Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

I thought about writing about another Buffalo Bisons hat this week but I don't think that will do much to alleviate my sadness regarding New Era closing its Derby plant. Instead I think I should focus on another legendary International League team from Western New York like the Rochester Red Wings. As I've mentioned before, my hometown team growing up was the Norfolk Tides and I got to see a lot of games against the Red Wings who were affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles during those years. Something interesting I just found out about Rochester is that the "Flour City" has been a charter member of the league since its earliest incarnation in 1886! Like all minor league teams in the late 19th century, the first Rochester squads were all independent clubs however another thing I learned recently is that moniker is likely derived from the fact that their first major league affiliation which was with the St. Louis Cardinals which lasted from 1929 through 1960 and exp

I hope y'all don't mind that I took last week off but I was worn out from Turkey Day and that's too bad because I had a Part II edition of the previous week's  Fresh Fitted Friday by featuring the current Buffalo Bisons cap. What sparked the two-part series is news of New Era Cap closing their manufacturing plant in Derby, New York. Over the past few years New Era has shifted a good chunk of its production overseas making it increasingly difficult to find US-made caps. I would imagine that in a few years those hats are going to come at a premium on the secondary market similar to the 100% wool/grey-bottom craze that began after New Era switched to the 100% polyester/black-underbrim build in 2007. So what's the correct course of action here for a cap addict? Do I lie down and die because there's nothing I can do? Do I take a seam-ripper to the New Era logo on my hats? Do I stop buying New Era hats completely and just stick to Ideal Cap Co. and Ebbets Field

Fall doesn't officially end for another month but we had our first snow in New York yesterday so I've decided to put myself in a winter mindset starting now. Another wintry experience I had this week was attending the Buffalo Bills-New York Jets game at MetLife Stadium and in the eight years that I've lived in New York, i t was my first time seeing a game there  which isn't surprising as I'm not much of a football fan. Even though I'm not that big into football, I've always made it a point to half-heartedly adopt a team from any city in which I've resided.  I latched onto the Denver Broncos when  I was at the University of Colorado and in the following years when I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, I took to the 49ers but when I moved to New York in 2010, I just couldn't decide between the Jets and the Giants. There wasn't anything about either one that attracted or repelled me in any way so I decided to expand my definition of a "loc

For the third week in a row, I've had the perfect hat to wear to a game and ended up not going however that's not going to stop me from sharing some photos of it. I picked this Syracuse Chiefs hat to wear to the Washington Nationals series at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday but I chose to go see Robert Plant at Forrest Hills Stadium instead. The Chiefs wore this cap logo from 1989 through 1996. It's a challenge to ascertain what year this cap is from as it's a DeLong and not New Era, which usually give hints when looking at the sweatband tags. Disclaimer: I've worn this hat around more than a few times already so it's not as Fresh of a Fresh Fitted Friday as previous weeks. Sorry about that! This hat would have been a perfect troll on the Nationals as their player development contract runs out at the end of this year and the Mets are going to be setting up shop there in 2019. It's not known where Washington's Triple-A affiliate will b

I didn’t end up going to a game during the Orioles-Mets series earlier this week but regardless of that, the hat that I would have worn to the ballpark is one that pays tribute to both teams. The road cap that the Norfolk Tides have been wearing since 2016 is another gem designed by Brandiose. When I wrote about the current Tides home cap previously, I brought up how the locals were not impressed when the main logo was revealed. Now that I have the road version, I think this one should have been introduced as the home cap as its nautical design is better suited to the conservative population of Norfolk, VA. Having grown up in Norfolk, I can tell you that history plays a huge role in the city’s identity. In fact, I still hear folks griping about missing the Mets, who were the Tides’ parent team from 1969 until they became affiliated with the O’s in 2007. Even though Norfolk isn’t yet on board with the cartoonish logos that are de rigueur, their commitment to the

I was planning on continuing my deep-dive into Eastern League caps however this past week's discussion over Jim Thome's preference that his Hall of Fame plaque not feature the  Chief Wahoo  caricature sparked something that I need to address here. As much as I love baseball's rich history, that appreciation should never cause someone else to suffer. I understand that Chief Wahoo has been a part of the Cleveland Indians' branding since the 1940's but I encourage everyone to please take a moment to think about how different this country was back then. Racial segregation was still in full effect and people of color were constantly subjected to insensitive language and tormented on a daily basis  in general . We've come a long way since then in terms of treating each other with respect and I would be sad to think the end point for that progress is sports fans unwillingness to recognize that a seemingly harmless mascot or logo can in fact be extremely hurtful

During the December 4, 2015 write-up of my Vermont Lake Monsters vintage cap, I discussed the wide-range of fan reactions regarding the newly redesigned Norfolk Tides cap logo. Naturally, the old guard was hesitant to swap out the beloved wave-topped T logo that the Tides have employed since 1993 in favor of the trident-wielding seahorse created by Brandiose which for the unfamiliar is a design firm based in San Diego. It turns out that the fans ended up appreciating Brandiose's efforts to the point that the Tides cannot keep the caps in supply enough to match the demand. I've followed Brandiose's output over the past few years and I'm thrilled with this collaboration with the Tides and that my hometown team now has a much-needed fresh new look. If you are browsing this page on a desktop machine, check out the social links on the right and if you are on a mobile device, click these links below: Instagram:  @baseballmilquetoast Twitter:  @FittedFriday F

I've said it before but here it is again: it really has been too long since I've last posted. I hope y'all know how much I enjoy sharing these sweet glamour shots of my caps on here. If what they say is true and absence does in fact make the heart grow fonder then you will surely have no reason to turn away this week's featured cap: a Buffalo Bisons Snapback from 2003! I dig this red "super-hero" style "B" on the cap. Also, the lighting may be a bit off in this shot but it's definitely a green cap! I don't mind the Christmas colorway one bit! Very crisp representation of a New Era snapback from the early 2003's, complete with the squarish brim. Sweatband tags and panel liner definitely fall in line with other New Era caps from 2003. When I first got the idea to write about this cap (I'll get to that later), I thought the  Buffalo Bisons were a more popular baseball team than they are . It turns out that there weren&#