Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday entry is a Utica Blue Sox retro from Hat Club and in the spirit of being completely forthcoming, my main inspiration in selecting it for this week's post is National Sock Day being tomorrow, Saturday, December 4, 2021.  Utica wore this logo during its tenure as the Short-Season A affiliate of the Florida Marlins in the New York-Penn League from 1997 through 2001, which sadly was its last season in the league. I've always found it interesting that the socks were not teal to match Florida's colorway but perhaps they had exhausted that theme with the Elmira Pioneers who were their previous affiliate in the league.  Over the past few years, Hat Club has slowed down its production of MILB cap retros in favor of releasing brightly colored variants of MLB logos, usually with some sort of commemorative patch embroidered on the side. I'm glad I was able to pick up this "Made in U.S.A." cap before that transition happened. That bab...

If there's a personality trait every baseball fan should possess it has to be dynamism. Accepting the possibility of the 2020 baseball season never even beginning is sobering and I'm searching for coping mechanisms other than reminiscing on all the other times fans have been let down when it comes to the one-sided obsession we have with this game. Besides the strike-shortened season of 1994, I'm fortunate that the only adjustment I've had to make was the prior year. My hometown team, the Tidewater Tides, dropped the alliteration in their catchy team name in favor of acknowledging the City of Norfolk, which in all fairness was an overdue gesture as Norfolk had been hosting the team since 1969. The name change seemed like a big deal at the time but maybe that's because it also came with a change of scenery as the Tides left their well-worn  environs of Metropolitan Park and moved into brand new digs.  Harbor Park  still stands as home to the Tides currently and is...

I guess since BirdFest is over, it's finally time to  look at a cap that is not an Orioles affiliate. There is  however a connection between last week's Aberdeen IronBirds post  and the 2000 Utica Blue Sox hat that is this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection.  We know Cal Ripken, Jr. owns the IronBirds but you might be surprised to learn the Utica Blue Sox was the team he bought and moved to Aberdeen. These sweatband tags are consistent with caps from 2000 and 2001 but this cap can't be older than 2001 since that was the team's last season in Utica.  The Carolina Blue MILB batterman here is top-not stuff. Utica doesn't host a minor league team anymore but they were lucky to have Miguel Cabrera play during the penultimate Blue Sox season in 2000. I hold Utica with the same reverence as other classic New York-Penn League locations such as Auburn, Batavia, Elmira, Vermont and Oneonta. While I've gotten my hands on a vintage c...