Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

It has been a very busy month since my last post so I sure am glad to finally have some time to write for week's Fresh Fitted Friday .  I have been buying up some fun caps lately which I am very excited to share here however this week's post brings attention to one I picked up almost seven years ago back when Ebbets Field Flannels and Lids collaborated on a set of retro MILB caps. That partnership was a very big deal at the time because until then, all other retros of 1990s caps featured inaccurately recreated logos and polyester materials while the Ebbets x Lids collection was true to OG specifications featuring accurate logos and made of 100% wool. Check out the Facebook post to launched the collection for some hot takes in the comments. Lots of folks were not enthused about spending $50 on these gems but as I was familiar with Ebbets quality at that time, I happily pulled the trigger on the Butte Copper Kings, Erie Sailors, Batavia Clippers and this week's hat which is ...

Last week's Fowlball post was a lot of fun to write and rising up from the flames of all that fun is another ornithologically tinged cap that also happens to be Arizona-related as well. This Phoenix Firebirds retro cap was part of a 2017 collection produced by Ebbets Field Flannels and sold by Lids. I love the crispness of the white sweatband and grey undervisor here and hope Ebbets' newly kindled partnership with Lids will bring back some of these classic designs from the 1990s. It's difficult to faithfully reproduce logos from the 1990s however Ebbets has a solid hit rate in that regard even though they're better known for their more esoteric releases. I made a plea for Ebbets to retro the Peninsula Pilots cap  and 1983 Portland Beavers in last week's Fowlball post and the quality on this Firebirds cap is what I'd like to see if either or both ever get made. Perhaps Ebbets will fulfill these requests if I keep promoting the other caps from that collection li...

After two straight weeks of lacking "fitted" content on the blog, this week's motto is S naps Ain't Back !!!! Like most collectors in the cap enthusiast community, my preference is to own a fitted version of a cap but there are times when the retro fitted is not a better option than a true vintage snapback.The caps I've featured the previous two posts are perfect examples of this. The 1983 Charleston Charlies retro from Ebbets Field Flannels released a few years ago has a logo that is a bit more squat than the one on my cap but more importantly, I would have preferred a nylon material over their standard wool offering in that case. I'm also not even sure if the Charlies had a fitted version of that cap since it was only worn for a year. The next instance is the  immediately noticeable   minified Charleston Wheelers logo on Hat Club's retro. This also happened with one of their Portland Rockies releases but then again, these are all such a rare logos tha...

Shortly after publishing last week's Bangor Blue Ox post , I realized that I was in the midst of a nice little streak of featuring hats from Northeast cities whose name begin with the letter "B" (ie. Buffalo, NY and Bangor, ME) thus this Batavia Clippers retro cap from Ebbets Field Flannels seemed like a natural fit for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection.  Batavia's affiliation with the Philadelphia Phillies lasted from 1988-2006 and the team heavily leaned on their parent club when it came to uniform design for the first ten years of their arrangement, after which they rebranded as the Batavia Muckdogs. This permutation of the Phillies "P" into a "B" was only in use from 1991 and 1992 but because those were two prime years during the height of my early obsession with baseball, this logo is the first one that comes to mind whenever the Batavia Clippers are discussed. I cannot say enough good things about the quality Ebbets put forth on ...

Welcome to the third––and perhaps final––Keystone State Party post, folks! After neglecting to discuss the nautical components of last week's Erie SeaWolves logo design, I've decided to dive right into examining the maritime theme in this Erie Sailors retro cap from Ebbets Field Flannels that I've selected for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post. Incorporating the baseball into the ship's wheel tie-in to Erie's deep naval history, especially when one considers Erie's role in the War of 1812, and more specifically the Battle of Lake Erie . In fact, the town's first known and recorded baseball team in 1906 was called the Erie Sailors. A cap that encapsulates the proud naval tradition of this fine nation deserves nothing less than Ebbets Field Flannel's "Made in U.S.A." construction. Their faithful reproductions and attention to detail in workmanship is what every cap maker should strive to emulate.  The shade of green featured on the underv...

Editors note: Whoopsie, forgot to publish this last week! Enjoy. This week's Tucson Toros retro from Ebbets Field Flannels is the last vintage/retro style Pacific Coast League hat from my collection that I've got to share with y'all for the time being so I hope you enjoy the nostalgia before it's gone. Sorry, I shouldn't have gone there. Well maybe I should have because my love for baseball was born in the 1980s so of course I mostly remember the Toros as a Houston Astros affiliate who wore a garish red cap like  last week's Albuquerque Dukes cap . I've written about the lurid cap the Toros wore during that era however this week's hat features the design the team wore for the 1977 and 1978 seasons when they were the top farm club for the Texas Rangers. July 4th Weekend is as good a time as any to take a moment to remind everyone how important Ebbets Field Flannels is to baseball fans who appreciate quality caps that are Made in U.S.A. ...