Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Yesterday was 5/9 and it warmed my heart to see so many lovely Instagram posts honoring New Era's flagship "59Fifty" cap and its importance in this community of hat collectors. Sadly, I did not join in the fun as I am not much of a "regular poster" although this Oakland Oaks cap for 5/10 is a good way to celebrate the 510 area code in "The Town" over in the bright side of the Bay. Before I get to photos of this week's hat, I want to take a moment to give a shout out to the fans in Oakland who have been creative in their support their team in these times. I saw a recent post of a fan who only goes to A's games on the roads as well as clips of fans sitting behind home plate wearing a "Sell" shirt to the Colliseum as a plea to the owner to "do the right thing" soon. I suppose "the right thing" is as subjective as it gets but the team's impending and temporary move to West Sacramento next season will be an interest

There are a lot of happenings in the world of sports besides baseball this weekend so for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday I wanted to find a way to tie in the Kentucky Derby as well as the culmination of the first round playoffs in the NBA. Any horse-related cap I own has already been written about here which leads me to the realm of Philadelphia Phillies minor league teams despite the fact that I know fully that their team name has nothing to do with horses because of this article from SportsLogo.net . This brings me to this beautiful powder blue Batavia Clippers fauxback from the Buffalo New Era store. The former New York-Penn League team was a Phillies affiliate from the time I started paying attention to Minor League baseball in the late 1980s and early 1990s so I will always associate them with Philadelphia and to see this power blue blue "motif" warms my heart. The fuzzy feelings continue with the white sweatband and grey undervisor here. Staying true to what would

It has been a very busy month since my last post so I sure am glad to finally have some time to write for week's Fresh Fitted Friday .  I have been buying up some fun caps lately which I am very excited to share here however this week's post brings attention to one I picked up almost seven years ago back when Ebbets Field Flannels and Lids collaborated on a set of retro MILB caps. That partnership was a very big deal at the time because until then, all other retros of 1990s caps featured inaccurately recreated logos and polyester materials while the Ebbets x Lids collection was true to OG specifications featuring accurate logos and made of 100% wool. Check out the Facebook post to launched the collection for some hot takes in the comments. Lots of folks were not enthused about spending $50 on these gems but as I was familiar with Ebbets quality at that time, I happily pulled the trigger on the Butte Copper Kings, Erie Sailors, Batavia Clippers and this week's hat which is

Happy Opening Day folks! I'm so very thrilled baseball is back. In fact, as I write this there are three games happening on different screens which tells you just how much I am obsessed with this game! I plan on spending all weekend watching games except for a few nightime activities I have planned to celebrate a friend's big birthday which I'm excited about too! The first initial of our birthday friend's name is "S" and she is originally from Syracuse so of course in her honor, this week's Fresh Fitted Friday  selection is a Syracuse Mets on-field that the team wears while playing games on the road.  Our friend has lived here in New York City since graduating from Syracuse Univeristy so the Mets connection to her hometown with this cap is perfect.  She loves seeing live music in the City but even more than that loves traveling to see music so that's just another reason why this cap is perfect for her. This cap is from Bangladesh and you couldn't p

I have celebrated my fair share of wacky holidays on this blog recently but with St. Patrick's Day coming up this weekend, I am once again going rogue by celebrating a different holiday in its place. Well,  I suppose St. Urho's Day is not entirely different as it is also a playfully fabricated celebration of a saint who chased away a threat menacing his people. While the hero of St. Patrick's Day weilded a staff to rid Ireland of its snakes, St. Urho, according to Friends of Finland Community , saved Finnish grape grops from the grasshoppers that almost ruined the harvest with a trident. So of course a cap with a green visor and a snarling ocelot holding a clava (spanish for "club") is the natural choice for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post.  Greensboro selected "ocelotes" for their Copa de la  Diversión  identity as a nod to the three ocelots currently residing in the South American habitat at the North Carolina Zoo in nearby Asheboro, NC.    T

Last week I goofed-up National Citrus Day by celebrating a Florida team despite that holiday being started by a citrus producer in California so it only makes sense that I would find a way to put my own  unique spin on International Women's Day by writing about the 1947 Twin Falls Cowboys cap I recently picked up from Ebbets Field Flannels. Anytime I browse the Ebbets Field Flannels site and see a former minor league cap with beautiful serifs embroidered, I have to go for it as many of their recent offerings have skewed toward college and Negro League teams featuring felt letters and patches. Made in U.S.A. quality every single time! Popping the tag on an Ebbets cap is always fun for me and I love using the little tags as bookmarks. Before I go into why a Cowboys hat is the Fresh Fitted Friday selection on a post highlighting a holiday for women, I first want to share with you that according to this page from census.gov ,  International Women's Day  is celebrated on March 8 t

It has been a busy couple of weeks for me here but thankfully this time away has brought me back feeling recharged and excited to tell you good folks about this Tampa Bay Devil Rays hat that I have selected for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday  post in honor of today being National Citrus Day. The only other Devil Rays post I've ever done was the black brim variant of this cap but I just absolutely love the way the gradient pops even more with the purple brim here. The photo above shows sweatband tags are of the pre-1997 variety. This cap scores major nostalgia points for having the old school Diamond Collection tag attached.  Extra major nostalgia points for the tag from The Sports Authority. I have some high-quality childhood memories of my mom taking me there so I could fawn over caps like this one! I mentioned earlier that this post was only my second time writing about the Devil Rays which is a number that seems low until you consider there are some major league teams that