It's official. The Houston Astros are 2017 World Series champions and now that there are no more baseball games until the Spring, it's time to remember the words that the Starks in Winterfell are known to say: "winter is coming."
Question: did you like the Game of Thrones reference? I was going to go 80's Glam/Hair Metal and say, "In the words of Cinderella, 'it's gonna be a long cold winter' without baseball" but I didn't think many of y'all would get the reference.
No matter how you put it, the impending winter solstice without games occupying my mind gives me time for pondering (or ruminating, musing, etc.) new quips for the blog however I'm certain everyone in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization will probably use that time to wonder "what could have been" had they won Game 7.
As a San Francisco Giants fan, I'm feeling a toxic level of schadenfreude running through me knowing that although my team sucked rotten eggs this year, the Dodgers lost Game 7 of the World Series in front of their fans at home. And as a baseball cap enthusiast, I wonder who gets to destroy the 2017 World Series Champs with LA's logo!
And because I'm a true sadist, I'd love to get my hands one of those shirts or hats to troll Dodgers fans but I don't have a plug like that. I also wish I could find the ultra-rare "What If?" 2003 World Series Chicago Cubs hat featured below although that doesn't seem likely to happen either as there are apparently only two of these caps known to be in existence.
Even though the Cubs won it all in 2015, the fans will always be haunted by Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS. In case you don't remember, the Cubs were five outs away from returning to their first World Series since 1945 when they blew a 3-0 lead over the Marlins to lose the game as well as Game 7 the following night.
Incidentally, Dusty Baker was the Cubs manager that year and also happened to be the Giants manager when they blew a five-run lead over the Angels late in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series. Apparently the Angels broke a record while overcoming that much of a deficit in an elimination game which only makes that loss sting more. Regardless, losing sucks.
While I don't have that Cubs hat, I do own a "What If?" 2004 World Series New York Yankees hat which was made in anticipation of the Yankees sealing an ALCS sweep over the Red Sox. Unfortunately for the Yankees, Mariano Rivera blew a one-run lead with three outs left in the bottom of the ninth inning to force the Game 4 into extra innings.
Of course, the Red Sox would go on to win that game as well as the next three games (which was also a record breaking feat) in order to get to the World Series for the first time since 1986. Also of note, the guy who scored the tying run in the bottom of the ninth inning was Dave Roberts, who (as of now at least) is still the Los Angeles Dodgers' manager.
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| If I were a Red Sox fan, I'd wear it to every Red Sox-Yankees games at Yankee Stadium in an effort to low-key troll Yankees fans. |
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| 2004 was the first year of the felt-type patch and although the design on this one is kind of blah, I dig the material of the patch itself. |
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| The tags and satin taping are in line with other examples I've seen from 2003 and 2004. |
While I'm not in possession of the Cubs hat (yet), the 2004 Yankees hat is something that I'm willing to put on the Trading Block so please do not hesitate to reach out with an offer if you are willing to part with on of the vintage hats that are on my Wish List.
Well, I hope I wasn't too much of a sore-winner-who-is-actually-a-sore-loser-because-my-Giants-suck but I'm definitely feeling the afterglow of the Dodgers World Series Game 7 loss. Maybe next week I won't be such a homer.
As always, thanks for coming back to read about baseball hat geekery. I've got comments disabled here so if you'd like to discuss a trade or simply just chat about hats, please feel free to connect via the following social sites:
Instagram: @baseballmilquetoast
Twitter: @FittedFriday
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