Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Welcome back to another week under quarantine, folks! This post takes our talents on a road trip out west so that we can discover all the rugged beauty that it has to offer. To mark this special occasion, I've got a Yakima Bears snapback from the early 1990's that I believe to be one of the more rare caps that the team wore during its existence. The simplicity of the Yakima "Y" in the cap logo provides a sense of timelessness and even though the team is now-defunct, the design should be revived by the next team that makes its home in Yakima. Besides the copious amount of schmutz on the sweatband, the tags here tell a very short story as to what year this cap was worn as these two specific tags are prevalent on many of the early 1990's snapbacks that I've seen before. The missing MILB batterman embroidery is suggests to me that this cap is most likely from the early 1990's. I have found no evidence of the team wearing this yellow crowned cap in

Before I get carried away with anything else, I am compelled to beg forgiveness in regards to last week's truancy. If you are a regular reader of this blog it is likely because I'm a regular poster so please know that is not a miss that I'd like to repeat again. Perhaps a gap in posts was not such a bad idea as there is no clear segue from a collegiate summer league team whose moniker is a tarp skunk. In truth, the only thing to do is to feature a cap from another team that is not affiliated with Major League Baseball so this week's hat is the one worn by the 1994 Sioux Falls Canaries of the Northern League. In some world it makes complete sense to docile canary from a fearsome skunk and that world is here. According to the images I've seen of players, the team only wore this cap logo in 1994, which was their second season in the league. Any reader who has spent some time around here knows my favorite New Era tags are the ones from the mid-1990's.

Hello dear reader, I bet you're wondering why there's no post this week! Maybe it has to do with Good Friday? Maybe I haven't been home much?  At any rate, I can assure you it's neither of those; I just straight up forgot because every day bleeds into each other now so I had no idea it was time to post until it was too late. Oh well, see you next week!

It's been a week since "Opening Day" came and went without (actually coming) and it should come as no surprise that I've resorted to watching random vintage baseball clips that I find online. In short, I'll do whatever it takes to fill the void this quarantine is serving me. In the interests of fairness, this time of self-reflection has had some positive effects and the first of those is I've had a chance to organize my hat collection a bit so the next few series that I run should have me diving in even deeper than you've seen me do in the past. I'll be looking for ways to keep things fresh around here and the first way I'll do that is by featuring a cap from the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League,which is something I've never done before so may I present to you, the 2020 Jamestown Tarp Skunks cap! If MILB teams are known for fostering a loose environment regarding silly team names and promotions, I'd be willing to be the Tarp Skun

Folks, it's taking a lot in me to stop dwelling on the fact that yesterday was supposed to be MLB's Opening Day for the 2020 season. The reality is really starting to set in and to be honest, I'm not in a big mood to do big long blog post about it but I still feel the need to at least acknowledge the situation for posterity. To that point, I think it's only fitting that I end this good run of New York-Penn League caps with a super rare cap so without further ado, feast your hungry eyes on this Elmira Pioneers cap which was only worn for two seasons. I failed to mention this when I wrote about my other ( I know; I'm obnoxious) Elmira Pioneers cap but the team only sported this logo in 1993 and 1994 before they switched it up to a totally random cap logo . So sorry for the random Josh Booty photo if you clicked on the second link in the previous caption but he was the closest thing to a household name as it pertains to the Marlins incarnation of the Elmira P

If there's a personality trait every baseball fan should possess it has to be dynamism. Accepting the possibility of the 2020 baseball season never even beginning is sobering and I'm searching for coping mechanisms other than reminiscing on all the other times fans have been let down when it comes to the one-sided obsession we have with this game. Besides the strike-shortened season of 1994, I'm fortunate that the only adjustment I've had to make was the prior year. My hometown team, the Tidewater Tides, dropped the alliteration in their catchy team name in favor of acknowledging the City of Norfolk, which in all fairness was an overdue gesture as Norfolk had been hosting the team since 1969. The name change seemed like a big deal at the time but maybe that's because it also came with a change of scenery as the Tides left their well-worn  environs of Metropolitan Park and moved into brand new digs.  Harbor Park  still stands as home to the Tides currently and is

For those with a keen sense of foreshadowing, last week's Oneonta Tigers cap might have been a pretty good clue that I would be featuring the infamous Oneonta Yankees for  this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection . A class-act logo like this deserves the retro treatment although I'd be hoping for true-to-original dimensions and flat embroidery. My sweet spot for sweatband tags (sweat spot?) has always been 1994 through 1996 and I'm so happy that a cap I've been on the hunt for all these years features that set of tags. I would have been ok if this cap didn't feature the MILB batterman but it's a nice touch on this one because at least no one would mistake it for a college team or one from any other sport for that matter. If you're a regular reader here you know that that the Oneonta Yankees hat is one that's been on my  Wish List  for a long time and I imagine that being the case for anyone who collected MILB cards in the 80