Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Firstly, many apologies for not posting last week. I should have been more forthcoming about that but as they say: "treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen." Aw shucks, y'all know I don't really believe that!  At any rate, with only a few weeks away left in the regular season it's finally setting in for me that David Ortiz's career of playing baseball will be ending as well. As a Giants fan, I'm still salty that he smooth-talked Pablo Sandoval into leaving San Francisco for Boston but then again, Pablo has been a terrible on the Red Sox and the Giants have been fine without him.  I guess one positive of Pablo playing in Boston is that I have more opportunities to heckle him when he comes to New York although it's easier to razz a player if they actually, you know, play . While I've never actively rooted for Big Papi, I respect him immensely and would never boo him. Also, he's huge and he could crush me if I upset him. A while back I de...

01/20/2022 update: I fixed the broken image links and some text in the paragraphs below which were a complete mess. Rest assured, I left the overall content and tone consistent with the time in which this post was first published Like John "Hannibal" Smith, I love it when a plan comes together and what I don't love is when a plan falls apart. I intended to a story and some photos of a fresh and new fitted last Friday but my plan was beset by sweltering heat at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. Even though my plan was temporarily halted, I consider myself to be resilient so I'm going to show those photos today. With no further ado, I present to you this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection which is the cap worn by the team of Virginia's state capital, the Richmond Flying Squirrels.  The Flying Squirrels identity was one of the agency's earliest creations when it was known as Plan B Branding and I appreciate that the outline silhou...

You've probably noticed that I've been on the snapback tip for the past few weeks and it's not just because of the nasty heatwave we've recently experienced here in New York City. You might remember that my selection of the Elmira Pioneers and Spokane Indians caps were symbolic and this week's is no different.  Tomorrow, August 20, is MCA Day at Littlefield in Brooklyn, NY and I'll be wearing this Asheville Tourists hat with the A logo as a sign of respect for the late Adam Yauch. If you happen to be in the NYC area and are looking for something to do that is fun, inspirational and FREE then you should definitely stop by Littlefield anytime from 12-6 PM on Saturday. This is the cap logo that the Tourists wore from 2005-2010 aka the cap's serious period between the solo reign of Ted E. Tourist  and the arrival of  Mr. Moon . There were 15 seasons of this cap logo but wool versions with grey underbrims are rare because of MLB and MILB's tra...

It's been torrid in NYC over the past few days and when I have a fever, the only cure is "more Teal"… ballcaps!  While last week's episode of Tealism Appreciation focused on an East Coast squad, this week we jaunt across the country to show love to another team with an "E" on the cap logo and it's one that I had all but forgotten about : the Everett AquaSox.   My friend and I were at the Mets game on Tuesday and as we were bashing the  DiamondBacks'  ultra-dark road grays, he  brought up the Ninja BlackSox from the old NES game  Baseball Stars . The uniforms are similar but even more,  the "DiamondBacks" moniker is reminiscent of the other stupid names in that game which made me think of the AquaSox. Last week's  cap was of a  Class A-Short Season team and so is this one, as seen by the use of the  90 degree rotation of the iconic Mariners trident . Those who believe in nautical superstitions say the upside down triden...

It was lots of fun when last week's Fresh Fitted (er, snapback) made its debut at a ballgame but the first ever appearance for this week's cap will my friends' wedding! Well not at the wedding of course because that would be a violation of my household covenant but rest assured, it will be worn before and after the wedding ceremony.  When it came time to pick this week's cap  my preliminary desire was to a feature one with a letter combination of  "S" and "C"  in the logo as those are t he first initials of the bride and groom.  It turns out that my only cap that matches that qualification is a Shreveport Captains hat which I've already featured.  My fruitless search led to frustration. It seemed that I would have to stretch to find a cap relating to my friends when all of a sudden, I recalled that the groom went to SUNY Geneseo. That town doesn't have a professional team but Elmira is 90 miles away and it does: the Elmira Pioneer...

As stated in last week's post  and many times before, it's always special when a Fresh Fitted makes its debut at a ballgame. Those of you who have seen the love given to minor league caps will know that wearing this Spokane Indians cap to a minor league game tonight is going to be extra special. As much as I'd love to debut this vintage gem at a Spokane Indians game, that's not an option. So instead of catching a Pacific League Baseball game on the west coast, tonight I'll be taking a ferry from Manhattan to my first Staten Island Yankees game.   I know this is another team's cap but I figure the S.I. on the logo is close enough to fit in with the locals even though the cap is red, white and blue. Of course, the best part about this logo is the serifs on the letters which are reminiscent of a Shreveport Captains cap that remains one of my favorites. I've only written about one other DeLong hat, but this is the my first snapback from this...

It's said the longest day of the year is sometime between June 20-22 but for baseball fans, the longest week of the year is the week of the All-Star break. The mid-summer respite never comes as a surprise but four consecutive days without games disrupts my daily ritual of checking box scores and setting my fantasy roster. T hankfully, play recommences today. Since the All-Star Game didn't inspire me to write about a particular hat or team for this week's Fresh Fitted , I selected an unworn cap from the vault. Perhaps t he biggest reason for busting  out this Cedar Rapids Kernels cap is that one of my favorite non-baseball summertime activities is eating copious amounts of corn on the cob and I love that the logo combines both elements so well. If you can't tell what's going on here, let me fill you in. Inside that corn stalk is a smiling corn cob/baseball bat hybrid thing wearing a hat and he looks like he's taking a nap. Everything about him is perfect...