Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Answer honestly: are y'all getting sick of reading about these hats from The Great eBay Haul by now? I ask only as I've got many, many weeks worth of size 7 1/4 hats that I want to write about...and trade/sell off. Maybe I need to spice it up a little which is why I'm thinking of communicating this week's Wisconsin Timber Rattlers cap in Parseltongue! What's "Parseltongue" you ask? According to the Harry Potter Wikia page , Parseltongue is the "language of serpents...and those who can converse with them". This is a really good idea folks! Also, let's pretend the "W" behind the snake in this cap logo stands for "Wizard" rather than "Wisconsin"!  Oh you don't want to have fun? Fine, I'll just show you some interior crown photos of this vintage gem which I basically decided to feature today  because it has a maroon brim and black crown like last week's Williamsport Crosscutters cap . Aren't

If this is your first visit to the blog, I welcome you! And if you're a regular reader, thanks for coming back despite my neglect of minor league caps for the past three consecutive weeks, which might be some kind of record; I'm not sure. Either way, I hope this week's vintage West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx cap makes up for the recent lack of MILB love! This is another cap that came from The Great eBay Haul that I've been writing about over the past few weeks. The Diamond Jaxx rebranding in 2002 was the first big client win for Brandiose , which back then was a just a fledgling design firm known as Plan B Branding. Plan B (now Brandiose) conceived "Jim Dandy" as the mascot for the Diamond Jaxx in 2002. According to Bloomberg Businessweek , "Dandy" is "a Disneyfied version of  a miner wielding a baseball bat modified into a pickax" While every MLB team began wearing New Era's polyester caps with black sweatbands and

This Riverside Pilots cap has to be one of most unique caps in my collection and that's mostly just because the team only existed from 1993 through 1995! Their ephemeral existence combined with the fact that they were only a High-A team with a tiny fanbase makes me wonder if I'll come across an unworn vintage Riverside Pilots hat ever again. The spirit of the 1990's is strong here as Tealism is in full effect. The sparkle from the silver lining is regal and that plane on the "R" makes you want to blast off, right? The MILB batterman logo started appearing on the back of minor league caps in 1995 and because that was the Pilots final season, we can be fairly certain this cap is from that year. The three tags were most predominantly used from 1994-96 and to me, they represent the Golden Age of New Era sweatband tags. Here's a rare shot of Raul Ibanez during his time as a Pilot. Special thanks to Mickey's Cards for not only having this card, but a sig

It's been torrid in NYC over the past few days and when I have a fever, the only cure is "more Teal"… ballcaps!  While last week's episode of Tealism Appreciation focused on an East Coast squad, this week we jaunt across the country to show love to another team with an "E" on the cap logo and it's one that I had all but forgotten about : the Everett AquaSox.   My friend and I were at the Mets game on Tuesday and as we were bashing the  DiamondBacks'  ultra-dark road grays, he  brought up the Ninja BlackSox from the old NES game  Baseball Stars . The uniforms are similar but even more,  the "DiamondBacks" moniker is reminiscent of the other stupid names in that game which made me think of the AquaSox. Last week's  cap was of a  Class A-Short Season team and so is this one, as seen by the use of the  90 degree rotation of the iconic Mariners trident . Those who believe in nautical superstitions say the upside down trident is

I'm sorry about the hiatus but, don't worry; I haven't stopped my rabid consumption of fresh (and sometimes not-so-fresh) hats from my favorite purveyors. It's true that it has been a while since I've hit up this blog. Hopefully you haven't forgotten about me -or perhaps worse- the fitted hat game! This is why I wanted to mark my return by sharing one of my favorite hats of all time: a 1992 Seattle Mariners cap! To me, this cap evokes so much nostalgia because it reminds me of one of my favorite baseball cards from that era: Ken Griffey, Jr.'s 1989 Upper Deck rookie card! Look at that smile! Look at that bling around his neck! Look at that super-comfy turtleneck! But, I digress. We all knew back then that he was going to be a spectacular ballplayer; however, I don't think anyone could have foreseen the magnitude of Ken Griffey Jr.'s legacy. He was one of the best players to ever wear a major league uniform, or any sports uniform for that matt