Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a 1978 Tacoma Yankees retro that continues the "Washington" theme of last week's Presidents Day post because, well Tacoma is in State of Washington state.  I picked this hat because today is February 24 and fans of the show Twin Peaks widely recognize this date to be the one where Agent Cooper came to the fictional town in Washington to investigate the death of Laura Palmer. The lettering here is a little more rigid than I would expect to see on a Yankees-affiliated hat but I still prefer the resemblance of Kanji characters on this hat over the disjointed look of the old Tampa Yankees cap logo . I love that there was no requirement for this cap to feature a batterman or New Era flag but most of all I'm glad to have purchased from Hat Club in June 2018, well before New Era closed its last US-based factory in Derby, NY.  I also like how extra on the Kelly this cap goes. It's perfect for St. Patrick's Day which I

It's the third Friday in April and folks, I'm here to tell you that I'm not done playing tricks on you yet as I've got a snapback for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection! I'll get to this week's hat and the inspiration behind choosing it shortly but first I want say I've been giving serious thought to the topic of last week's post and I'm starting to really think it just makes more sense to celebrate the new year in April when Spring has begun rather than during the dead of winter. Another reason to shift the beginning of the year to April is it will then coincide with the start of the MLB season. That particular argument only holds in the northern hemisphere however because the Australian Baseball League season tends to kick off in early-to-middle of November and usually ends near the halfway point in February. I've mentioned in previous Australia Day posts that I share a birthday with the official national day of Australia and I trul

I wouldn’t fault you if you considered me choosing a Virginia team’s cap for last week’s National Maryland Day post to be a sort of preemptive April Fools’ Day gag however I assure you that was not my intention! I stand by last week’s hat actually being on-topic but can still understand if you thought it preposterous. Whether you appreciated the interstate tie-in or not, hopefully you’ll get a kick out of the 1958 Hiroshima Carp retro from Ebbets Field Flannels that I’ve selected for this week’s Fresh Fitted Friday post. I'm not usually too crazy about the felt logos from Ebbets but the serifs combined with the chunky lettering here is very unique so I'm all for it.  The Made in U.S.A. quality from Ebbets is unrivaled. I try to always mention that when . I'm not sure if it's the lighting or what but the satin undervisor here looks extra special here. As one might have come to expect, a bit of backstory will be needed to explain this week’s hat once again! I’m not sure

In the spirit of being transparent from the start, I am compelled to disclose I had to reach a bit for a hat to match today's holiday which is National Maryland Day . I must admit when it comes to Maryland, my cap coffers are rather bereft so I opted for one worn by the Richmond Virginians which was a team in the neighboring state of… you guessed right, Virginia! Researching the history of baseball in Maryland led me down a few potential caps for this post but I was most surprised with Richmond's past being very much intertwined with both of the minor league iterations of the Baltimore Orioles. The first concerted effort between the two cities occurred in 1915 when the International League Orioles temporarily moved from Baltimore to Richmond because despite fielding a club featuring a hometown talent by the name of Babe Ruth, were unable to compete with the popularity of the Baltimore Terrapins of a newly created  outlaw "third major league" called the  Federal League

I’m back on a vintage kick for this week’s Fresh Fitted Friday post which is inspired by today, March 11, being Johnny Appleseed Day. The obvious logo to showcase on this holiday would be the home cap that the Fort Wayne TinCaps have worn since their inaugural season in 2009 however I decided to go in a different direction this time around. Just for some background, the TinCaps logo features an angry apple wearing a cooking pot as a reference to Johnny Appleseed who for some reason wore one on his head as well. I’ve always thought the design was fun but held out on acquiring one for the collection because I was hoping there would one day be a version that incorporated a baseball or bat into the motif. Well, here we are all these years later on Johnny Appleseed Day and I don’t have the one cap that was inspired by this great American nurseryman pioneer! Nevertheless, I won’t let that sink my spirits because I recently got my hands on an Elmira Pioneers cap from the Boston Red Sox era th

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday takes the posting duties on location to Mexico for the first time ever. To commemorate my very first trip South of the Border, this week's hat is the 2018 "Música de Memphis" hat the Memphis Redbirds wore as part in the inaugural campaign of the Copa de la Diversion in 2018. Memphis only wore this cap for the first two seasons of the Copa campaign but I hope they bring it back in future years because it is such a fun color combination Looking closely at the tag under the sweatband shows that this cap was Made in U.S.A. and besides being a great thing in and of itself, it suggests it was worn during the first Copa season in 2018 because that was the last year New Era produced caps at its plant in Derby, NY I love the festive colors on the MILB batterman ( batterhombre ? bateadorehombre ??) patch here If you're a regular reader of the blog with a decently average memory you know that I was a resident of California during the years i

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 &q

I've been holding onto this 1927 Brooklyn Royal Giants retro cap that the New York Mets wore during Negro Leagues Tribute games from 2014 through 2016 and I'm ecstatic to finally break it out in recognition of Buck O’Neil, Bud Fowler, and Minnie Minoso being elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame this past Sunday, December 4 . In addition to that formidable trio of Negro League superstars getting their due in Cooperstown, another reason to showcase this cap today is to celebrate Human Rights Day which is observed on December 10 every year. Baseball's history has been marred by inequity every step of the way and it is important to take note of events like Sunday's that aim to correct those wrongs.  Unique hats with this colorway are a great option for non-Mets fans to wear at a Mets game in New York. Most people won't know or care about the logo is but it's all worth it when someone gives you props when they recognize it.  That "Made in U.S.A."

This week's post is the final installment of my Midwest League extravaganza and we're capping it off with a logo that hasn't changed much since the Beloit Snappers team identity was born in 1995. It's incredible to think that the  surly, possibly constipated, turtle on the  current home cap has not been refreshed much over the past 25 years. By now I should have a label for posts that feature a cartoonish logo that was created in the mid-1990's to appeal to kids but then that tag would apply to half the hats I write about so what's the point in making the effort to point it out, right?  Sorry got off-topic there.  I actually do like this hat for a number of reasons. First, it's green and green is my favorite color. Also, the team's name and logo pays tribute to turtles and I've always felt a strong connection to Testudines order of the Reptilia class. In short, I like turtles! An even cooler part of the story is that apparently t