Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Right after wrapping up my Earth Day post last week I realized I had actually earmarked that 1948  Oakland Oaks  cap for my Arbor Day post this week. It actually turned out for the best because the logo on this 1940 Oaks hat is even more arboreal than last week's so I'm very thankful to be ending Earth Month on a strong note! When I first got this a few years ago, I thought the green felt on the logo might be the outline of the city of Oakland. Then I thought maybe it was a sort of reference to the Bears at Cal in Berkeley. And then today I realized the obvious: the green thing is a leaf because…trees! By the way, I also just learned that the word ellipsis (as in the punctuation I used in the last sentence) originates from the Ancient Greek word  élleipsis  which means ' leave out'? Most of my Ebbets caps are navy or black but I have to say the buckram really pops on the grey wool broadcloth.  The green on the logo of the crown's front, piping and undervisor are wh

I picked this Oakland Oaks retro to celebrate Earth Day—which is tomorrow, April 22—because of the tree theme in the team's name and the cute little stem on the logo however there is added significance for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection as it was confirmed just yesterday that the Oakland Athletics have reached a deal to purchase land in Las Vegas where they hope to have a new ballpark constructed by 2027. In 1948, Oakland had no MLB team nor affiliation however the Pacific Coast League champions of that year have at least some connection with New York considering they were managed by Casey Stengel who would manage the Yankees the following season. Also, their shortstop was Billy Martin who before becoming a Yankees legend was a Bay Area native who was born and raised in Berkeley, CA. I long for the days when Ebbets would release minor league bangers such as this one. Their collaboration with '47 to produce classic MLB logos seemed to be a big hit with collector

The inspiration for selecting a late-era Helena Brewers cap for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post is that National Beer Day is celebrated annually on April 7. This year's holiday toasts to the 90th anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the law allowing people to brew and sell beer, thus effectively ending the Prohibition Era which began in 1920. The backbone of every beer is malt which is comprised of barley and is strongly represented here just as it has been historically on the logos of Helena's parent club in Milwaukee throughout the years. The blue and gold MILB batterman are beautiful against the navy crown here. Made in Bangladesh cap but FYI, you'll need a permit to drink beer with an ABV of higher than 0.5% in Bangladesh. Sadly, Helena lost its team when MILB contracted after the 2019 season and now the closest option for baseball fans in that town to catch games is about two hours away in  Missoula. That's still a far better option than having to