Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

It has been almost two full months since my last post and while the holidays kept me occupied, things have been slow in regards to picking up new caps that I have been excited about. Luckily, I went home to visit my folks in Virginia and brought back some old hats to spice up the rotation such as this 1993 Baltimore Orioles cap in celebration of January 5 being National Bird Day. In 1993, the Orioles were in the midst of a renaissance with Cal Ripken inching closer to breaking Lou Gehrig's record of consecutive games played as well as Oriole Park at Camden Yards hosting that year's All-Star Game just one season after its opening.  Over the years writing this blog, I have made more than a few mentions of the New York Yankees being one of the last teams to switch over to caps with grey undervisors in 1994 but this week's Fresh Fitted Friday shows that the Orioles were also holding onto the green til the very end. I am not sure how much longer I will be able to resist popping ...

Last week was a celebration of all things hip-hop but at the end of the post, I mentioned how I began this blog's  Fresh Fitted Friday tradition with my 1992 Seattle Mariners post on August 16, 2013 . To that point, it only makes sense that ten years later I'm coming through with a Riverside Pilots retro which to me is undoubtedly one of the best Mariners affiliate logos ever. It's hard to believe it's already been a year since my  Wichita Aeros post celebrating National Aviation Day  and I am glad to showcase this Riverside Pilots hat to continue the tradition as this year the holiday falls tomorrow, August 19. Made in U.S.A. tags are a welcome treat here for sure as they become increasingly more rare by the year with whatever is floating around continues to get snatched up. The teal, navy and silver batterman looks great on a navy crown and especially here. I love all things 90s so of course the current colorway the Mariners have rocked since 1993 is near and dear ...

For the second week in a row I'm featuring a Favorites cap from my collection and before you start thinking "every cap is my favorite" I want to mention  the reason for posting this cap the Norfolk Tides wore from 1993-2015 today is because International Surfing Day is held annually on the third Saturday in June which happens to be tomorrow, June 17th. Until the team rebranded in 2016, the "wavy T" logo was the main cap logo worn by the Tides since 1993 which was their inaugural season at Harbor Park. The combination of a new uniform and ballpark undoubtedly ushered in a new  wave  of appreciation for the team. Luckily the "Made in China" tag is hiding underneath the sweatband here! The sky blue on the brim, button and batterman are a nice touch here but if we are being honest, they give off too much of a UNC vibe for my taste. Earlier I mentioned how the "new look" Tides of 1993 reinvigorated the team and I imagine after wearing this cap fo...

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday post marks the sixth time that I've written about a cap worn by a minor league team from Nashville,TN. That might seem rather trivial however I assure you it's not as all the other posts were of Nashville Sounds caps while this week's topic is the  Southern League's  Nashville Xpress, who only existed from 1993 through 1994. The first initial in my name is "N" so of course that and the music themed nature of the Sounds logos over the years leads me to appreciate their designs greatly. But in addition to being a big fan of music, I also love traveling by rail which is why I decided to feature this Nashville Xpress cap today in celebration of tomorrow being National Train Day. The inspiration behind the team name Xpress comes from the existence of train tracks just outside Herschel Greer Stadium which was the ballpark the team shared with their more established counterparts, the Sounds.  The New Era brand tag here looks like ...

It's been a month since my last post but in all likelihood it's going to be a more weeks before I'm ready to return to posting more regularly. Nothing to worry about though as there are lots of good things happening on my end and I have a feeling I'll be fully energized once I get a bit more charge in me! Let's just consider this week as a sort of check-in at the halfway point of the hiatus which, as the All-Star break is almost upon us strikes me as a bit ironic considering the players who have been grinding up to this point of the season are ready for a well-deserved break so here I am to relieve them! I normally like to feature All-Star Game caps for posts around this time of year but since tomorrow is National Snake Day, I feel compelled to showcase my Chandler Diamondbacks cap which was most likely worn during the Arizona Fall League's inaugural season in 1992. I'm not the biggest fan of snakes but I definitely don't get squirmy when I see one on TV...

