Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

MLB’s 2018 season is just a month in however it didn’t truly begin for me until I got to attend my first game of the year this past Wednesday. I’m thankful that technology allows me to watch multiple games in split screen mode on my TV but it can’t compare to the sensation I felt when I made my maiden voyage through the turnstiles at Yankee Stadium. I was fortunate to enjoy the game among the company of three friends who are all hardcore baseball fans and each attending their first game of the season as well. Of course, it was lots of fun and the cherry on top was that I christened a retro Prince William Yankees cap! This custom retro cap of the cap worn by the former Yankees Carolina League affiliate was spearheaded by a friend of mine with whom I jaws about hats a lot on Twitter ( @TerryT804) and Instagram ( @djtdawg) Like the OG cap, this one has a green underbrim but features a black sweatband and but the cap is made of the more modern polyester material, which I pref

Even though my stock of caps from the Sunshine State isn't quite depleted, I've few other themes in mind for the coming weeks so this one is now winding down. In the meantime, I hope you dig this week's cap: a St. Lucie Mets cap featuring the "Big Fly" logo! I've seen this version of the cap logo on caps as far back as 2001 although it was usually on ones with black crowns until about 2008 MILB switched over to polyester caps with black underbrims in 2008 so that's the earliest this cap could be from which makes sense considering the writing on the satin taping. I like the amount of orange on the MILB batterman here. I'm definitely not a New York Mets fan but you better believe I'll wear this hat to a game at CitiField at least once this season! I'm really digging the 30th Anniversary cap that Justin Dunn is wearing here and that the St. Lucie Mets will be wearing throughout this season. Speaking of anniversary caps, I re

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'