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Showing posts with the label International League

1951 Ottawa Giants (V2 - Ebbets Field Flannels)

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...

Norfolk Tides (Trident)

Looking back at the past few posts made me realize that all of these recent caps have featured either green, yellow or orange hues which are ones that some might consider garish. So continuing on in that tradition, this week's Fresh Fitted Friday  selection is the "Trident" variation of the Norfolk Tides logo which falls within that loud category that tend to gravitate towards. I took the seam ripper to work here and I'm pleased with the results. Also, I'm not sure exactly when the Tides wear the "Trident" logo but this and the road cap are easily my two favorites. No knock on the home hat but it is going into its eighth year and I wish the team would play around with the colorblocking by at least featuring black panels on the front. Standard issue sweatband tags here. All good. I like the "Gatorade" vibes on the batterman here enough to add a new label for it on the this post and am committed to tagging future and past posts with featuring b...

Norfolk Tides (1993-2015 Home hat)

For the second week in a row I'm featuring a Favorites cap from my collection and before you start thinking "every cap is my favorite" I want to mention  the reason for posting this cap the Norfolk Tides wore from 1993-2015 today is because International Surfing Day is held annually on the third Saturday in June which happens to be tomorrow, June 17th. Until the team rebranded in 2016, the "wavy T" logo was the main cap logo worn by the Tides since 1993 which was their inaugural season at Harbor Park. The combination of a new uniform and ballpark undoubtedly ushered in a new  wave  of appreciation for the team. Luckily the "Made in China" tag is hiding underneath the sweatband here! The sky blue on the brim, button and batterman are a nice touch here but if we are being honest, they give off too much of a UNC vibe for my taste. Earlier I mentioned how the "new look" Tides of 1993 reinvigorated the team and I imagine after wearing this cap fo...

2019 Los Murciélagos de Louisville (Louisville Bats team - Copa de la Diversión)

This week's Los Murciélagos de Louisville cap is a nod to Mexican Independence Day which commemorates the  " The Cry of Dolores" that was as a  call to arms by Roman-Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in  the early morning on  this day in 1810 thus sparking the   Mexican War of Independence that would not end until  Spain withdrew its forces on August 24, 1821. Mexico's victory was followed by the  signing of the Act of Independence of Central America in Guatemala City on September 15, 1821. This proclamation effectively created  the Federal Republic of Central America which was comprised of Mexico's neighbors directly to the south: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. By 1841 however, the newly created union had dissolved when each of those former Spanish territories created their own independent republics, all of which still consider "September 15" as their Day of Independence to this day. Because of the historical...

Winnipeg Whips - Ebbets Field Flannels retro

The temperatures are finally starting to drop in New York City but it's still unlikely that we'll have a "White Christmas" here so to bring those winter vibes this week's Fresh Fitted Friday  is a Winnipeg Whips retro from Ebbets Field Flannels. This hat also continues the theme of defunct Montreal Expos farm clubs that were located in Canada in the 1970s! I'm convinced I'll love just about any minor league interpretation of the Montreal Expos pinwheel motif. That's even more likely when the team was only around for a short while as was the case with Winnipeg which only hosted the Whips from June 1970 through the 1971 season. If you buy a cap from Ebbets, you can count on the satin green undervisor and that sturdy wool crown. It's doubtful I'll ever see a vintage Whips cap up close but even if the materials are a mismatch, I doubt the quality on it would be as strong as this cap. The sweatband tags on an Ebbets cap are unrivaled. Seeing that ...

1983 Charleston Charlies - Fresh Foam Snapback!!!!

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is unique in that it's actually of the Fresh Foam variety!  This is the second ever foam pillbox cap that I've written about with the first being a  Tidewater Tides snapback  with nearly identical construction as this week's Charleston Charlies hat. The Charlies were a Cleveland affiliate from 1981 through 1983 and this logo takes the block "C" logo their parent team wore from 1979-86 and adds white piping around the crown. That is a touchstone of cap styles in 1983 which was the only year this cap was worn as well as their last season in Charleston, WV. Because this hat was only worn for one season I doubt if a fitted version was even made at the time. Also, I'm not usually a fan of the visor being the same color on both sides but this cap is very rare and sometimes you've got to take what you can get, folks!  The Tides cap I mentioned earlier has a Twins (Enterprise Products) tag on the sweatband while this...

1959 Buffalo Bisons (Ebbets Field Flannels retro)

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a retro production of a 1959 Buffalo Bisons cap and let me tell y'all, in an alternate timeline this hat would be taking us into a Super Bowl weekend where the Buffalo Bills would be playing in the big game for the first time since 1994! Well, if "if's" and "but's" were candy and nuts that would be friggin' awesome because that would mean my plan of featuring Buffalo hats up through the Super Bowl came together. But it didn't. But  that doesn't matter because this logo's simplicity is just too perfect to pass up this week. I can't imagine anyone on the street will recognize this logo for what it is but that's ok. Maybe I'll hear "Boston Sucks" or perhaps someone will think it's a Birmingham Barons cap. Whatever happens, I'm ready for it because I will hit them with the story behind this hat no matter what! Made in U.S.A. is something Ebbets Field Flannels has...

2004 Indianapolis Indians - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

Instead of counting down the days until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training facilities as we normally would around this time of year, the baseball world has been consumed by the repercussions of the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal  and I've been doing my best to abstain from painting broad strokes with my judgement brush. But as a San Francisco Giants fan it's hard to stay silent, especially when the team I loathe most is mentioned as the potential beneficiary of an L.A. City Council plot to request the recall the of the 2017 and 2018 World Series trophie s. At first it made my blood boil but the more I think about how it would play out, the more hilarious that outcome seems. The "Total Recall" outcome is something that I'm not going to actively back or root against but if it ends up happening, trolling the Dodgers would almost become too easy as Giants fans would have more material to work with than we ever had before. As I mentioned earli...

1968 Jacksonville Suns Ebbets Field Flannels Retro - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!

Last week I mentioned I was running low on Southern League caps so it's no surprise that I'm stretching a bit for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday . As you probably know, most of my posts are on-field caps, but  this week's Jacksonville Suns cap is a replica of the cap worn in 1968, which to make things worse is when they competed in the International League. I dig how the "J" here looks super laid back, like it could almost be a "G" and the more I think about it, this "J" is just a metaphor for a super laid back Florida guy. The Made In USA tag is proudly on display here and with good reason. Ebbets Field Flannels might not produce all of the cap logos that I wish they would, but the ones they do release are of utmost quality. I don't write about Ebbets hats much but I just want to note how I appreciate how the black sweatband doesn't show signs of wear and the green underbrim slowly gets darker over time which is fun to ...

2017 Lehigh Valley IronPigs "Fighting Bacon"

I've had a lot of fun over the past two months writing about classic International League teams and the different caps that teams have worn over the years but I think this week's Lehigh Valley IronPigs "Fighting Bacon" cap will be the 8th and final cap of this run. Just like many of the cap logo designs that Brandiose produces, this Bacon is a surly character who's ready to rumble as his anger is sizzling hot. Like the  "Bacon and Eggs"/"Eggs and Bacon" cap  that I wrote about on December 28, 2018, the origin of this cap's logo comes from another Food Fight type of series. This time the IronPigs took on the identity of Bacon while the Fresno Grizzlies of the Pacific Coast League were the Tacos.  While the IronPigs once again turned to the brain geniuses of Brandiose for their design, Fresno used an in-house design team of artists named Dorian Castro and Andy Inman. I like the Bacon logo more but if I also really dig Fresno...