Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

It feels like it’s been more than a week since my last post but maybe that’s because so much has happened in between now and then in regards to baseball happenings as well as :::gestures broadly::: everything else going on in the world. I'll discuss the developing flurry of baseball activity in future posts but this week I want take a moment to bring attention to the terror Russia is unleashing in Ukraine. I’m not sure if I’ve ever noticed any traffic for this site coming from Ukraine but if I do have any readers either living in or from there, my heart and prayers go out to you. And since I’ve got prayers on the mind, it only seems right to call upon this 1986 San Jose Bees retro cap for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post as Saint Joseph’s Feast (or, Fallas de San José as it is known in Spanish) is tomorrow, March 19. And on a lighter note, I want to bring up that National Sloppy Joe Day is celebrated on March 18 every year so today is happens to be the perfect time to pedd

I’m back on a vintage kick for this week’s Fresh Fitted Friday post which is inspired by today, March 11, being Johnny Appleseed Day. The obvious logo to showcase on this holiday would be the home cap that the Fort Wayne TinCaps have worn since their inaugural season in 2009 however I decided to go in a different direction this time around. Just for some background, the TinCaps logo features an angry apple wearing a cooking pot as a reference to Johnny Appleseed who for some reason wore one on his head as well. I’ve always thought the design was fun but held out on acquiring one for the collection because I was hoping there would one day be a version that incorporated a baseball or bat into the motif. Well, here we are all these years later on Johnny Appleseed Day and I don’t have the one cap that was inspired by this great American nurseryman pioneer! Nevertheless, I won’t let that sink my spirits because I recently got my hands on an Elmira Pioneers cap from the Boston Red Sox era th

Last week’s Música de Memphis cap was a great accessory to have on my trip to Mexico and I’m so happy to be back in the States in time for March 4 which is an unofficial holiday called March Forth due to its name being a homophone of the date. In reading up on the holiday I learned that the full version of its name is March Forth and Do Something Day but I think “March Forth” gets the message across just fine.  My research also brought to my attention that since 2017, March 4 has been used as the day to celebrate Marching Music Day . Because the “march” music genre traces its roots back to its military origins, this seems like an excellent opportunity to bring out my Jackson Generals retro from Hat Club. The five stars on the cap logo worn by the Jackson Generals of the Texas League is a reference to the highest military rank in the United States. Interestingly enough two stars was the highest rank received by Andrew Jackson, who is the inspiration for both the team’s moniker as well

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday takes the posting duties on location to Mexico for the first time ever. To commemorate my very first trip South of the Border, this week's hat is the 2018 "Música de Memphis" hat the Memphis Redbirds wore as part in the inaugural campaign of the Copa de la Diversion in 2018. Memphis only wore this cap for the first two seasons of the Copa campaign but I hope they bring it back in future years because it is such a fun color combination Looking closely at the tag under the sweatband shows that this cap was Made in U.S.A. and besides being a great thing in and of itself, it suggests it was worn during the first Copa season in 2018 because that was the last year New Era produced caps at its plant in Derby, NY I love the festive colors on the MILB batterman ( batterhombre ? bateadorehombre ??) patch here If you're a regular reader of the blog with a decently average memory you know that I was a resident of California during the years i

This week's National Day theme is of the three-day variety as we are about to embark upon Presidents' Day Weekend! To celebrate this much appreciated respite from the routine grind, I cherry-picked a Fredericksburg Nationals "George" alternate cap to celebrate the first President of the United States. I obtained this hat up from Hat Club in early 2021 and to me, this design is a fantastic way to tie American folklore into a baseball cap logo. I cannot tell a lie: I prefer caps that are made in the U.S.A. If there's ever a good time for a red, white and blue batterman, it's Presidents' Day One of the first things schoolchildren in the US are taught about George Washington is the Cherry Tree Myth and I only now  just learned from this article  that the whole story was fabricated so they could sell more books about the President. When students are learning about irony in later grades, this exact scenario should be highlighted as a key example. Well, back to

I was recently asked again if I had a favorite minor league cap and once more I was unable to field that seemingly simple question! To think it was only a year ago that I last discussed my struggle coming up with a definitive answer in my post on my  Carolina Pescados (Carolina Mudcats - Copa de la Diversion) cap . The hats mentioned in that post still rank highly up there in my view however I should have given a nod to the Nashville Sounds, especially the musically inspired logos Brandiose designed for the team's rebrand in 2015. This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is the Diamond Era cap from that set which I consider to be a true unsung hero of the collection. This cap was a wedding gift from a good friend of mine I met in college who grew up in Nashville and still lives in Music City today. Thanks again, Nate! I love how the soft nylon material on the inside of these caps serves as a guard against summer heat. I can imagine it must have been especially handy on some h

I’ll be back on my usual "National Day" celebrations for the next few posts and my focus this week is this 1973 Portland Mavericks retro from Ebbets Field Flannels in recognition of  National Wear Red Day , which is an annual campaign started by the American Heart Association to spread awareness about heart disease in women. I first learned about the Portland Mavericks in a 2014 documentary on Netflix called The Battered Bastards of Baseball . I highly recommend checking out the wild story of this historic ragtag bunch of misfits that played as an unaffiliated team in the Class A Northwest League from 1973-77. The stiff and low profile wool crown on some of the Ebbets retros for 1970s and 1980s designs are top notch for me. Even though the black sweatband might not be historically accurate, not seeing sweat stains makes the cap feel fresher overall. I realize this isn't an all red cap but the color is featured on the front panels enough to work well for National Wear Red