Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

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...

I was not vastly verbose in last week's post and I might be even less loquacious today but I am having fun with alliteration as well as continuing what might be a yearly tradition of posting a New York Yankees cap in honor of Lou Gehrig Day where MLB raises awareness for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), also known as Lou Gehrig Disease. I had a great-uncle who passed away with the disease and so this yearly event definitely brings out some emotions for me. Like many others, I sincerely hope that we can  eventually "strike out ALS" once and for all. And until then, we must continue to play for each other just as "The Iron Horse" did for his teammates and visa versa. While the  Red-Bottomed Yankees cap from last year's tribute  was more fashion-forward, I am running it back to the classics with this vintage circa-1923 style hat from Cooperstown Ballcap Co. The leather sweatband and dark green undervisor are definitely a switch-up from the Ebbets Field Flan...

When someone says "New York Yankees" the first color most people think about is navy blue and after that maybe white. And it almost goes without saying red is the last one that comes to mind unless you just happen to be reminiscing about  the time Spike Lee rang up New Era asking for a red New York Yankees hat  ahead of the 1996 World Series. I moved to New York in 2010 and in the time between 1996 and then, the Yankees cap has been produced in every color imaginable but no matter what color is featured on the crown, the undervisor—or "under brim" as we referred to it back then—has usually been green, grey or black. I fondly remember trekking across the boroughs in my hunt for vintage "grey bottoms" made of 100% wool because I felt the polyester fabric that New Era introduced in 2007 was somehow inferior. As someone who has always strived for progress yet at the same time was afraid of the unknown, I found comfort in the retro releases that featured the cl...

Without MLB game results and general happenings to inspire my weekly write-ups, I typically look to "National Day" holidays and current events to guide me during these slow times. Luckily, there is no shortage of transactions occurring this time of year. As it turns out today's date, January 14, was an eventful one for the two teams I follow the most which are the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees  in 2002 and 2001 , respectively. The big move San Francisco made on this date in 2002 was signing Barry Bonds to a 5 year $90 million contract extension. Getting his team to the World Series that year validated San Francisco's determination to do what ever it took to ensure Bonds was in a Giants uniform while shattering hitting records up throughout the remainder of his career. The Yankees have not make a splash on January 14 in the past 50 years however  their division rivals did in 2001 when the Toronto Blue Jays traded  David Wells–who was the Yankees 1998 ALCS ...

I'll be back with a new post next week but since today is the 10th anniversary of Derek Jeter knocking his 3000th hit, check out this write-up from 2011 where I floss my brand new DJ3K cap.  See y'all next Friday!

For those with a keen sense of foreshadowing, last week's Oneonta Tigers cap might have been a pretty good clue that I would be featuring the infamous Oneonta Yankees for  this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection . A class-act logo like this deserves the retro treatment although I'd be hoping for true-to-original dimensions and flat embroidery. My sweet spot for sweatband tags (sweat spot?) has always been 1994 through 1996 and I'm so happy that a cap I've been on the hunt for all these years features that set of tags. I would have been ok if this cap didn't feature the MILB batterman but it's a nice touch on this one because at least no one would mistake it for a college team or one from any other sport for that matter. If you're a regular reader here you know that that the Oneonta Yankees hat is one that's been on my  Wish List  for a long time and I imagine that being the case for anyone who collected MILB cards in the 80...

Welcome to the last post of the 2019  New York-Penn League  celebration! I began the series with the primary cap worn by the Staten Island Yankees when they suit up as the "Pizza Rats" so I'm bookending it with the "NYC" cap.  Both of the "Pizza Rats" logos are fantastic but the "NYC" is quintessentially New York as the design is a callback to the bygone subway tokens of the past. The "Y" as a slice of pizza with a bite taken out of the crust—presumably by a rat—is an incredible touch. I was hoping to catch a  "Pizza Rats" theme night this year but sadly, that did not happen. Rats!  The one game I saw this season was this past Wednesday night as the team  played under its usual moniker and this week's cap is the one I wore to the game. I consider myself to be very fortunate to have procured a "Made in U.S.A" cap last season. My  Baby Bombers experience  this week reinforced my prefere...

The second half of the 2019 MLB season is under way and I've decided I need to start going to some more games before the season's end.  I started this year off strong but the only time I got to the ballpark last month was on June 4th when the Giants tallied up six runs in the top of the 10th inning  against the Mets at CitiField.  I left after the top of the 9th because I was certain the Mets would walk it off—which they did not—and I'm glad I was wrong!  My most recent attempt to get to a game was for the  Rays-Yankees matchup this past Wednesday, which I learned was postponed due to "severe inclement weather" as I was riding the  subway up to the Bronx.  Maybe this most recent misadventure is a sign that I need to switch it up a little. I'm thinking I should catch some Staten Island Yankees games where I can proudly sport this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection, which I believe is the primary cap the team will be wearing on their  Pizza ...

I've probably mentioned this more than a few times already but my life-long love for baseball truly is something that's shaped the person I am today. F lipping through baseball cards as a child helped developed my knack for matching names with faces while poring over stats on the backs of those cards led to my o bsession with analyzing data.  As far as the subject matter in this blog, my appreciation for visual aesthetics in design is rooted in hours spent staring at logos on caps and uniforms of ballplayers while organizing my cards and watching games on television. My penchant for nostalgia is so blatant, it should't surprise you that my first hats are ones that resonate the deepest with me. My first MLB caps were the caps worn by the Chicago White Sox and Florida Marlins in the early 1990's and my first MILB caps were the New Haven Ravens, Greensboro Hornets and Prince William Cannons. Because the current theme here is the Carolina League, I've got not one, b...