Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

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) I'm not going to mince words here: the best news of this entire week is that Tim Raines has been selected to join the 2017 Baseball Hall of Fame class. I've mentioned before how special Raines is to me and it brings me an incredible feeling of joy to know that he will be enshrined among the other great players who have contributed so much to this game. As a cap enthusiast I wonder which one he will be wearing on his plaque. Of the 23 years Raines played in MLB, 13 were with the now-defunct Montreal Expos. He had a few quality years with the Chicago White Sox but his three years with the New York Yankees were certainly special considering he picked up two World Series rings in that time. Of course, the decision of which cap he will wear on his plaque does not need to be decided just yet, so let's take a momen

Considering one of the earliest minor league baseball caps I ever owned was a Greensboro Hornets one, it's hard to believe it's taken me this long to write about this team's hat. Well, I suppose that's only partially true as I once posted a 1996 Greensboro Bats cap but I'm really glad to finally show some love to this iconic gem. Greensboro only had this cap logo from 1990 through 1993, but it was glorious while it lasted A red hornet is not one you want to tangle up with, especially not one wielding a bat The sweatband tags here are identical to those found on my post of this Everett Giants cap Grey underbrim, white sweatband and the absence of the New Era and MILB  batterman logos is the best combination  When I first started going to Norfolk (then-Tidewater) Tides games as a youth in the early 1990's, I'm not sure if I knew there was any difference between the players I was watching on the field and the ones from televised games

This week's Fresh Fitted is not only a freshie but it is one that has a deep sentimental value to me as it is the cap that the Virginia Tech baseball team wore when they hosted the New York Yankees in a preseason exhibition game at English Field in the spring of 2008.  As I've noted in a previous post  about the cap that the Yankees wore during that game, it was played in memoriam of the Blacksburg Massacre at Virginia Tech the previous year. Tomorrow marks the 9th anniversary of the shooting, so today we will look upon the hat that the Hokies wore when the Yankees came to town.   The Yankee's "NY" logo has seen many custom colorways but very few are as powerful as this tribute made to Virginia Tech The Hokies "VT" logo on the wearer's left side is a solid show of respect from the Yankees The orange batterman and eyelets really pop here. This cap also varies from the one the Yankees wore that game in that it swaps out the

I admit that I might have gotten a little case of Yankee Fever after last week's showcase of the 2007 All-Star Game cap . I wore that cap to the Yankees game that night as they hosted the visiting Seattle Mariners but the game was only exciting if you are a home-run addict. The Yankees won that night and thankfully the run tally was not lopsided as it had been in a few of the recent games that I've attended. I also enjoyed a healthy serving of second-hand schadenfreude watching a former beloved Yankee struggle at the plate as a visiting player. Robinson Cano went 0-4 and the Yankees fans had a tad too much fun booing him every time he was denied access to a base. Even though Cano had a rough night, he was 3-4 the next day and clubbed his 9th homerun of the season to boot. I'm sure even those who jeered him Friday could applaud his efforts Saturday despite him playing on another team. They probably won't though. I can relate to the frustration that Yankees fan

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) I know that it's not right that it has been such a long while since I've actually showcased a fitted cap on "Fresh Fitted Friday" but believe me when I tell you that I have been waiting for just the right time to drop this one y'all. This is the ultimate cap to wear when you are trying to say, "Yeah I'm at a Yankees game but I'm a sneaky Giants fan at heart!" To fully appreciate the significance of this cap, perhaps a little background story might be in order. I was living a happy life in the Bay Area w hen the San Francisco Giants hosted the 2007 MLB All-Star Game, although I was not fortunate enough to attend the Mid-Summer Classic that year. I'm fine with that though; there are lots of baseball fans that never get to go to an All-Star Game. What is not acceptable though is t

Not long ago I picked up this 1999 Columbus Clippers cap but haven't worn it until right now because it looks like next week will be my first Yankees game of the year. I'll need to be rocking a Yankees cap with some uniqueness to it and I think this will do the trick. This is the classic "Big C" logo that the Clippers wore from 1996 through 2008. You can pick up a legit reproduction at Sole Collector while supplies last. Get on that! The sweatband tags match the ones from the  1998 World Series New York Yankees cap , yet the "New Era" flag didn't show up  on Clippers caps until 1999, making this the earliest year this cap could have been produced. That MILB batter man is completely murdered-out. I haven't seen one like that before or since this cap! The Clippers wore this cap from 1996 through the 2008 season and while it's not going to be the most obscure cap in the bleachers, I still doubt most of the fans will recognize

Behold the signature colorway of the 1990's: teal and purple.  Here we see the same inner sweatband tags as these previously featured caps: Stockton Ports , Midland Angels and Hickory Crawdads If it wasn't for the MILB batter man logo I'd guess this was a Florida Marlins cap for sure.  You have to respect a cap that keeps the tags unpopped for so long. After last week's spotlight on a cap from a South Carolina team, I thought it would be appropriate to continue that theme for this week's Fresh Fitted  with a relic from the mid-1990's.  This cap's garish "Charlotte Hornets style" colorway of teal and purple sums up that era to a T.   While I'm less than enthusiastic about the dated colorway, I'm not completely sold on the cap's logo either.  I get that it's a cute dog biting so hard on a bat that it breaks in half but this logo has been around for almost twenty years and it hasn't evolved v