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Showing posts with the label 1992

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

1991-92 Portland Beavers (Hat Club Retro) - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

Welcome back to the post-Thanksgiving/pre-Christmas edition of Fresh Fitted Friday y'all.  You might (or might not!) be wondering where I have been the past few weeks and the answer to that is that I've been traveling to some pretty cool spots. I'd never been to  Charleston, SC before this past weekend and the one before that I visited Providence, RI for the first time in over twenty years so  in honor of that triumphant return, this week's Portland Beavers retro is one whose logo could easily be taken for a Providence cap. HatClub did a more than decent job with this retro but my only complaint would be that the little swoosh under the P should have been less tapered on the right side.  A benefit of the retro caps is that the black sweatband is better for longevity. Also, you can't see underneath the New Era tag but rest assured that it reads "Made in U.S.A." under there.  No batterman here which is historically accurate but I'm sti

1991-92 Retro Myrtle Beach Hurricanes

Continuing with the theme of former Toronto Blue Jays affiliates in the South Atlantic League, I'm obliged to discuss Toronto's presence in South Carolina which began in 1981 with the Florence Blue Jays, who in 1987 became the Myrtle Beach Blue Jays. The team rebranded as the Myrtle Beach Hurricanes in 1991 and after the 1992 season, moved to Hagerstown, MD to become the newest incarnation of the Hagerstown Suns where their affiliation with Toronto continued.  Because the team only existed for two seasons, finding an original hat is an exercise in futility so w hen I learned Hat Club was releasing a retro, I had to pick it up. I had some reservations about pulling the trigger on this cap because the logo is noticeably larger than the OG. Based on how fast the hat sold out, I believe this was a conscious decision by Hat Club as perhaps they felt they'd sell more hats with an aggrandized logo.  For reference, here are  some photos of the more dainty logo on

1992 Peninsula Pilots

Welp I ran out of Carolina League teams to show y'all but that's not shocking considering it's a small league after all.  Until 2016 there were only eight teams in the Carolina League and I've already written about six (seven including last week's Winston-Salem Spirits cap) of the cities with current teams, as well as the Durham Bulls who are no longer in the league.  As for the other cities (both former and current) in the league, there isn't a hat that I've felt the a strong enough need to obtain about besides, of course, the crown jewel of my Carolina League collection: the Peninsula Pilots. Objectively, the logo is nothing special and could easily be confused with a Detroit Pistons hat. In fact, the only other Pilots hat that I ever found was mislabeled as a Pistons hat in an eBay listing. Unfortunately, the seller removed the item before I had a chance to bid on it and for that reason I feel extra fortunate that I found this beater a few years l

1992-95 Prince William Cannons Cap

I've probably mentioned this more than a few times already but my life-long love for baseball truly is something that's shaped the person I am today. F lipping through baseball cards as a child helped developed my knack for matching names with faces while poring over stats on the backs of those cards led to my o bsession with analyzing data.  As far as the subject matter in this blog, my appreciation for visual aesthetics in design is rooted in hours spent staring at logos on caps and uniforms of ballplayers while organizing my cards and watching games on television. My penchant for nostalgia is so blatant, it should't surprise you that my first hats are ones that resonate the deepest with me. My first MLB caps were the caps worn by the Chicago White Sox and Florida Marlins in the early 1990's and my first MILB caps were the New Haven Ravens, Greensboro Hornets and Prince William Cannons. Because the current theme here is the Carolina League, I've got not one, b

1992-93 Carolina Mudcats

Has it really been almost four months since my last post? Of course that’s a rhetorical question but I still want to explain why I lapsed for so long. The quick answer is I’ve been preoccupied with other activities over the past few months however at some point during that time I should have posted a quick blurb about the hiatus but I kept getting distracted. I also lost interest in all things baseball as I saw my San Francisco Giants play terribly once again this year and now that the regular season has come to a close, I’ve decided to hate-watch the NLCS. For the second year in a row, the Los Angeles Dodgers are clear favorites to win the pennant but I’m going to be rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers in the series. This petty tactic is the reason why this week’s Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a Carolina Mudcats cap as they are the Class A affiliate of the Brewers in the Carolina League. How fortuitous that I just happened to have the tags still on this cap that's ov

1990 Miami Miracle

5/11/2023 Update: So between this post from 2018 and now I've learned a lot more about the nuances of the caps in my collection and a very important example of this was brought to my attention by a  @xclickaroox  who I feel is a must-follow on Instagram. At any rate, this good sir and I recently completed a trade of some fun MILB caps and during our talks he alerted me to the fact that the the hat from this post from 3/23/2018 is actually a 1990 Miami Miracle cap. The key distinguishing factor here is that the undervisors on Fort Myers Miracle caps were grey while Miami's were green as is the case with the cap in this post. The other discrepancy is that the Fort Myers cap feature a TM on the logo while the Miami caps do not. At any rate, I love finding out new things about my caps so if anyone ever finds issues with what I've written, please reach out.  One last note for posterity's sake: I won't update the verbiage below because it would take a bit more effort than

1992-93 Bend Rockies - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

I had some trouble deciding which hat to write about this week, y'all. As much as I want to show off some of the newer caps in my collection, I've got all of these super rare vintage selections just begging to be flaunted. Also, I love themes so I couldn't turn down the chance to write about another Class A Short Season league for the seventh week in a row.  The Bend Rockies played in the Pacific Northwest League from 1992-94. The inaugural team was mostly comprised of selections from the 1992 draft while its parent team  would not play a game until the following year. Even though it's possible this cap is from 1994, I highly doubt it considering the tags are of the pre-1992 variety.  The lack of the MILB batterman here seals the deal; this cap is either from 1992 or 1993 as the batterman did not appear until 1994. Ideally, I'd like to believe that this cap is from the 1992 season as it would be the first time in the blog's history that I'