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2013 Aberdeen IronBirds Cap - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

Well, BirdFest sure flew by quickly didn't it? Are you proud of me for finally coming up with a name for the Orioles/Maryland-theme I've been running for the past month? And how about that sweet pun to lede this week's post! Nice, right?

At any rate, this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is an Aberdeen IronBirds cap I got in 2013. I've been wanting to write about this one for a long time and now I finally have a reason as it's a Maryland-based team right down to the core.


This is the current IronBirds logo. It was designed ahead of the 2013 season by Studio Simon which is a design firm based in Louisville, KY.


Sweatband tags are more fun to look at on older caps but this one's cool because you see the "Made in U.S.A." peeking out below the center tag which is sadly far too uncommon these days.

You also don't come across too many MILB batterman logos that are silver or grey so this is another neat thing about this cap. 

Now to talk about the logo:
Dan Simon of Studio Simon prides himself on "bold simplicity" rather than following the trend toward "cartoonish" designs, which is how I would describe the first incarnation of the team's logo.



Here's the original IronBirds logo atop a photo of a World War II military transport aircraft called the Gooney Bird. I see a resemblance between the two although to me, the logo has a Thomas the Tank Engine vibe to it.

The logo's plane imagery is a nod to the nearby Aberdeen Proving Ground however the team's name is a reference to the parent team affiliate Baltimore Orioles (aka The Birds) as well as Cal Ripken, Jr. (aka the Iron Man) who owns the IronBirds. Of course, the number 8 is there to honor to the uniform that Ripken wore during his 21 seasons in Baltimore.



The current logo (above) and its fierce talons reminds me of the Bird of Prey warship from the Star Trek movies and TV series. 

In case you were wondering, my Thanksgiving in Baltimore was splendid but an unexpected thing happened while at a party the following night: one of the other guests was wearing a retro 1963 Orioles hat similar to the one I was wearing and wrote about just that day! 

Of course this gentleman was not as enthusiastic as I was about the coincidence but he probably doesn't have a weekly blog dedicated to baseball caps! That's just a guess, though.

Anyway thanks for bearing with me during BirdFest (see, it's got a nice ring to it right?) and before I sign off, I'd like to share Paul Caputo's 2016 write-up on the Aberdeen IronBirds logo history. 

I imagine because this cap isn't rare or desirable to anyone so there's no sense in putting it up for sale or trade however don't hesitate to reach out if there's something you like on the Trading Block and you are willing to part with any of the hats on my Wish List.

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:

Twitter: @FittedFriday

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