Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

With Opening Week of the 2025 MLB regular season in the books, I am thrilled to report I have  gorged on as much baseball as I possibly could. I am also happy with my  San Francisco Giants' 5-1 record although it is a shame that is only good enough for third place in the NL West as the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers hold records of of 7-0 and 8-0, respectively. Sadly the Atlanta Braves were unable to hand the Dodgers their first loss this past Wednesday night and are now 0-7 to start the season giving them the worst record in baseball. The Braves have 155 more games to play so this slow start does not necessarily negate the preseason prognosticators who predicted expected their season totals finishing second only to the Dodgers. I am amused how the "0" in their win column aligns with 404 Day which is an unofficial holiday in Atlanta celebrating the city's first area code while a  404 error is a HTTP status code when a webpage or resource cannot be found....

Since last week's post the time zones in baseball have been out of whack considering Spring Training was in full in effect for all 30 teams but then the regular season began with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs facing off for a two-game series in Tokyo the following Tuesday. Before the series, both teams played and lost an exhibition matchup against the  Hanshin Tigers ( previously known as the Osaka Tigers) and both won exhibition games against the Yomiuri Giants who  were known as the the  Tokyo Kyojin when they began play as an independent team before becoming one of the four inaugural members of the Japanese Baseball League  in 1936. Sadly for me and all San Francisco Giants fans out there, the Dodgers won both games and will have an undefeated record for about a week! And  now that the teams are back in the States, they're about to switch back into Spring Training mode to play more exhibition games this coming weekend. All that back-and-forth...

In honor December 6 being National Miners Day, this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is an Ebbets Field Flannels retro inspired by the cap the Joplin Miners wore in 1950. I have had this day earmarked on my calendar for a few years now as I wanted to make sure the post was published on the day itself so cheers to that! And most importantly, thank you to the miners! My preference is to have an embroidered logo on my Ebbets hats but every once in a while I grin and bear it when I have to pick one up with this sort of stitched felt letter. The "Ebbets" and "Made in USA" tag combo is classic. I am thrilled to pop the tag on this one and bring it into the rotation! This is a great team shot featuring Mickey Mantle front and center where he belongs! This commemorative minor league card of Miner Mantle was part of a special and limited 5 card set Topps released in 2012 using the 1952 style.   Mantle's card is fantastic but I am a Giants fan first and foremost ...

Just last week, I attended my final New York Yankees games of the season but unfortunately had to see them lose to the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday and then again to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday for Paul Skenes' final start of 2024. Had I known that the Pirates would pull Skenes after just two innings, my decision to venture to the Bronx on that rainy afternoon might have played out differently but  despite the loss  I am grateful to the Yankees for putting forth their best efforts as well as their fans who by dumping their tickets for cheap allowed me to see the potential Rookie of the Year strike out Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisolm Jr. This "load management" that is de rigueur makes sense to a point but teams not competing because their last games "don't count" is disenchanting to fan. I experienced similar feelings of dismay  the following day when Blake Snell opted to skip his final start for my San Francisco Giants because the game "h...

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...

As we enter the final weekend before the MLB All-Star break, now is a good time for some levity. I searched for some fun baseball-related trivia and the best I could find was that today is the 45th anniversary of the Disco Demolition Night  promotion hosted at Comiskey Park as the  Detroit Tigers faced the Chicago White Sox on a fateful summer evening. Music fans no doubt recognize Chicago and Detroit as two cities with rich musical histories so admonishing a "lesser" style like disco the night they play each other is apt. Unfortunately, I have no disco-themed caps—or even an interesting one from either team—but the "Old English D" on my Denver Bears retro from Ebbets can easily be taken for a Detroit cap. I do not know the technical terms for this wordmark's design elements other than serif but I will say there is a notable difference between this and Detroit's current logo. Interestingly enough, the embroidery here very closely resembles the logo used by ...

While writing this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post, I am also watching the telecast of  this year's special  "MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues" with the   St. Louis Cardinals (as they wear the uniforms of the St. Louis Stars) playing my San Francisco Giants (wearing uniforms of the San Francisco Sea Lions) at the oldest professional ballpark in the United States in Birmingham, AL. The Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues called Rickwood Field home as did Willie Mays when the  Alabama-native  got his first professional baseball assignment playing for the Black Barons as a 17 year old in 1948. All three scheduled events were set to honor  Mays who was the last living member of the Black Barons but died two nights before Thursday's finale. There were so many tributes (both large and small) to Mays when news of his passing arrived during Tuesday night's MILB showcase in which the  Birmingham Barons (playing as t...

When I began posting about my caps back in August 2011, there were only a few sites out there dedicated to the hobby of collecting but two posts that I was thrilled to come upon in those early days were  Paul Carr's   The Chronology of New Era Cap Tags: A Guide and The San Diego Padres "Taco Bell" Caps . Over the years, Paul has since added more  brilliant blog  entries  in his  "Taco Bell"   series and even worked with Ebbets Field Flannels to create a retro of the 1978 Reno Silver Sox cap which was the focus of his  Minoring in Taco Bell  post. Also in that time, I as well have endeared myself to this wacky style enough to  run for the border to join in the "Taco Bell" fun when possible! I chose  the Reno Silver Sox retro to be  this week's  Fresh Fitted Friday  selection   to continue in that paternal theme  that I started in my only  previous "Father's Day" post which as it happens was for a ...

The San Francisco Giants have just pulled into New York and I am currently feeling the jitters of seeing my team play in person for the first time this year as they are about to  start a three game series against the New York Mets at CitiField. I always have a hard time settling on what Giants hat to wear at away games but this time I have it figured out! I went a little long on my 5/10 post highlighting my 1950 Oakland Oaks from Ebbets Field Flannels so I do not feel too bad about not having much commentary this week other than I am happy to keep the  "O"  party going with a  1951 Ottawa Giants hat that I recently picked up from Ebbets as well. The Ottawa Giants moved there from Jersey City after the 1950 season because the local television broadcasts of the New York Giants obliterated the "Little Giants" attendance at Roosevelt Stadium. Sadly, the Giants relationship only lasted for only one season as the team became affiliated with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1...

Yesterday was 5/9 and it warmed my heart to see so many lovely Instagram posts honoring New Era's flagship "59Fifty" cap and its importance in this community of hat collectors. Sadly, I did not join in the fun as I am not much of a "regular poster" although this Oakland Oaks cap for 5/10 is a good way to celebrate the 510 area code in "The Town" over in the bright side of the Bay. Before I get to photos of this week's hat, I want to take a moment to give a shout out to the fans in Oakland who have been creative in their support their team in these times. I saw a recent post of a fan who only goes to A's games on the roads as well as clips of fans sitting behind home plate wearing a "Sell" shirt to the Colliseum as a plea to the owner to "do the right thing" soon. I suppose "the right thing" is as subjective as it gets but the team's impending and temporary move to West Sacramento next season will be an interest...