Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

In last week's post I stated this week would be "somewhat related" to Spring Training with the inspiration being I am attending a f amily event in Phoenix this weekend although I hope you're not disappointed in it not being a proper Cactus League type cap because my intention from the outset was to feature this "reimagined" Phoenix Firebirds custom colorway from Hat Club! I decided a while ago the Phoenix Firebirds logo has a firm place among my favorites and this orange-drenched variant from Hat Club shoots that ranking way up high in the stratosphere for a San Francisco Giants fan like myself.  I should mention I've had this cap since 2018 which I know because not only do I have my order receipt for it, but looking back at the metadata of these photos I can see they were taken with the phone I owned at that time! As a San Francisco Giants fan, I love an orange and black MILB batterman and I want to express again how thankful I am for Hat Club releasin...

The free agency hot stove reached its boiling point in the past week or so with announcements of Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman, Bo Bichette, and Cody Bellinger finally signing contracts with teams ahead of next season. We are a few weeks away from pitchers and catchers arriving at Spring Training, so hopefully, your team has made moves to give you hope going into 2026! My San Francisco Giants have not made any significant roster moves, but I sense Tony Vitello will be impactful as our skipper, and I am not giving up on us making a play for Framber Valdez, as the teams closely linked to him besides us are the Orioles, Cubs, and Mets. Each of those teams has made a big splash either through free agency or trades, so I'm keeping the faith. As a New Yorker, I am happy for Bellinger's return to the Bronx and even happier for Bichette coming to America (ie. Queens), which, combined with the news of Carlos Beltran being voted into the Hall of Fame earlier this week, serves as the inspirat...

After a few restful weeks offline I am happy to be fully back in the swing of things here with my first Fresh Fitted Friday selection of 2026 being a Buffalo Bisons cap done up in a "Buffalo Sabres" exclusive colorway from Hat Club. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen my National Hat Day post yesterday in which I celebrated New Era's flagship MILB team with a photo of my 2003 Buffalo Bisons snapback which features the logo they wore from 1998-2003. I should note though the flying baseball which is present on this week's cap was added to the design the following season. I love how Hat Club tied in the Sabres colorway however it would also be neat to see a Buffalo Braves inspired release on this logo too! If you're interested in the lore of the former Buffalo-based basketball team that was once part of the ABA, I recommend checking out the excellent fan site  BuffaloBraves.Net I have stated many times that I am not really a "patch guy" but...

I selected the "Tri-Star Plate" alternate worn by the  Nashville Sounds for the  final Fresh Fitted Friday post of 2026 as a nod to my favorite write-up of the year which, was  1978 Nashville Sounds retro cap  in which I discussed the logistics of Nashville being a front-runner in the contention for an MLB expansion team . That post was perhaps my lengthiest one thus far however I felt compelled to carefully detail the steps involved in that effort while this week I am focusing on that potential team's name. If incorporating "Stars" in the moniker is a must, " Tri-Stars" would be a stellar choice as it properly p ays tribute to their iconic state flag although I prefer the way  "Nashville TriStars"  reads. There's a sports memorabilia company called TriStar Productions which could put a kink in my proposal but should there be no copyright issue there, calling themselves the TriStars would certainly avoid any legal entanglements with the...

We are inching toward Christmas, and I am very much looking forward to spending time over the holidays with loved ones, where we hopefully eat many memorable meals together. I I mentioned the "Feast of the Seven Fishes" in my  Gwinnett Stripers post a few weeks ago , and while it is not a tradition I grew up celebrating, it is one that I enjoy taking part in as an adult. AAfter all, I cannot imagine a seafood lover not wanting to enjoy a plethora of dishes where fish is the star. My family is planning on going out for Chinese food on Christmas Eve, so I am going to make a push toward ordering crab soup dumplings, shrimp rice noodle rolls, siu mai, and ideally a few more oceanic delicacies to get that number up to at least seven for the night. In my Chesapeake Oyster Catchers post ahead of Thanksgiving , I called out that birds and fish are two prominent themes seen on the logos of caps I wear, and this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection falls into the latter category as...

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 ...