Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

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...

You guys, the Houston Astros are in the World Series right now! I'm not going to say I told you so, but I did tell you so  and if you don't feel like reading that entire post where I told you so, I'll give you the quick and dirty: I told you so back in March!  One thing that's more important than being right about telling you so is that I want the Dodgers to lose this series so I'm doing my part to root on the Astros by featuring a hat from a team that plays in a city which once hosted an Astros affiliate: the Burlington Bees. This is a brand new addition to my collection and it is certainly going to be one of my most cherished caps as it was a gift from my wife, whose nickname is Bee! How cute is that, y'all?  This is the Bees' official on-field road cap and I prefer this one more than the home version which has the same purplish blue crown but with a yellow gold bill. The Burlington Bees are currently a Class-A affiliate for the Lo...

Despite my moral and ethical obligations, I must congratulate the Los Angeles Dodgers for their NLCS win and upcoming return to the World Series. My heart is cold and black so any joy a Dodgers fan feels makes me miserable however I did get some good news this week: there is talk of MLB returning to the great city of Montreal  and maybe Portland, Oregon too! My main issue with Portland getting a team is that while it has a long history of being one of the great Triple-A cities, it hasn't had a team at that level since 2010. I do believe that Portland has the population and the income to support an MLB franchise so I wish them luck. After all, I like the natural rivalry between Seattle and Portland so this could be good. Although I have concerns about Portland's chances, I feel there isn't a city more deserving of a team right now than Montreal. I've spilled much ink lamenting the demise of the Expos so I'd love for Montreal to get another shot. This rumor has ...

Well folks, my baseball morale right now is the lowest it's been all season. The Los Angeles Dodgers, who continued their winning trajectory by sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks in the ALDS earlier in the week, are now set to face the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS for the second year in a row and I'm not feeling optimistic about this match-up. I was actually hoping the Washington Nationals would be the team to beat the The Doyers in the NLCS (and because I have no caps from any Cubs minor league affiliates) I am featuring this vintage cap from the Harrisburg Senators, who have been the Nats' Double-A affiliate since the team relocated from Montreal in 2005. The Senators sported this logo from 1996 through 2005 and I'm not blind to the irony of the Senators  ditching the Yankee Doodle Dandy fellow in their logo  as soon as their parent team in Canada moved to the capital of the United States. This combination of satin taping and sweatband tags are co...

Now that the 2017 regular season has ended, my torture endured as a San Francisco Giants fan is over—what's say you? The Los Angeles Dodgers are favorites to win the National League pennant? My bitter rivals!?!? Nooooooo!  I suppose my only defense is to jinx them by showcasing this vintage cap from the Ogden Raptors who are a longtime Dodgers minor league affiliate.  I know my last attempt to mush the Dodgers didn't work however you don't understand the power of a hat from 2004. T he New York Yankees had the best record in the American League that year yet lost in the ALCS to the Red Sox despite having a 3-0 lead in the series. My guess is this upset was spawned by bad juju performed by a Yankees hater. When the Ogden Raptors cap logo debuted in 1994, it fit in well with the other kid-friendly cartoonish logos being used at the time. Fast forward ten years and the team still used a similar logo for this cap. The dark navy seen here has been replaced with the bl...

At this point I must admit that last week's call for black magick was useless. Since there's no point in summoning sorcery for this week, I'm just praying the Giants don't get swept by the Padres this weekend and ending the season with 100 losses. Since I'm tuning in to that series while in Atlanta, this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a Greenville Braves cap. Bonus points for this week's photos at a Pearle Vision in Roswell, GA. And extra bonus points for the 70's interior.  While the  sweatband tags and  satin taping style are consistent with caps I've featured from the mid 1990's, this cap is most likely not from any time before 1999 which is when the New Era flag began to appear on minor league caps. This Joe Nelson card from 1999 is the oldest Greenville Braves card I could find with a player in a cap sporting the New Era flag. Image courtesy of COMC This cap logo is a reminder of how dominant the Atl...

It's the penultimate week of the 2017 MLB regular season schedule and I'm feeling rather downtrodden, folks. The crummy Los Angeles Dodgers will clinch their 5th consecutive NL West title tonight or tomorrow and the odds are my poor defenseless San Francisco Giants will be the opposing team in the visitor dugout at Dodger Stadium when that happens. You might recall that last year  I called for black magick to eliminate the Dodgers from the NLCS and I'm desperately in need of sorcery this weekend so the  Giants sweep LA thus preventing Dodgers fans from mocking us as they celebrates. To show I'm serious , this week's sacrifice cap is a former Dodgers minor league affiliate: the Great Falls Dodgers. In all the years I've been doing this dang blog, I never thought I'd ever write about a Dodgers hat but here we are.  While last week's cap featured a Dodger-esque design element, this week's cap is more Dodger-istic, meaning you can 100% ...