Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Season's greetings, folks! I hope y'all didn't think I'd just leave you high and dry with no post today just because it's Christmas. And in 2020 of all years? I actually considered skipping this week but then I remembered next Friday is New Year's Eve so what would stop me from wanting to take a break then too? Well, luckily for everyone who cares, I just happen to have the perfect caps for this week and the next so here we go! This "Slide Sox" cap is a Hat Club exclusive and it definitely exudes yuletide vibes. The slides are a staple of holiday season loungewear and the stockings evoke fond Christmas memories for so many of us. I like the dark green undervisor here for this cap rather than kelly green. Either shade combines nicely with the red and white on the logo and thus completing the Christmas theme however. This year was a hard one for everyone and I hope what I'm about to say doesn't sound crazy but I'm really thankful for companie

Welcome back folks! I’m happy to report I’ll be picking up this week right where we left off before the break as I’ve got yet another classic, yet now-defunct, Eastern League relic for this week’s Fresh Fitted Friday post. It’s been five years since my New Britain Rock Cats snapback blog post and unsurprisingly the logo on this fitted version of the cap seems just as wacky to me now as it ever has! The lack of an embroidered New Era flag on the outside of the cap tells me this cap is definitely from before 1999 but we will need to look under the hood for the whole story. These New Era and MILB tags were last used in 1996 so it’s safe to say those tags are leftovers from those years and that this cap is actually from 1997 as that is when this particular size tag first appeared. A nice and flat MILB batterman is one of those small touches that I miss most from the caps of yesteryear. The Rock Cats logo has always been an enigma to me. On one hand I appreciate them adopting a fresh and

I've got a special post in store for you next week. See y'all then!

Something I had not considered before the Erie write-ups over the past few weeks was while the city is undoubtedly located in Pennsylvania, it is less than a half hour drive from the Ohio border. I then realized a good number of folks in that town might have as much reason to root for Cleveland teams as they would ones in Pennsylvania such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. That duality is  eerily (I'm so sorry that I can't help myself sometimes!) reminiscent to Toledo's situation where it is essentially part of Michigan however is  technically in Ohio. Something similar can be said of Cincinnati's teetering on the border of Kentucky but I really fell down the rabbit hold when I read this article about how the Ohio River defines the borders of five states . So I guess if you couldn't tell by now, I've really got Ohio on the brain so it's really handy that this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is an Akron Aeros hat. Shout out to the good people of Akro

Welcome to the third––and perhaps final––Keystone State Party post, folks! After neglecting to discuss the nautical components of last week's Erie SeaWolves logo design, I've decided to dive right into examining the maritime theme in this Erie Sailors retro cap from Ebbets Field Flannels that I've selected for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post. Incorporating the baseball into the ship's wheel tie-in to Erie's deep naval history, especially when one considers Erie's role in the War of 1812, and more specifically the Battle of Lake Erie . In fact, the town's first known and recorded baseball team in 1906 was called the Erie Sailors. A cap that encapsulates the proud naval tradition of this fine nation deserves nothing less than Ebbets Field Flannel's "Made in U.S.A." construction. Their faithful reproductions and attention to detail in workmanship is what every cap maker should strive to emulate.  The shade of green featured on the underv

I hope y'all are down to continue the love-fest for the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania again this week because I've got this Erie SeaWolves hat that I estimate to be from before 2004 and it really makes me want to keep this Keystone State party going!  There is some mild mid-1990's cheese factor going on here and while this logo properly ranks highly among the worst in all of MILB history, I still somehow prefer it to the bat-less logo that the team has been rocking since 2013. The messy satin taping here is something I've seen on a few caps from 2002, which as it happens was around the time these particular New Era and Size tags began to appear as well as the last year this version of the MILB sweatband tag tag was used. As a Giants fan, I've got serious love for the black and orange MILB batterman embroidery here.  Former Giant Cody Ross was on the SeaWolves in 2002 and here's a  video of Ross the Boss 2010 highlights which has been instrumental in mainta

Well folks, thanks for being understanding of my need to take a minor break from the good ole Baseball Milquetoast blog experience last week but rest assured because we're back now and ready to be better than ever!  I've spent most of this pandemic writing about West Coast caps and since I'm ready to start showing love to the East Coast once again, we're going to start that trend off with a Reading Phillies hat which is fitting as I'm totally STOKED on Pennsylvania at the moment. I've never been much of a fan of red hats and especially less so over the last four years but there's a small chance I'll warm up to them again soon because 2020 has been a wild year so who knows what's going to happen next, right?!? Reading wore this cap from 1992 through 1997 but the lack of the New Era flag tag on the sweatband confirms that this particular one wasn't worn after 1996. I have come to believe that the MILB batterman began to appear on MILB caps in 1993