We are about to enter the final weekend of MLB's regular season and at the time of writing this, the 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.
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| 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. |
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| 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 that this cap was likely one of Tampa's first caps ever to be made and sold. |
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| It's been so long since the Rays have utilized purple in their color scheme that I forgot how shocked my brain was when I saw a purple and black MLB batterman somewhere other than a Rockies (or retro Diamondbacks) cap! |
I mentioned in the caption of the first photo above that I didn't initially care much for the Devil Rays logo but the same was true for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Perhaps my reasoning was that purple and teal were the colors I associated with the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins, respectively.
And I suppose it seemed like Tampa and Arizona were stealing the thunder of the expansion teams that came before them but it wasn't as if I was particularly attached to either of those clubs either. Maybe it was more just that purple and teal felt somewhat out of date in 1995 and even more so by the time the new teams began play in 1998.
The last rational explanation for my indifference toward these logos is I moved to Colorado for college and I was simply spending my time differently in the late 1990s. I only went to a few Rockies games per year and doubt I went when the Diamondbacks were in town nor can I even recall watching a Devil Rays game on television during any of their first few seasons.
Another article that has recently enlightened me is the Tampa Bay Devil Rays / Tampa Bay Rays Caps History on mlbcollectors.com which is where I learned that this week's cap was only worn about a handful of times during the first few years of the team's existence.
I'm also grateful for the logo history deep dives on SportsLogos.net and while I'm happy with their general entry for the Tampa Bay Rays Logos History, I'm hoping for a more in depth write-up someday because I'd love to see the results of a data collection on roughly how many occurrences there are of this week's cap actually being worn on-field.
This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is not going on the Trading Block however please don't hesitate to reach out if you want any other cap from that list 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:
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Twitter: @FittedFriday
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