Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

I'm not sure if this is a record or not but I realized just as I sat down to write this post that it's been exactly two months since I've written about a snapback. Now while that Yakima Bears cap had some serious age on it, this week's Albuquerque Dukes hat is even older. As a San Francisco Giants fan, I'm typically opposed to showing any sort of enthusiasm toward the Los Angeles Dodgers and their affiliates but this Dukes cap is really great even though it's a red hat which I'm not into for obvious reasons. The team wore this cap from 1985 through their final season in Albuquerque which was in 2000. Baseball card photography from the late 80's and early 90's leaves a lot to be desired––as does the photography in the early years of this blog as I'm well aware––so I am not sure which exact year they switched over to grey underbrims. If you clicked on the link in the caption above you'll get to one of my first posts on this blog

This week's episode of The Quarantine Road Trip takes us to Denver which is just a few miles away from my alma mater, University of Colorado at Boulder. I showed love to Denver's MILB past back  in one of my earliest posts  but it must be said that  the longest-standing team name associated with the Mile High is the Bears, and not the Zephyrs. According some really low-quality photos I had to squint to decipher, I've determined that the Denver Bears only wore this logo from 1982-84 and  I'm going to go on believing that  until someone proves otherwise! I normally wear 7 3/8 so I'm not really sure why I went with a 7 1/2 here. Either way, it's better to go a size up than a size down, or two sizes down which is also a thing that I accidentally not long ago. The MILB batterman looks a little strange with the green underbrim but it's incredibly difficult to find a Denver Bears hat so I'll take it. The story of why this week's cap is ver

This week's episode of The Quarantine Road Trip still finds us in Alberta however this time we are taken even further north as we are examining this Edmonton Trappers retro that I picked up from Hat Club in August 2019. Like  last week's Calgary hat , I've got a strong connection to this Trappers logo which is ironic considering it was only a few years ago when I finally examined he design up close. That dude is pretty weird looking, isn't he? I've got to take a quick moment to say how much I appreciate Hat Club's commitment to producing high quality caps—and usually Made in U.S.A. taboot—as well as their usual reliability in reproducing logos for lots of these wacky teams from he 1980s and 90's that are now defunct. The combination of the kelly green underbrim with no MILB batterman is old school and I'm very into it. I really hope that Hat Club gets the itch to release more of these retro caps as it seems like it's been a while si

This next chapter of the Quarantine Road Trip will primarily focus on bygone logos from the Pacific Coast League starting with the Calgary Cannons, which was a team that I distinctly remember from my youth despite my hometown being 2,500 miles away. Note, when you don't have a driver's license, the difference between 2,500 and 250 miles isn't much. I've written about the 1998 Cannons cap previously but the logo that the team wore from 1993 through 1997 is the one I that I will always associate with Calgary as that period was essentially the crescendo of my MILB mania. The sweatband tags here are identical to other caps from 1992 and 1993 in my collection such as Hickory Crawdads , Carolina Mudcats  and  Bend Rockies . In the photo below you'll see that there is no MILB batterman logo, proving this cap cannot be from before 1993. Like I said, no batterman logo. If you don't believe me, I don't know what to tell you, Jack! As I stated before,

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

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

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