Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

My posts ahead of Labor Day Weekend from the past two years have both been  Ebbets Field Flannels  retros of caps worn by the  Denver Bears  during different eras of their existence. My reason for highlighting Denver is as a tribute to Phish's annual run of shows which have taken place there over the holiday weekend yearly since 2011, with the exception of 2020 as their entire summer tour had to be canceled due to the pandemic. Onto happier times now and even though I am not there to witness it, I can thankfully follow along from home via webcast and can confirm that Phish is poised to bring the goods over this four-night run. Because I have now written about all my Denver Bears caps, I need to pivot to Denver-adjacent caps with an Albuquerque Isotopes in a Colorado Rockies colorway. When the partnership between the Rockies and Albuquerque began in 2015, I was finally able to stop mentally associating the Pacific Coast League city with the Los Angeles Dodge...

I was recently asked again if I had a favorite minor league cap and once more I was unable to field that seemingly simple question! To think it was only a year ago that I last discussed my struggle coming up with a definitive answer in my post on my  Carolina Pescados (Carolina Mudcats - Copa de la Diversion) cap . The hats mentioned in that post still rank highly up there in my view however I should have given a nod to the Nashville Sounds, especially the musically inspired logos Brandiose designed for the team's rebrand in 2015. This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is the Diamond Era cap from that set which I consider to be a true unsung hero of the collection. This cap was a wedding gift from a good friend of mine I met in college who grew up in Nashville and still lives in Music City today. Thanks again, Nate! I love how the soft nylon material on the inside of these caps serves as a guard against summer heat. I can imagine it must have been especially handy on some h...

I've been holding onto this 1927 Brooklyn Royal Giants retro cap that the New York Mets wore during Negro Leagues Tribute games from 2014 through 2016 and I'm ecstatic to finally break it out in recognition of Buck O’Neil, Bud Fowler, and Minnie Minoso being elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame this past Sunday, December 4 . In addition to that formidable trio of Negro League superstars getting their due in Cooperstown, another reason to showcase this cap today is to celebrate Human Rights Day which is observed on December 10 every year. Baseball's history has been marred by inequity every step of the way and it is important to take note of events like Sunday's that aim to correct those wrongs.  Unique hats with this colorway are a great option for non-Mets fans to wear at a Mets game in New York. Most people won't know or care about the logo is but it's all worth it when someone gives you props when they recognize it.  That "Made in U.S.A."...

Welcome to the second consecutive Fresh Fitted Friday of the new year, folks! For those counting at home, today's entry makes me 2-for-2 for posts in 2021 which, in my opinion, is quite the way to start off the year. Last week's post was a bit subdued so I hope your tolerance for braggadocio is high because I've got some big news to boast about: this here blog will be celebrating its tenth anniversary this coming August! A decade is a long time to be consistently doing the same thing. I suppose the blog's longevity can be attributed to a few different components with the first being that I own an absurd amount of hats. More importantly, I enjoy writing about them and I'm glad to have this fun hobby on top of a hobby that's already loads of fun for me. While thinking about this milestone a bit this week, I revisited all of my posts going back to the beginning and noticed that I’d never once written about an NFL team's hat. To be fair, that isn't surprisin...

The Pacific Coast League theme continues this week as another Tennessee team worth a look is the Nashville Sounds. Sadly, their road cap has just hit the road itself after the 2018 season as  the Sounds rebranded once again leading up to the beginning of their affiliation with the Texas Rangers the following season. I'm not sure  why the Sounds would abandon such an amazing logo, especially after such a brief time. It's also hard to believe that it's been a little over three years since  the home cap was featured on the site ! Unfortunately this is a "Made in China" cap and it definitely feels stiffer and boxier than other caps. It also feels like it's a size or two bigger than 7 3/8 but I suppose that's the risk you take buying New Era caps nowadays. Another thing that's hard to say goodbye to is the "Bred" (black and red) MILB batterman as the newest Sounds caps are dark navy, which I find to be interesting because they certainl...

I had a plan to do something so  innovative that I'd be surprised if anything like it has ever been done. Of course please let me know if you know of any site that for three straight weeks featured a hulking man with facial hair who is brandishing a bat or bat-like object. My plan ended up not coming together due to an inventory snafu on my part but it all worked out as I really dig the cap I'm writing about today.  This is the standard home cap which is the one that I owned rather than the Teddy cap.  Both are swell but maybe this "Double-R" logo has a more  classic  look. Nothing out of the ordinary on the sweatband tags here. If you look closely you can see that the MILB batterman logo is maroon and baby blue which to me is very 1980's Phillies-esque. The supposed trifecta started two weeks ago with the  Butte Copper Kings snapback  and was supposed to end with this cap that features Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt following his own advice of "speak ...

This week’s Fresh Fitted is special for a number of reasons but it also has the distinction of being the first cap I’ve featured of a team has yet to play a single game! A buddy of mine  — who also happens to be an avid reader of the site — recently visited his old hometown of Columbia, SC and was kind enough to pick up a special gift for me: the official on-field cap that the Columbia Fireflies will wear during the majority of home games in their upcoming inaugural season.  It's a refreshing change to find unique logo that does not feature any stale font lettering nor a cartoonish animal It’s no secret that I’ve got a special place in my heart for teams of the South Atlantic League, which is also affectionately known as the Sally League. As an aside, it’s also no secret that I enjoy using the phrase “it’s no secret” in these write-ups and to prove this point, simply open a new browser tab and query “it’s no secret baseball milqueto...

During the December 4, 2015 write-up of my Vermont Lake Monsters vintage cap, I discussed the wide-range of fan reactions regarding the newly redesigned Norfolk Tides cap logo. Naturally, the old guard was hesitant to swap out the beloved wave-topped T logo that the Tides have employed since 1993 in favor of the trident-wielding seahorse created by Brandiose which for the unfamiliar is a design firm based in San Diego. It turns out that the fans ended up appreciating Brandiose's efforts to the point that the Tides cannot keep the caps in supply enough to match the demand. I've followed Brandiose's output over the past few years and I'm thrilled with this collaboration with the Tides and that my hometown team now has a much-needed fresh new look. The incorporation of the N on the Trident pays tribute to the team's home in Norfolk and it is an amazing showcase of nautical weaponry as well. I'm not crazy about the green-orange colorway but I'd like t...