Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

While last week's theme focused on David Wright's induction into the Mets Hall of Fame, the ceremony for the National Baseball Hall of Fame takes place this Saturday so this week's hat closes the loop on my  1994 Appleton Foxes retro  from this past January when it was announced that Ichiro Suzuki would be the first Japanese-born player to receive a plaque in Cooperstown.   This "What If?" or "Reimagined" retro of the Riverside Pilots is another banger from the New Era Buffalo flagship store and this colorblocking cleverly inverts the navy and teal placement on the cap the team wore during their brief tenure. Truth be told the crown features a brighter hue than the original teal but it's a fun cap nonetheless. The absence of the MILB batterman is a welcome touch here as the suspension of disbelief needed for this one has us imagining this cap to be from 1993.  As I mentioned in that Foxes post, Ichiro did not have to toil on any MILB teams on his w...

All-Star week is the most boring time of year for major league sports fans, as it’s the only stretch where there is not at least one game played in MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL. As addicted as I am to baseball, I actually don’t mind the break much because at this point of the season, I appreciate not having to set fantasy rosters for a few days! Now that I'm recharged I'm looking forward to my next planned game on Wednesday as the Los Angeles Angels take on the New York Mets for their biennial visit to Queens. The theme for this week’s post is the homestand this upcoming weekend, with Saturday being the number retirement and Mets Hall of Fame induction of former captain David Wright. Mentioning Wright in last week’s post was a foreshadowing of my plan to wear this vintage Wausau Mets hat in honor of “W” being his last initial but alas ticket prices on the secondary market are sky high for that game so I’ll likely be watching from home!  Now that we're firmly in the fine print zone...

I returned from my trip to Colorado just a few days ago feeling recharged after reconnecting with longtime friends and places that are deeply meaningful to me. As I mentioned in the first post of this "Homecoming Series" , Colorado was my college home in between my childhood years in Virginia and the ones when I lived in the Bay Area before I finally came to New York. The third post in this sequence is the last before the All-Star break and it connects three of the four places I have lived thus far as it is the cap worn by David Wright—who like myself, was born in DePaul Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia—when he represented the New York Mets in the 2007 All-Star game which was held in San Francisco. I am glad the Mets chose their black hat for that game because the minimal amount of blue and slight bit of orange pairs beautifully with the side patch.  I've stated many times the 2007 All-Star Game hat is my favorite one ever and if this cap was my size you can be sure I would ...

As mentioned in last week's post, the  "Homecoming Series"  would be at least two parts. And because  July 4 falls on a Friday this year, this week's entry takes us to my home state of Virginia to highlight the "Stars & Stripes" cap the Norfolk Tides wore during games played throughout the Independence Day weekend in 2019 . When the Tides launched their  refreshed logo set designed by Brandiose  following the 2015 season, I immediately picked up the home and road caps but for some reason held off on their alternate featuring a "T" in historic naval lettering. It's kind of a "if you know, you know" sort of thing as that design isn't the most widely recognized logo in minor league baseball but that's ok! The straightforward elegance of the military font is splendidly done up in the colors of Old Glory and the league patch adds even more pop to the overall look of the cap. I am a sucker for a white sweatband and a green und...

Today's Fresh Fitted Friday post is first of at least two in a "Homecoming Series" as I am currently traveling toward my alma mater, the University of Colorado Boulder. While I usually make efforts to attend baseball games during jaunts occuring during the season, my packed schedule leaves limited chances of making it to a Colorado Rockies game this time around. I've come to terms with this actuality since this is really more of a live music journey as I'll be seeing  Phish play three shows at Folsom Field. I suppose there is a sports element to this trip after all because that is where the Buffaloes play their home football games! I  am fairly certain this is my first visit inside the stadium  as I never went to a football game back in my college days and am unsure if I went to any other event at Folsom Field. I did however go to a few men's basketball games back then and while I really would have enjoyed attending some Buffaloes baseball games, their baseba...

We are halfway through the 2025 Major League Baseball season, and as it happens, today I attended what was most likely my last game at Yankee Stadium until after the All-Star break and am especially thankful the Mike Trout home run I witnessed did not spoil the sole win the New York Yankees could muster against the Los Angeles Angels during this four-game series. Catching an Angels game where Trout homers at the halfway point of the year is good enough pretext for me to share photos of this Midland Angels hat. While  the one I posted back in 2014 was size 7 1/4 , this week's hat is actually in a size that I can wear which is a welcome change! Mike Trout was definitely mashing bombs when I last wrote about this hat but the fact that he's still at it despite his nagging injuries is something I wholly welcome.  The size tags are the same as the other cap except this one is actually my size! Just too perfect that there's a red, white and blue batterman this close to the Fourt...

As this blog approaches its 14th anniversary, I cannot help but be amazed that I have been writing about baseball hats almost half as long as I have been regularly wearing them! It is hard to believe that even the caps that were brand new when I first started writing are now as old as I was when I first started collecting. Those older caps in my collection are too small and ragged to wear but I can never part with them as they represent such a big part of my past. Speaking of nostalgia and such, I recognize that I lean extra heavy into such themes in my  Fresh Fitted Friday posts ahead of Father's Day when writing about San Diego Padres "Taco Bell" designs  which has become a  quasi-tradition. Like the 1978  Reno Silver Sox retro I featured for last year's Father's Day post,  hat blog legend Paul Carr  tirelessly worked with Ebbets Field Flannels to release this 1983 Reno Padres reproduction which I chose for this year's post for the holiday.  A...