I’m taking a respite from the National Day themes for this post because there’s finally been some big news in the baseball world this week as David Ortiz was the only former player elected by the Baseball Writers Association of America–BBWWA for short which by the way, note the ridiculousness of the two B’s in the acronym–on this year’s 2022 Hall of Fame ballot. While congratulations are in order for Ortiz, these results mean Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling and Sammy Sosa have missed election for the 10th and final time and next year will be off the ballot. All four of those players deserve plaques in Cooperstown but the tribunal that comprises the BBWWA could not come to a reasonable consensus to recognize that. The Hall of Fame candidacies of these legends now lie in the hands of the “Today’s Game Committee” which looks to honor the players who dominated the game from 1988 through 2016. Luckily that time frame encompasses the years Bonds racked up his 14 All-Star Game appe...

I was speaking with someone recently who made reference to some album having come out 30 years ago and after a few automatic nods in obligatory agreement, it dawned on me that we were talking about something that happened in 1991, folks! I'm not sure if this type of confusion becomes a more frequent occurrence the older we get but, this one really threw me for a loop. I happened to be watching baseball during this conversation so it's no surprise I started to think about how this year's top teams fared thirty years ago.  The Atlanta Braves were the big story in 1991 when they became the first National League team to appear in a World Series after having finished the previous season in last place. Even though they ended up falling to the the Minnesota Twins in Game 7 of that most memorable series, that season brought the team its first of 14 consecutive division titles. The Braves had an even better record the following year, returning to the Fall Classic once again however ...

Welcome to the third––and perhaps final––Keystone State Party post, folks! After neglecting to discuss the nautical components of last week's Erie SeaWolves logo design, I've decided to dive right into examining the maritime theme in this Erie Sailors retro cap from Ebbets Field Flannels that I've selected for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post. Incorporating the baseball into the ship's wheel tie-in to Erie's deep naval history, especially when one considers Erie's role in the War of 1812, and more specifically the Battle of Lake Erie . In fact, the town's first known and recorded baseball team in 1906 was called the Erie Sailors. A cap that encapsulates the proud naval tradition of this fine nation deserves nothing less than Ebbets Field Flannel's "Made in U.S.A." construction. Their faithful reproductions and attention to detail in workmanship is what every cap maker should strive to emulate.  The shade of green featured on the underv...

I've got another old-fangled cap for this week's edition of Fresh Fitted Friday but please note this High Desert Mavericks post is actually evocative in multiple regards. The first is in the traditional sense as this week's hat is almost thirty years old however the second aspect has more to do with metaphotographical attributes since the photos themselves are almost seven years old! I unearthed these relics-depicting-relics during a recent reorganization effort of my photo library and the timing couldn't have been more perfect as I felt like this tour through the California League needed at least one more contribution of the vintage variety.  As a San Francisco Giants fan, Bruce Bochy's career path is of great interest to me so I'd like to highlight the fact that the future Hall-Of-Fame manager was at the helm during the Mavericks' inaugural season in 1991. This was Bochy's third managerial assignment but his first was one I discussed in a Spokane Ind...

After two weeks of retro versions of most short-lived––yet iconic––logo designs of the early 1990's, it's finally time to feature a true vintage cap from that era with this Central Valley Rockies hat which could be from either 1993 or 1994 as that was the last year of the team's existence. Behold! I can't think of any other time that a Rockies farm team employed teal on a cap whose logo was repurposed from the big league club. Fun fact: the V is for Visalia, which was where the team called home for those two seasons. Because the Central Valley Rockies were only around for two years, the only name associated with the team that clicks with me is Paul Zuvella (the happy smiley guy shown above) who managed during the inaugural season in 1993.   In the previous photo from the team's first season in 1993, you'll notice that Zuvella was wearing a cap with a grey undervisor. Because it's green on this week's cap, I'm thinking the team just must have had both...