Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Hello and Happy New Year to anyone reading today's post! And if you're reading this entry in March, I suppose it would be rude of me not to offer you the same courtesy.  I want to start the year off with a bang but also want to honor my 2019 mission of chronicling the Pacific Coast League hats in my collection that I felt were ready for the spotlight. So instead of coming out guns blazing, I'm going to kind of just kill y'all softly with a few caps from teams in the American conference of the PCL, starting with this Iowa Cubs hat from 2004. This cap logo has been in steady use since it was introduced in 1988 however it's used more sparingly these days since it was designated as the team's road cap in 2006, which is also when the "I-Cubs" home cap debuted. The first clue that this cap is from 2004 is this MILB tag came about that year (ok,  maybe 2003) and was only in use for a brief time afterwards. Because the sweatband tags are of th

Seeing as how this is the last missive of the year, it only seems right to expect a blow-out post although I fear only I will see it as such. Then again, I'm the one writing this dang blog every week so cut me some slack, Jack! I often refer to my baseball fandom reaching its fever pitch in the late 1980's and early 1990's but just in case you need a reminder, some of the hat logos that are specific to that era are my all-time favorites as is the case with this week's Colorado Springs Sky Sox cap. The interlocking "C" and "S" on this cap are something that I will always associate with Colorado Springs although it would be foolish to assume it hasn't been used elsewhere beforehand. The one instance that jumps to mind as a possibility is with the USC Trojans . The tags here are fairly straightfoward considering this cap could be from anywhere between 1988 and 1992. The only reason I'd say it's from the later side is because the MIL

I mentioned last week that my usual preference for these blog posts is to go vintage over retro but that I was so impressed with Hat Club's recent releases, I had no choice but to showcase their great work here. I spent some time going back through older posts to see if there were any consecutive ones featuring retro caps and I couldn't find any so as far as I know, this week's 1993 Portland Beavers goes back-to-back in that regard as well as on the Beavers tip! At first glance, this logo is pretty busy so you have to appreciate how Hat Club was so faithful to the OG. I especially like that the Beaver is wearing a Beavers hat. Very meta. Hat Club went with a grey underbrim here, however it's worth noting I've seen a green underbrim on the white version of the 1993 cap. The grey works though so I'm good with it. The sweatband tags are rarely of any importance on retro caps but I shared a photo of this one because you can see the Made In U.S.A. is

Welcome back to the post-Thanksgiving/pre-Christmas edition of Fresh Fitted Friday y'all.  You might (or might not!) be wondering where I have been the past few weeks and the answer to that is that I've been traveling to some pretty cool spots. I'd never been to  Charleston, SC before this past weekend and the one before that I visited Providence, RI for the first time in over twenty years so  in honor of that triumphant return, this week's Portland Beavers retro is one whose logo could easily be taken for a Providence cap. HatClub did a more than decent job with this retro but my only complaint would be that the little swoosh under the P should have been less tapered on the right side.  A benefit of the retro caps is that the black sweatband is better for longevity. Also, you can't see underneath the New Era tag but rest assured that it reads "Made in U.S.A." under there.  No batterman here which is historically accurate but I'm sti

Something you might have noticed is that I enjoy doing is going back-to-back with certain teams so the Pacific Coast League fun continues this week by bridging last week's Tacoma Rainiers cap  with the home cap that is currently worn by the team. The stand-alone scripted "R" cap logo here is one of the classiest logos in all of minor league baseball.  Sadly, this is a Made In China production so it'll take a while before it gets fully broken in like the Made In USA versions, if it even happens at all. Glad I kept the stickers on here so that I can remember how prices for hats increased by $3 in 2019. You really hate to see it when the quality goes down and the prices go up. I've got plenty more PCL caps coming your way however I want to take a break from future hats and instead talk about the future of MILB. As per recent reports , MLB is planning on eliminating up to 42 MILB teams with most of those cuts affecting rookie and short-season levels. E

Now that the Pacific Coast League discovery session is in full swing, we need to focus on the Tacoma Rainiers, whose PCL membership goes all the way back to 1960, thus making them longest-tenured member of the league. It would be foolish to think that the PCL didn't suffer some sort of atrophy when Major League Baseball began populating the west in 1958 but one benefit was cities in Washington state like Tacoma and Spokane were able to gain entry to the league. Wordmark logos typically don't do it for me but the teal "R" in Rainiers here is incredible.  Ahh, the famed 2004 satin taping commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 59Fifty cap.   Of course, I love the tealism on the MILB batterman as well.  While I certainly appreciate the uniqueness of the 50th anniversary caps looked, I think it should go on the   Trading Block  because I'm sure someone out there is looking for a rarity such as this one and is willing to part  with one of the caps

The Pacific Coast League theme continues this week as another Tennessee team worth a look is the Nashville Sounds. Sadly, their road cap has just hit the road itself after the 2018 season as  the Sounds rebranded once again leading up to the beginning of their affiliation with the Texas Rangers the following season. I'm not sure  why the Sounds would abandon such an amazing logo, especially after such a brief time. It's also hard to believe that it's been a little over three years since  the home cap was featured on the site ! Unfortunately this is a "Made in China" cap and it definitely feels stiffer and boxier than other caps. It also feels like it's a size or two bigger than 7 3/8 but I suppose that's the risk you take buying New Era caps nowadays. Another thing that's hard to say goodbye to is the "Bred" (black and red) MILB batterman as the newest Sounds caps are dark navy, which I find to be interesting because they certainl

As I sit here writing this week's post on All Hallow's Eve, I'm contemplating how superstitious I can be when it comes to baseball. It's an unwritten rule that you don't acknowledge a no-hitter as it's happening and I think that factored in me not discussing my desire for the Washington Nationals to win the World Series in last week's post.  I realize that sounds like I sincerely believed some form of Murphy's Law would occur but I think it had more to do with the fact that a t that point, the Nationals had won two games against the Astros and I didn't want to pile on too much since they were coasting along. I also didn't want to rub any salt in the wounds of my Yankees Empire friends! My only horse in the American League was the Yankees so once my current hometown team was eliminated, I simply hitched my wagon to the Nationals. On the topic of wagons, here's an article on John Loughney, who is better known as the "Since Today"

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