Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

The free agency hot stove reached its boiling point in the past week or so with announcements of Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman, Bo Bichette, and Cody Bellinger finally signing contracts with teams ahead of next season. We are a few weeks away from pitchers and catchers arriving at Spring Training, so hopefully, your team has made moves to give you hope going into 2026! My San Francisco Giants have not made any significant roster moves, but I sense Tony Vitello will be impactful as our skipper, and I am not giving up on us making a play for Framber Valdez, as the teams closely linked to him besides us are the Orioles, Cubs, and Mets. Each of those teams has made a big splash either through free agency or trades, so I'm keeping the faith. As a New Yorker, I am happy for Bellinger's return to the Bronx and even happier for Bichette coming to America (ie. Queens), which, combined with the news of Carlos Beltran being voted into the Hall of Fame earlier this week, serves as the inspirat...

All-Star week is the most boring time of year for major league sports fans, as it’s the only stretch where there is not at least one game played in MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL. As addicted as I am to baseball, I actually don’t mind the break much because at this point of the season, I appreciate not having to set fantasy rosters for a few days! Now that I'm recharged I'm looking forward to my next planned game on Wednesday as the Los Angeles Angels take on the New York Mets for their biennial visit to Queens. The theme for this week’s post is the homestand this upcoming weekend, with Saturday being the number retirement and Mets Hall of Fame induction of former captain David Wright. Mentioning Wright in last week’s post was a foreshadowing of my plan to wear this vintage Wausau Mets hat in honor of “W” being his last initial but alas ticket prices on the secondary market are sky high for that game so I’ll likely be watching from home!  Now that we're firmly in the fine print zone...

I returned from my trip to Colorado just a few days ago feeling recharged after reconnecting with longtime friends and places that are deeply meaningful to me. As I mentioned in the first post of this "Homecoming Series" , Colorado was my college home in between my childhood years in Virginia and the ones when I lived in the Bay Area before I finally came to New York. The third post in this sequence is the last before the All-Star break and it connects three of the four places I have lived thus far as it is the cap worn by David Wright—who like myself, was born in DePaul Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia—when he represented the New York Mets in the 2007 All-Star game which was held in San Francisco. I am glad the Mets chose their black hat for that game because the minimal amount of blue and slight bit of orange pairs beautifully with the side patch.  I've stated many times the 2007 All-Star Game hat is my favorite one ever and if this cap was my size you can be sure I would ...

The big news around baseball this week was the New York Mets reuniting with their superstar first baseman Pete Alonso on a two-year deal worth $54M.  While the $10M signing bonus is an unfathomable sum for most folks to comprehend, Alonso could have net even more had he not turned down the $158 seven year deal the Mets offered in June 2023. I should note that I find pocket-watching tacky and my approach to the game is based in emotion rather than a place based in accounting! In any case, it is fun for fans to goad the ownership of their beloved teams to pay "whatever it takes" to bring back beloved players like Alonso, especially after giving out a massive payday to Juan Soto  this offseason. As a San Francisco Giants fan, I am pleased with the free agent signings of Willy Adames and Justin Verlander but cannot avoid being annoyed by the  Los Angeles Dodgers even busier offseason as well as in recent years where they've managed to rope in Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman an...

When I sat down to write last week's Joplin Miners post, I had yet not considered how the cap logo's "J" could have been a suitable pre-farewell tribute to Juan Soto and his time ending with the New York Yankees but depending on how you look at things, it could also have been regarded as a plea for him to stay in the Bronx! Either way, the Soto Sweepstakes ended when news broke this past Sunday night that the star outfielder agreed to some comically large compensation amount  by signing with the New York Mets. And t his time I will take credit for the tie-in with Soto and the "J" on the logo of this "Fresh Mesh" snapback the Jackson Mets wore from 1979 through 1987. The last Fresh Mesh cap I wrote about was this 1988 Greensboro Hornets post  back in April 2021 but both logos are very close in terms of my love for them. I'm really surprised how clean the sweatband is on this hat which could very well be 40 years old at this point. I am pretty s...

