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Showing posts from 2021

Winnipeg Whips - Ebbets Field Flannels retro

The temperatures are finally starting to drop in New York City but it's still unlikely that we'll have a "White Christmas" here so to bring those winter vibes this week's Fresh Fitted Friday  is a Winnipeg Whips retro from Ebbets Field Flannels. This hat also continues the theme of defunct Montreal Expos farm clubs that were located in Canada in the 1970s! I'm convinced I'll love just about any minor league interpretation of the Montreal Expos pinwheel motif. That's even more likely when the team was only around for a short while as was the case with Winnipeg which only hosted the Whips from June 1970 through the 1971 season. If you buy a cap from Ebbets, you can count on the satin green undervisor and that sturdy wool crown. It's doubtful I'll ever see a vintage Whips cap up close but even if the materials are a mismatch, I doubt the quality on it would be as strong as this cap. The sweatband tags on an Ebbets cap are unrivaled. Seeing that &q

Québec Carnavals (Hat Club retro)

It has yet to get chilly here in New York so since this Christmas is looking to be a mild one, I will just have to bring in the cold for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post with a Québec Carnavals retro cap from Hat Club. The jolly little fella adorning this cap is called the bonhomme —meaning "good man" in French—and his claim to fame is being the mascot for Carnaval de Québec, which is the city's yearly winter carnival.   This cap is a recent pickup which sadly means it doesn't get the "Made In USA" treatment. As a child of the 1970s, I have nothing but great appreciation for a powder blue cap with a green undervisor. I had never heard of the Carnavals before Hat Club started releasing retro caps of this one and other variants, for which I'm thankful as it inspired me to learn all about the Carnavals being the Montreal Expos first ever Double-A affiliate in 1971. The team became the Québec Metros in 1975 and stayed put through 1977 before moving

1927 Brooklyn Royal Giants (2016 New York Mets "Negro Leagues Tribute" Retro)

I've been holding onto this 1927 Brooklyn Royal Giants retro cap that the New York Mets wore during Negro Leagues Tribute games from 2014 through 2016 and I'm ecstatic to finally break it out in recognition of Buck O’Neil, Bud Fowler, and Minnie Minoso being elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame this past Sunday, December 4 . In addition to that formidable trio of Negro League superstars getting their due in Cooperstown, another reason to showcase this cap today is to celebrate Human Rights Day which is observed on December 10 every year. Baseball's history has been marred by inequity every step of the way and it is important to take note of events like Sunday's that aim to correct those wrongs.  Unique hats with this colorway are a great option for non-Mets fans to wear at a Mets game in New York. Most people won't know or care about the logo is but it's all worth it when someone gives you props when they recognize it.  That "Made in U.S.A."

Utica Blue Sox (1997-2001 Hat Club Retro)

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday entry is a Utica Blue Sox retro from Hat Club and in the spirit of being completely forthcoming, my main inspiration in selecting it for this week's post is National Sock Day being tomorrow, Saturday, December 4, 2021.  Utica wore this logo during its tenure as the Short-Season A affiliate of the Florida Marlins in the New York-Penn League from 1997 through 2001, which sadly was its last season in the league. I've always found it interesting that the socks were not teal to match Florida's colorway but perhaps they had exhausted that theme with the Elmira Pioneers who were their previous affiliate in the league.  Over the past few years, Hat Club has slowed down its production of MILB cap retros in favor of releasing brightly colored variants of MLB logos, usually with some sort of commemorative patch embroidered on the side. I'm glad I was able to pick up this "Made in U.S.A." cap before that transition happened. That bab

Indianapolis Indians (1983-92 Hat Club retro)

I was thinking of taking this week off due to the holiday but a few days ago I was thinking a lot about the origin story that's usually told of Thanksgiving and  came across an article from Smithsonian Magazine this past Tuesday (November 21, 2021) titled  How to Tell the Thanksgiving Story on Its 400th Anniversary  which offers new insights and perspectives. From a baseball standpoint, I also thought about how Native American cultural depictions have historically figured into baseball as well as some changes I think are appropriate and might happen one day soon. That plus the Friday after Thanksgiving being officially known as Native American Heritage Day was another contributing factor in my desire to post this week. The American Indian imagery the Atlanta Braves continue to disrespectfully incorporate into their branding of a people's culture into a mascot is a practice I believe needs to end. A worthwhile read on the topic is National Congress of American Indians Respond to

2018 Gwinnett Stripers - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!

Many thanks for your understanding of my absence the past few weeks. I've been meaning to do one final Fresh Fitted Friday tribute to the  2021 Atlanta Braves for putting an end to both of baseball's top villains of this season  in the last two rounds of the playoffs but just haven't been able to get to it until now. I suppose the beauty of the offseason is I've got nothing but time on my hands so without further ado, I present to you the 2018-present Gwinnett Stripers on-field alternate cap. This is the Brandiose-designed cap that the Stripers have worn as an alternate since their rebrand in 2018. I personally love the thought of a fish smacking a baseball with its tail rather trying to hold a bat with its tiny fins. I think when you're playing baseball in the water, you should have a special set of rules but maybe that's just me.   This cap is of the Made in Bangladesh variety and to be honest I can't speak to the quality of its construction as I haven&

Taking another week off!

