Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Alright folks, I admit last week's cap was not very tantalizing but if every week's post features an exciting hat then what is an exciting hat? Ok well, maybe you just have high standards for this site so I should just shut up and deliver this ultra-rare treat: a super vintage Fort Lauderdale Yankees cap. A lot has happened in this past week's news cycle but let's not soon forget the devastation that  Hurricane Irma wreaked in the Caribbean as well as many parts of Florida, including Fort Lauderdale. For Tampa, it meant the Rays were not be able to play a home series against the Yankees so that series ended up getting played at CitiField in New York.  It was a rare treat to see the Yankees play somewhere other than Yankee Stadium so I wore my Fort Lauderdale Yankees  (rather than a Tampa Yankees)   hat to honor the occasion as well as to show solidarity with my Floridian friends. I suppose I've always associated Fort Lauderdale with pinstripes because

My goal last week was to extend the " Houston Astros Minor League Cap Extravaganza"   but I sadly was not able to obtain a qualifying hat in time. I did find a gem recently but since it hasn't arrived yet, last week's  Carolina League Jackson Generals hat will have to segue into the cap worn by the now defunct Fayetteville Generals of the South Atlantic League. The Fayetteville Generals were in existence from 1986-1996 and this is the cap logo they rocked for the majority of that time. I'm not a Detroit Tigers fan by any means but I am a big fan of the stars and Old English lettering. The Generals switched to grey underbrims in 1994, so this hat is from somewhere between 1991 and 1993.  I doubt a fitted version of this cap exists but you better believe I'm hunting for it just in case! Still in disbelief that a hat that is at least 25 years old has made it's way into my possession with the tags still on it. What a world! I chose th

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."

The big news in the baseball world this past week was Team USA defeating Puerto Rico en route to its first ever World Baseball Classic championship. If you checked out last week's blog, you'd know that I wrote about a Team USA cap and while I'd love to take credit for this feat because I wrote about it, I must doff said cap to the players on that team.  I wanted to continue to try my luck and give a helpful boost to the University of Arizona during the NCAA tournament.  I decided the best way to do this is by writing about a Tucson Toros cap, as Tucson is home to the University of Arizona (which is also where my wife went to college) but sadly the Wildcats were eliminated from the tournament tonight. Despite the disheartening finish, my wife and her alma mater has lots to be proud of and on top of that, the Grand Canyon State has one more full week of Spring Training ahead of it!  Even though I made an active decision to take a break from wearing red hats for the next c

It's been just over a month since I've last featured a snapback but now I feel compelled to write about one after learning some interesting information while researching the origins of the Casper Ghosts last week. I learned that the Pioneer League team was originally known as the Butte Copper Kings, which is a cap that I own and haven't featured yet… until now! The Copper Kings wore this cap logo from 1989 through 1995 however it's clear this one is from the earlier end of that range. The green underbrim is a giveaway that this cap is from before 1994. Also, the  44  on the underbrim tells me this was a game used cap. This cap does not have an MILB tag and the New Era tag resembles the one from my  1992 Tidewater Tides cap . The cleanliness is about the same too.   I don't know who #44 was on the Copper Kings but I can think of three spectacular players who did   have this uniform number:  Hank Aaron ,  Willie McCovey  and  Reggie Jackson . Ano

Ever since I began writing about my hats on this blog, I had not ever featured a college sports team before today. Well the streak is now ending because today is "Spirit Day" at work. As most will be showing their "team colors" in the office, I will be representing the University of Colorado by wearing this vintage hat that is over twenty years old! Behold the greatness of Black and Gold. I realize that this cap is not on brand with the official  logomark  and its  color  guidelines of my alma matter but I can't help being nostalgic. This cap has the pre-1994 "New Era" and size tags and the panel lining is very similar to this   San Jose Giants cap . Like the  aforementioned SJ Giants cap  you'll notice the green underbrim—albeit more squarish than the Giants cap. Also, while 1994 was the first year all MLB teams switched over to the grey underbrims, it's doubtful that this rule applied at the collegiate and minor league levels. If you are br

In celebration of the 2013 World Series being underway, I thought it would be fun to showcase a couple of caps from a Pacific Coast League franchise where St. Louis outfielder Carlos Beltran played: the Spokane Indians. The PCL is a league that was officially founded in 1903, just two years after MLB's American League. I find comfort in the fact that baseball has been played in the Pacific Northwest ever since the United States' Western Expansion reached the  Oregon Territory .  So let's get to talking about this cap. First up you'll notice that the logo features the letters "S" and "I" interlocking on a royal blue crown.  As many of you know from reading this site, I love the style of serifs used here and I really enjoy that the "S" is so similar to the"S" in the Shreveport Captains cap logo. It's no secret that I heavily favor these old school caps made of 100% wool with the green-underbrims. I especi

Just know that the tag has been attached to this cap for over 22 years. That tag could buy you a beer, provided of course that you are of legal drinking age. Also, the tag would need money to purchase the beer and everyone knows tags don't have money. Variations of this logo have been around since the early days of the Memphis Chicks, but this particular version was only used in 1992.  The squarish green underbrim is typical of New Era minor league caps from this period. I am not certain what fabric makes up the inside of the front panel but it seems like this will be a nice breathable cap for the summer months! I've spent the past few weeks celebrating some different New York Yankees fitted caps so I thought it would be a fun change to take a look at a minor league snapback this time around.  As far as minor league hats are concerned, the 1986 Memphis Chicks on-field cap is holy grail for me. This is mostly because Bo Jackson made his debut for the Kansas

I know it looks like a hat worn by the filming crew from a  Golden Girls Christmas Special , but this cap is actually orange and green, not red and green! While I'm not a big fan of the Miami Dolphins (nor do I care for dolphins in real life which is a story for another time) but I really do like the orange and green colorway. It exudes leisure! I know this blog is supposed to be about celebrating my fresh fitteds , but these caps are hard to come by. The cheapest fitted version that I could find was $50 on eBay but I resisted and spent less on a snapback.  Keeping things simple with that single New Era tag; sadly, the MLB and MILB logos need not apply here. I don't have too many caps with this white mesh material on the inside of the front panel,  so let's see how it goes! The first week of March is upon us and there is not a more optimistic time of year for baseball fans. The first spring training games began this week in Arizona and Florida an