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Showing posts with the label World Series

1989 World Series - Oakland Athletics “Battle of the Bay”

Throughout this blog's history, my pettiness as a San Francisco Giants fan has led me to systematically avoiding write-ups of caps worn by my team's rivals. While there have been less than a handful of Los Angeles Dodgers posts over the years, this week’s post is my first time ever featuring an Oakland Athletics cap as a Fresh Fitted Friday selection. In my defense, the previously featured Dodgers caps were (objectively speaking) absolute bangers that I mostly posted in hopes of finding a trade partner. And today my justification for breaking the A’s streak is January 12 being “Kiss a Ginger Day” which left me choice but to pay tribute to Mark McGwire who is indisputably the All-Time Mack Daddy of Baseball Gingers. Owning an item commemorating 1989’s “Battle of the Bay” is obviously not something I would ever own personally but that did not stop me from scooping up this beauty as a gift to a friend who is an A’s fan. The 1989 World Series patch brings about some mixed emotion

2003 World Series - New York Yankees

Without MLB game results and general happenings to inspire my weekly write-ups, I typically look to "National Day" holidays and current events to guide me during these slow times. Luckily, there is no shortage of transactions occurring this time of year. As it turns out today's date, January 14, was an eventful one for the two teams I follow the most which are the San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees  in 2002 and 2001 , respectively. The big move San Francisco made on this date in 2002 was signing Barry Bonds to a 5 year $90 million contract extension. Getting his team to the World Series that year validated San Francisco's determination to do what ever it took to ensure Bonds was in a Giants uniform while shattering hitting records up throughout the remainder of his career. The Yankees have not make a splash on January 14 in the past 50 years however  their division rivals did in 2001 when the Toronto Blue Jays traded  David Wells–who was the Yankees 1998 ALCS M

2002 World Series - San Francisco Giants (Alt logo from 2003-06)

I neglected my posting duties last week by not sharing a Fresh Fitted for the first Fresh Fitted Friday of 2022 but that just means this week's cap has to work extra hard to assume that role! For the very special honor of starting the year off right I have selected a 2002 World Series cap which when combined with this particular San Francisco Giants logo, is a bit of a mind-bender. I viewed footage from all seven games of the 2002 World Series and can confirm that this alternate logo was not worn during any of them, which makes sense because it did not appear until the 2003 season. Nevertheless, I have a soft spot in my heart for this one as this design was very popular when i moved to the Bay Area in 2005.  January 7 is National Bobblehead Day so this cap is teaming up with a Tim Lincecum bobblehead that I procured at a special event at AT&T Park in 2011. Fun fact: the orange-brimmed cap Lincecum is wearing was only worn during Game 4 of the 2010 World Series, which in case y

2011 San Francisco Giants "Ring Ceremony" Cap

I've already mentioned this before but can't help reiterating 2021 is a milestone year for this blog as it celebrates its 10th anniversary. Having the opportunity to do something I truly enjoy for a decade is a strong reminder of how very fortunate I have been during that time. When I published my first post in August 2011, my passion for ballcap collecting had just been reignited after spending my first full year in New York City. Of course, I  wore ballcaps when I was in the Bay Area but it wasn't an everyday thing like it is for me now. My move here during the Giants historic postseason run in 2010 must have amplified my desire to flaunt my love for the Bay as well as connect with people from home. Thankfully, there was an East Village bar called Finnerty's where Bay Area ex-pats congregated and wearing a Giants hat was an easy way to spot each other as we enjoyed the spoils of New York while far from home. Wearing my fresh Giants cap with the 2010 World Series patch

2010 World Series - San Francisco Giants

By this time next week, the 2020 World Series will have wrapped up and it's only fitting that the last Fresh Fitted Friday of this year's baseball season should also be the conclusion of the Orange October series that I've been running over the last few weeks. To say the circumstances of this year's World Series are unprecedented would be the biggest baseball-related understatement of the decade but it's still important to take a moment to recognize the significance this year's matchup plays in the overall history of the Fall Classic. Except for a very small (and fortunate) percentage of the baseball fan population, watching the World Series is almost always something that you watch on your TV at home and most times it's between two teams who are not that important to you. But this year, only one of things is true in my case! As a San Francisco Giants fan, my only desired outcome regarding this series is for the Los Angeles Dodgers to lose to the Tampa

2003 and 2004 "What If?" World Series caps - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

It's official. The Houston Astros are 2017 World Series champions and now that there are no more baseball games until the Spring, it's time to remember  the words that the Starks in Winterfell are known to say: "winter is coming." Question: did you like the Game of Thrones  reference? I was going to go 80's Glam/Hair Metal and say, "In the words of Cinderella, 'it's gonna be a long cold winter' without baseball" but I didn't think many of y'all would get the reference. No matter how you put it, the impending winter solstice without games occupying my mind gives me time for pondering (or ruminating, musing, etc.) new quips for the blog however I'm certain everyone in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization will probably use that time to wonder "what could have been" had they won Game 7. As a San Francisco Giants fan, I'm feeling a toxic level of schadenfreude running through me knowing that although my team suc

2006 St. Louis Cardinals World Series Cap - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

The second cap in The Great eBay Haul is another one I'm not going to be able to wear. As a  fan of the San Francisco Giants  it would be reprehensible for me to wear a St. Louis Cardinals cap.   I do have some caps of Cardinals minor league affiliates but wearing the hat of such a  historical National League rival would be gauche; besides this one's  size is 7 1/4 which is too small for me! The hat's crown and brim are red and I try to avoid the all-red look which is another reason I won't be able to rock this one. Wool caps with white sweatbands and grey underbrims went away in 2007 however some Tigers players wore prototypes of the polyester caps with black sweatbands and underbrims in the 2006 World Series. The satin taping with the "Originators of the True Fitted" and "New Era Fits" slogans came about in 2005, as did the "Blue Box" sweatband tags.  Even though this cap isn't my size, I like having ones from t

Cleveland Indians 1997 World Series Cap - Fresh Fitted Friday

If you've been coming around here the past few weeks, you know that I've been on a crazy Tim Raines tear but I'm going to pause on covering his former teams to talk  about this Cleveland Indians 1997  World Series cap. The differences between its tags and  last week's Florida Marlins cap from the very same year got my head spinning so here we are!   Of course, it's important to remember that there were no hard and fast rules — only guidelines — when it came to which tags New Era would use on its caps. The main reason for this differential probably has as much to do with available supply as anything else. Hopefully you enjoy taking a look at this one! The Cleveland Indians primarily used this version of the ever-controversial "Chief Wahoo" cap logo during the 1997 World Series. This one is considerably larger than the logo seen on their 2016 World Series cap . Just like with last week's Florida Marlins 1997 World Series cap, this patch is

Florida Marlins 1997 World Series Cap - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

After writing about Tim Raines and his connection to the New York Yankees  1996 World Series cap last week, I wanted to cover  another cap from a team that Raines played for.  I was also itching to write about another World Series cap which is why   I'm glad I found this 1997 Florida Marlins cap.  Even though Raines wasn't on the team in 1997, he did spend his last season there in 2002. Sadly, I o nce again need to come clean to state that I do not own this cap. The good news in that admission is that if you head over to eBay fast enough the cap can be yours! Of course I'm not going to provide a link to it or anything but hopefully you can forgive me for that. My opinion often wavers when it comes to colorway preferences, but I dig the teal & black more in comparison to the all-teal and all-black versions.  Not much of a difference between the 1997 World Series patch and the one from the year before  but this patch has become somewhat iconic over time.