Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

I've had a good time covering caps of classic New York-Penn League from current teams over the past few weeks but I'm switching gears for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday  by  paying tribute to a classic yet now defunct team: the Jamestown Jammers. I've mentioned this before but I used to work in the food and wine industry so I've got a special connection to grapes, which is a big reason I'm drawn to this cap.  The image used for this cap logo is of Bubba Grape, which is the mascot the team used for Jammers 2.0, an era that spanned from 2006 through the team's final season in 2014.  This cap could be from anywhere in between that time frame but you can cancel out 2006 through 2008 because the team wore wool caps with grey underbrims those seasons.  I'd say you could also negate the last few years of the Jammers 2.0 era because the satin taping as seen above features the "Originators of the True Fitted" text and as I dis

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday  selection from the New York-Penn League takes us north of New York City metropolitan area to Duchess County which is where the Hudson Valley Renegades have played since their inaugural season in 1994. This cap logo was worn by the Renegades from 1994 up through 2003, which was their final season with the burgundy and green colorway.  In addition to the colorway switch-up in 2004, the MILB sweatband tag is from no later than 2003 which tells me that would be  the final year this cap could have been worn. For as long as this team has existed, it has relied on Studio Simon in Louisville Kentucky to design its entire brand identity. For an in-depth account of the team's rebrand in 2017, check out this  this excellent write-up   by Paul Caputo for SportsLogos.net. It takes a good amount of effort and desire to leave the city for fun day trips up to the Hudson Valley and while I definitely don't get up there enough, just writing ab

As a San Francisco Giants fan, I have a distaste for anything Dodger-centric or adjacent which explains why I've always had a hard time getting into the Brooklyn Cyclones cap, which I've begrudgingly decided to write about for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday .  In  one of my earlier, more cringeworthy posts  I ranted on end regarding my dismay at the overt Brooklyn Dodgers nostalgia on display at CitiField but even that is nothing compared to what we see on the cap worn by the New York Mets' New York-Penn League affiliate.  The earliest I've ever seen these New Era brand and size tags are on an MLB All Star Game cap from 2001 but I doubt this cap is from the Cyclones inaugural season which was that year.  The satin taping is typical of caps from 2002-04 but the MILB sweatband tag is from no earlier than  2004 , so that would be the earliest year this cap had likely been worn. I like the powder blue MILB batterman here as well as on the outli

The second half of the 2019 MLB season is under way and I've decided I need to start going to some more games before the season's end.  I started this year off strong but the only time I got to the ballpark last month was on June 4th when the Giants tallied up six runs in the top of the 10th inning  against the Mets at CitiField.  I left after the top of the 9th because I was certain the Mets would walk it off—which they did not—and I'm glad I was wrong!  My most recent attempt to get to a game was for the  Rays-Yankees matchup this past Wednesday, which I learned was postponed due to "severe inclement weather" as I was riding the  subway up to the Bronx.  Maybe this most recent misadventure is a sign that I need to switch it up a little. I'm thinking I should catch some Staten Island Yankees games where I can proudly sport this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection, which I believe is the primary cap the team will be wearing on their  Pizza Rats-them

Welcome back folks! I hope everyone had a relaxing All-Star Break and for those of you in the US — which I know is pretty much everyone reading this blog, however I still need to be inclusive —a joyous Fourth of July.  I spent the holiday weekend in Boston seeing Phish play at Fenway Park which was an amazing experience as I was able to see my favorite band play music in a ballpark! Even though there were rain delays on both nights, T he Boys from Vermont delivered the goods. In honor of this momentous occasion, I've decided to finally feature a proper Boston Red Sox cap on the blog. While this week's cap is not one that I personally own, the timing is just too perfect not to share considering my recent trip to Boston and that tomorrow, July 13, 2019 marks the 20th anniversary of when the Red Sox hosted the game in 1999.  The embroidery's design isn't what anyone would call intricate but I do have an appreciation for the logo's green ba

Be back next week!

Even though the Midwest League festivities officially wrapped up with last week's Beloit Snappers post, I feel compelled to share one more cap from a team that plays in Wisconsin who is not a member of the league.  The Fond du Lac Dock Spiders play in a   collegiate summer baseball league  called the Northwoods League alongside the Rockford Rivets, Kenosha Kingfish and Battle Creek Bombers.  If those cities sound familiar to you, it's because each of them hosted Midwest League clubs within the last thirty years.  There are a handful of other teams in the Northwoods League with former ties to the Midwest League towns but a big one that comes to mind is the  Waterloo Bucks, whose city I can proudly represent with  my Waterloo Diamonds hat, which as you might recall, kicked off this whole Midwest League party  just over a month ago! This week's Dock Spiders cap was an in-stadium pick-up from a good friend who is a big fan of the blog so there's no way a gif