I have been saving this 1994 Appleton Foxes retro on deck for a long while in anticipation of Ichiro Suzuki's inevitable inclusion in the 2025 Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) Hall of Fame announcement which occurred earlier this week. That bit of good news was certainly a welcome reprieve from the grief brought on by the passing of Bob Uecker.
And even though Suzuki never had a single at-bat in the minor leagues, I chose this cap worn by the former Seattle Mariners affiliate in the Midwest League because it represents the big league club's Tealism years, which comprise the era many of us associate with him.
 |
| The only year the Foxes featured the Mariners colorway in their caps and uniforms was 1994 however this retro has a colorflip effect by featuring a metallic silver fill on the logo lettering rather than teal which you can see in the last photo at the bottom. |
 |
| The shine of the metallic silver here seems like a lot to handle but I am interested in seeing how it develops after a few years of wear. |
 |
| Any vintage version of this cap will feature a teal, navy and white MILB batterman but I like the red, white and blue here as it could be seen as a nod to the colorway the team wore up until the Tealism takeover in 1994. |
 |
| Alex Rodriguez played the majority of his first professional baseball season in 1994 with Appleton after being the number one overall pick by the Seattle Mariners in the 1993 Major League Baseball draft before eventually making his MLB debut on July 8, 1994. |
 |
| Of all the social media tributes to Bob Uecker last week, none made me laugh more than A-Rod’s hopefully intentionally ironic, but regardless, now-deleted post. |
In addition to being a fantastic tie-in to last week's post, A-Rod was a teammate to Ichiro as well as C.C. Sabathia, who was also announced as part of the 2025 Hall of Fame class. Even better is that Sabathia played for Cleveland and Milwaukee, so the circle is really complete now!
Ichiro Suzuki's name will forever be attached to a lengthy list of accomplishments and records which might never be broken but as a perfectionist, I am certain he will forever fixate on being one vote shy of being unanimously voted into the Hall of Fame just as Derek Jeter was in 2020.
Both players were household names that were seemingly adored universally which makes each of their cases so confusing and leaves Mariano Rivera as the only player achieve 100% of the votes from the writers. Nevertheless, nothing can take away from the fact that Ichiro will be first ever Japanese-born player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame on July 27, 2025.
My intention at the outset of this post was to avoid mentioning any other Japanese-born players but I cannot hold back from just saying how disappointed I am that Roki Sasaki decided to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier this week. As much as I loathe the Dodgers, I cannot fault them for committing to their fans that they hope to be contenders for years to come.
I cannot worry about the Dodgers though as I have to keep the hope that the San Francisco Giants make some smart moves this year and nurture the talent they've got. I am going to strive to maintain a positive outlook about this year and hopefully you are feeling the same way about yourself and your team in 2025 as well!
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
Comments