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...