this week's  Fresh Fitted Friday selection as it has both bird and fish elements! I admit I was unaware there was a bird known as an Oystercatcher before the Double-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles unveiled their alternate "Oyster Catchers" identity at the beginning of 2025. While the visual element is a clear nod to  the parent team, the name of the bird itself honors oysters which is just a small part of the  legendary seafood for which the region is renowned . This is currently my only cap of the Orioles' Double-A affi...

It was a real treat to attend the RD Vs. PR Showdown  at Citi Field last weekend and the reality is starting to sink in that I won't see another game until April at the earliest. Thankfully I've got Mexican and Dominican league games to keep me distracted. I  can't claim much else in terms of hobbies but food is a big love of mine so I'm very much looking forward to some holiday meals. One food item holiday that is not synonymous with Thanksgiving is seafood but if you've ever been invited to a Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner on Christmas Eve, you are likely extra grateful for World Fisheries Day which is celebrated annually on November 21. For those unaware, the purpose of the holiday is to raise awareness of sustainable fishing practices so that we can ensure future generations will be able to properly enjoy the vast deliciousness of the sea! Since the holiday falls on a Friday this year, I've decided to showcase a Gwinnett Stripers hat for this week's Fr...

It has been less than two weeks since the 2025 World Series wrapped up but thanks to the plentiful slate of highlights and full game broadcasts from the winter baseball leagues as well as  the Arizona Fall League, any withdrawal symptoms I would otherwise experience at this point in the year have been subsided. Even better is despite this weekend's temperatures only looking to get up to the high 40s, the heat will be brought courtesy of the "RD Vs. PR Showdown" as All-Stars from Liga  Dominicana de Béisbol (Dominican Republic) and Liga Beisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rico) square off in a historic match-up at CitiField tomorrow in Queens. The Dominican roster features former Met (and Yankee) Robinson Cano in his last professional game but I'm most excited for Puerto Rico's squad because I'll get to see  Vimael Machín who was on the Norfolk Tides the last time I saw him play. He signed autographs for my niece after that game so I'll be rooting ...

While the Blue Jays were leading the score throughout most of Game 7, I was collecting my thoughts for this week’s Dodgers-themed post to have a consolatory tone as opposed to a congratulatory one but alas, baseball is weird.  Baseball is also entertaining, as well as thought-provoking, and the unexpected ending  of the 2025 World Series sent me in such a frenzy that I found myself ruminating for days over so many of the seemingly insignificant plays during Game 7 that ultimately led to the Blue Jays losing the series in the 11th inning. It has been almost a week and I’m still stunned. I turned off the TV immediately following the game’s final out. Maybe in my heart it was because I was angry at myself for believing there could really have been any other winner besides the Dodgers. Maybe  I’m still not over witnessing the their on-field celebration after defeating the Yankees in Game 5 of the 2024 World Series. I even attempted to abstain from social media this past week ...

I recently dug through the blog’s archives to see if I had ever published a #FreshFittedFriday post on October 31st and it turns out the most Hallloweenish and gruesome Murder Birds cap featured today has the distinction of being the first member of that club! This "X-ray" reworking of the original "Murder Birds" design is the first of that variant style that I picked up from The Clink Room.  To my knowledge the design used on those two caps is the only one Clinker Dustin has released via the site so I count myself as lucky to have at least one of them!   The murdered out effect on the inside of the cap makes this an overall stealth option in my opinion! I especially appreciate the effort taken to apply the X-Ray effect to Clink Kong here. According to the cap’s product page on The Clink Room site , Dustin was inspired by a news story he came across where a crow flew away with a knife from a crime scene! I’m hoping the Blue Jays can use the metaphorical knife here ...

I am not sure if I have ever forgotten to schedule a blog post before but either way last week's gaffe actually works better as being published this week as the Mariners affiliate that I had planned as a congratulatory post for toppling the Blue Jays in the ALCS would make no sense now! I figured at least one team would be  eliminated from the League Championship Series by now but that  theory crumbled to dust once when T oronto's lumber tore up the Mariners' pitching  in  Games 3 and 4  of the ALCS in Seattle. I was gunning for Seattle at the outset of the postseason but watching  Toronto  wear their powder blue uniforms while tearing  up the M's pitching  in  Games 3 and 4  of the ALCS in Seattle  inspired me to bust out my "Songbirds" cap for last week's Fresh Fitted Friday as an ode to that unmistakably cool look the Jays rocked from their inception in 1977 through 1988. A key learned from  the Songbirds product page ...