 Sorry I have to do this to you one more time, but hopefully I'll be back for you next week!

Taking this week off, folks!

I need to take a little break, y'all. See you good people next week!

2004 Richmond Braves - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

My prayers to the baseball gods for the Dodgers' elimination from the NLCS have been met with smiles as the Atlanta Braves emerged victorious. To show my appreciation for this miraculous event, I dug up a 2004 Richmond Braves hat which I was not planning on writing about until now. I grew up seeing the R-Braves quite often when they came to play my hometown Norfolk (then known as Tidewater) Tides however I associate with the team with the navy crowned version of the cap rather than this red and black version which appeared around 1996 at the earliest. The satin taping in the crown is consistent with hats from 2002-04 as are the New Era and size tags although the MILB tag is something that I have only seen on caps from 2004 so that is my best possible guess of years that this one was worn.  I really like how the black pops on the MILB batterman here but I'm still not crazy about red hats so one day I would love to see a retro feature a reversed colorway of this cap with a bla

Jacksonville Expos "1994 What If?" (from eCapcity Retro)

As of writing this the Braves lead the Dodgers 3-2 in the NLCS and I am calling on every hopeful ounce of my being to send strength to the Braves to clinch the pennant  in front of their fans at home as the series moves on to Atlanta. A win in one of the next two games will just the cure after Atlanta's pitching fell apart at the seams  during Game 5 in Los Angeles. There are no Braves caps currently in my cache to write about this week but piggybacking off last week's Jacksonville Braves hat, I am happy to share what I refer to as the Jacksonville Expos "1994 What If?" cap  as the team never actually sported the all blue look during their existence from 1985 through 1990. The Jaxpos exclusively wore a pinwheel style cap but I like to imagine that if they had stayed on as a Montreal Expos affiliate through at least 1994, they would have adopted the blue crown and visor combination that their parent team implemented during that season. As much as I prefer the "Mad

1953 Jacksonville Braves (Ebbets Field Flannels retro)

Welp my beloved San Francisco Giants took their postseason run all the way to the fifth game of the NLDS against the Los Angeles Dodgers and while there's not really a bigger sting in sports than to lose at the hands of your most bitter rival, the healing has to begin right now. Instead of dwelling on the Giants' missed opportunities tonight and throughout the series in general, what comes next for me is cheering on the Atlanta Braves as they take on the Dodgers in the NLCS. I should also mention my other good reason to root for them is that my wife is originally from Atlanta which means I married into a whole family of Braves fans! I wasn't always big on the Braves for a number of reasons growing up with the first being I did not care much for slogans like "America's Team"  which I always felt sounds as silly as saying "God's Team" or something like that. I also didn't care much for their perpetual winning in the 1990's and because even

2019 Medusas de Lakewood (Copa de la Diversion)

MLB's National League Division Series starts tonight and while last year around this time I was hate-watching the Dodgers and hoping they would lose simply for schadenfreude purposes, tonight I'm hoping the Dodgers lose because it would give the Giants a perfect win record against them in the playoffs as this series marks their first ever postseason meeting! I was admittedly very stressed out last week because the Giants had yet to clinch the division yet somehow right now I'm even more unnerved because of the gravitas of this impending series against the Dodgers so I decided the best distraction would be to write about a Copa de la Diversion cap and have tasked this 2019 Lakewood Medusas hat for the job. Medusas  is the Spanish word for jellyfish which makes sense considering Medusozoa is the latin-based term used to refer to any of these closely related species of aquatic animals. And you really have to give Brandiose credit for making this gelatinous menace look even

1995-96 Tampa Bay Devil Rays (Black Crown/Black Brim)

We are about to enter the final weekend of MLB's regular season and a t the time of writing this, t he National League West is the only division that has not been clinched. My beloved  San Francisco Giants have the best record in MLB but have yet to clinch due to the pesky nature of those bum Dodgers! Nevertheless, I have no doubt that my team will emerge victorious. So to take my mind off this stressful situation I'm putting the focus of this week's Fresh Fitted Friday  on a vintage Tampa Bay Devil Rays cap to celebrate the team that will without a doubt finish the season with the best record in the American League. I remember not being moved by this this logo when it was introduced to the public in late 1995 but now I've come to realize that I was just a very young curmudgeon at that point in my life. The rainbow gradient logo rules.  The Devil Rays played their first game on March 31, 1998 however these sweatband tags are clearly from the 1993-96 era which tells me t