Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Lots to discuss this week, y’all. First up: baseball’s back! Well, kinda. Sort of. Not really. I'll get to my take on all that but first I’d like to discuss this week’s Fresh Fitted Friday cap which is just like the one worn by Russell Martin, Brad Penny and Takashi Saito as they represented the Dodgers at the 2007 All-Star Game which was held in San Francisco. You’re probably wondering what in tarnation an SF Giants fan is doing with an LA Dodgers cap in his possession, let alone being so excited to feature it on his blog. Well the quick answer is that this cap is special in that it is a role-reversal of what would have happened had the 2020 season gone as planned. In that scenario, the Dodgers would have hosted the MLB All-Star Game in Los Angeles this coming Tuesday, July 14. As you might have noticed from previous blog posts, I tend to purchase the Giants version of almost every All-Star Game hat. This year however, I would have found myself in an interesting predicam

Editors note: Whoopsie, forgot to publish this last week! Enjoy. This week's Tucson Toros retro from Ebbets Field Flannels is the last vintage/retro style Pacific Coast League hat from my collection that I've got to share with y'all for the time being so I hope you enjoy the nostalgia before it's gone. Sorry, I shouldn't have gone there. Well maybe I should have because my love for baseball was born in the 1980s so of course I mostly remember the Toros as a Houston Astros affiliate who wore a garish red cap like  last week's Albuquerque Dukes cap . I've written about the lurid cap the Toros wore during that era however this week's hat features the design the team wore for the 1977 and 1978 seasons when they were the top farm club for the Texas Rangers. July 4th Weekend is as good a time as any to take a moment to remind everyone how important Ebbets Field Flannels is to baseball fans who appreciate quality caps that are Made in U.S.A.

I'm not sure if this is a record or not but I realized just as I sat down to write this post that it's been exactly two months since I've written about a snapback. Now while that Yakima Bears cap had some serious age on it, this week's Albuquerque Dukes hat is even older. As a San Francisco Giants fan, I'm typically opposed to showing any sort of enthusiasm toward the Los Angeles Dodgers and their affiliates but this Dukes cap is really great even though it's a red hat which I'm not into for obvious reasons. The team wore this cap from 1985 through their final season in Albuquerque which was in 2000. Baseball card photography from the late 80's and early 90's leaves a lot to be desired––as does the photography in the early years of this blog as I'm well aware––so I am not sure which exact year they switched over to grey underbrims. If you clicked on the link in the caption above you'll get to one of my first posts on this blog

This week's episode of The Quarantine Road Trip takes us to Denver which is just a few miles away from my alma mater, University of Colorado at Boulder. I showed love to Denver's MILB past back  in one of my earliest posts  but it must be said that  the longest-standing team name associated with the Mile High is the Bears, and not the Zephyrs. According some really low-quality photos I had to squint to decipher, I've determined that the Denver Bears only wore this logo from 1982-84 and  I'm going to go on believing that  until someone proves otherwise! I normally wear 7 3/8 so I'm not really sure why I went with a 7 1/2 here. Either way, it's better to go a size up than a size down, or two sizes down which is also a thing that I accidentally not long ago. The MILB batterman looks a little strange with the green underbrim but it's incredibly difficult to find a Denver Bears hat so I'll take it. The story of why this week's cap is ver

This week's episode of The Quarantine Road Trip still finds us in Alberta however this time we are taken even further north as we are examining this Edmonton Trappers retro that I picked up from Hat Club in August 2019. Like  last week's Calgary hat , I've got a strong connection to this Trappers logo which is ironic considering it was only a few years ago when I finally examined he design up close. That dude is pretty weird looking, isn't he? I've got to take a quick moment to say how much I appreciate Hat Club's commitment to producing high quality caps—and usually Made in U.S.A. taboot—as well as their usual reliability in reproducing logos for lots of these wacky teams from he 1980s and 90's that are now defunct. The combination of the kelly green underbrim with no MILB batterman is old school and I'm very into it. I really hope that Hat Club gets the itch to release more of these retro caps as it seems like it's been a while si

This next chapter of the Quarantine Road Trip will primarily focus on bygone logos from the Pacific Coast League starting with the Calgary Cannons, which was a team that I distinctly remember from my youth despite my hometown being 2,500 miles away. Note, when you don't have a driver's license, the difference between 2,500 and 250 miles isn't much. I've written about the 1998 Cannons cap previously but the logo that the team wore from 1993 through 1997 is the one I that I will always associate with Calgary as that period was essentially the crescendo of my MILB mania. The sweatband tags here are identical to other caps from 1992 and 1993 in my collection such as Hickory Crawdads , Carolina Mudcats  and  Bend Rockies . In the photo below you'll see that there is no MILB batterman logo, proving this cap cannot be from before 1993. Like I said, no batterman logo. If you don't believe me, I don't know what to tell you, Jack! As I stated before,

Queue up the "End of the Road" video by Boyz II Men because this week's "San Tan Brewing Company" custom of the Hillsboro Hops cap is the last entry in the Northwest League chapter of the Quarantine Road Trip! I can't believe it's been over five years since I wrote about the on-field cap that the Hops wear ! I suppose that means now is a good time to feature the light blue and gold custom that Hat Club created in 2017. Please accept my apologies for not having the "Made In U.S.A." tag peaking out but the top and bottom of that tag is stitched onto the underside of the New Era tag. Now I'm wondering how many other hats I have where that is the case. The gold and orange MILB batterman is really unique. And now I'm also wondering how many caps I've got that feature gold and orange! I just had to show y'all an image of the inspiration behind this custom colorway from Hat Club. I'm not able to get my hands on t