Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Last week's Montreal Expos post was a little heavy but y'all know how I get when I get to talking about that dang team! While this week continues on the Expos trend, I wanted to showcase this ever-so-fun Vermont Expos snapback from the mid-1990's. That's Champ. He's the team's mascot and he's an undeniably happy little fella there isn't he? He couldn't get mad if he wanted to. Even if Jeffrey Loria wanted to drain the swamp (or lake) in which he lives. I was looking for a fitted version of this cap but it's a hard cap logo to find so I'm happy with the snapback version for now.  We've definitely seen this tag before and while it's not a giveaway for a specific year, the lack of the "New Era flag" tags tells me it's pre-1997. As far as I've been able to tell, the MILB batterman has  appeared on caps around 1994  at the earliest. You're seeing it from the inside here so you can appreciate the lo

Update: I modified some formatting below and fixed some broken image links (with old, somewhat blurry photos) but kept the content the same otherwise. (10/13/2021) After spending the last few weeks digging into sweatband tags of World Series caps, I'm ready for a change of topic. I was either looking for a cap with a connection to Tim Raines but there are many others that have patiently been waiting on the shelf as well. W hen I heard the news that Jeffrey Loria was fixing to selling the Florida Marlins  I knew what to do. Compared to the  pinwheel  and the  "Make Montreal Great Again"  styles this is the most subdued of all the logos Montreal rolled out over the years.  I was just chatting with a fellow cap fanatic about how much I love the grey underbrim aesthetic. I love the contrast between it and the darker crowns. It's hard to pinpoint an exact year for this cap but these are the sweatband tags from 1994-1996 This week's post is kind of bittersweet so that&#

If you've been coming around here the past few weeks, you know that I've been on a crazy Tim Raines tear but I'm going to pause on covering his former teams to talk  about this Cleveland Indians 1997  World Series cap. The differences between its tags and  last week's Florida Marlins cap from the very same year got my head spinning so here we are!   Of course, it's important to remember that there were no hard and fast rules — only guidelines — when it came to which tags New Era would use on its caps. The main reason for this differential probably has as much to do with available supply as anything else. Hopefully you enjoy taking a look at this one! The Cleveland Indians primarily used this version of the ever-controversial "Chief Wahoo" cap logo during the 1997 World Series. This one is considerably larger than the logo seen on their 2016 World Series cap . Just like with last week's Florida Marlins 1997 World Series cap, this patch is

After writing about Tim Raines and his connection to the New York Yankees  1996 World Series cap last week, I wanted to cover  another cap from a team that Raines played for.  I was also itching to write about another World Series cap which is why   I'm glad I found this 1997 Florida Marlins cap.  Even though Raines wasn't on the team in 1997, he did spend his last season there in 2002. Sadly, I o nce again need to come clean to state that I do not own this cap. The good news in that admission is that if you head over to eBay fast enough the cap can be yours! Of course I'm not going to provide a link to it or anything but hopefully you can forgive me for that. My opinion often wavers when it comes to colorway preferences, but I dig the teal & black more in comparison to the all-teal and all-black versions.  Not much of a difference between the 1997 World Series patch and the one from the year before  but this patch has become somewhat iconic over time.

Update: I modified some formatting below and fixed some broken image links (with old, somewhat blurry photos) but kept the content the same otherwise. (10/13/2021) I'm not going to mince words here: the best news of this entire week is that Tim Raines has been selected to join the 2017 Baseball Hall of Fame class. I've mentioned before how special Raines is to me and it brings me an incredible feeling of joy to know that he will be enshrined among the other great players who have contributed so much to this game. As a cap enthusiast I wonder which one he will be wearing on his plaque. Of the 23 years Raines played in MLB, 13 were with the now-defunct Montreal Expos. He had a few quality years with the Chicago White Sox but his three years with the New York Yankees were certainly special considering he picked up two World Series rings in that time. Of course, the decision of which cap he will wear on his plaque does not need to be decided just yet, so let's take a momen

08/27/2023 Update : I'm rather embarrassed that it has taken me this long to update this post with disclaimer that I don't actually own this cap. I've only written about a handful of hats that I don't actually own but at times I feel doing so is necessary as it helps collectors come up with accurage years in which caps were produced. To keep things more organized, I've added a "Disclaimer" logo to this post as well as others in which it would also be applicable. It would seem like this week's Fresh Fitted is just an extension off last week's Disco Era Chicago White Sox caps logo but this cap's significance to me is a lot greater than that. I mentioned last time that a minor league team called the Peninsula White Sox (also known as the Pen-Sox) wore this cap from 1986-87.  There aren't many photos or baseball cards of the Pen-Sox but the ones I could find both show them wearing the navy crown/red brim version of the block-style "Sox&q

Welcome to the first Fresh Fitted Friday of 2017, folks! Last year was one that many would rather not remember yet I'd like to propose a different way of bidding it farewall. If you're old enough to remember the 1970's, you could possibly rank certain years in the 1970's lower than 2016.  While 2016 was awful, I'm hesitant to write it off as the worst year EVER.  After all if you are a Chicago Cubs fan, you will definitely take comfort in the team winning their first World Series since 1908. However, if you want to be reminded of a truly awful year —at least in terms of sports— then never let yourself forget that in 1976 the Cubs' crosstown rival  Chicago White Sox  had the gall to wear shorts as part of their uniform! Rich Gossage is rocking the aerodynamic butterfly collar and short trousers in this photo courtesy of  CBS Sports The White Sox wore this blue-billed version of this cap logo from 1976-1981. The sweatband tags were fairly consistent in the late