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Showing posts with the label Texas League

1967 El Paso Sun Kings (Ebbets Field Flannels retro) - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

I started a little mini-tradition last year on the  Friday before Memorial Day Weekend with my "National Don't Fry Day" post which I think is worth continuing this year so I'm happily breaking out  this 1967 El Paso Sun Kings cap I purchased back in August 2011 from Ebbets Field Flannels back when the Triple Play price for three caps was $79. The El Paso Sun Kings were a California Angels affiliate from 1965-70 and then again in 1973 so I listed that iteration of the parent club's name in the labels section of this post as well as in previously published posts wherever it was appropriate to do so. This hat, along with retros of the 1955 San Francisco Seals and 1958 Phoenix Giants, was in my very first Ebbets order and I'm happy to say that all these years later, it's in a great enough condition that I have no qualms with it being a Fresh Fitted Friday selection today!  The little yarmulke looking halo here is very unique and possibly confusing at first g...

Jackson Generals (1994-99 Hat Club Retro)

Last week’s Música de Memphis cap was a great accessory to have on my trip to Mexico and I’m so happy to be back in the States in time for March 4 which is an unofficial holiday called March Forth due to its name being a homophone of the date. In reading up on the holiday I learned that the full version of its name is March Forth and Do Something Day but I think “March Forth” gets the message across just fine.  My research also brought to my attention that since 2017, March 4 has been used as the day to celebrate Marching Music Day . Because the “march” music genre traces its roots back to its military origins, this seems like an excellent opportunity to bring out my Jackson Generals retro from Hat Club. The five stars on the cap logo worn by the Jackson Generals of the Texas League is a reference to the highest military rank in the United States. Interestingly enough two stars was the highest rank received by Andrew Jackson, who is the inspiration for both the team’s moniker as ...

2017 Frisco RoughRiders Alt 2 Cap - Fresh Fitted Friday

Continuing the Texas League celebration this week with a  Frisco RoughRiders  alternate hat which features the US's 26th President, Teddy Roosevelt, swinging a big ole bat.  I wrote about the RoughRiders' primary home cap almost three years ago and mentioned then that one day I'd like to do a post about their Teddy (aka Alt #2) cap and today is that day! An interesting connection between the RoughRiders and last week's Round Rock Express post is that the two teams only played against each other in the Texas League during Frisco's inaugural season in 2003 as Round Rock switched over to the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in 2004. While the primary cap featured a New Era tag reading "Fly Your Own Flag" text, this cap which was acquired in 2017, does not which leads me to believe that 2016 was the last year the slogan was implemented on tags. I don't have very many maroon caps in my collection so the maroon and baby/Carolina Blue MILB batte...

2005-07 Round Rock Express - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

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...

1991-92 Jackson Generals

Two weeks into the 2017 MLB season and it's looking less likely that my prediction of the Houston Astros winning the AL Pennant will work out. As the Astros' hot start has fizzeled, what's worse is the Giants are cellar dwellers of the NL West while the Diamondbacks are at the top. There's a lot more games to play this year but stumbling out of the gate is no fun. What's fun is that for the fourth time in four weeks, I'm writing about a mesh-crown hat from a former Houston Astros minor league team! Nailing down the exact years for these caps hasn't been easy but the window on this one isn't large.  From 1975 through 1990, the Jackson Generals were known as the Mets so the earliest this one can be from is 1991.  Behold the rare five-star ranking of this fresh mesh hat.   It's always fun to find a crisp green bottom cap, even when it isn't of the fitted variety The mesh striations are visible and the "Made in U.S.A." ...

2016 Frisco RoughRiders - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

I had a plan to do something so  innovative that I'd be surprised if anything like it has ever been done. Of course please let me know if you know of any site that for three straight weeks featured a hulking man with facial hair who is brandishing a bat or bat-like object. My plan ended up not coming together due to an inventory snafu on my part but it all worked out as I really dig the cap I'm writing about today.  This is the standard home cap which is the one that I owned rather than the Teddy cap.  Both are swell but maybe this "Double-R" logo has a more  classic  look. Nothing out of the ordinary on the sweatband tags here. If you look closely you can see that the MILB batterman logo is maroon and baby blue which to me is very 1980's Phillies-esque. The supposed trifecta started two weeks ago with the  Butte Copper Kings snapback  and was supposed to end with this cap that features Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt following his own advice of "speak ...

1993 Midland Angels - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

Hello, I am the Baseball Milquetoast and I am a San Francisco Giants fan whose World Series championship dream has been crushed at the hands of Joe Maddon for a second time. His first transgression was that he was the bench coach for the 2002 Anaheim Angels who defeated the Giants and I'm pretty sure his strategies enabled that stupid Rally Monkey. Maddon spent 31 years as a player, coach and manager within the California/Arbitrary SoCal City Name Angels organization and this celebration in 2002 was easily one of the greatest highlights of his tenure. Maddon is now the manager of the Chicago Cubs and his second wrongdoing toward San Francisco came last Tuesday night when the Cubs rallied from a 5-2 deficit to defeat the Giants thus advancing to the NLCS. The wound is too fresh to bear the thought of  sharing a photo of this recent iniquity but for this one you can do an image search without my help. I am however happy to share a photo of a young Joe Maddon when he ...

2014 Springfield Cardinals Diamond Era - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

This week’s Fresh Fitted is a 2014 Springfield Cardinals Diamond Era cap. This cap was sent to me as a bonus (accidentally?) on one of my recent binge orders and I’m happy they sent it because it’s the first Diamond Era cap in my collection. I really enjoy wearing the older “batting practice” caps when partaking in activities (aka exercising, blech!) that require breathable headwear so I think this one should be no different. The only problem is that there are lots of Cardinals fans out there and it would be awkward if someone said to me “Go Cards!”and I replied with “Go Giants!” or I could just yell back, "This is an Angry Birds hat, man!" but maybe saying nothing would be worse! I’m also not too big on red-colored caps but I do feel some security in knowing that on-coming traffic will have an easier time seeing me as opposed to if I was wearing my black San Francisco Giants batting practice cap. One thing that’s bugging me though is tha...

1996 Midland Angels - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

I'm realizing that I've been fixated on this need to spotlight teams with "original" monikers and I think it's time to switch things up a little bit. Just because a team was called the "Midland Angels " doesn't mean it lacked an identity of its own. It might just seem like some weird combination of logos from the Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers, but this Midland Angels cap from the mid-1990's is a fine example of a minor league club achieving an ideal balance of showing respect to its parent team while also displaying (Texas-sized) state pride. In 1999 though, things became more confusing for baseball fans in the Southern Plains of western Texas when the team's 14 year long affiliation with the Angels ended and a new one (that still lasts today) began with the Oakland Athletics. They rebranded themselves as the Midland RockHounds, a nickname that I still do not understand. I guess there are special dogs that roam patches of rocks in...