I'm writing this post after watching  the Dodgers beat the Phillies in their NLDS Series but I'm trying to avoid being in foul mood because I am truly thankful for all the otherwise exciting baseball moments that October brings. I do have to admit Philadelphia was the team to beat this postseason so excuse me if spooky season has me unreasonably scared for what comes next! Speaking of frightful thoughts, Halloween is just around the corner and I was reminded of fond holiday memories like visiting haunted houses when i learned about today being National Haunted House Day which is an unofficial holiday folks have been celebrating on the second Friday in October for over a decade now. There's even a banner you can grab from this site to put on your blog or website to show support for the holiday! At any rate, now that the Yankees have also been eliminated from the postseason I really don't have any teams to pull for so I figured this week's Fresh Fitted Friday select...

After a busy few weeks of travel in September and holidays leading up to now, I had considered not posting this week however I am not quite sure what else to do besides write about a hat since the playoff schedule features no games today the Wild Card Series have only just wrapped up yesterday. With the Division Series matchups being firmly set for each league on the first Friday in October, I selected this retro of the 1951 Ottawa Giants cap for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday into the realm of both Spooky Season and wishful thinking for next season as I hope my San Francisco Giants can make a return to the postseason! I wrote about the V2 edition of this cap in May 2024 but the serifs on this variant which I purchased prior to that one is superior in all ways as it screams "Giants" in the best way! Ebbets is no longer the mighty purveyor of interesting minor league logos that it once was but I'm thankful to have this "Made In U.S.A." gem in my collection k...

Unless your favorite team is in the mix for a postseason run, the last week of baseball's regular season is an objectively boring time. Sadly, the San Francisco Giants were eliminated from the Wild Card race Tuesday night, so without that pressure, I'll try to simply be happy for the winning teams, especially if their success comes at the expense of the Los Angeles Dodgers! My pettiness will only subside once the Dodgers are knocked out of contention; however, their odds to repeat as World Series champions are incredibly favorable, with only the Philadelphia Phillies having a slight advantage over them at this point in time. Thus, to subside my feelings of hopelessness, I have shifted my focus to the minor league baseball playoff landscape! In fact, as I sat down to write this post, I streamed the deciding game of the 2025 International League Championship Series between the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Marlins) and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (Yankees), in which Jackson...

Roberto Clemente Day was celebrated across Major League Baseball games earlier this week on September 15 and while I have previously honored the date with a post just three years ago ,  this year's tribute aligns with International Talk Like a Pirate Day which happens to be today! I like the svelt "P" here about as much as the overblown version that the team wears now and think it would be neat to see them wear this version every now again. I've posted Roman caps only twice before however one was a fitted with a leather band and the other had a white sweatband was a snapback  which makes this one the first of its kind featured here! I love the kelly green on this undervisor and am looking forward to seeing how it ages as the cap gets even more age on it. I don't have much to add in terms of thoughts on this cap but perhaps that is for the best as it allows us to reflect on Clemente's legacy and how his impact will continue to be felt as the years go by. The n...

I have been holding onto this Savannah Bananas cap for a few years now and am finally featuring it as this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection as I am finally be attending my first-ever Banana Ball game at Yankee Stadium this coming Sunday!  The all-blue cap might be the main one worn on-field by Savannah, but I love the way the yellow pops on the white crown on this alternate more than any other cap that was available at my time of purchase. It's also worth mentioning that was before they sold a New Era version, which reverses the blue visor and yellow rear from this hat.   Not a crazy fan of the tonal visor and undervisor, but all in all, this is a great cap that I cannot wait to finally wear out in the wild on Sunday at Yankee Stadium. My first-ever cap from Zephyr Headwear just had to be a Savannah Bananas hat, didn't it?!? I have been following along the Bananas' inspiring journey since their inaugural season in the Coastal Plain League in 2016, as they filled the...