Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

A few weeks back I mentioned wanting to write about teams in the playoff race but instead opted to feature the  "Mystery 'N' Star" post —which in a way is adjacent to the Texas Rangers, who are now in the postseason—however despite the League Division Series starting this weekend, I am holding off on showcasing any of those eight teams until the games are officially underway. Of course, half the teams could be eliminated by the time next Friday comes along but I am taking that risk because today's date is October 6 and any fan of Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland  should associate 10/6 with the Hatter and thus felt compelled to write about a cap where the logo prominently features a hat for National Mad Hatter Day. I write about the Trading Block a lot and while I do hoard a large portion of my caps, there are a good amount that I am willing to move if I can find the right trading partner. And that's what happened recently when...

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 ...

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 over a month since my last post but things don't feel all that different for me as it's just as cold in New York now as it was then although at least I've got a little change of scenery right now as today I'm en route to New Orleans for my first time as an adult! I was hoping to make this trip during Jazz Fest but the timing worked out for it to happen this weekend so here we are! I won't be in town long but I'm going to cram in lots of food and music-laden adventures and thankfully I've got a fresh New Orleans Zephyrs hat to wear while doing so. I love the distinctive logo on this cap and even though this team's origins are based in Denver, the vibrant colors worked well when the team moved to New Orleans in 1993 as the team used the Zephyrs moniker until changing their name to the Baby Cakes in 2017. The sweatband tags here are consistent with MILB caps that New Era produced from 1994 through 1996 and writing ones initials on the undervis...

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...

As of writing this the Braves lead the Dodgers 3-2 in the NLCS and I am calling on every hopeful ounce of my being to send strength to the Braves to clinch the pennant  in front of their fans at home as the series moves on to Atlanta. A win in one of the next two games will just the cure after Atlanta's pitching fell apart at the seams  during Game 5 in Los Angeles. There are no Braves caps currently in my cache to write about this week but piggybacking off last week's Jacksonville Braves hat, I am happy to share what I refer to as the Jacksonville Expos "1994 What If?" cap  as the team never actually sported the all blue look during their existence from 1985 through 1990. The Jaxpos exclusively wore a pinwheel style cap but I like to imagine that if they had stayed on as a Montreal Expos affiliate through at least 1994, they would have adopted the blue crown and visor combination that their parent team implemented during that season. As much as I prefer the "Mad...

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 ...

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...

Folks, it's taking a lot in me to stop dwelling on the fact that yesterday was supposed to be MLB's Opening Day for the 2020 season. The reality is really starting to set in and to be honest, I'm not in a big mood to do big long blog post about it but I still feel the need to at least acknowledge the situation for posterity. To that point, I think it's only fitting that I end this good run of New York-Penn League caps with a super rare cap so without further ado, feast your hungry eyes on this Elmira Pioneers cap which was only worn for two seasons. I failed to mention this when I wrote about my other ( I know; I'm obnoxious) Elmira Pioneers cap but the team only sported this logo in 1993 and 1994 before they switched it up to a totally random cap logo . So sorry for the random Josh Booty photo if you clicked on the second link in the previous caption but he was the closest thing to a household name as it pertains to the Marlins incarnation of the Elmira P...

For those with a keen sense of foreshadowing, last week's Oneonta Tigers cap might have been a pretty good clue that I would be featuring the infamous Oneonta Yankees for  this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection . A class-act logo like this deserves the retro treatment although I'd be hoping for true-to-original dimensions and flat embroidery. My sweet spot for sweatband tags (sweat spot?) has always been 1994 through 1996 and I'm so happy that a cap I've been on the hunt for all these years features that set of tags. I would have been ok if this cap didn't feature the MILB batterman but it's a nice touch on this one because at least no one would mistake it for a college team or one from any other sport for that matter. If you're a regular reader here you know that that the Oneonta Yankees hat is one that's been on my  Wish List  for a long time and I imagine that being the case for anyone who collected MILB cards in the 80...

Something I enjoy doing with this blog is reflecting on previous posts while working on new ones. This week's Fayetteville Generals cap not only harks back to a  Generals snapback that I wrote about just over two years ago  but it also relates to the  Lakewood BlueClaws  which was the first team featured in this run of South Atlantic League caps. What I appreciate most about the Generals logo is that it pays tribute to a legendary figure of the American Revolutionary War from France named Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette, or as he's more commonly known, Marquis de Lafayette.   Not only is the team's name derived from his role as a major general of American forces in the war but the city of Fayetteville, NC is also named in Lafayette's honor. I should have mentioned this information when I wrote about the Generals snapback in 2017 but I'm glad to be able to right this wrong now.  O...