Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Right after wrapping up my Earth Day post last week I realized I had actually earmarked that 1948  Oakland Oaks  cap for my Arbor Day post this week. It actually turned out for the best because the logo on this 1940 Oaks hat is even more arboreal than last week's so I'm very thankful to be ending Earth Month on a strong note! When I first got this a few years ago, I thought the green felt on the logo might be the outline of the city of Oakland. Then I thought maybe it was a sort of reference to the Bears at Cal in Berkeley. And then today I realized the obvious: the green thing is a leaf because…trees! By the way, I also just learned that the word ellipsis (as in the punctuation I used in the last sentence) originates from the Ancient Greek word  élleipsis  which means ' leave out'? Most of my Ebbets caps are navy or black but I have to say the buckram really pops on the grey wool broadcloth.  The green on the logo of the crown's front, piping and undervisor are wh

I picked this Oakland Oaks retro to celebrate Earth Day—which is tomorrow, April 22—because of the tree theme in the team's name and the cute little stem on the logo however there is added significance for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection as it was confirmed just yesterday that the Oakland Athletics have reached a deal to purchase land in Las Vegas where they hope to have a new ballpark constructed by 2027. In 1948, Oakland had no MLB team nor affiliation however the Pacific Coast League champions of that year have at least some connection with New York considering they were managed by Casey Stengel who would manage the Yankees the following season. Also, their shortstop was Billy Martin who before becoming a Yankees legend was a Bay Area native who was born and raised in Berkeley, CA. I long for the days when Ebbets would release minor league bangers such as this one. Their collaboration with '47 to produce classic MLB logos seemed to be a big hit with collector

The inspiration for selecting a late-era Helena Brewers cap for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post is that National Beer Day is celebrated annually on April 7. This year's holiday toasts to the 90th anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the law allowing people to brew and sell beer, thus effectively ending the Prohibition Era which began in 1920. The backbone of every beer is malt which is comprised of barley and is strongly represented here just as it has been historically on the logos of Helena's parent club in Milwaukee throughout the years. The blue and gold MILB batterman are beautiful against the navy crown here. Made in Bangladesh cap but FYI, you'll need a permit to drink beer with an ABV of higher than 0.5% in Bangladesh. Sadly, Helena lost its team when MILB contracted after the 2019 season and now the closest option for baseball fans in that town to catch games is about two hours away in  Missoula. That's still a far better option than having to

Last week's Fowlball post was a lot of fun to write and rising up from the flames of all that fun is another ornithologically tinged cap that also happens to be Arizona-related as well. This Phoenix Firebirds retro cap was part of a 2017 collection produced by Ebbets Field Flannels and sold by Lids. I love the crispness of the white sweatband and grey undervisor here and hope Ebbets' newly kindled partnership with Lids will bring back some of these classic designs from the 1990s. It's difficult to faithfully reproduce logos from the 1990s however Ebbets has a solid hit rate in that regard even though they're better known for their more esoteric releases. I made a plea for Ebbets to retro the Peninsula Pilots cap  and 1983 Portland Beavers in last week's Fowlball post and the quality on this Firebirds cap is what I'd like to see if either or both ever get made. Perhaps Ebbets will fulfill these requests if I keep promoting the other caps from that collection li

The date was March 24, 2001 and  Randy Johnson was pitching late into his final start of Spring Training. Very few people know or care that the  Arizona  Diamondbacks defeated the San Francisco Giants 10-6 in a split squad matchup that afternoon. The game wasn't televised and the box score is virtually impossible to track down however March 24 will forever live in infamy due to the only notable event that afternoon which was when Johnson faced Giants outfielder Calvin Murray in the top of the seventh inning of a game that was already highly contentious, even if it was a "meaningless" spring training matchup. Johnson fired a heater that Murray never had a chance of hitting, especially because a dove in flight with the worst possible timing got in front of the ball as it made its way from the mound to home plate. Much has been written since the incident but what is also notable is Murray's nephew is Kyler Murray, who is currently the quarterback for the Arizona Cardinal

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a 1978 Tacoma Yankees retro that continues the "Washington" theme of last week's Presidents Day post because, well Tacoma is in State of Washington state.  I picked this hat because today is February 24 and fans of the show Twin Peaks widely recognize this date to be the one where Agent Cooper came to the fictional town in Washington to investigate the death of Laura Palmer. The lettering here is a little more rigid than I would expect to see on a Yankees-affiliated hat but I still prefer the resemblance of Kanji characters on this hat over the disjointed look of the old Tampa Yankees cap logo . I love that there was no requirement for this cap to feature a batterman or New Era flag but most of all I'm glad to have purchased from Hat Club in June 2018, well before New Era closed its last US-based factory in Derby, NY.  I also like how extra on the Kelly this cap goes. It's perfect for St. Patrick's Day which I

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a 1974 Washington Stars prototype that I picked up from Hat Club. I think this cap is a nice continuation  of last week's "Nationals" theme as that is the name of the current team in Washington as well as the design on this week's cap seeming like a dead ringer for a Nats alternate logo in current times. The single serif is a curious design element here but I am intrigued they chose a logo that so closely resembles the one on the caps worn by the Washington Senators who left for Minnesota in 1960. Interestingly enough, Minnesota is incorporating a nod to the North Star on this year's road caps.    It would be fun if this cap featured a red, white and blue pinwheel crown similar to what the Montreal Expos wore, especially considering the Expos eventually left Montreal for Washington in 2005. Interestingly enough, besides both teams being NL expansion teams in 1969, this article lists out a few other congruities betw