Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

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

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

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."

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