Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

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"

For the last post of 2017 I'm continuing the trend of showcasing a classic Class A Short Season cap while also paying tribute to my favorite band, Phish, who got their start  in Burlington, Vermont which is where t he Vermont Expos (now Lake Monsters) played.  The Vermont Expos of the New York-Penn League wore this logo from 1994 through 2005. Because there is no New Era flag it's safe to say this cap is from 1996 at the latest. The sweatband tags here have the mid-1990's flavor. Notice the size tag flapping in the wind! Can't believe for the second week in a row I've got a cap that's over 20 years old and hasn't had its tags popped. Ringing in the new year in style! This cap isn't for sale or trade however don't hesitate to reach out if there's something you like on the  Trading Block  and you are willing to  part  with any of the hats  on my  Wish List . Happy New Year y'all and a s always, thanks for coming back

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

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

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

Ok now, I know these entries are named "Fresh Fitted Friday" but sometimes it's important not to overlook the virtue of the non-fitted cap. While I am not suggesting the likelihood of entry titles like "Sweet Snapback Saturday" or anything of the sort, I do feel that certain cap logos just seem to look better on snapbacks. When I moved to New York City in 2010, I noticed then that much of the city's cap culture had started paying attention to snapbacks. I tried to stay away from that trend as much as possible but some caps represent your favorite team so well that, when they come your way it's hard to turn them down. Such was the case when I came across this vintage San Jose Giants cap. I've found that I'm not the only San Francisco Giants fan in town as I see plenty of standard SF Giants caps out and about, so I am looking forward to wearing this San Jose Giants snapback. I especially like the way the orange visor sets off with the gree

I know I did a tribute to a San Francisco Giants minor league team last week but I just couldn't resist the opportunity to honor another former Giants farm club: the Phoenix Firebirds.  As time goes on, t his cap's logo becomes increasingly more obscure to even longtime ("die-hard") Giants fans. After all, who can really be expected to remember a team that has been defunct since 1998? Because of the Firebirds' affiliation and that the Giants have held their spring training in Arizona since 1947,  Phoenix was always full of Giants fans . When MLB awarded Arizona with an expansion team, the Firebirds packed up and moved to Tuscon and became known as the Sidewinders.  The team that was already there was called the Tuscon Toros (which was an Astros affiliate at the time) so they in turn moved to Fresno and called themselves the Grizzlies. There was also an organizational shake-up as the Sidewinders became an affiliate of the Diamondbacks while the Grizz

Alright, so for this edition of Fresh Fitted Friday I thought I'd do another throwback however this time, I want to pay some respect to a ballplayer who hasn't had a lot of time on the field this season: #2, Derek Jeter. I've seen the man do some tremendous things at Yankee Stadium, but I'll always really remember him as a scrappy prospect with the Columbus Clippers. Here's a great baseball card where he's wearing a cap very similar to the one featured here today: As some of you might know, I grew up in Norfolk, VA and going to Tidewater Tides games at Met Park was an intregal part of many summers in my youth. I remember getting to the ballpark early in the afternoon when the players arrived to scam some autographs and then I'd wait for the guys to leave after the game to get even more autographs. Some of them made some snarky comments here and there, but the beauty of time is that now I can only remember the good memories. I got lots of 'gr