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Showing posts with the label Northwest League

2019 Monarcas de Eugene (Eugene Emeralds - Copa de la Diversión)

January 19 is National Popcorn Day so of course I am currently regretting not picking up one of the sweet Cracker Jack inspired caps from the "Ballpark Snacks" collection released by Hat Club x Yote City in 2022. Because I am hesitant to pay resell prices for newer caps, I had to quickly find an alternate solution for a popcorn-related cap for this week's  Fresh Fitted Friday post. Whilst researching my options I learned there are two different kinds of corn used to make popcorn:  butterfly and  mushroom. The former is what you are enjoying after it is loaded with butter and salt at the movie theatre whereas   the latter — which  coincidentally enough, also resembles a  baseball— is the kind that is coated in caramel to make  Cracker Jack. Because a brown hat that also features red, white and blue was sadly not at my disposal, a pivot toward the butterfly varietal of popcorn brings us to the Monarcas de Eugene cap which the Eugene Emeralds debuted in 2019 as their inaug

Portland Mavericks (EFF Retro)

I’ll be back on my usual "National Day" celebrations for the next few posts and my focus this week is this 1973 Portland Mavericks retro from Ebbets Field Flannels in recognition of  National Wear Red Day , which is an annual campaign started by the American Heart Association to spread awareness about heart disease in women. I first learned about the Portland Mavericks in a 2014 documentary on Netflix called The Battered Bastards of Baseball . I highly recommend checking out the wild story of this historic ragtag bunch of misfits that played as an unaffiliated team in the Class A Northwest League from 1973-77. The stiff and low profile wool crown on some of the Ebbets retros for 1970s and 1980s designs are top notch for me. Even though the black sweatband might not be historically accurate, not seeing sweat stains makes the cap feel fresher overall. I realize this isn't an all red cap but the color is featured on the front panels enough to work well for National Wear Red

2013 Boise Hawks

Last week I promised that the landing gear was going down on the recent theme of caps with the letter "B" and I'd say it was a success… B-sides  not coming up with a catchy name for the run ! Fun puns notwithstanding,  this week's Boise Hawks hat will be the last of these "B" caps and like all the previous ones, it features a logo that has been decommissioned for a while now. This cap logo variant was first unveiled in November 2006 by Brandiose, which back then was known as Plan B Branding. Should "Plan B" have been the name of this theme all along?!?! Made in USA! As an aside, Boise enlisted  Brandiose to tweak their identity some more again in 2013 , which was right around the time I procured this cap. This was great timing because sadly soon after that year is when New Era ramped up the production of foreign-made MILB caps. This is a very distinctive colorway for the MILB batterman and eyelets and I'm really into it! I mentioned earlier tha

2017 Hillsboro Hops "SanTan Brewery" Hat Club Custom - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

Queue up the "End of the Road" video by Boyz II Men because this week's "San Tan Brewing Company" custom of the Hillsboro Hops cap is the last entry in the Northwest League chapter of the Quarantine Road Trip! I can't believe it's been over five years since I wrote about the on-field cap that the Hops wear ! I suppose that means now is a good time to feature the light blue and gold custom that Hat Club created in 2017. Please accept my apologies for not having the "Made In U.S.A." tag peaking out but the top and bottom of that tag is stitched onto the underside of the New Era tag. Now I'm wondering how many other hats I have where that is the case. The gold and orange MILB batterman is really unique. And now I'm also wondering how many caps I've got that feature gold and orange! I just had to show y'all an image of the inspiration behind this custom colorway from Hat Club. I'm not able to get my hands on t

Pre-2004 Everett AquaSox - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!

I hope everyone appreciated the temporary break from vintage caps over the last few weeks but I have to give you fair warning: this week's Everett AquaSox cap has plenty of aging on it as I have good reasons to believe this particular one was produced before 2004. Just looking at the logo is of no help in estimating this cap's age since the primary design has not been altered since the team's inception back in 1995, which of course was prime-time for tealism which we see prominently on the brim and cap button. The sweatband tags and satin taping on the inside are definitely from no year earlier than 2002 but I'd say this hat is either from that year or 2003, which was the last year this MILB tag appeared on most caps. I like the teal and poison-green on the MILB batterman here. Definitely spices things up! As you're well aware, I'm a huge fan of backstories when it comes to MILB teams and Everett is no exception. I've previously featured the A

1987 Bellingham Mariners Retro (Ebbets Field Flannels) - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

The last pitstop on the Quarantine Road Trip converts last week's Ebbets Field Flannels "back-to-back" feature into a "three-peat" which is absolutely fitting because like most sports fans around the world, I'm completely enamored by The Last Dance , the 10-part ESPN miniseries documenting Michael Jordan's final season on the Chicago Bulls. Similar to the Bulls brand gaining worldwide recognition due to Michael Jordan's heroic efforts, Ken Griffey, Jr. aka "The Kid", is responsible for helping to right the Seattle Mariners ship and making their cap the most popular logo in baseball during the early 1990's.  This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a replica of another cap design made famous by Griffey as he wore during his first professional baseball assignment with the Bellingham Mariners in 1987. A vintage Baby M's cap with this design is next to impossible to find but thankfully Ebbets Field Flannels decided to retro

Early 1990's Yakima Bears

Welcome back to another week under quarantine, folks! This post takes our talents on a road trip out west so that we can discover all the rugged beauty that it has to offer. To mark this special occasion, I've got a Yakima Bears snapback from the early 1990's that I believe to be one of the more rare caps that the team wore during its existence. The simplicity of the Yakima "Y" in the cap logo provides a sense of timelessness and even though the team is now-defunct, the design should be revived by the next team that makes its home in Yakima. Besides the copious amount of schmutz on the sweatband, the tags here tell a very short story as to what year this cap was worn as these two specific tags are prevalent on many of the early 1990's snapbacks that I've seen before. The missing MILB batterman embroidery is suggests to me that this cap is most likely from the early 1990's. I have found no evidence of the team wearing this yellow crowned cap in

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'

1995-96 Portland Rockies - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

Happy new year, dear reader! As you are well aware, I capped off 2017 by posting some photos of rare gems that had yet to be de-tagged and I'm happy to be starting this year off with another one of those hats. So without further ado, the first Fresh Fitted Friday selection of 2018 is a Portland Rockies hat that I estimate to be from 1995 or 1996.  Portland only hosted this Class A Short Season team from 1995-2000 but this logo is legendary as it combines the major league club's aesthetic along with a rose, which is emblematic of Portland, aka the "City of Roses." I can't be the only one who finds it neat that the price of this cap is exactly the same as the team's inaugural season (as well as the year it was worn).  The usual suspects: classic mid-1990's sweatband tags A purple and black MILB batterman patch is a thing to be treasured.  Well friend, if you wear a size 7 1/8 and you've got a great cap in my size to trade