Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

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

It has yet to get chilly here in New York so since this Christmas is looking to be a mild one, I will just have to bring in the cold for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post with a Québec Carnavals retro cap from Hat Club. The jolly little fella adorning this cap is called the bonhomme —meaning "good man" in French—and his claim to fame is being the mascot for Carnaval de Québec, which is the city's yearly winter carnival.   This cap is a recent pickup which sadly means it doesn't get the "Made In USA" treatment. As a child of the 1970s, I have nothing but great appreciation for a powder blue cap with a green undervisor. I had never heard of the Carnavals before Hat Club started releasing retro caps of this one and other variants, for which I'm thankful as it inspired me to learn all about the Carnavals being the Montreal Expos first ever Double-A affiliate in 1971. The team became the Québec Metros in 1975 and stayed put through 1977 before moving

I was thinking of taking this week off due to the holiday but a few days ago I was thinking a lot about the origin story that's usually told of Thanksgiving and  came across an article from Smithsonian Magazine this past Tuesday (November 21, 2021) titled  How to Tell the Thanksgiving Story on Its 400th Anniversary  which offers new insights and perspectives. From a baseball standpoint, I also thought about how Native American cultural depictions have historically figured into baseball as well as some changes I think are appropriate and might happen one day soon. That plus the Friday after Thanksgiving being officially known as Native American Heritage Day was another contributing factor in my desire to post this week. The American Indian imagery the Atlanta Braves continue to disrespectfully incorporate into their branding of a people's culture into a mascot is a practice I believe needs to end. A worthwhile read on the topic is National Congress of American Indians Respond to

This week's episode of The Quarantine Road Trip takes us to Denver which is just a few miles away from my alma mater, University of Colorado at Boulder. I showed love to Denver's MILB past back  in one of my earliest posts  but it must be said that  the longest-standing team name associated with the Mile High is the Bears, and not the Zephyrs. According some really low-quality photos I had to squint to decipher, I've determined that the Denver Bears only wore this logo from 1982-84 and  I'm going to go on believing that  until someone proves otherwise! I normally wear 7 3/8 so I'm not really sure why I went with a 7 1/2 here. Either way, it's better to go a size up than a size down, or two sizes down which is also a thing that I accidentally not long ago. The MILB batterman looks a little strange with the green underbrim but it's incredibly difficult to find a Denver Bears hat so I'll take it. The story of why this week's cap is ver

For the last post of 2017 I'm continuing the trend of showcasing a classic Class A Short Season cap while also paying tribute to my favorite band, Phish, who got their start  in Burlington, Vermont which is where t he Vermont Expos (now Lake Monsters) played.  The Vermont Expos of the New York-Penn League wore this logo from 1994 through 2005. Because there is no New Era flag it's safe to say this cap is from 1996 at the latest. The sweatband tags here have the mid-1990's flavor. Notice the size tag flapping in the wind! Can't believe for the second week in a row I've got a cap that's over 20 years old and hasn't had its tags popped. Ringing in the new year in style! This cap isn't for sale or trade however don't hesitate to reach out if there's something you like on the  Trading Block  and you are willing to  part  with any of the hats  on my  Wish List . Happy New Year y'all and a s always, thanks for coming back

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

Well folks, my baseball morale right now is the lowest it's been all season. The Los Angeles Dodgers, who continued their winning trajectory by sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks in the ALDS earlier in the week, are now set to face the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS for the second year in a row and I'm not feeling optimistic about this match-up. I was actually hoping the Washington Nationals would be the team to beat the The Doyers in the NLCS (and because I have no caps from any Cubs minor league affiliates) I am featuring this vintage cap from the Harrisburg Senators, who have been the Nats' Double-A affiliate since the team relocated from Montreal in 2005. The Senators sported this logo from 1996 through 2005 and I'm not blind to the irony of the Senators  ditching the Yankee Doodle Dandy fellow in their logo  as soon as their parent team in Canada moved to the capital of the United States. This combination of satin taping and sweatband tags are co

Last week's Montreal Expos post was a little heavy but y'all know how I get when I get to talking about that dang team! While this week continues on the Expos trend, I wanted to showcase this ever-so-fun Vermont Expos snapback from the mid-1990's. That's Champ. He's the team's mascot and he's an undeniably happy little fella there isn't he? He couldn't get mad if he wanted to. Even if Jeffrey Loria wanted to drain the swamp (or lake) in which he lives. I was looking for a fitted version of this cap but it's a hard cap logo to find so I'm happy with the snapback version for now.  We've definitely seen this tag before and while it's not a giveaway for a specific year, the lack of the "New Era flag" tags tells me it's pre-1997. As far as I've been able to tell, the MILB batterman has  appeared on caps around 1994  at the earliest. You're seeing it from the inside here so you can appreciate the lo

Update: I modified some formatting below and fixed some broken image links (with old, somewhat blurry photos) but kept the content the same otherwise. (10/13/2021) After spending the last few weeks digging into sweatband tags of World Series caps, I'm ready for a change of topic. I was either looking for a cap with a connection to Tim Raines but there are many others that have patiently been waiting on the shelf as well. W hen I heard the news that Jeffrey Loria was fixing to selling the Florida Marlins  I knew what to do. Compared to the  pinwheel  and the  "Make Montreal Great Again"  styles this is the most subdued of all the logos Montreal rolled out over the years.  I was just chatting with a fellow cap fanatic about how much I love the grey underbrim aesthetic. I love the contrast between it and the darker crowns. It's hard to pinpoint an exact year for this cap but these are the sweatband tags from 1994-1996 This week's post is kind of bittersweet so that&#

I’ve been holding on to this pristine gem for far too long and now the time has come for you to enjoy its freshness. You may be wondering what is the story with this logo so let me fill you in on  this barely worn Denver Bears cap from the early 1980’s. The red, white and blue colorway is something that Colorado baseball has not embraced in over 30 years and I'd like to see the Rockies to wear this hat as part of a Throwback Thursday promotion. Ok, maybe they can forget the mesh part, unless they were going to do a hipster-themed Throwback Thursday and incorporate the trucker-hat phenomenon of a few years back. Wow that sweatband is immaculate! One thing I like about this snapback is that there is a vague size tag noting this cap is a "Large" meaning it's for anyone who is between a size 7 and and 7 5/8. Good information! The green underbrim and (at one-time) white sweatband are a must if you are going to retro a cap properly. The reason yo