Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

We're only a week into the 2022 MLB season and can you even believe I'm already pivoting to a cap of a non-baseball team for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post? Well, at least it's for good reason as  the hat I'm sharing with you good folks is the perfect hat for today as  National Laundry Day is celebrated every year on April 15.  Fun fact: Chef Thomas Keller's Michelin 3-star restaurant in the Napa Valley got its name because the original site on which The French Laundry currently stands was a laundry. For this reason, the clothespin is a touchstone of the restaurant's branding to this day. This collaboration between Ebbets Field Flannels and The French Laundry was produced in 2019  in honor of the famed California restaurant's 25th anniversary . As the name of the restaurant suggests, The French Laundry's cuisine leans toward classical French techniques however the spirit of the dining experience showcases an elegant and personalized style of se

It's the third Friday in April and folks, I'm here to tell you that I'm not done playing tricks on you yet as I've got a snapback for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection! I'll get to this week's hat and the inspiration behind choosing it shortly but first I want say I've been giving serious thought to the topic of last week's post and I'm starting to really think it just makes more sense to celebrate the new year in April when Spring has begun rather than during the dead of winter. Another reason to shift the beginning of the year to April is it will then coincide with the start of the MLB season. That particular argument only holds in the northern hemisphere however because the Australian Baseball League season tends to kick off in early-to-middle of November and usually ends near the halfway point in February. I've mentioned in previous Australia Day posts that I share a birthday with the official national day of Australia and I trul

I wouldn’t fault you if you considered me choosing a Virginia team’s cap for last week’s National Maryland Day post to be a sort of preemptive April Fools’ Day gag however I assure you that was not my intention! I stand by last week’s hat actually being on-topic but can still understand if you thought it preposterous. Whether you appreciated the interstate tie-in or not, hopefully you’ll get a kick out of the 1958 Hiroshima Carp retro from Ebbets Field Flannels that I’ve selected for this week’s Fresh Fitted Friday post. I'm not usually too crazy about the felt logos from Ebbets but the serifs combined with the chunky lettering here is very unique so I'm all for it.  The Made in U.S.A. quality from Ebbets is unrivaled. I try to always mention that when . I'm not sure if it's the lighting or what but the satin undervisor here looks extra special here. As one might have come to expect, a bit of backstory will be needed to explain this week’s hat once again! I’m not sure

In the spirit of being transparent from the start, I am compelled to disclose I had to reach a bit for a hat to match today's holiday which is National Maryland Day . I must admit when it comes to Maryland, my cap coffers are rather bereft so I opted for one worn by the Richmond Virginians which was a team in the neighboring state of… you guessed right, Virginia! Researching the history of baseball in Maryland led me down a few potential caps for this post but I was most surprised with Richmond's past being very much intertwined with both of the minor league iterations of the Baltimore Orioles. The first concerted effort between the two cities occurred in 1915 when the International League Orioles temporarily moved from Baltimore to Richmond because despite fielding a club featuring a hometown talent by the name of Babe Ruth, were unable to compete with the popularity of the Baltimore Terrapins of a newly created  outlaw "third major league" called the  Federal League

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