Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

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'

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

Trend alert! So for the third straight week we are looking at a Class A Short Season team however unlike the last few posts, this week the team is not from the New York-Penn League but rather its west coast counterpart. I've previously posted about hats of the Everett Giants (now AquaSox) of the Northwest League and based on all of the images I've seen, this particular version was only worn during their inaugural season in 1984. The  only images I've found of an Everett Giants player wearing this version of the cap are in the  black and white photographs used for the baseball cards from the 1984 Cramer set and I think I see some  discrepancies between these two caps. While my cap has a green underbrim it seems as though Joe Olker is seen here wearing what appears to be a grey underbrim on his cap. I'm at loss as to why a black and white photo was used for a baseball card as recently as 1984 but, alas. Side note: I have a friend who is

Welcome to the second installment of Maryland-fest, hon! Last week's Hagerstown Suns hat shone brightly but week's iteration of the cap is super-rare as it is the one  worn when the team served as Baltimore's Double-A farm in the Eastern League from 1989 to 1992. Cursive script fonts have never been the go-to choice for cap logos but this is my favorite Hagerstown Suns logo because it was so short-lived and it reminds me of my days as a youngster collecting autographs. The classic MILB hat combination: a single New Era sweatband tag and a green underbrim. Perfection.  Some might say snapbacks don't have a place on Fresh Fitted Friday but remember not many Double-A teams wore fitted caps back in the day.  According to Baseball Reference, about half of the 1988 Single-A Suns played on the Double-A team for at least part of the 1989 season so while it might not have seemed like a big promotion at the time, I imagine the fans in Hagerstown all felt like

You guys, the Houston Astros are in the World Series right now! I'm not going to say I told you so, but I did tell you so  and if you don't feel like reading that entire post where I told you so, I'll give you the quick and dirty: I told you so back in March!  One thing that's more important than being right about telling you so is that I want the Dodgers to lose this series so I'm doing my part to root on the Astros by featuring a hat from a team that plays in a city which once hosted an Astros affiliate: the Burlington Bees. This is a brand new addition to my collection and it is certainly going to be one of my most cherished caps as it was a gift from my wife, whose nickname is Bee! How cute is that, y'all?  This is the Bees' official on-field road cap and I prefer this one more than the home version which has the same purplish blue crown but with a yellow gold bill. The Burlington Bees are currently a Class-A affiliate for the Lo

At this point I must admit that last week's call for black magick was useless. Since there's no point in summoning sorcery for this week, I'm just praying the Giants don't get swept by the Padres this weekend and ending the season with 100 losses. Since I'm tuning in to that series while in Atlanta, this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a Greenville Braves cap. Bonus points for this week's photos at a Pearle Vision in Roswell, GA. And extra bonus points for the 70's interior.  While the  sweatband tags and  satin taping style are consistent with caps I've featured from the mid 1990's, this cap is most likely not from any time before 1999 which is when the New Era flag began to appear on minor league caps. This Joe Nelson card from 1999 is the oldest Greenville Braves card I could find with a player in a cap sporting the New Era flag. Image courtesy of COMC This cap logo is a reminder of how dominant the Atl

It's the penultimate week of the 2017 MLB regular season schedule and I'm feeling rather downtrodden, folks. The crummy Los Angeles Dodgers will clinch their 5th consecutive NL West title tonight or tomorrow and the odds are my poor defenseless San Francisco Giants will be the opposing team in the visitor dugout at Dodger Stadium when that happens. You might recall that last year  I called for black magick to eliminate the Dodgers from the NLCS and I'm desperately in need of sorcery this weekend so the  Giants sweep LA thus preventing Dodgers fans from mocking us as they celebrates. To show I'm serious , this week's sacrifice cap is a former Dodgers minor league affiliate: the Great Falls Dodgers. In all the years I've been doing this dang blog, I never thought I'd ever write about a Dodgers hat but here we are.  While last week's cap featured a Dodger-esque design element, this week's cap is more Dodger-istic, meaning you can 100%

Alright folks, I admit last week's cap was not very tantalizing but if every week's post features an exciting hat then what is an exciting hat? Ok well, maybe you just have high standards for this site so I should just shut up and deliver this ultra-rare treat: a super vintage Fort Lauderdale Yankees cap. A lot has happened in this past week's news cycle but let's not soon forget the devastation that  Hurricane Irma wreaked in the Caribbean as well as many parts of Florida, including Fort Lauderdale. For Tampa, it meant the Rays were not be able to play a home series against the Yankees so that series ended up getting played at CitiField in New York.  It was a rare treat to see the Yankees play somewhere other than Yankee Stadium so I wore my Fort Lauderdale Yankees  (rather than a Tampa Yankees)   hat to honor the occasion as well as to show solidarity with my Floridian friends. I suppose I've always associated Fort Lauderdale with pinstripes because