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Showing posts with the label 1990

1989-92 Elmira Pioneers

I’m back on a vintage kick for this week’s Fresh Fitted Friday post which is inspired by today, March 11, being Johnny Appleseed Day. The obvious logo to showcase on this holiday would be the home cap that the Fort Wayne TinCaps have worn since their inaugural season in 2009 however I decided to go in a different direction this time around. Just for some background, the TinCaps logo features an angry apple wearing a cooking pot as a reference to Johnny Appleseed who for some reason wore one on his head as well. I’ve always thought the design was fun but held out on acquiring one for the collection because I was hoping there would one day be a version that incorporated a baseball or bat into the motif. Well, here we are all these years later on Johnny Appleseed Day and I don’t have the one cap that was inspired by this great American nurseryman pioneer! Nevertheless, I won’t let that sink my spirits because I recently got my hands on an Elmira Pioneers cap from the Boston Red Sox era th

1987-90 Chicago White Sox

I'm finally taking a break from the "National Day" theme for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection because for the first time in a long while I've got some baseball-related current events that correspond with hats in my collection that I need to tell you good folks about! The Chicago White Sox clinched the American League East on Thursday night ea rlier this week which is exciting as this is their first postseason appearance since they faced the Tampa Bay Rays in the League Division Series in 2008. The White Sox were my AL team growing up and I'm all in on cheering for them as they are set to face the Houston Astros in the LDS. My affection for the White Sox without a doubt began –see what I'm doing here?– when Frank Thomas started putting up big numbers in 1991 which in turn led me to collecting as many baseball cards as possible of my new favorite player. The cards featuring Thomas in his Auburn University uniform were cool but the ones that are tru

Early 1990's Yakima Bears

Welcome back to another week under quarantine, folks! This post takes our talents on a road trip out west so that we can discover all the rugged beauty that it has to offer. To mark this special occasion, I've got a Yakima Bears snapback from the early 1990's that I believe to be one of the more rare caps that the team wore during its existence. The simplicity of the Yakima "Y" in the cap logo provides a sense of timelessness and even though the team is now-defunct, the design should be revived by the next team that makes its home in Yakima. Besides the copious amount of schmutz on the sweatband, the tags here tell a very short story as to what year this cap was worn as these two specific tags are prevalent on many of the early 1990's snapbacks that I've seen before. The missing MILB batterman embroidery is suggests to me that this cap is most likely from the early 1990's. I have found no evidence of the team wearing this yellow crowned cap in

1988-92 Colorado Springs SkySox

Seeing as how this is the last missive of the year, it only seems right to expect a blow-out post although I fear only I will see it as such. Then again, I'm the one writing this dang blog every week so cut me some slack, Jack! I often refer to my baseball fandom reaching its fever pitch in the late 1980's and early 1990's but just in case you need a reminder, some of the hat logos that are specific to that era are my all-time favorites as is the case with this week's Colorado Springs Sky Sox cap. The interlocking "C" and "S" on this cap are something that I will always associate with Colorado Springs although it would be foolish to assume it hasn't been used elsewhere beforehand. The one instance that jumps to mind as a possibility is with the USC Trojans . The tags here are fairly straightfoward considering this cap could be from anywhere between 1988 and 1992. The only reason I'd say it's from the later side is because the MIL

1989-90 Columbus Mudcats

Regular readers of this blog know that I like to get topical on here and while that can  potentially  lead to posts seeming to be dated down the line, I still enjoy the correlation between hats and certain current events and holidays.  That being said, I am surprised that for last week's post I didn't think to write about a team from a city named Columbus as we were l eading into Columbus Day weekend. Thankfully we aren't too many days removed from the actual holiday so it still feels timely to feature this Columbus Catfish hat for this week's post. It might seem tame compared to today's current MILB caps but this  Mudcats logo —a long with the Durham Bulls cap—helped usher in MILB caps into the mainstream consciousness. This New Era tag is commonly seen on snapbacks from the late 1980's and early 1990's. The lack of the MILB batterman solidifies the theory that this cap is not from the mid-1990's at all. The squarish brim and plain

1990-91 Orlando SunRays hat - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

Now that MLB's 2018 regular season is underway, I'm back to dedicating a full seven days a week thinking about baseball as opposed to the one day a week when I posted to this blog. My appreciation for Florida minor league baseball continues this week with a hat I've been seeking out for quite a while: a 1990-91 Orlando Sun Rays hat.   The wordmark logo reads "Orlando Rays" however the team's official moniker was "Sun Rays" or "SunRays" depending on whom you ask. They wore this logo the first two years of their existence and switched to this cap logo for their final two seasons. Featuring an AJD cap two weeks in a row is definitely a record for this blog as I'm typically an unabashed New Era purist. Last week's 1992 AJD Fort Myers Miracle hat didn't have an MILB batterman so there's no way this one would but here's a photo just to be sure Their name changed to  the Orlando Cubs upon their affil

1989-1992 Hagerstown Suns

Welcome to the second installment of Maryland-fest, hon! Last week's Hagerstown Suns hat shone brightly but week's iteration of the cap is super-rare as it is the one  worn when the team served as Baltimore's Double-A farm in the Eastern League from 1989 to 1992. Cursive script fonts have never been the go-to choice for cap logos but this is my favorite Hagerstown Suns logo because it was so short-lived and it reminds me of my days as a youngster collecting autographs. The classic MILB hat combination: a single New Era sweatband tag and a green underbrim. Perfection.  Some might say snapbacks don't have a place on Fresh Fitted Friday but remember not many Double-A teams wore fitted caps back in the day.  According to Baseball Reference, about half of the 1988 Single-A Suns played on the Double-A team for at least part of the 1989 season so while it might not have seemed like a big promotion at the time, I imagine the fans in Hagerstown all felt like

1990 Everett Giants - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

I know what's going through your mind right now: "enough with the snapbacks, already!" is what you are thinking, right? Well, you're correct in that the snapbacks have gotten much love around here lately but I couldn't help myself from sharing this particularly fresh 1990 Everett Giants snapback with you.  The reason it's releasing from the vault today is because my beloved San Francisco Giants are in town to play the New York Mets this weekend and I wanted a unique hat to wear to the game tonight. I also decided to wear this snapback to the game because it fits me a little better than the fitted 1992 version of the cap that I wrote about a few weeks ago.  This particular variation of the cap is one that they wore only for the 1990 season A closer look at the single-season beauty that is this cap logo. The only inside tag on this one is of the New Era variety Here's a look at the Made in U.S.A. writing on the back of the sn

1990 Chicago White Sox Cap - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

To most baseball fans, today's date is significant insofar as how many days are left until their favorite team's pitchers and catchers report to spring training. For others, this day also marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of the greatest hitter (as per  Baseball Reference 's most recent EloRater ranking) in baseball history: George Herman "Babe" Ruth. So, in honor of today's date and in keeping with the Chicago White Sox theme,here is a fun photo of "The Babe" and "Shoeless Joe" Jackson: A few things come to mind when looking upon this photo. The first is that ballplayers had some gee-golly-neat nicknames back in those days. It also seems like Jackson (pictured on right) is wearing two shoes and after looking up his nickname's origin, it turns out there was only one occasion when he went up to bat without wearing shoes.  At times, baseball fans can be real jerks and they are jerks with very literal minds and spotless