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Showing posts with the label Houston Astros

1983-88 Asheville Tourists

The South Atlantic League celebraish officially "goes to 11" today and I think I'll be wrapping up the series next week as I'm sure everyone is about ready for a new topic. Until then, let's talk about this sweet 1980s Asheville Tourists cap which is all about simplicity —while perhaps even teetering on the edge of basic—  although is a classic nonetheless. A cursory glance of Tourists cards from 1986 and 1987 shows players wearing hats with this week's logo and on a royal blue crown, albeit with a grey underbrim, unlike this week's cap. The navy crown seen on  this  1989-93 Asheville Tourists hat  I wrote about just a little over two years ago proves this cap is from no later than  1988. I had troubling finding Asheville Tourists baseball cards from 1981 through 1985 so I can't say with certainty  the earliest year this cap could be from . The closest thing I could find is this image of former Houston Astros pitcher Charlie Ke

Burlington Bees - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

You guys, the Houston Astros are in the World Series right now! I'm not going to say I told you so, but I did tell you so  and if you don't feel like reading that entire post where I told you so, I'll give you the quick and dirty: I told you so back in March!  One thing that's more important than being right about telling you so is that I want the Dodgers to lose this series so I'm doing my part to root on the Astros by featuring a hat from a team that plays in a city which once hosted an Astros affiliate: the Burlington Bees. This is a brand new addition to my collection and it is certainly going to be one of my most cherished caps as it was a gift from my wife, whose nickname is Bee! How cute is that, y'all?  This is the Bees' official on-field road cap and I prefer this one more than the home version which has the same purplish blue crown but with a yellow gold bill. The Burlington Bees are currently a Class-A affiliate for the Lo

2005 Houston Astros Cap - Fresh Fitted Friday

This site might currently rank highly in Google searches for "Houston Astros Minor League Cap Extravaganza" but that wasn't my goal when I began posting photos of those dang caps. I definitely got lucky with those but an even more fortuitous event happened recently and this 2005 Houston Astros cap is the first installment of this haul's showcase.  Enjoy! According to Cliff Corcoran's exhaustive SB Nation writeup  Houston Astros uniforms through history , the "Brick and Black" cap was in regular use from 2000 which was the Astros' first season at Minute Maid Park (then-Enron Field) through 2012. Even though this cap isn't my size, I like having ones from this period in my possession. The "Blue Box" tags on the white sweatband first appeared in 2005 as did the "New Era Fits" and "Originators of the True Fitted" text on the satin taping. This cap's colorway was used for many years but this pa

1991-94 Osceola Astros Cap

As I mentioned last week, it was hard for me to take a break from the "Houston Astros Minor League Cap Extravaganza" but now that I've secured this Osceola Astros cap as the latest installment in the series, I also need to share a valuable piece of knowledge regarding Florida's geography that you might not know: there is not a city in Florida named Osceola. From 1985-2016, the Houston Astros made their Spring Training home at Osceola County Stadium in Kissimmee, Florida. It's now home field to the Florida Fire Frogs of the Florida State League and from 1985-1994, it was home to the Osceola Astros (who later became the Kissimmee Cobras) as well as various Gulf Coast League affiliates over the years. The O-Astros used this cap logo without much variation from  their inaugural year in 1985 until their rebranding as the Kissimmee Cobras in 1995 . For this reason it's foolish to try to assign a year to it but if I had to guess, I'd say it's from th

1991-92 Jackson Generals

Two weeks into the 2017 MLB season and it's looking less likely that my prediction of the Houston Astros winning the AL Pennant will work out. As the Astros' hot start has fizzeled, what's worse is the Giants are cellar dwellers of the NL West while the Diamondbacks are at the top. There's a lot more games to play this year but stumbling out of the gate is no fun. What's fun is that for the fourth time in four weeks, I'm writing about a mesh-crown hat from a former Houston Astros minor league team! Nailing down the exact years for these caps hasn't been easy but the window on this one isn't large.  From 1975 through 1990, the Jackson Generals were known as the Mets so the earliest this one can be from is 1991.  Behold the rare five-star ranking of this fresh mesh hat.   It's always fun to find a crisp green bottom cap, even when it isn't of the fitted variety The mesh striations are visible and the "Made in U.S.A."

1988-94 Auburn Astros Cap

It's the first week of April and I'm already staying up until 1AM EST watching baseball. Of course this  feels completely normal  but it's been tough watching my San Francisco Giants fall to the Arizona Diamondbacks three times this week. I've spilled much ink here obsessing over my love/hate relationship with Arizona and today is no different. As I've mentioned before, my wife went to the University of Arizona and while we were disappointed they didn't make it past the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament, I did  learn about a connection between the UA basketball program and the Houston Astros, whose former minor league affiliates have been the inspiration here over the last few weeks.  Did you know former MLB star Kenny Lofton attended UA on a basketball scholarship? This article is about how he went from committing theft on the court to the baseball diamond. (Photo courtesy of tradingcardb.com) This is Kenny's first baseball card. He was sel

1989-93 Asheville Tourists Cap

Last week's Tucson Toros cap must have sparked something in me because I'm featuring a classic farm team that was once associated with the Houston Astros here  again this week . My intrigue with the Asheville Tourists began when I first became interested in minor league baseball in the early 1990's and the logo on the cap showcased today is from that time. If you've never seen this logo before, you'd never be able to guess it's an Asheville Tourists cap. I imagine most people will guess that it's a vintage Atlanta Braves hat, which in truth would not be a bad guess at all! The earliest example I can find of this typeface on a Tourists cap is from 1986 but the crown seems to be more of a royal blue. Also, I'm using this card from tradingcarddb.com mainly because the pitcher is showing bunt. This one is also from tradingcarddb.com and I'm showing it because it captures the 80's style racing stripes as well as the logo on a navy cro

1989-93 Tucson Toros Cap

The big news in the baseball world this past week was Team USA defeating Puerto Rico en route to its first ever World Baseball Classic championship. If you checked out last week's blog, you'd know that I wrote about a Team USA cap and while I'd love to take credit for this feat because I wrote about it, I must doff said cap to the players on that team.  I wanted to continue to try my luck and give a helpful boost to the University of Arizona during the NCAA tournament.  I decided the best way to do this is by writing about a Tucson Toros cap, as Tucson is home to the University of Arizona (which is also where my wife went to college) but sadly the Wildcats were eliminated from the tournament tonight. Despite the disheartening finish, my wife and her alma mater has lots to be proud of and on top of that, the Grand Canyon State has one more full week of Spring Training ahead of it!  Even though I made an active decision to take a break from wearing red hats for the next c