Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

For the last post of 2017 I'm continuing the trend of showcasing a classic Class A Short Season cap while also paying tribute to my favorite band, Phish, who got their start  in Burlington, Vermont which is where t he Vermont Expos (now Lake Monsters) played.  The Vermont Expos of the New York-Penn League wore this logo from 1994 through 2005. Because there is no New Era flag it's safe to say this cap is from 1996 at the latest. The sweatband tags here have the mid-1990's flavor. Notice the size tag flapping in the wind! Can't believe for the second week in a row I've got a cap that's over 20 years old and hasn't had its tags popped. Ringing in the new year in style! This cap isn't for sale or trade however don't hesitate to reach out if there's something you like on the  Trading Block  and you are willing to  part  with any of the hats  on my  Wish List . Happy New Year y'all and a s always, thanks for coming back

Y'all know I've been going hard in the paint with the vintage Single A Short Season caps lately but what you need to know about this week's Bellingham Mariners cap is that it is over 20 years old and today I'll finally be popping the tags on this deadstock fitted.  In 1993, the Seattle Mariners cap adopted a navy blue, silver and teal colorway. The Baby M's of the Northwest League took up tealism that year as well however they wore this cap for only more season after that because they became the Bellingham Giants in 1995. I would hope you agree that the tags on an MILB fitted cap from the 1990's are a true thing of beauty. Fewer low ball teams wore fitted caps in the mid-90's than today but remember Bellingham had a higher profile based on the MLB success of former Baby M's like Edgar Martinez and Ken Griffey, Jr. The rebrand of the big club in Seattle might have played a role here as well. While the Kid and Edgar wore the prev

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

Alright folks, I admit last week's cap was not very tantalizing but if every week's post features an exciting hat then what is an exciting hat? Ok well, maybe you just have high standards for this site so I should just shut up and deliver this ultra-rare treat: a super vintage Fort Lauderdale Yankees cap. A lot has happened in this past week's news cycle but let's not soon forget the devastation that  Hurricane Irma wreaked in the Caribbean as well as many parts of Florida, including Fort Lauderdale. For Tampa, it meant the Rays were not be able to play a home series against the Yankees so that series ended up getting played at CitiField in New York.  It was a rare treat to see the Yankees play somewhere other than Yankee Stadium so I wore my Fort Lauderdale Yankees  (rather than a Tampa Yankees)   hat to honor the occasion as well as to show solidarity with my Floridian friends. I suppose I've always associated Fort Lauderdale with pinstripes because

As I mentioned last week, it was hard for me to take a break from the "Houston Astros Minor League Cap Extravaganza" but now that I've secured this Osceola Astros cap as the latest installment in the series, I also need to share a valuable piece of knowledge regarding Florida's geography that you might not know: there is not a city in Florida named Osceola. From 1985-2016, the Houston Astros made their Spring Training home at Osceola County Stadium in Kissimmee, Florida. It's now home field to the Florida Fire Frogs of the Florida State League and from 1985-1994, it was home to the Osceola Astros (who later became the Kissimmee Cobras) as well as various Gulf Coast League affiliates over the years. The O-Astros used this cap logo without much variation from  their inaugural year in 1985 until their rebranding as the Kissimmee Cobras in 1995 . For this reason it's foolish to try to assign a year to it but if I had to guess, I'd say it's from th

Two weeks into the 2017 MLB season and it's looking less likely that my prediction of the Houston Astros winning the AL Pennant will work out. As the Astros' hot start has fizzeled, what's worse is the Giants are cellar dwellers of the NL West while the Diamondbacks are at the top. There's a lot more games to play this year but stumbling out of the gate is no fun. What's fun is that for the fourth time in four weeks, I'm writing about a mesh-crown hat from a former Houston Astros minor league team! Nailing down the exact years for these caps hasn't been easy but the window on this one isn't large.  From 1975 through 1990, the Jackson Generals were known as the Mets so the earliest this one can be from is 1991.  Behold the rare five-star ranking of this fresh mesh hat.   It's always fun to find a crisp green bottom cap, even when it isn't of the fitted variety The mesh striations are visible and the "Made in U.S.A."

It's the first week of April and I'm already staying up until 1AM EST watching baseball. Of course this  feels completely normal  but it's been tough watching my San Francisco Giants fall to the Arizona Diamondbacks three times this week. I've spilled much ink here obsessing over my love/hate relationship with Arizona and today is no different. As I've mentioned before, my wife went to the University of Arizona and while we were disappointed they didn't make it past the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament, I did  learn about a connection between the UA basketball program and the Houston Astros, whose former minor league affiliates have been the inspiration here over the last few weeks.  Did you know former MLB star Kenny Lofton attended UA on a basketball scholarship? This article is about how he went from committing theft on the court to the baseball diamond. (Photo courtesy of tradingcardb.com) This is Kenny's first baseball card. He was sel

Last week's Tucson Toros cap must have sparked something in me because I'm featuring a classic farm team that was once associated with the Houston Astros here  again this week . My intrigue with the Asheville Tourists began when I first became interested in minor league baseball in the early 1990's and the logo on the cap showcased today is from that time. If you've never seen this logo before, you'd never be able to guess it's an Asheville Tourists cap. I imagine most people will guess that it's a vintage Atlanta Braves hat, which in truth would not be a bad guess at all! The earliest example I can find of this typeface on a Tourists cap is from 1986 but the crown seems to be more of a royal blue. Also, I'm using this card from tradingcarddb.com mainly because the pitcher is showing bunt. This one is also from tradingcarddb.com and I'm showing it because it captures the 80's style racing stripes as well as the logo on a navy cro