Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

It's not the first time I've said this but here it goes again: it has been too long since I've shared a  Fresh Fitted on here .  I rarely seem to have a good excuse for not posting but I always have a solid reason to come back.  Case in point: this week's edition of Fresh Fitted Friday no doubt includes its namesake Fresh Fitted but as an added bonus to my readership, I'm going to begin this entry by including some imagery of a  snapback brethren of  said fitted . Are you bowing your head in reverence for the stoic fowl emblazoned across the "F" of this cap? I am and so have a great many fans of the Frederick Keys ever since their inception in 1992. You'll notice the sweatband only bears two simple tags: the official New Era brand tag and the Professional Baseball tag. Conventional logic inspires me to rip off loose tags like these but for some reason, I feel compelled to leave them on. I'm probably just afraid that the feathe

Ok now, I know these entries are named "Fresh Fitted Friday" but sometimes it's important not to overlook the virtue of the non-fitted cap. While I am not suggesting the likelihood of entry titles like "Sweet Snapback Saturday" or anything of the sort, I do feel that certain cap logos just seem to look better on snapbacks. When I moved to New York City in 2010, I noticed then that much of the city's cap culture had started paying attention to snapbacks. I tried to stay away from that trend as much as possible but some caps represent your favorite team so well that, when they come your way it's hard to turn them down. Such was the case when I came across this vintage San Jose Giants cap. I've found that I'm not the only San Francisco Giants fan in town as I see plenty of standard SF Giants caps out and about, so I am looking forward to wearing this San Jose Giants snapback. I especially like the way the orange visor sets off with the gree

Update : While I originally stated that this cap was probably from 1992, I really should have also mentioned that 59Fifty tags didn't appear until 1994. I've seen New Era use older, leftover tags on caps, if this is really from 1992 then this is interesting because they applied a 59Fifty tag from 1994 on a cap with a green underbrim and no MILB batterman. Either I've been wrong about the 59Fifty tag first appearing in 1994 or they ran out of the 1992 tags at some point in the manufacturing process and had to use the ones from 1994 ahead of time, which is so weird. Update (4/20/2019) : This blog has been a learning experience for me over the years but sometimes new information comes to light so I've got to fall on my sword about something here. The previous update to this post mistakenly states that the 59Fifty tag first appeared in 1994 but I've seen caps from 1992 and 1993 that have it so there's that.  More importantly, I should mention that the only Rive

There will be no more "winter is coming" warnings; the end of MLB's 2013 season means winter has come. For those who are already starved for baseball, there is the option to turn one's eyes to the "Land of the Rising Sun" as there is at least a one more game left to play in deciding the next Japan Series title champions. As of now the Ratuken Eagles are up 3-2 in the series against the Yomiuri Giants.  While the Giants have competed in the Nippon Professional League since it's inception in 1950 (and since 1934 as part of Japan's Independent League and the Japanese Baseball League) the Eagles have only been around since 2005. The Giants - along with the Hanshin Tigers - are the most known and profitable teams in Japanese baseball so it's nice to see a newer team like the Eagles contending with these heavy hitters. As a San Francisco Giants fan, it seems unfitting to root for any team other than one called the Giants. Even though there is no a

For this week's issue of Fresh Fitted Friday I'm featuring a 1950's New York Giants cap that was produced by Cooperstown Ballcap Co. I chose this  cap because i thought it important to recognize the rich history that the Giants had in New York City.  Doing a little background on the Giants will tell you that the Giants, or rather the Gothams as they were known when they joined the National League in 1883, were the main attraction for many years when it came to baseball in New York. The rivalry that they had with the Brooklyn Dodgers remains as one of the greatest baseball rivalries of all time.  The Giants were dominant in the National League in their early years and achieved more than their fair share of NL pennants. Still though, the New York Yankees winning World Series championships for the American League year after year effectively stole the spotlight from the Giants and the Dodgers. In 1958, both the Giants and the Dodgers moved to San Franc

I don't go to many Mets games and that is mostly because they've been a disappointing franchise to follow, but I'm also not a fan of the old Ebbets Field influence in the park's design. Despite all of the club's poor business decisions and overt tributes to the Brooklyn Dodgers' legacy, going to a Mets game is a big part of getting my "Flushing-on" in Queens. For me that means relaxing at a ballgame while drinking some craft beers and putting down a few shake shack burgers. It also means heading down to the Chinatown on Main Street in Flushing after the game to enjoy some duck buns, soup dumplings, bubble tea and other tasty edible Asian treats! I love Flushing for many food-related reasons but it doesn't do much to step up my fitted hat game like Brooklyn and the Bronx can. The fact that I don't want any Mets hats in my cap rotation probably has something to do with the fact that the cap I feel most comfortable wearing to CitiField is a

What's good today? How about a fitted so vintage that it dares to consider itself fresh ? Well, this week's edition of Fresh Fitted Friday goes out to a man who is known to have brought some serious heat in his day: Rollie Fingers! Before going any further, I would guess that most people in the fitted hat game, when hearing the name "Rollie Fingers" think of this guy: I wouldn't fault you for immediately thinking of Inspectah Deck as he's known to have used this alias on multiple occasions. For me, the most fun part of listening to Inspectah Deck -and Wu-Tang Clan in general- is that they drop some of the best pop-culture references in all of hip-hop. Just do a web search for any of the topics they rap about and you've got some interesting research ahead of you! On Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) , Method Man describes Inspectah Deck as having the uncanny ability to judge the character of others: " Inspectah Deck, he's like that dude that

Alright, so for this edition of Fresh Fitted Friday I thought I'd do another throwback however this time, I want to pay some respect to a ballplayer who hasn't had a lot of time on the field this season: #2, Derek Jeter. I've seen the man do some tremendous things at Yankee Stadium, but I'll always really remember him as a scrappy prospect with the Columbus Clippers. Here's a great baseball card where he's wearing a cap very similar to the one featured here today: As some of you might know, I grew up in Norfolk, VA and going to Tidewater Tides games at Met Park was an intregal part of many summers in my youth. I remember getting to the ballpark early in the afternoon when the players arrived to scam some autographs and then I'd wait for the guys to leave after the game to get even more autographs. Some of them made some snarky comments here and there, but the beauty of time is that now I can only remember the good memories. I got lots of 'gr