Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Many of the themes for this blog's posts are planned out well in advance however there are times when inspiration strikes or perhaps some current event takes priority and this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection falls somewhere in between the latter two categories. I considered a few ideas related to the playoff race in the mighty American League East, whose second and third best teams will likely be the ones battling during the Wild Card series. At the last minute though, I decided to hold off on the congratulatory posts because I became aware of a significant baseball-related event that happened on this date 30 years ago. When I first starting got into baseball in the mid 1980s, the style and gas of pitchers like Dwight Gooden and Roger Clemens held my full attention however I am thankful to have eventually learned to appreciate the mastery of future Hall of Famers like Nolan Ryan and Jack Morris before they retired. While I have not yet discussed Morris in any previous pos

You know it's the end of the baseball season when I'm trying to cram as many games in as possible. Last week's Staten Island Yankees game was loads of fun so this week I ventured to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx to watch the big league club take on the Texas Rangers. That matchup reminded me that I hadn't featured a Texas-related hat in far too long and in fact, it's been over two years since the 1991-92 Jackson Generals  post so this week's 2005-07 Round Rock Express cap has a connection to not only that cap but the Rangers as well.  The Express wore this cap throughout the entirety of their first stint as an Astros affiliate which was from 2000-2010 The MILB tag and "Originators of the True Fitted" text on the satin taping as well as the "blue box special" New Era and size tags are something we've seen on caps from 2005-2007 such as the Portland SeaDogs and the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx . As we saw in the SeaDogs and D

This week's Fresh Fitted is a Jackson Generals cap that I picked up in late 2014. I initially thought that this cap's team was the same  Jackson Generals that I knew about in the 1990's but it turns out I was wrong. Check out these photos of this week's selection and then read more about how a team's moniker confused me ever so greatly! I probably love the serifs on the "J" and "G" because I'm a San Francisco Giants fan. This is super classy. Standard sweatband tags but a surprise under the New Era tag lets you know this cap is Made in U.S.A. Black and white MILB batterman? Yes please! Have you ever listened to Johnny Cash and June Carter’s song “Jackson” and wondered whether they were referring to Jackson, Tennessee or Jackson, Mississippi? Well, you might not have but that’s probably because you either don’t care or maybe you just assumed that they were singing about Jackson, TN because Cash spent the last fifty o

While rainfall in Arlington has postponed tonight's Game 2 ALCS matchup of the Tigers and Rangers, the skies are clear here in New York City. If the Yankees had beat the Tigers in Game 5 of the ALDS, the Rangers would have been in town for this game of the series. As it turns out, New York will not taste this particular flavor of the postseason and I'm still a little bitter over Texas beating them in this very round of the playoffs last year. It was annoying to see so many Rangers caps around town after they clinched the American League championship especially because they were facing the Giants, who were my hometown team for all those years I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. I was hoping to see the Giants play the Yankees in the World Series, but I'm happy that my beloved Giants won it all nonetheless. When I saw this Rangers cap was up for sale as a "Buy It Now" option on eBay for next to nothing, I couldn't resist the classic logo design. It's unfor