Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

After spending dozen years writing entries in this blog there are not many "firsts" that come along so when I realized that I had not yet done a proper Valentine's Day post for Fresh Fitted Friday , I knew right away that I should bring out the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino "Cherubs" by the inimitable DJ Mach at the flagship New Era store in Buffalo, NY. The metallic threading here is the most recognizable difference between the 66ers "Cherub" cap design and the Buffalo-exclusive that I'm featuring today. I love how it makes the Tiffany—or Tuscan, depending on your preference of terms—font pop here. The team issued "Cherub" also lacks the side-stitched arrows DJ Mach included which is much appreciated as they are synonymous with Cupid in classical mythology.  The "Genuine Merchandise" tag is something that I started seeing on MILB caps that I've purchased over the last few years, most notably starting with the 1982 D...

The big news around baseball this week was the New York Mets reuniting with their superstar first baseman Pete Alonso on a two-year deal worth $54M.  While the $10M signing bonus is an unfathomable sum for most folks to comprehend, Alonso could have net even more had he not turned down the $158 seven year deal the Mets offered in June 2023. I should note that I find pocket-watching tacky and my approach to the game is based in emotion rather than a place based in accounting! In any case, it is fun for fans to goad the ownership of their beloved teams to pay "whatever it takes" to bring back beloved players like Alonso, especially after giving out a massive payday to Juan Soto  this offseason. As a San Francisco Giants fan, I am pleased with the free agent signings of Willy Adames and Justin Verlander but cannot avoid being annoyed by the  Los Angeles Dodgers even busier offseason as well as in recent years where they've managed to rope in Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman an...

In my Milwaukee Brewers City Connect "Grill" cap  post from this past summer, I provided tiers of where each team's City Connect kits ranked in my opinion and while the hat was not the on-field design the Brewers wore for their City Connect games, that exclusive design from Hat Club was my preferred choice between the two. I mentioned then I had gotten some actual City Connect on-field caps and the Tampa Bay Rays cap has the honor of being the first to be posted here, although sadly my driving force in choosing it for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post was the passing of my Uncle Bobby in Tampa. He was instrumental in getting me to appreciate baseball in my early years and you will never forget the person who taught you how to throw a fastball. I never got a chance to see a Rays game with him but I will be wearing this City Connect hat in tribute whenever I make my first trip to their new ballpark which is slated to open in 2026. I brought up both Juan Soto and the...