Today's date is June 6 (aka 6/6), so the theme of this week's post is the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino. This is my second 66ers post of the year, but the date falling on a Friday seemed like better timing than waiting until it happens again in 2031, although the next time after that would be in 2036, which would have been especially cool because six times six is 36! I am a big fan of all-cap logos featuring any type of character swinging a bat or any object resembling a bat, and this one fits the bill.  I picked this cap up in 2023, so I added that year as a label on this post to help identify the years caps are from in future posts. Glancing upon the colorful MILB batterman here for the "looking back" segment of the post, I should stress how glad I am to have picked up this cap in 2023 as it is now almost impossible to find on most sites. My assumption is it's being phased out, which is a shame! In my Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino "Cherubs...

As I mentioned in last week's 1957 Miami Marlins post, I will be making my first-ever trip this weekend to the ballpark where the current iteration of the Miami Marlins plays. To celebrate the occasion, the theme for this week's post will fast-forward us 60 years from 1957 to the 2017 All-Star Game, which was thus far the only time it was put on in Miami. Looking back in the blog's archive will show that I commemorated that 2017 All-Star Game by showcasing the hat worn by the San Francisco Giants ten years prior when it was held in their ballpark, which objectively speaking has had too many embarrassing corporate names to even recount a single one here now. This week's post closes that loop as I feature an on-field Giants cap from when the event was held at Miami's park, which at the time was innocuously called Marlins Park but unfortunately now itself has an awful name as it is currently known as LoanDepot Park. Sadly, gone are the days where you simply call out a ...

One of my favorite things to do when I find myself waiting for a train or bus is popping through my favorite hat sites to see if any new releases catch my eye. Historically, the most visited ones were Hat Club, eCapacity, MyFitteds, and Ebbets Field Flannels, although the latter has fallen out of rotation due to their recent change of vision and direction. Through Ebbets' Triple-Play" deal, I was able to score three caps for a fair price, and if I picked up an extra one, I would meet the minimum for free shipping, for which I am a sucker! If only they offered a "Grand Slam" option, I would have pounced on that too. The Triple-Play deal no longer exists, so buyers must wait for a sale if they would rather not pay $68 (gasp) for a cap. Out of habit tonight, I browsed to Ebbets' site, and while there were no new caps since the last time I checked, I did notice their Memorial Day offering 25% off sitewide. There were a few logos I never got around to purchasing befor...

The big news in baseball this week was Pete Rose's posthumous removal from Major League Baseball's permanent ineligibility list and while I was just a neophyte fan of the game in 1989 when this lifetime ban was instated on MLB's all-time hits leader, I remember how that ruling left a dark cloud over the game that would not soon be forgotten. Sadly thing things would only get worse a few years later when MLB players went on strike in late summer of 1994. This coincided with a time in my life when my "normal teenager interests" prevailed so my enthusiasm for baseball had waned considerably by the time the following year's strike-shortened season began on April 25, 1995. Time is perceived differently in your younger years. Pete Rose had become a distant memory while the four monster seasons Frank Thomas previously had were recent enough for me to half-heartedly welcome baseball back despite other factors beginning to take more precedent in my life. The Big Hurt w...

I'm not sure of even an approximate year when   5950 Day became such widely heralded holiday among hat collectors but that sort of detail doesn't really matter because May 9 (aka 5/9) falling on a Friday means that I have to bring out a top notch selection for this week's  Fresh Fitted Friday  post. Not long after I began piecing together my thoughts for this write-up, I asked myself if I had ever honored 5950 Day on a  Fresh Fitted Friday  to which the answer is, yes and no. According to the archives, the last time May 9 was on a Friday, I wrote about a pretty sweet  1996 Midland Angels hat  however the significance of that date was something I totally glossed over!   So that was the yes, but also a no because I didn't specifically call out "5950 Day" however just last year I made a post hoc mention of 5950 Day on my  1950 Oakland Oaks retro  on May 10 so I suppose that's a no but also a yes? Anyway my head is s...

In honor of today being  Harry Potter Day, this week's  Fresh Fitted Friday selection is this  Spellbinder cap designed by Clinker Wynne Studio  which by  my current count is the 14th cap I've featured from The Clink Room. I believe I should be thankful for that distinction because celebrating wizard stuff with number 13 would have maybe been too on the nose. Now I must admit  I was a bit too old to get into  the Harry Potter books when they first released in 1997 but thankfully was ready to appreciate these stories when the movies came out a few years later. I am still not as well versed as my niece who is a rabid fan and is really looking forward to visiting the Harry Potter Shop during an upcoming trip to New York in July. I am brushing up on Harry Potter lore in preparation beginning with a marathon viewing of the movies tonight although I need wizard strength to make it through them all in one sitting. This would be quite the feat as the reason f...