Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

This week's Florida MILB selection is the current Jupiter Hammerheads cap and it's one that shares a common trait with last week's Brevard County Manatees hat:  Since their inception, both Florida State League teams have hardly altered their cute logo at all!  The shark's name is Hamilton R. Head (Get it? Ham-r head? Dumb right?) The team should have been called the Jupiter Gassers. (Get it? Jupiter is a gas planet? And "gas" is a term for a fastball? I'm a genius? I know.) Standard-issue current day MILB tags here but I appreciate the "Originators of the True Fitted" on the satin taping, which means this cap has some age. Loving this mostly teal MILB batterman. Or is that cyan? I don't care; I'm calling it teal. From 1994-2001, the Manatees had a grey, teal and black cap logo to match the Florida Marlins, who were their original parent club, but traded in that colorway in for grey, blue and red in 2002 when they b

We're wrapping up the second week of MLB's 2018 season however I'm showing no signs of slowing down with the inventory of minor league caps from Florida teams. This week's cap is a Florida State League classic: a Brevard County Manatees cap from 1994-96. From what I've seen, this version of the cap with a teal brim is less common than the all black. For what it's worth, I've only seen it on cards from 1994. Usual suspects as far as sweatband tags from 1994 to 1996 are concerned.  The black and teal batterman here makes me think of pure waters where Manatees may float and snack as they please. Graze on. I've mentioned this before but it's worth repeating that the peak level of my interest in minor league baseball came in the mid-1990's so it's no surprise that when the Portland Sea Dogs and the Brevard County Manatees showed up in 1994 with black and teal caps, I was sold on these teams immediately. The Manatees and Sea Do

Now that MLB's 2018 regular season is underway, I'm back to dedicating a full seven days a week thinking about baseball as opposed to the one day a week when I posted to this blog. My appreciation for Florida minor league baseball continues this week with a hat I've been seeking out for quite a while: a 1990-91 Orlando Sun Rays hat.   The wordmark logo reads "Orlando Rays" however the team's official moniker was "Sun Rays" or "SunRays" depending on whom you ask. They wore this logo the first two years of their existence and switched to this cap logo for their final two seasons. Featuring an AJD cap two weeks in a row is definitely a record for this blog as I'm typically an unabashed New Era purist. Last week's 1992 AJD Fort Myers Miracle hat didn't have an MILB batterman so there's no way this one would but here's a photo just to be sure Their name changed to  the Orlando Cubs upon their affil

5/11/2023 Update: So between this post from 2018 and now I've learned a lot more about the nuances of the caps in my collection and a very important example of this was brought to my attention by a  @xclickaroox  who I feel is a must-follow on Instagram. At any rate, this good sir and I recently completed a trade of some fun MILB caps and during our talks he alerted me to the fact that the the hat from this post from 3/23/2018 is actually a 1990 Miami Miracle cap. The key distinguishing factor here is that the undervisors on Fort Myers Miracle caps were grey while Miami's were green as is the case with the cap in this post. The other discrepancy is that the Fort Myers cap feature a TM on the logo while the Miami caps do not. At any rate, I love finding out new things about my caps so if anyone ever finds issues with what I've written, please reach out.  One last note for posterity's sake: I won't update the verbiage below because it would take a bit more effort than

I struggled to come up with this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection until I decided  the halfway point of Spring Training is as good a time as any to show love to Florida, especially in light of recent current events that have taken place there. I then discovered the perfect cap tucked away deep in my closet: a 2006 Jacksonville Suns "Batting Practice" hat.   I'm a glutton for Jacksonville baseball caps, even if it's one that is definitely from the years they were affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Luckily for me, this cap features a Golden State Warriors colorway... Besides comfort, a big reason why I love BP caps is because they are the rarest caps to find since they were produced in such limited quantities. It's also hard to pin a year down on when a BP cap was worn but I was able to do so with a little help from my google-box. Minor league baseball cards do not typically show players wearing batting practice hats and uniforms so I'

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