Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

After last week's spotlight on the Durham Bulls , I realized that I haven't featured nearly enough Carolina League teams so I decided to ramp up a little series on some classic hats from that league starting next week. For this week however, I have to shift the focus onto a more pressing matter: my birthday which is tomorrow, January 26. That date happens to be Australia Day so this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a reproduction of the cap worn by the Australian national baseball team for an exhibition game against the US team  on December 1, 1956  as part of the 1956 Summer Olympics. Wait. December? Don't forget when it's winter here, it's summer over there, mates! Behold the Green and Gold! I like the gold felt "A" here against the dark green crown and bill but I really hope people don't mistake me for an Oakland Athletics fan. The great thing about Ebbets Field Flannels is their caps are always top-notch so there'

Well, it looks like my super-awesome streak of attending an MLB game once a week is ending as the mini-trip I had planned to see the Padres play the Pirates in Pittsburgh is not happening. Nevertheless, I still want to share photos of the perfect hat to wear to the series: a retro 1986 Hawaii Islanders cap produced by Ebbets Field Flannels in 2016. From the images of baseball cards I’ve seen, the Islanders wore this cap with a red crown and yellow brim from at least 1984 all the way through 1987, which was their last season. I have to give Ebbets props for the logo and cap construction in this retro release. The caps from the 1980’s probably did not have black sweatbands and satin underbrims like this one but I actually like those touches here. There are a couple of reasons why I could have worn this hat to the Padres series in Pittsburgh this weekend and the most obvious is that the former Pacific Coast League franchise was an affiliate of each club for many years.

If you are reading this post then you are probably some sort of a baseball nerd which means you know that the last time the New York Mets won the World Series was in 1986. If so, then it's also likely that you recognize this week's featured cap as one the Tidewater Tides wore in the early 1980's when they were the Mets' AAA affiliate.   This is the most iconic Tidewater Tides cap of all time. Clearly the "T" here is more stout than every other Tides cap you will see from this period. Holy Orange! It's held up great after 30 years in storage. Thank you Polyester! Negative points for the flimsy foam construction on this snapback but it captures the spirit of the era perfectly! I'm going to try to keep this gem as crisp as possible so for everyday wear, so I'm thankful that Ebbets Field Flannels has just released this reproduction of the 1983 version of the cap: This is what the "T" should look like on the pi

When the New York (baseball) Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958, their fans in New York weren't the only ones feeling the heartache of losing their team.  For decades, the San Francisco Seals were a major force in the City by the Bay.  They marked their last season there by winning the Pacific Coast League's pennant in 1957 when they were an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.  The following year, they moved to Phoenix and became the top farm team of the newly arrived Giants who displaced them and this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is the cap they wore: I love this cap but it gets tiresome when people constantly confuse it for a Pittsburgh Pirates cap. It's orange not yellow, folks!  That green satin underbrim is what dreams are made of... Nothing but the best quality production from the good folks at Ebbets Field Flannels! Made in USA, every single time. Ride with Pride! This shot of "Willie Mac" is the best photo I c

If there's one thing about Ebbets Field Flannels that I appreciate the most, it's that they take great lengths in reproducing what seems like the most obscure caps ever made and that almost all of the caps that they release have the following features: wool broadcloth, a horse hair buckram crown and satin taping. This particular replica is one of the 1969 Clinton Pilots. I don't have any other ballcaps with the "scrambled egg" design on the visor and that's probably because I'm usually not crazy about it being used on non-miltary hats. My childhood hometown had a large population of military personnel so respect for the armed services is inherent with most of the population.  Maybe that's why I feel as though the "scrambled egg" strictly belongs on military headware and as much as I respect the history of the design, I surely welcome it more than the so-to-speak "patriotic" designs that are MLB-approved. Since I'