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Showing posts with the label 1993

1993-94 Birmingham Barons - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

If you follow  @baseballmilquetoast on Instagram —if not, please do so immediately— you'll know that on MLK Day I posted a photo of my Birmingham Black Barons cap to commemorate Dr. King's legacy and more specifically, his "Letter From Birmingham Jail" which was an open letter written while Dr. King was unjustly incarcerated.  While that hat has much historical significance, I also have an emotional connection with the Birmingham Barons of the Southern League as I associate that team with  Frank Thomas, who is  my all-time favorite baseball player. This card from 1990 shows Thomas wearing the Old English "B" cap logo lettering that the Barons had used since their reintroduction into the Southern League in 1981.  This is the photo used in Thomas' 1990 Best Card and I love that it's signed by the man himself. I don't collect autographs anymore but if I ever met Thomas I'd have to ask him for one. "The Big Hurt"

1992-93 Bend Rockies - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

I had some trouble deciding which hat to write about this week, y'all. As much as I want to show off some of the newer caps in my collection, I've got all of these super rare vintage selections just begging to be flaunted. Also, I love themes so I couldn't turn down the chance to write about another Class A Short Season league for the seventh week in a row.  The Bend Rockies played in the Pacific Northwest League from 1992-94. The inaugural team was mostly comprised of selections from the 1992 draft while its parent team  would not play a game until the following year. Even though it's possible this cap is from 1994, I highly doubt it considering the tags are of the pre-1992 variety.  The lack of the MILB batterman here seals the deal; this cap is either from 1992 or 1993 as the batterman did not appear until 1994. Ideally, I'd like to believe that this cap is from the 1992 season as it would be the first time in the blog's history that I'

1994 Bellingham Mariners - Fresh Fitted Friday

Y'all know I've been going hard in the paint with the vintage Single A Short Season caps lately but what you need to know about this week's Bellingham Mariners cap is that it is over 20 years old and today I'll finally be popping the tags on this deadstock fitted.  In 1993, the Seattle Mariners cap adopted a navy blue, silver and teal colorway. The Baby M's of the Northwest League took up tealism that year as well however they wore this cap for only more season after that because they became the Bellingham Giants in 1995. I would hope you agree that the tags on an MILB fitted cap from the 1990's are a true thing of beauty. Fewer low ball teams wore fitted caps in the mid-90's than today but remember Bellingham had a higher profile based on the MLB success of former Baby M's like Edgar Martinez and Ken Griffey, Jr. The rebrand of the big club in Seattle might have played a role here as well. While the Kid and Edgar wore the prev

1992-93 Denver/New Orleans Zephyrs Cap - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

For those who  don't care about details pertaining to the materials New Era used in its caps over the years, I   admit that the posts from the past few weeks haven't been super exciting. But then again, would anyone who didn't at least have a passing interest ever purposefully come to this blog in the first place? What is exciting (for me at least) is I found a backup for the Denver Zephyrs hat that I wrote about in the early years of Baseball Milquetoast.  This is a hard one to find and I'm glad it didn't cost me an absurd amount of money.  The cap logo is a little frayed but consider this: when the Denver Zephyrs suited up for their last game in 1992, a good majority of my co-workers were not born yet. So let's just think about that for a moment. Not the crispest sweatband but what can you do? Like I said earlier, this cap couldn't have been worn by a Denver Zephyr after 1992 and these sweatband tags seem to be most consistent with caps from 199

1993 Fort Wayne Wizards

At this point last week I made a desperate plea for Joe Maddon and the Chicago Cubs to swiftly "take care" of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS…because I hate the Dodgers. Well, a week has passed and the Cubs are one win away from making that request a reality. The end of the Dodgers season basically means I can stop worrying about them potentially being World Series champions. This frees up lots of time for fall activities such as getting in Halloween mode by watching horror and sci-fi type movies. Like any normal person I enjoy movies about supernatural elements that set out to destroy the world (or small towns) and the supernatural forces that aim to defeat those forces. A lot of times sorcery is involved and I'm very cool with wizards. FYI, I especially appreciate wizardry that incorporates baseball so I would be thrilled if Joe Maddon could cast a spell on the Dodgers bats, turning them into papier mâché from wood. Also, I like when clubs have Wizar

1993 Midland Angels - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

Hello, I am the Baseball Milquetoast and I am a San Francisco Giants fan whose World Series championship dream has been crushed at the hands of Joe Maddon for a second time. His first transgression was that he was the bench coach for the 2002 Anaheim Angels who defeated the Giants and I'm pretty sure his strategies enabled that stupid Rally Monkey. Maddon spent 31 years as a player, coach and manager within the California/Arbitrary SoCal City Name Angels organization and this celebration in 2002 was easily one of the greatest highlights of his tenure. Maddon is now the manager of the Chicago Cubs and his second wrongdoing toward San Francisco came last Tuesday night when the Cubs rallied from a 5-2 deficit to defeat the Giants thus advancing to the NLCS. The wound is too fresh to bear the thought of  sharing a photo of this recent iniquity but for this one you can do an image search without my help. I am however happy to share a photo of a young Joe Maddon when he

1993 Colorado Buffaloes Fitted - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

Ever since I began writing about my hats on this blog, I had not ever featured a college sports team before today. Well the streak is now ending because today is "Spirit Day" at work. As most will be showing their "team colors" in the office, I will be representing the University of Colorado by wearing this vintage hat that is over twenty years old! Behold the greatness of Black and Gold. I realize that this cap is not on brand with the official  logomark  and its  color  guidelines of my alma matter but I can't help being nostalgic. This cap has the pre-1994 "New Era" and size tags and the panel lining is very similar to this   San Jose Giants cap . Like the  aforementioned SJ Giants cap  you'll notice the green underbrim—albeit more squarish than the Giants cap. Also, while 1994 was the first year all MLB teams switched over to the grey underbrims, it's doubtful that this rule applied at the collegiate and minor league levels. If you are br

1993-94 Elmira Pioneers Cap

It was lots of fun when last week's Fresh Fitted (er, snapback) made its debut at a ballgame but the first ever appearance for this week's cap will my friends' wedding! Well not at the wedding of course because that would be a violation of my household covenant but rest assured, it will be worn before and after the wedding ceremony.  When it came time to pick this week's cap  my preliminary desire was to a feature one with a letter combination of  "S" and "C"  in the logo as those are t he first initials of the bride and groom.  It turns out that my only cap that matches that qualification is a Shreveport Captains hat which I've already featured.  My fruitless search led to frustration. It seemed that I would have to stretch to find a cap relating to my friends when all of a sudden, I recalled that the groom went to SUNY Geneseo. That town doesn't have a professional team but Elmira is 90 miles away and it does: the Elmira Pioneer

Spokane Indians - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

In celebration of the 2013 World Series being underway, I thought it would be fun to showcase a couple of caps from a Pacific Coast League franchise where St. Louis outfielder Carlos Beltran played: the Spokane Indians. The PCL is a league that was officially founded in 1903, just two years after MLB's American League. I find comfort in the fact that baseball has been played in the Pacific Northwest ever since the United States' Western Expansion reached the  Oregon Territory .  So let's get to talking about this cap. First up you'll notice that the logo features the letters "S" and "I" interlocking on a royal blue crown.  As many of you know from reading this site, I love the style of serifs used here and I really enjoy that the "S" is so similar to the"S" in the Shreveport Captains cap logo. It's no secret that I heavily favor these old school caps made of 100% wool with the green-underbrims. I especi