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Showing posts with the label Midwest League

1986-87 Burlington Expos - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

As a general rule of thumb, I tend to keep the theme of these posts topical with current events, anniversaries of historical occurrences and the like however this Burlington Expos hat was selected as tribute to my favorite band, Phish, who originated in Burlington, Vermont. Tonight is the first of  7 consecutive shows that Phish will play at Madison Square Garden and as you can imagine, I'm thrilled about attending all of them however if you are reading this blog you are perhaps knowledgeable enough about minor league baseball to know that the Burlington where these Expos played is actually in the state of Iowa. According to my latest tally via Wikipedia , approximately half of the states in the US have a town, city or county named Burlington however the cities in Iowa and Vermont are actually connected in the sense that a native of the latter called John Gray chose the name Burlington for the former as a tribute to his hometown back east. I was thrilled to pick this...

Beloit Snappers Home Hat - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!

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...

1997 South Bend Silver Hawks

Until now, I've only written about half of the sixteen cities who currently host a team in the Midwest League and this week's South Bend Silver Hawks cap takes it to the tipping point. For the first three seasons of its existence, the Silver Hawks had an austere cap logo which definitely bucked the trend of the zany animals that many teams started using for their logos in the mid-1990's. In 1997, they finally bit the bullet on that aesthetic and I believe that this week's cap is from that very year. The New Era flag debuted in 1997 so its absence on the sweatband tags tells me that New Era simply used whatever leftover tags they had for that season's Silver Hawks caps. The earliest photos I can find of players wearing this cap is from 1997 but that doesn't mean it didn't appear in 1996. Either scenario is possible, but I'm sticking with the former. I also believe most fans of Minor League Baseball enjoy learning about tea...

1993-99 Cedar Rapids Kernels

Wella-wella-wella welcome back, y'all! Last week was way too busy for me to turn in a quality post but we are keeping the spirit of the Midwest League theme going this week with a classic cap from another Iowa-based franchise: the Cedar Rapids Kernels. I've written about the current version of the Kernels cap but in truth, that one has never been my favorite. Virtually every sports team has a logo that I feel is their greatest and to me, this week's cap is the classiest and most elegant logo the Kernels have ever worn. Firstly, a baseball gently emerging from a corn husk is about as Midwest as it gets, folks. Corn's importance in the region is boundless but what I appreciate most about the imagery is it represents new life as every spring, a new season of baseball begins in Cedar Rapids. I've never been to Iowa but teams like the Kernels, Clinton LumberKings and Quad Cities River Bandits have piqued my interest since an early age. The movie F...

1993 Waterloo Diamonds

I hope everyone enjoyed the South Atlantic League caps over the last few months but if the volume of posts was too much, that's ok too because I have a more streamlined set of caps on deck for the Midwest League series, which starts off this week with a Waterloo Diamonds snapback from 1993. For their inaugural season in 1989, the Diamonds were a co-op team (aka baseball's version of polyamory) featuring players from the Baltimore Orioles and the San Diego Padres but they were going steady with the Padres  from 1990 through their final season in 1993 . The Waterloo Diamonds were only a team for five years in total and the fact that they  only wore this cap logo for their last two seasons makes it super unique to me. I think a lot of other hat nerds feel the same way because when  Hat Club recently did a retro release, the cap sold out rather quickly and I wouldn't be surprised to see it return sometime soon. The logo is comically large but you would only ...

2002 West Michigan Whitecaps

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a  West Michigan Whitecaps hat because the state of Michigan made some waves (I'm so, so sorry for this terrible pun) this week as they became the 10th state in the U.S. to legalize recreational marijuana. This is no doubt going to do wonders in continuing to grow their economy and decrease overcrowding in prisons, which to be fair has dropped some in recent years. It's now dawning on me that I've never been to Michigan but I have some friends in Kalamazoo that I can visit and Bells Brewery is also located there so I think I might need to make the trip at some point. I should try to check out a Whitecaps game and maybe the Great Lakes Loons or Lansing Lugnuts too. The Whitecaps stuck with this logo from their inaugural season in 1994 through 2002 which is a really long time considering this logo is nondescript when compared to the zany logo trend that many teams jumped on during that time.  T he satin taping...

Kane County Cougars - Fresh Fitted Friday

While I haven’t been to a game since last week’s post, I am planning on going to one during the Orioles visit to Citi Field next week. My decision on which game will be based on a combination of weather and whether...I can choose between less-than stellar matchups such as Dylan Bundy facing Jason Vargas or David Hess against Seth Lugo. This week’s Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a Kane County Cougars hat as it’s the perfect bridge from last week’s Marlins series and the impending Orioles visit. The reason for this being Kane County was the Midwest League Class-A affiliate for the Baltimore Orioles during the 1991 and 1992 seasons and then for the Florida Marlins from 1993-2002. The lifespan of this Kane County Cougars cap logo is incredible. The team wore this damn thing from their inaugural season in 1991 all the way through 2015, which is way more than 9 lives by my count. This cap has a “Made in U.S.A.” (or rather, “Hencho en EE.UU.”) tag and the satin taping features...

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...