Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Unlike the cap shortage that I faced in my Carolina League series a while back, I don't seem to be running out of ammo when it comes to my South Atlantic League reserves. This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a hat that's been stashed away for a few years now but the cap logo design itself goes all the back to 1993. I've mentioned this many times before but it's worth repeating that  I loved collecting players' autographs as a kid . To maximize my collection, I had to stock up on cards from as many different minor league teams as possible and I focused on MLB teams who had a Triple-A affiliate in the International League who would face my hometown Norfolk Tides.  The Tides often played the Rochester Red Wings (who were t he Baltimore Orioles' Triple-A affiliate)  and I had lots of cards from that team as well as other current and former Orioles farm teams such as the Frederick Keys and Bowie Baysox, who replaced the Hagerstown Suns as

Y'all know how much I love these little "mini-series within a series" things so brace yourselves for the second part of the Columbus RedStixx celebration within the greater South Atlantic League jubilee! To celebrate this meta-gala proper, I'll be popping the tags on a cap that is about 25 years old! This week's cap is special because it's the logo I remember most from my time as a minor league baseball fanatic in the mid-1990's. The RedStixx wore this one from their inaugural season in 1992 through 1994 but possibly up until 1997. For some reason MILB cards from seemed to become more scarce as the decade progressed. The sweatband tags here are standard issue for the mid-1990's but the white satin taping has inspired me to create a new label that I'll be applying to previous posts as needed. The MILB batterman on the back of the cap here tells me this one's from 1994 at the earliest and the last year it could be from is 1996 

If you feel the same as me about the two-game "regular season" series last week between the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners in Japan, you recognize today as the true Opening Day of the 2019 baseball season. While I have no qualms with special series overseas, I do feel that having all 30 teams beginning their season on the same day is a sacred rite of passage. While all teams technically did play today, it's strange to think that the Mariners already have a 3-0 record. Hell, I'm just happy baseball is back so I'll stop complaining for now. I'm really excited for this season and for a change I'm actually into the side-patch that will be worn for year's All-Star Game which will be held in Cleveland for the first time since 1997. I'm probably going to pick up the cap that the San Francisco Giants will wear even though I'm still not a fan of the patch being on the right side due to the New Era flag placement on the left. I know it seems

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday is going to stay super topical as I'm not only featuring another South Atlantic League team, but one related to the Copa de la Diversion news of this week; MILB is bringing the campaign back after a wildly successful launch in 2018 and today's hat is the "Lexington Leyandas" cap that the Lexington Legends wore last year. At first I had mixed feelings about this hat. Incorporating a Dia de los Muertos sugar skull into an existing logo is kind of entry-level when it comes to creativity and using the Spanish  word for "legend" (leyandas) seemed to me like the team was taking a shortcut in terms of coming up with a unique identity for the promotion until I gave it some thought. If the essence of Dia de los Muertos is to honor your ancestors, is there a better way to describe the respect you have for the generations that have come and left before you than to refer to them as legends? I don't think there is

Today's date is March 15 and this day is always a special one for me as it marks the anniversary of my move from the Bay Area to New York City. While it commemorates a major life event for me personally, March 15 is one of the most infamous dates in all of history and it even has an ominous saying to accompany it: "Beware the Ides of March."   As you can imagine, I had difficulties finding a South Atlantic League hat with some kind of connection to Julius Caesar but alas I stumbled upon an Augusta GreenJackets cap that I had not yet written about.  It's common knowledge that the city of Augusta in the US state of Georgia was named for Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha , but the etymology of her given name dates back to  Augustus of Prima Porta , who for those who  need reminding was Julius Caesar's adopted son and thus the eventual and rightful heir to the Roman Empire. Anyway, enough with the super fun history lesson; let's talk about this classic cap

The South Atlantic League celebration continues this week with another Lakewood BlueClaws cap but this time we're taking a look at the cap logo that the team wore in its early years, 2004 to be exact.  You might be wondering how I could be so certain that this cap is from 2004 and the answer to that lies in the heart of cap as the gold taping inside the crown commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 59Fifty cap. The only other cap that I've seen with this special taping is the  Ogden Raptors cap that I wrote about in October 2017 . The logo on this week's cap depicts "Pinchy" clutching a baseball that is giant in proportion to itself which is fun but the logo is a little blurry. The team corrected this recently by mildly sprucing up the logo and below is a view of one of its alternate on-field caps which features the updated image. I don't feel a strong connection to this cap so it's going  on the  Trading Block   as I'm sure some

So I ran out of Carolina League hats faster than I wanted to but we'll keep the southern flavor going with some South Atlantic League caps that I've had on the back-burner for a while. I haven't written about a Sally League team in almost a year so I dug up some gems to share with y'all over the next few weeks, starting with this Lakewood BlueClaws cap. Based on  the cursory research I've done for this week's post, the  BlueClaws having been wearing this logo at most of their home games since at least 2010. Another tidbit I stumbled across is that the BlueClaws will have a Grateful Dead Night on June 22, 2019. No word on special caps but I caught a glimpse of the trippy uniforms they'll be wearing. Grateful Dead Night announced for Lakewood BlueClaws https://t.co/8ZFK2GWLx6 — Asbury Park Press (@AsburyParkPress) February 6, 2019 I'm glad I saw that tweet because it reminded me that I've had this cap on the shelf for far too long an

As you know I’ve been wearing caps from visiting club’s minor league affiliates to games I’ve attended this season. So when I went to the Marlins-Mets series finale at CitiField this past Wednesday night, I wore a cap from the Greensboro Grasshoppers, who have been the Marlins’ Single-A affiliate in the South Atlantic League since 2003. The Grasshoppers have stayed true to this cap logo since 2005 and it has appeared on a variety of different colored crowns such as green, orange and this light khaki one which I think suits it best. This cap was a recent purchase so it's no surprise it's not USA-made but that's still a shame. I also like the way the orange and green MILB batterman looks on the back of this cap's crown. Even though this is not a rare or vintage hat, you can count on me to do some digging to tie in a cap’s present to its past. For me, the biggest connection is the Marlins new owner, Derek Jeter, who played in Greensboro when it was affiliat

While last week's first in-person game of the year was the true beginning of this MLB season for me, I’m even more pumped to attend my first San Francisco Giants game of 2018 this coming Saturday in Atlanta. Yes, I have to settle for an away game but it’s my first time at the newly built SunTrust Park so I’m commemorating the experience with a cap that honors both teams. The Augusta GreenJackets have been affiliated with the Giants since 2005 and wore this logo from 2006 through 2017, which was their last year playing in Augusta, GA. Wait, what? OK, so they’re still the Augusta GreenJackets but after the 2017 season, they moved from Lake Olmstead Stadium in Augusta, GA to SRP Park, which is located in North Augusta, South Carolina. Thanks to this newly learned factoid, I can’t stop thinking about other teams that play and/or have played in cities adjacent to a city with the same name in a bordering state. For current MILB clubs, I’ve got Bristol Tigers and Bl