Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

I've got another old-fangled cap for this week's edition of Fresh Fitted Friday but please note this High Desert Mavericks post is actually evocative in multiple regards. The first is in the traditional sense as this week's hat is almost thirty years old however the second aspect has more to do with metaphotographical attributes since the photos themselves are almost seven years old! I unearthed these relics-depicting-relics during a recent reorganization effort of my photo library and the timing couldn't have been more perfect as I felt like this tour through the California League needed at least one more contribution of the vintage variety.  As a San Francisco Giants fan, Bruce Bochy's career path is of great interest to me so I'd like to highlight the fact that the future Hall-Of-Fame manager was at the helm during the Mavericks' inaugural season in 1991. This was Bochy's third managerial assignment but his first was one I discussed in a Spokane Ind...

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 ...

I hope everyone enjoyed the South Atlantic League caps over the last few months but if the volume of posts was too much, that's ok too because I have a more streamlined set of caps on deck for the Midwest League series, which starts off this week with a Waterloo Diamonds snapback from 1993. For their inaugural season in 1989, the Diamonds were a co-op team (aka baseball's version of polyamory) featuring players from the Baltimore Orioles and the San Diego Padres but they were going steady with the Padres  from 1990 through their final season in 1993 . The Waterloo Diamonds were only a team for five years in total and the fact that they  only wore this cap logo for their last two seasons makes it super unique to me. I think a lot of other hat nerds feel the same way because when  Hat Club recently did a retro release, the cap sold out rather quickly and I wouldn't be surprised to see it return sometime soon. The logo is comically large but you would only ...

Well, it looks like my super-awesome streak of attending an MLB game once a week is ending as the mini-trip I had planned to see the Padres play the Pirates in Pittsburgh is not happening. Nevertheless, I still want to share photos of the perfect hat to wear to the series: a retro 1986 Hawaii Islanders cap produced by Ebbets Field Flannels in 2016. From the images of baseball cards I’ve seen, the Islanders wore this cap with a red crown and yellow brim from at least 1984 all the way through 1987, which was their last season. I have to give Ebbets props for the logo and cap construction in this retro release. The caps from the 1980’s probably did not have black sweatbands and satin underbrims like this one but I actually like those touches here. There are a couple of reasons why I could have worn this hat to the Padres series in Pittsburgh this weekend and the most obvious is that the former Pacific Coast League franchise was an affiliate of each club for many years. ...

I'm not usually into Giants hats in colorways other than black and orange but the combination of dark navy and gym red on the 2014 MLB All-Star Game Home Run Derby cap is mighty snazzy. The left-side patch seems almost painted on here. Not complaining, just an observation! In retrospect, it would have been cool if they honored Prince's hometown of Minneapolis with some purple here. Standard issue Diamond Era materials on the inside but of course I must dock points because the cap was not Made in U.S.A. The red, white and blue batterman seals the deal here even though the cap is imported from China. We are one week closer to the 2016 MLB All-Star Game and since last week’s post, there haven't been many new images released of this year's cap and uniform lineup. As of now, the only photo I’ve found of the cap that the players will be wearing during this year's ASG in San Diego is this one: Oops, sorry about that. The image...

In celebration of the 2013 World Series being underway, I thought it would be fun to showcase a couple of caps from a Pacific Coast League franchise where St. Louis outfielder Carlos Beltran played: the Spokane Indians. The PCL is a league that was officially founded in 1903, just two years after MLB's American League. I find comfort in the fact that baseball has been played in the Pacific Northwest ever since the United States' Western Expansion reached the  Oregon Territory .  So let's get to talking about this cap. First up you'll notice that the logo features the letters "S" and "I" interlocking on a royal blue crown.  As many of you know from reading this site, I love the style of serifs used here and I really enjoy that the "S" is so similar to the"S" in the Shreveport Captains cap logo. It's no secret that I heavily favor these old school caps made of 100% wool with the green-underbrims. I especi...