Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

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

I've finally run out of classic Eastern League caps, y'all. The last few weeks have been fun but I'm really excited to share a recent pick-up that has a timely meaning to me. I'll be in Philadelphia this weekend celebrating a good friend's birthday and because "R" is her last initial, I'll be wearing a Reading Phillies snapback in her honor. Like the Albany-Colonie Yankees logo, this one reminds me of fond memories collecting baseball cards as a youngster. As far as I can tell from the old photos in my research, this is the logo that Reading stuck with from around 1980 until 1991. The following year was when the caps went from maroon to MAGA-tized red and the serifs went from pointy to bubbly: I tried finding a card from a recognizable player from that 1992 season but there really were none. The closest I could find was Mike Lieberthal. The maroon crown with the green underbrim is such a legendary combination. Don't fight it, Fig

After bringing the heat last week, I really wanted to continue the love for the Albany Yankees and since I just happened to have an even more rare hat of theirs on ice, you know I had to do it to ‘em! Even though Albany wore two different cap logos in 1994, the one shown here was only worn during that final season in Albany which makes slapping a year on this hat a slam dunk. I also love that future Hall-of-Famers  Andy Pettitte  and Derek Jeter  wore this cap during that season. The New Era and size tags on this cap are the same as last week although u nlike last week’s cap, the New Era and MILB tags haven’t been ripped out of this one. Also of note, last week's ripped out MILB tag looks to be an older version of the one used for this cap. While I would love it if the Albany Yankees caps that I’ve featured over the past few weeks receive the retro treatment, I just hope they don’t get MAGA-tized with a custom all red release. I know I’ve been r

In celebration of the first Spring Training exhibition games of 2018, I’ve got something extra special to share for this week’s Fresh Fitted Friday : a 1994 Albany-Colonie Yankees cap. I'm glad to finally check this cap off my wishlist. Well, really it's just moving into the second tier because I'd like to eventually find one without the red button and eyelets but enough with the nitpicking! If you look closely you can tell that the tags that were ripped out are ones that were used from 1994-1996. Because the Double-A affiliate's last season in Albany was 1994, this cap could only be from that year. I've seen the MILB batterman on caps that could be from 1993 but I'm holding firm in my estimation that this cap is from 1994 due to the ripped out size tags used in the photo above this one. If you are familiar with my cap wishlist, you know most are there because I love their logo design but some are also there for the rarity. This cap meets both

Disclaimer : For the first time in a long while, this is a post that is not about Tim Raines or the Montreal Expos. I've spilled much ink over Raines and the Expos lately but now is the time to move past the celebration phase of the 2016 Hall of Fame voting results. I do believe this is an acceptable time to make a case for a player I grew up watching and one who deserves more Hall of Fame votes than he's received thus far: the inimitable and easily irritable Gary Sheffield! I realize a one-off blog post isn't going to get the man inducted into Cooperstown. Shef had his troubles defensively but it's hard to argue against the strong  offensive numbers he put up during his 22 year career. Even though Shef wasn't a DH, his numbers rival Edgar Martinez, Vladamir Guerrero and David Ortiz who are each worthy of induction.  /rant Whether you think Shef belongs in the Hall or not shouldn't stop you from enjoying the photos below which are of a signed hat th

Update: I modified some formatting below and fixed some broken image links (with old, somewhat blurry photos) but kept the content the same otherwise. (10/13/2021) After spending the last few weeks digging into sweatband tags of World Series caps, I'm ready for a change of topic. I was either looking for a cap with a connection to Tim Raines but there are many others that have patiently been waiting on the shelf as well. W hen I heard the news that Jeffrey Loria was fixing to selling the Florida Marlins  I knew what to do. Compared to the  pinwheel  and the  "Make Montreal Great Again"  styles this is the most subdued of all the logos Montreal rolled out over the years.  I was just chatting with a fellow cap fanatic about how much I love the grey underbrim aesthetic. I love the contrast between it and the darker crowns. It's hard to pinpoint an exact year for this cap but these are the sweatband tags from 1994-1996 This week's post is kind of bittersweet so that&#

08/27/2023 Update : I'm rather embarrassed that it has taken me this long to update this post with disclaimer that I don't actually own this cap. I've only written about a handful of hats that I don't actually own but at times I feel doing so is necessary as it helps collectors come up with accurage years in which caps were produced. To keep things more organized, I've added a "Disclaimer" logo to this post as well as others in which it would also be applicable. It would seem like this week's Fresh Fitted is just an extension off last week's Disco Era Chicago White Sox caps logo but this cap's significance to me is a lot greater than that. I mentioned last time that a minor league team called the Peninsula White Sox (also known as the Pen-Sox) wore this cap from 1986-87.  There aren't many photos or baseball cards of the Pen-Sox but the ones I could find both show them wearing the navy crown/red brim version of the block-style "Sox&q

Welcome to the first Fresh Fitted Friday of 2017, folks! Last year was one that many would rather not remember yet I'd like to propose a different way of bidding it farewall. If you're old enough to remember the 1970's, you could possibly rank certain years in the 1970's lower than 2016.  While 2016 was awful, I'm hesitant to write it off as the worst year EVER. After all if you are a Chicago Cubs fan, you will definitely take comfort in the team winning their first World Series since 1908. However, if you want to be reminded of a truly awful year —at least in terms of sports— then never let yourself forget that in 1976 the Cubs' crosstown rival  Chicago White Sox  had the gall to wear shorts as part of their uniform! Rich Gossage is rocking the aerodynamic butterfly collar and short trousers in this photo courtesy of CBS Sports The White Sox wore this blue-billed version of this cap logo from 1976-1981. The sweatband tags were fairly con