Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

It seems like just a year or two ago that I wrote about one of the all-time favorites in my collection which is the 1991 Nashville Sounds cap  although in reality that was just over ten years ago. Even more baffling is I've written about four other Sounds caps since then with today's Fresh Fitted Friday selection being the "Music City" variant from the 2015 rebrand. Three of those four caps were from that rebrand with this "Music City" alternate being what will likely be my final entry from that  epic set by Brandiose . I never imagined back in 2015 that a "Made in U.S.A." tag would someday become a thing of the past on New Era caps but I'm still holding onto the hope that the manufacturing of these timeless hats comes back stateside. The hit of red on the MILB batterman over a mostly black cap is fitting for a team from Nashville, which in my mind is a town synonymous with Johnny Cash, aka The Man in Black, who has an entire museum dedicate...

I have been a baseball fan for about 90% of my life and it wasn't until Cleveland's baseball team became the Guardians ahead of the 2022 season that I experienced a Major League team changing their name — with the lone exception being when the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals upon their move to U.S. capital in 2005. While the Nationals rebranding had more to do with their arrival in a new locale, their NFL counterparts became the Washington Commanders this season as they finally dropped the offensive slur that they used as their name from 1937–2020, at which point they were temporarily known as the Washington Football Team. At this current time the only professional sports organization that is actually respectful in its usage of a name referring to Native Americans is the Spokane Indians and that is due the ongoing relationship between the team and  Spokane Tribe of Indians that  has was  forged in 2006 when both parties collaborated on the team's rebranding...

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...

Many thanks for your understanding of my absence the past few weeks. I've been meaning to do one final Fresh Fitted Friday tribute to the  2021 Atlanta Braves for putting an end to both of baseball's top villains of this season  in the last two rounds of the playoffs but just haven't been able to get to it until now. I suppose the beauty of the offseason is I've got nothing but time on my hands so without further ado, I present to you the 2018-present Gwinnett Stripers on-field alternate cap. This is the Brandiose-designed cap that the Stripers have worn as an alternate since their rebrand in 2018. I personally love the thought of a fish smacking a baseball with its tail rather trying to hold a bat with its tiny fins. I think when you're playing baseball in the water, you should have a special set of rules but maybe that's just me.   This cap is of the Made in Bangladesh variety and to be honest I can't speak to the quality of its construction as I haven...

Last week I promised that the landing gear was going down on the recent theme of caps with the letter "B" and I'd say it was a success… B-sides  not coming up with a catchy name for the run ! Fun puns notwithstanding,  this week's Boise Hawks hat will be the last of these "B" caps and like all the previous ones, it features a logo that has been decommissioned for a while now. This cap logo variant was first unveiled in November 2006 by Brandiose, which back then was known as Plan B Branding. Should "Plan B" have been the name of this theme all along?!?! Made in USA! As an aside, Boise enlisted  Brandiose to tweak their identity some more again in 2013 , which was right around the time I procured this cap. This was great timing because sadly soon after that year is when New Era ramped up the production of foreign-made MILB caps. This is a very distinctive colorway for the MILB batterman and eyelets and I'm really into it! I mentioned earlier tha...

I considered jumping back in to Pacific Coast League caps for this week's missive but last week's Australia/birthday post got me thinking that the early part of the year is the perfect time to jump into a new theme. And what better way to celebrate a new theme than by showcasing the cap of a brand new team for 2020? By my count this Norwich Sea Unicorns cap is the 19th unique Brandiose design that I've featured here but this one is extra special for a few reasons, the first being that my wife just gifted this to me for my birthday. The second big draw to this hat is that I have a keen appreciation of nautical themes, especially unicorns and goes double for narwhals! To be honest, I wish the team rebranded as the Norwich Narwals but alliteration be damned I suppose. In all fairness, I'm just happy that a Class Short Season team ponied up the money for a much-needed makeover. I haven't seen too many of the "Made in Bangladesh" caps so I'm hop...

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...

Continuing the Texas League celebration this week with a  Frisco RoughRiders  alternate hat which features the US's 26th President, Teddy Roosevelt, swinging a big ole bat.  I wrote about the RoughRiders' primary home cap almost three years ago and mentioned then that one day I'd like to do a post about their Teddy (aka Alt #2) cap and today is that day! An interesting connection between the RoughRiders and last week's Round Rock Express post is that the two teams only played against each other in the Texas League during Frisco's inaugural season in 2003 as Round Rock switched over to the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in 2004. While the primary cap featured a New Era tag reading "Fly Your Own Flag" text, this cap which was acquired in 2017, does not which leads me to believe that 2016 was the last year the slogan was implemented on tags. I don't have very many maroon caps in my collection so the maroon and baby/Carolina Blue MILB batte...

Welcome to the last post of the 2019  New York-Penn League  celebration! I began the series with the primary cap worn by the Staten Island Yankees when they suit up as the "Pizza Rats" so I'm bookending it with the "NYC" cap.  Both of the "Pizza Rats" logos are fantastic but the "NYC" is quintessentially New York as the design is a callback to the bygone subway tokens of the past. The "Y" as a slice of pizza with a bite taken out of the crust—presumably by a rat—is an incredible touch. I was hoping to catch a  "Pizza Rats" theme night this year but sadly, that did not happen. Rats!  The one game I saw this season was this past Wednesday night as the team  played under its usual moniker and this week's cap is the one I wore to the game. I consider myself to be very fortunate to have procured a "Made in U.S.A" cap last season. My  Baby Bombers experience  this week reinforced my prefere...