I took a break from writing last week as I was simply too invested in the ALCS and NLCS to even formulate a coherent sentence and besides that I did not have an interesting hat to write about! But now that the Mets have been eliminated by the Dodgers, now is as good a time as any to showcase a fun hat to honor an otherwise outstanding year for The Kings of Queens. I mentioned Rosh Hashanah in my Eugene Emeralds post so those who celebrate can hopefully appreciate the of symbols of hope for  health, prosperity and general sweetness in the new year that apples represent.  Grey undervisor brings the retro vibes which a perfect match to the classically Amazin' royal blue and orange elements in the cap's design This is such a clean cap overall, I think I will be wearing this cap around town frequently.  After the Yankees punched their ticket to the World Series with their  ALCS  Game 5 win over Cleveland this past Saturday night, I became a ball of nervous energy as ...

Happy Opening Day folks! I'm so very thrilled baseball is back. In fact, as I write this there are three games happening on different screens which tells you just how much I am obsessed with this game! I plan on spending all weekend watching games except for a few nightime activities I have planned to celebrate a friend's big birthday which I'm excited about too! The first initial of our birthday friend's name is "S" and she is originally from Syracuse so of course in her honor, this week's Fresh Fitted Friday  selection is a Syracuse Mets on-field that the team wears while playing games on the road.  Our friend has lived here in New York City since graduating from Syracuse Univeristy so the Mets connection to her hometown with this cap is perfect.  She loves seeing live music in the City but even more than that loves traveling to see music so that's just another reason why this cap is perfect for her. This cap is from Bangladesh and you couldn't p...

I am not sure if I have mentioned this enough before but a big reason why I have this blog is to perform a sort of weekly check-in with myself and baseball. Writing and baseball have been grounding forces in my life so it only makes sense for me to use these posts as a way to connect all of my random thoughts with the game and the hats I wear everyday. My first hat-related posts here were mostly part of a spurt in output during August 2011, followed by a short hiatus until my  1992 Seattle Mariners cap post from August 2013 . From that point until now I've strived to be consistent in my write-ups with the goal of attracting and retaining a good amount of eyeballs as well as for that trend to continue! It's no coincidence that 2013 has great significance for me as that was the year I met my now-wife, who is ever-supportive of my writing. She lets me know when my collecting gets out of hand but also entertains frequent quips such as "ain't it neat I brought up the...

For the second week in a row I'm featuring a Favorites cap from my collection and before you start thinking "every cap is my favorite" I want to mention  the reason for posting this cap the Norfolk Tides wore from 1993-2015 today is because International Surfing Day is held annually on the third Saturday in June which happens to be tomorrow, June 17th. Until the team rebranded in 2016, the "wavy T" logo was the main cap logo worn by the Tides since 1993 which was their inaugural season at Harbor Park. The combination of a new uniform and ballpark undoubtedly ushered in a new  wave  of appreciation for the team. Luckily the "Made in China" tag is hiding underneath the sweatband here! The sky blue on the brim, button and batterman are a nice touch here but if we are being honest, they give off too much of a UNC vibe for my taste. Earlier I mentioned how the "new look" Tides of 1993 reinvigorated the team and I imagine after wearing this cap fo...

I've been holding onto this 1927 Brooklyn Royal Giants retro cap that the New York Mets wore during Negro Leagues Tribute games from 2014 through 2016 and I'm ecstatic to finally break it out in recognition of Buck O’Neil, Bud Fowler, and Minnie Minoso being elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame this past Sunday, December 4 . In addition to that formidable trio of Negro League superstars getting their due in Cooperstown, another reason to showcase this cap today is to celebrate Human Rights Day which is observed on December 10 every year. Baseball's history has been marred by inequity every step of the way and it is important to take note of events like Sunday's that aim to correct those wrongs.  Unique hats with this colorway are a great option for non-Mets fans to wear at a Mets game in New York. Most people won't know or care about the logo is but it's all worth it when someone gives you props when they recognize it.  That "Made in U.S.A."...

I was speaking with someone recently who made reference to some album having come out 30 years ago and after a few automatic nods in obligatory agreement, it dawned on me that we were talking about something that happened in 1991, folks! I'm not sure if this type of confusion becomes a more frequent occurrence the older we get but, this one really threw me for a loop. I happened to be watching baseball during this conversation so it's no surprise I started to think about how this year's top teams fared thirty years ago.  The Atlanta Braves were the big story in 1991 when they became the first National League team to appear in a World Series after having finished the previous season in last place. Even though they ended up falling to the the Minnesota Twins in Game 7 of that most memorable series, that season brought the team its first of 14 consecutive division titles. The Braves had an even better record the following year, returning to the Fall Classic once again however ...