Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Since last week's post the time zones in baseball have been out of whack considering Spring Training was in full in effect for all 30 teams but then the regular season began with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs facing off for a two-game series in Tokyo the following Tuesday. Before the series, both teams played and lost an exhibition matchup against the  Hanshin Tigers ( previously known as the Osaka Tigers) and both won exhibition games against the Yomiuri Giants who  were known as the the  Tokyo Kyojin when they began play as an independent team before becoming one of the four inaugural members of the Japanese Baseball League  in 1936. Sadly for me and all San Francisco Giants fans out there, the Dodgers won both games and will have an undefeated record for about a week! And  now that the teams are back in the States, they're about to switch back into Spring Training mode to play more exhibition games this coming weekend. All that back-and-forth...

It seems like just a year or two ago that I wrote about one of the all-time favorites in my collection which is the 1991 Nashville Sounds cap  although in reality that was just over ten years ago. Even more baffling is I've written about four other Sounds caps since then with today's Fresh Fitted Friday selection being the "Music City" variant from the 2015 rebrand. Three of those four caps were from that rebrand with this "Music City" alternate being what will likely be my final entry from that  epic set by Brandiose . I never imagined back in 2015 that a "Made in U.S.A." tag would someday become a thing of the past on New Era caps but I'm still holding onto the hope that the manufacturing of these timeless hats comes back stateside. The hit of red on the MILB batterman over a mostly black cap is fitting for a team from Nashville, which in my mind is a town synonymous with Johnny Cash, aka The Man in Black, who has an entire museum dedicate...

I clung to a faint hope that posting a Buffalo-exclusive from New Era’s flagship in last week's post ahead of the AFC Championship game might bring good luck to the Buffalo Bills against the Kansas City Chiefs.  Unfortunately, my celebratory run of sharing Buffalo-related caps will have to wait for another time. And just like this year’s remaining unsigned MLB free agents who are frustrated with their previous and prospective teams alike, I had to find an alternative route for this week’s post. The main difference between me and players like Pete Alonso or Alex Bregman is that I don’t anticipate receiving a lucrative contract between now and the start of Spring Training. Nevertheless, that mere fact won’t deter me from daydreaming about the sun-soaked games that are about to unfold in Arizona and   Florida in particular as I’ve chosen to focus on the Kissimmee Cobras for this week’s post. In addition to celebrating the “Year of the Snake” during the current Lunar New Yea...

I might be breaking some sort of rivalry rule by posting a New York Yankees hat for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post immediately following last week's Baltimore "City Connect" cap but please not however mistake this seemingly brazen selection as anything other than me paying respects to Mariano Rivera as MLB's all-time saves leader turns 55 years old today! My side patch obsession most likely started with the 2007 All-Star Game caps  and it only grew when I moved to New York in 2010 which was highlighted in a post or two   featuring the commemorative caps I purchased while in attendance at Yankee Stadium during the game Derek Jeter reached the 3,000 hit milestone on July 9, 2011. I acted on my side patch impulse once again at the end of that season when Rivera passed Trevor Hoffman's saves record—which only stood for less than a year as he retired following the 2010 season—as the Yankees memorialized with the patch on this week's cap. Interestingly e...

My posts ahead of Labor Day Weekend from the past two years have both been  Ebbets Field Flannels  retros of caps worn by the  Denver Bears  during different eras of their existence. My reason for highlighting Denver is as a tribute to Phish's annual run of shows which have taken place there over the holiday weekend yearly since 2011, with the exception of 2020 as their entire summer tour had to be canceled due to the pandemic. Onto happier times now and even though I am not there to witness it, I can thankfully follow along from home via webcast and can confirm that Phish is poised to bring the goods over this four-night run. Because I have now written about all my Denver Bears caps, I need to pivot to Denver-adjacent caps with an Albuquerque Isotopes in a Colorado Rockies colorway. When the partnership between the Rockies and Albuquerque began in 2015, I was finally able to stop mentally associating the Pacific Coast League city with the Los Angeles Dodge...

In all the years posting on this blog, I have never done any sort of Veterans Day post which I think is somewhat of a shame considering my hometown Virginia Beach is mere minutes away from  Naval Station Norfolk which is  the world's largest naval base.  Whether I was seeing the Tidewater Tides play or just out and about in town, uniforms were a regular sight growing up! Perhaps the reason for not having done a dedicated post is that I do not own any of the "Armed Forces Day" hats so while I do not have a military uniform themed cap, what I do have is a sort of meta-uniform cap by way of Paul Lukas's Uni Watch Blog which if we are being honest is a big reason why my blog exists. Obsessing over the nuances of uniforms is a tale as old as time. Lukas worked with Ebbets Field Flanels to create this cap featuring the design prowess of Bryan Molloy in this now-iconic cap logo of winged stirrups. Even though this week's cap is not a military-themed cap, the pride of o...

The 2023 MLB season concluded with the Texas Rangers defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks to clinch the franchise's first World Series championship this past Wednesday, November 1. As a San Francisco Giants fan, I am thrilled Bruce Bochy led the Rangers to win it all during his first year managing since coming out of his brief retirement which began ahead of the 2020 season. Another point of elation—albeit on a more petty level— is that the Diamondbacks suffered the loss at home in front of their fans although the crowd reaction in Arizona when the Rangers scored made me forget which team was on the road. Nevertheless, the 2024 season will be here soon enough and I have high hopes for Bob Melvin's first year managing the Giants. My ideal scenario would be Melvin and Bochy squaring off in the World Series but those are the types of ambitions one can really only have a few days into the offseason during that time when every team has a shot. Once the chips start falling in the free ...

I have written about many cities who have hosted teams for mulitple decades but today's Clearwater Threshers hat marks the first time that I've featured this longtime Philadelphia Phillies farm club, which has been their Single-A affiliate in the Florida State League since 1985. I alluded to wanting a Threshers cap in my Rancho Cucamonga Temblores post  in September 2020 but I made sure not to specify which one exactly because I knew even back then how special this cap was. I wasn't about to ruin my chances at getting it by blabbing about it then but now that I actually it own the time is right to spread the word! It is surprising how much I like this cap because despite being hopelessly anamored with the ocean, I am irrationally averse to sharks. I grew up up near a beach and remember the terror I felt when while swimming in the ocean I would randomly think of the tiny possibility of that a shark was nearby. Well, today is Shark Awareness Day so I figure it is time to face...

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 ...