Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

In the spirit of being transparent from the start, I am compelled to disclose I had to reach a bit for a hat to match today's holiday which is National Maryland Day . I must admit when it comes to Maryland, my cap coffers are rather bereft so I opted for one worn by the Richmond Virginians which was a team in the neighboring state of… you guessed right, Virginia! Researching the history of baseball in Maryland led me down a few potential caps for this post but I was most surprised with Richmond's past being very much intertwined with both of the minor league iterations of the Baltimore Orioles. The first concerted effort between the two cities occurred in 1915 when the International League Orioles temporarily moved from Baltimore to Richmond because despite fielding a club featuring a hometown talent by the name of Babe Ruth, were unable to compete with the popularity of the Baltimore Terrapins of a newly created  outlaw "third major league" called the  Federal League

It feels like it’s been more than a week since my last post but maybe that’s because so much has happened in between now and then in regards to baseball happenings as well as :::gestures broadly::: everything else going on in the world. I'll discuss the developing flurry of baseball activity in future posts but this week I want take a moment to bring attention to the terror Russia is unleashing in Ukraine. I’m not sure if I’ve ever noticed any traffic for this site coming from Ukraine but if I do have any readers either living in or from there, my heart and prayers go out to you. And since I’ve got prayers on the mind, it only seems right to call upon this 1986 San Jose Bees retro cap for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post as Saint Joseph’s Feast (or, Fallas de San José as it is known in Spanish) is tomorrow, March 19. And on a lighter note, I want to bring up that National Sloppy Joe Day is celebrated on March 18 every year so today is happens to be the perfect time to pedd

I’m back on a vintage kick for this week’s Fresh Fitted Friday post which is inspired by today, March 11, being Johnny Appleseed Day. The obvious logo to showcase on this holiday would be the home cap that the Fort Wayne TinCaps have worn since their inaugural season in 2009 however I decided to go in a different direction this time around. Just for some background, the TinCaps logo features an angry apple wearing a cooking pot as a reference to Johnny Appleseed who for some reason wore one on his head as well. I’ve always thought the design was fun but held out on acquiring one for the collection because I was hoping there would one day be a version that incorporated a baseball or bat into the motif. Well, here we are all these years later on Johnny Appleseed Day and I don’t have the one cap that was inspired by this great American nurseryman pioneer! Nevertheless, I won’t let that sink my spirits because I recently got my hands on an Elmira Pioneers cap from the Boston Red Sox era th

Last week’s Música de Memphis cap was a great accessory to have on my trip to Mexico and I’m so happy to be back in the States in time for March 4 which is an unofficial holiday called March Forth due to its name being a homophone of the date. In reading up on the holiday I learned that the full version of its name is March Forth and Do Something Day but I think “March Forth” gets the message across just fine.  My research also brought to my attention that since 2017, March 4 has been used as the day to celebrate Marching Music Day . Because the “march” music genre traces its roots back to its military origins, this seems like an excellent opportunity to bring out my Jackson Generals retro from Hat Club. The five stars on the cap logo worn by the Jackson Generals of the Texas League is a reference to the highest military rank in the United States. Interestingly enough two stars was the highest rank received by Andrew Jackson, who is the inspiration for both the team’s moniker as well