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Showing posts with the label 2000

1999-2001 Birmingham Barons Cap - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

I'd love to continue celebrating the Southern League, but it seems that after writing about five of the ten current teams, I've run out of caps to write about! Because of this, I've decided to share some images of a more recent—but still vintage—Birmingham Barons cap than the 1993-94 Barons cap that I wrote about almost two years ago. The Barons have sported an Old English "B" as their cap logo in every image I can find going back to 1981, which is when the Montgomery Rebels franchise was moved to Birmingham to become the Barons. The tags here are the classic 1999-2001 configuration featuring "The Nations Highest Quality Fitted Cap" text along the satin taping and of course, back during those years that statement was true. Nowadays, New Era caps aren't so much the best thing ever but I digress. Nothing but respect for the silver and black batterman here. Sometimes I wonder if the Barons logo is as ubiquitous as I believe it to be. Of

1999-2001 New Jersey Cardinals - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

The landing gear is about to come down on the New York-Penn league festivities and I'm making sure the last few Fresh Fitted Friday selections are super special, starting with this week's New Jersey Cardinals cap that I believe to be from 1999 to 2001. The New Jersey Cardinals played in the NYPL from 1994 (in which they won the League Title) through 2005 and wore this cap logo for parts of the 1997 season and then all the way through their final season. I've identified the sweatband tags as being similar to ones I've seen on the following caps from 1999-2001: Augusta GreenJackets, Harrisburg Senators and Trenton Thunder. Second week in a row with a cap featuring a bred MILB batterman! Also of note is all of the aforementioned caps also feature "The Nation's Highest Quality Fitted Cap" verbiage on the satin taping inside the crown. The 12 seasons the Cardinals played in Augusta, NJ isn't long when compared to stalwart cities of the l

1999-2001 Augusta GreenJackets - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

Today's date is March 15 and this day is always a special one for me as it marks the anniversary of my move from the Bay Area to New York City. While it commemorates a major life event for me personally, March 15 is one of the most infamous dates in all of history and it even has an ominous saying to accompany it: "Beware the Ides of March."   As you can imagine, I had difficulties finding a South Atlantic League hat with some kind of connection to Julius Caesar but alas I stumbled upon an Augusta GreenJackets cap that I had not yet written about.  It's common knowledge that the city of Augusta in the US state of Georgia was named for Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha , but the etymology of her given name dates back to  Augustus of Prima Porta , who for those who  need reminding was Julius Caesar's adopted son and thus the eventual and rightful heir to the Roman Empire. Anyway, enough with the super fun history lesson; let's talk about this classic cap

2001 Utica Blue Sox

I guess since BirdFest is over, it's finally time to  look at a cap that is not an Orioles affiliate. There is  however a connection between last week's Aberdeen IronBirds post  and the 2000 Utica Blue Sox hat that is this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection.  We know Cal Ripken, Jr. owns the IronBirds but you might be surprised to learn the Utica Blue Sox was the team he bought and moved to Aberdeen. These sweatband tags are consistent with caps from 2000 and 2001 but this cap can't be older than 2001 since that was the team's last season in Utica.  The Carolina Blue MILB batterman here is top-not stuff. Utica doesn't host a minor league team anymore but they were lucky to have Miguel Cabrera play during the penultimate Blue Sox season in 2000. I hold Utica with the same reverence as other classic New York-Penn League locations such as Auburn, Batavia, Elmira, Vermont and Oneonta. While I've gotten my hands on a vintage c

1999-2001 Harrisburg Senators Cap - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

Well folks, my baseball morale right now is the lowest it's been all season. The Los Angeles Dodgers, who continued their winning trajectory by sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks in the ALDS earlier in the week, are now set to face the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS for the second year in a row and I'm not feeling optimistic about this match-up. I was actually hoping the Washington Nationals would be the team to beat the The Doyers in the NLCS (and because I have no caps from any Cubs minor league affiliates) I am featuring this vintage cap from the Harrisburg Senators, who have been the Nats' Double-A affiliate since the team relocated from Montreal in 2005. The Senators sported this logo from 1996 through 2005 and I'm not blind to the irony of the Senators  ditching the Yankee Doodle Dandy fellow in their logo  as soon as their parent team in Canada moved to the capital of the United States. This combination of satin taping and sweatband tags are co

1999-2001 Trenton Thunder Cap- Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

Update: Apparently I wasn't very talkative when I published this post. I probably just didn't know much about what year this cap was from and just wanted to get these photos out. I did some light digging into Trenton Thunder Google image wormhole and the earliest card I could find of a player wearing the cap with a New Era flag is Morgan Burkhart from 2000 .  I guess I maybe thought it was a good idea to take a photo with that annoying flash because it would complement the Thunder emitting from the mouths of this dual-headed beast?   This satin taping is reminiscent of the style seen on caps from 1999-2001 so I think it would be fair to guess that this cap is from 2000. The sweatband tags are similar to the 1999-2001 style, and although I have seen a lot of MLB World Series caps with the maroon and blue box style size tags, I see that less frequently on minor league caps from those years. Behold the green and gold! Too bad it's just too bright for you to a