Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

The time is nigh for any final preparations for next week's MLB All-Star Game so for San Francisco Giants fans like me, that means lamenting the fact that Boston and Chicago fans gamed the voting system better than we did. Who knows? Maybe it's not so bad that more of our guys aren't making the trip to  San Diego while Dexter Fowler and Ben Zobrist will be. Fine, let them enjoy Addison Russell at shortstop rather than benefit from a defensive wizard like Brandon Crawford. Since Wil Myers is the host city's lone representative this year, I do however understand selecting him over Brandon Belt as a backup at first base. While it does annoy me that there will be so much team homogeny at the All-Star Game, I'm more annoyed with myself because for the first time in as long as I can remember, I forgot to submit even a single ballot this year. Simply put, I have no right to complain about the selections so I'm just hoping the National League wins this year. 

The 2016 MLB All-Star Game will be here in less than two weeks and I have an important question to ask: do you have a cap that is equally garish and banal enough to show support for your team? If you are a San Francisco Giants fan like I am, click here to pick one up in your team's flavor. I'm less than enthused about the stars on the eyelets but I appreciate that there are efforts being made to take new and interesting design choices on this year's on-field cap. In keeping with a trend that was started in 2014, this year's All-Star Game's on-field cap is a Diamond Era style hat where the colorways are not necessarily consistent with the one's a team uses normally. There are a few interesting palette choices overall and you can see a few examples of how this looks here . While they decided to keep the All-Star Game cap understated this year, you've no doubt seen the atrocity that is the 2016 Home-Run Derby cap . This design schema is in contrast to h

Last night, I was all set to deliver some photos and commentary on yet another cap from a previous year's All-Star Game when I realized the whole night had escaped me because I was watching a baseball game between the two worst teams in the AL West: the Los Angeles Angels and the Oakland A's. The only explanation as to why I put myself through such an ordeal is because one of my favorite former San Francisco Giants, Tim Lincecum, was on the mound for the Angels. To say I still have fond memories of The Freak is an understatement. To me, he symbolized the beginning of the current Golden Era of Giants baseball but of course the fact that I just called it a Golden Era will jinx them and they will be bad for the next 40 years. I think I just jinxed that jinx and they'll be good instead now but baseball is weird. I guess I'm weird too because superstition drove me to think that the safest way to ensure Tim Lincecum would be lights out last night (spoiler: he wasn&#

Longtime readers of the 'Toast (no one really calls it that, except for me just now) are fully aware that getting my hands on a vintage Charleston Rainbows cap has been a top priority of mine. In fact, it was almost a year ago that I was lamenting with friends on Twitter about how this hat was my holy grail and that any leads on finding one would be appreciated. My pleading and research finally paid off when I learned that starting in 2014, the Charleston RiverDogs of the Class-A South Atlantic League have held a yearly Pride Night where the players would wear throwback Rainbows uniforms.  I do have to admit that I'm a bit surprised that this year they changed the night's theme name from Pride Night to Rainbows Night . The team is however once again holding a jersey auction for the jerseys worn that night with the proceeds going to Charleston Pride. I'm sure that the intent of the name change was simply to be clear that they would be honoring the Rainbows rather t

I'm not usually into Giants hats in colorways other than black and orange but the combination of dark navy and gym red on the 2014 MLB All-Star Game Home Run Derby cap is mighty snazzy. The left-side patch seems almost painted on here. Not complaining, just an observation! In retrospect, it would have been cool if they honored Prince's hometown of Minneapolis with some purple here. Standard issue Diamond Era materials on the inside but of course I must dock points because the cap was not Made in U.S.A. The red, white and blue batterman seals the deal here even though the cap is imported from China. We are one week closer to the 2016 MLB All-Star Game and since last week’s post, there haven't been many new images released of this year's cap and uniform lineup. As of now, the only photo I’ve found of the cap that the players will be wearing during this year's ASG in San Diego is this one: Oops, sorry about that. The image

June is here which means it's the perfect time to start getting excited about this year's All-Star Game! Wait a second, maybe it isn't. Unless you are a Royals or Cubs fan there's actually no point in getting excited since the fans of those two teams are diligently stuffing the ballots with the names of their own players so nobody on your team will be in the starting lineup. Womp Womp.  I understand that undying loyalty can lead one to extremes but I'd rather have a little diversity on the field than just choosing my guys because they're my guys. Besides that, the starting line-up should really reflect this season's premier players rather than homer selections. I guess I shouldn't be sour grapes just yet as voting is still underway, which means that other fans can zealously stuff ballots as well. As a San Francisco Giants fan, 2015's All-Star Game was special as for the third time in five years our skipper, Bruce Bochy, managed the NL team. Al

I had so much fun last week writing about my vintage Asheville Tourists cap that I decided one post was simply not enough! While last week touched on a vintage cap logo, this week's post features the one they have worn from 2011 through today. What made last week's cap especially fun for me was that I had friends visiting from out of town which meant that I wore it spending all day Saturday in my current home city of New York being a...you guessed it: Tourist!  That symbolism was giggle-worthy when it finally occurred to me and as it happens his week I'm on vacation in Colorado which is one of my former homes as it is the state where I attended university. This only means that it is now my turn to play the part of Tourist in a place that is both familiar and foreign to me! While I'm here, I'll be looking forward to revisiting all of my old haunts and learning about new ones, all while wearing this sweet Asheville Tourists hat that I've had in waiting since 20