Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

The big conversation topic in the baseball world this week was spawned by comments made by Commissioner Rob Manfred in an interview during the fourth inning of the 2025 MLB Little League Classic this past Sunday. In that segment he discussed his support for expansion and a geographic realignment which has not happened since the strike-shortened 1994 season . The last time MLB introduced new teams was in 1998 when the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now Tampa Bay Rays) joined the National and American Leagues, respectively. The next expansion clubs, however, might not even be part of either "league" in the current sense if the realignment reorganizes each circuit into geographical conferences. The first thing to sort is which cities get teams and I am glad Portland has finally emerged as a frontrunner for one on the West Coast. Their presence brings us closer to my favorite period in baseball history: the heyday of the Pacific Coast League (PCL), which effective...

I am writing this post after just coming home from a Norfolk Tides game where my hometown team turned back the clock to their 1989-92 era for the very first time. It would be an understatement to say I was ecstatic to relive so many fond memories of players like  Tim Bogar, Steve Springer and Kevin Baez who wore the  uniform from my favorite era in Tides history. It's hard to believe 12 years have passed since my 1992 Tidewater Tides post  which accounts for Baez handing me my first ever player-worn onfield cap that is the most prized cap in my collection. My love for that cap was only reignited in 2024 when  @yellowsub73  broke the news that a retro of that cap was coming thanks to  @djmach716  of the New Era store in Buffalo, NY. I've already featured that particular retro so this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection focuses on the  Memphis Redbirds which was the team the  Tides faced in the turn-back-the-clock game I attended. Since I ha...

One of my favorite things to do when I find myself waiting for a train or bus is popping through my favorite hat sites to see if any new releases catch my eye. Historically, the most visited ones were Hat Club, eCapacity, MyFitteds, and Ebbets Field Flannels, although the latter has fallen out of rotation due to their recent change of vision and direction. Through Ebbets' Triple-Play" deal, I was able to score three caps for a fair price, and if I picked up an extra one, I would meet the minimum for free shipping, for which I am a sucker! If only they offered a "Grand Slam" option, I would have pounced on that too. The Triple-Play deal no longer exists, so buyers must wait for a sale if they would rather not pay $68 (gasp) for a cap. Out of habit tonight, I browsed to Ebbets' site, and while there were no new caps since the last time I checked, I did notice their Memorial Day offering 25% off sitewide. There were a few logos I never got around to purchasing befor...

With Opening Week of the 2025 MLB regular season in the books, I am thrilled to report I have  gorged on as much baseball as I possibly could. I am also happy with my  San Francisco Giants' 5-1 record although it is a shame that is only good enough for third place in the NL West as the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers hold records of of 7-0 and 8-0, respectively. Sadly the Atlanta Braves were unable to hand the Dodgers their first loss this past Wednesday night and are now 0-7 to start the season giving them the worst record in baseball. The Braves have 155 more games to play so this slow start does not necessarily negate the preseason prognosticators who predicted expected their season totals finishing second only to the Dodgers. I am amused how the "0" in their win column aligns with 404 Day which is an unofficial holiday in Atlanta celebrating the city's first area code while a  404 error is a HTTP status code when a webpage or resource cannot be found....

I clung to a faint hope that posting a Buffalo-exclusive from New Era’s flagship in last week's post ahead of the AFC Championship game might bring good luck to the Buffalo Bills against the Kansas City Chiefs.  Unfortunately, my celebratory run of sharing Buffalo-related caps will have to wait for another time. And just like this year’s remaining unsigned MLB free agents who are frustrated with their previous and prospective teams alike, I had to find an alternative route for this week’s post. The main difference between me and players like Pete Alonso or Alex Bregman is that I don’t anticipate receiving a lucrative contract between now and the start of Spring Training. Nevertheless, that mere fact won’t deter me from daydreaming about the sun-soaked games that are about to unfold in Arizona and   Florida in particular as I’ve chosen to focus on the Kissimmee Cobras for this week’s post. In addition to celebrating the “Year of the Snake” during the current Lunar New Yea...

I have been saving this 1994 Appleton Foxes retro on deck for a long while in anticipation of Ichiro Suzuki's inevitable inclusion in the 2025 Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA) Hall of Fame announcement which occurred earlier this week. That bit of good news was certainly a welcome reprieve from the grief brought on by the passing of Bob Uecker. And even though Suzuki never had a single at-bat in the minor leagues, I chose this cap worn by the former Seattle Mariners affiliate in the Midwest League because it represents the big league club's Tealism years, which comprise the era many of us associate with him. The only year the Foxes featured the Mariners colorway in their caps and uniforms was 1994 however this retro has a colorflip effect by featuring a metallic silver fill on the logo lettering rather than teal which you can see in the last photo at the bottom. The shine of the metallic silver here seems like a lot to handle but I am interested in seeing h...

In honor December 6 being National Miners Day, this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is an Ebbets Field Flannels retro inspired by the cap the Joplin Miners wore in 1950. I have had this day earmarked on my calendar for a few years now as I wanted to make sure the post was published on the day itself so cheers to that! And most importantly, thank you to the miners! My preference is to have an embroidered logo on my Ebbets hats but every once in a while I grin and bear it when I have to pick one up with this sort of stitched felt letter. The "Ebbets" and "Made in USA" tag combo is classic. I am thrilled to pop the tag on this one and bring it into the rotation! This is a great team shot featuring Mickey Mantle front and center where he belongs! This commemorative minor league card of Miner Mantle was part of a special and limited 5 card set Topps released in 2012 using the 1952 style.   Mantle's card is fantastic but I am a Giants fan first and foremost ...

Welcome back to another fun week on the Quarantine Road Trip which is basically just me going "back-to-back" with showcasing Ebbets Field Flannels retro cap and this week's Spokane Indians cap is a replica of the style the team wore in 1979. That is actually pretty significant to me as that was the year I was born. Ain't that swell? This cap combines the "Taco Bell" aesthetic employed by the San Diego Padres in the 1970s along with the blue and yellow of Spokane's parent team at the time which was the Seattle Mariners. In my mind, to call this anything but the "Long John Silver's" style would be criminal. Besides death and taxes, the one sure thing in life is that if you order from Ebbets Field Flannels, you're going to get a top-quality cap that was Made in America and is built to last. As I've mentioned before, I'm not crazy about the satin underbrim on caps that are based on ones from the 1970s and 1980s but ...

Walla, Walla Welcome back to Week Two of the Quarantine Road Trip, folks! Since this whole "Shelter In Place" thing is a new experience for all of us, I decided to break from my usual habit of posting vintage hats in order to focus on retro caps for the next few weeks. In fact, it was last week's Yakima Bears hat which inspired me to select this Walla Walla Padres retro cap from Ebbets Field Flannels as this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection because like Yakima, Walla Walla Walla is a former Northwest League (NWL) city which currently hosts a collegiate West Coast League (WCL) team called the Walla Walla Sweets. This "Brown and Yellow" colorblocking is instantly recognizable to OG baseball fans as being distinctively Padres in nature. As an SF Giants fan, it's hard for me to wear a cap with these colors out in public but since we are all under quarantine, all rules have gone bye-bye. A lot of noise has been made about New Era closing down ...