Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

It seems like lately I haven't been able to come up with an answer to this very simple question: what is it that makes a minor league ballcap interesting? In the past I argued that a minor league team's cap logo is inherently more interesting if it has very little resemblance to that of its parent club.  Yet, I've also recently applauded caps that make an interesting allusion to their parent clubs while maintaining a local sensibility in the logo. The latter is certainly the case with this Stockton Ports cap: An item of note is that the Stockton Ports have long-believed that the  Ernest Thayer poem "Casey at the Bat" was based on their team. While that might or might not be true, I like that they believe it enough to use an image of a Mudville Nine batter-man, who himself is wearing a pillbox cap with an M on it. I love meta-caps! As for the production year on this cap, there is no evidence of it before the 1994 season. It's not often-see

I'm realizing that I've been fixated on this need to spotlight teams with "original" monikers and I think it's time to switch things up a little bit. Just because a team was called the "Midland Angels " doesn't mean it lacked an identity of its own. It might just seem like some weird combination of logos from the Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers, but this Midland Angels cap from the mid-1990's is a fine example of a minor league club achieving an ideal balance of showing respect to its parent team while also displaying (Texas-sized) state pride. In 1999 though, things became more confusing for baseball fans in the Southern Plains of western Texas when the team's 14 year long affiliation with the Angels ended and a new one (that still lasts today) began with the Oakland Athletics. They rebranded themselves as the Midland RockHounds, a nickname that I still do not understand. I guess there are special dogs that roam patches of rocks in

Update : While I originally stated that this cap was from the later years of the Sun Rays history, I really should have also mentioned that 59Fifty tags didn't appear until 1994. This is important because while I've seen New Era use older, leftover tags on caps, this is the first clear example I've seen where they applied a 59Fifty tag from 1994 on a cap that was defunct by 1993. E ither I've been wrong about the 59Fifty tag first appearing in 1994 or that they ran out of the 1992 tags at some point in the manufacturing process and had to use the ones from 1994 instead, 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. Because the SunRays only wo

As a current resident of New York City, I can't help but root against the Boston Red Sox. I've been to a fair number of Yankees games since I've lived here and the ridicule that the Yankees' fans bestow upon the Red Sox Nation is a true marvel to observe. It's fair to say that Yankees fans are often described as being "entitled" due to their successes over the past two decades. They are also known to be abrasive in comparison to - and in their treatment toward - their counterparts in Flushing. Mets fans embrace their lovable losers and that's admirable but Yankees fans are not as forgiving of their team. Mets fans have fun at games even if they know that their team's losing record in the season means no chance of making a playoff appearance. Yankees fans have become spoiled to the point that not winning a World Series is unacceptable and not making the postseason spells out disaster. I appreciate the dynamic between Mets fans and Yankees fans bu

I'm sorry about the hiatus but, don't worry; I haven't stopped my rabid consumption of fresh (and sometimes not-so-fresh) hats from my favorite purveyors. It's true that it has been a while since I've hit up this blog. Hopefully you haven't forgotten about me -or perhaps worse- the fitted hat game! This is why I wanted to mark my return by sharing one of my favorite hats of all time: a 1992 Seattle Mariners cap! To me, this cap evokes so much nostalgia because it reminds me of one of my favorite baseball cards from that era: Ken Griffey, Jr.'s 1989 Upper Deck rookie card! Look at that smile! Look at that bling around his neck! Look at that super-comfy turtleneck! But, I digress. We all knew back then that he was going to be a spectacular ballplayer; however, I don't think anyone could have foreseen the magnitude of Ken Griffey Jr.'s legacy. He was one of the best players to ever wear a major league uniform, or any sports uniform for that matt

The Albuquerque Dukes and Denver Zephyrs are two former Minor League Baseball teams that you probably don't remember unless they played in your hometown or you are a die-hard fan of the Dodgers or Brewers, respectively. Then again, that seemingly obscure nature of these clubs is what is so great about MILB teams in the first place. They provide endless entertainment to appreciative fans who might otherwise never see an MLB game in person. The Dukes and Zephyrs were two teams that I remembered because their prospects would go on to play in the MLB and I can remember my MILB cards featuring Pedro Martinez wearing a Dukes ballcap very similar to the one I have pictured here. I'll post an image of that card as a reference because it's difficult to imagine Pedro wearing anything but a Red Sox cap! However, it's no secret I'm no fan of the Red Sox or the Dodgers so this Dukes cap isn't something that I'll wear to a ballgame or anywhere for that matter, so I'

07/05/2023 U pdate: In honor of being today being National Hawaii Day, I am updating this entry with some new photos as well as some  grammar and formatting modifications which were made with the goal in mind of altering  the original post's content as little as possible. While at a Yankees game recently, I thought back on how many minor league games I attended at Met Park/Harbor Park as a youth and how I spent the majority of my summers trying to obtain autographs from a mixed group of washed-up major leaguers and players who had yet to make a name for themselves. The differences between games of the minor league and MLB are night and day but there are some similarities. While I do enjoy the serious mentality of the major market teams, I also appreciate the laid-back small town approach toward baseball. There are many amenities to be had at major league ballparks but after emptying out my wallet at the concession stands game after game, I often find myself wishing I could pay mino