Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

In addition to being my favorite band as a kid, Beastie Boys are the biggest inspiration for me moving to New York as an adult. As a Beastie Boys fan growing up in the 1980s, I used words like "def" and "ill" without understanding the context behind these slang words so when I saw the embroidered on the crown of this Acapulco Gold hat, I knew I had to have it. Any Beastie Boys fan worth their weight in salt owns a copy of the band's 1989 record Paul's Boutique and associates the southwest corner of Ludlow and Rivington with being the location photographed for the album's cover. This week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a tribute to the historical event of that corner being officially dubbed “Beastie Boys Square” tomorrow, Sept 9. I love how the serifs resemble those on the current "SF" logo and I'm already trying to think of names for a fake club I can use as a response to questions such as "what team is that?" which I am

Many of this site's readers already know that Phish is my favorite band but what you might not know is that a big yearly tradition of their's since 2011 is to play a multi-night run during Labor Day Weekend at Dick's Sporting Goods Park which is home to the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer. As a former resident of Colorado, I feel obliged to honor this annual event by featuring this 1952 Denver Bears retro cap from Ebbets Field Flannels for this very special Labor Day Weekend edition of Fresh Fitted Friday . This cap was one of my earliest Ebbets caps purchased however the logo from  last year's Denver Bears post ahead of Labor Day Weekend is the one I wish they would retro once again but hopefuly this time with a historically accurate sized logo .  I cannot overstate how much I appreciate that the elegantly understated touchstone elements of an Ebbets cap such as the tags which like the quality of the caps, have stayed consistently great over the years.     Hor

Looking back on last week's Riverside Pilots post, I am only now appreciating how the aviation theme of the team's name dovetails with a nautical element of being a former Seattle Mariners affiliate. Similarly,  the bird in the logo of  this week's Staten Island FerryHawks hat meets that flight requirement while the water surrounding their ballpark provides all the necessary aquatic vibes. The FerryHawks logo from New Jersey-based Skye Design Studios falls perfectly in the middle of the quirky  Poochie Effect and the menacing  Brandiose Clench , which is a stylistic theme I've noticed in the work of the legendary firm that delivered Staten Island's  infamous Pizza Rats identity .   This is the first OC Sports hat I've featured here and while I've been a New Era purist for the majority of my time collecting, their recent quality control issues have led me to seek out other producers.  This is also my first Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB) c

Last week was a celebration of all things hip-hop but at the end of the post, I mentioned how I began this blog's  Fresh Fitted Friday tradition with my 1992 Seattle Mariners post on August 16, 2013 . To that point, it only makes sense that ten years later I'm coming through with a Riverside Pilots retro which to me is undoubtedly one of the best Mariners affiliate logos ever. It's hard to believe it's already been a year since my  Wichita Aeros post celebrating National Aviation Day  and I am glad to showcase this Riverside Pilots hat to continue the tradition as this year the holiday falls tomorrow, August 19. Made in U.S.A. tags are a welcome treat here for sure as they become increasingly more rare by the year with whatever is floating around continues to get snatched up. The teal, navy and silver batterman looks great on a navy crown and especially here. I love all things 90s so of course the current colorway the Mariners have rocked since 1993 is near and dear to

It seems as though every social media out there is posting ads and articles celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. While some of these posts seem to be overly-commercialized, as a hip-hop enthusiast I always appreciate when any sort of positive light is put on the culture that I have been fond of for the vast majority of my life. So in the spirit of not feeling left out in honoring 50 years of hip-hop,  this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is "B-Ball Stance" which was designed by Clinker SierraGonz for The Clink Room . Outside of liking of few of  @sierragonz_  posts on IG, I haven't interacted with them much but I'm a big fan of their work, especially the designs with Native American themes. As far as USA themes go, I can't think of one more unequivocally American than hip-hop. After all we are talking about a culture that was born here in the States and has spread its reach all around the world. In the early days of hip-hop, making your mark styl

The Vermont Expos hat I picked for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post builds on last week's themes of Vermont, Phish and the Expos affiliates and its one that I do not anticipate seeing anyone else wearing around any time soon as it is part of a limited production run of "fantasy" caps from  @djmach716  of New Era shop in Buffalo, NY. Fantasy logos is breathe new life into classic designs and I'm excited for this being the first of such hats that I've picked up from DJ via an assist from my friend  @yellowsub73 . There's a few more that I'm looking to scoop up but of course just to be on safe side, I am holding off on specifying which ones until that moment that I have actually procured them. As a native Virginian, I tend to gravitate caps with logos featuring the letter "V" and even though I know this one is not for my home state. The only thing that I don't love here is the red stitching on the white panels but I've used my seam-

As a general rule of thumb, I tend to keep the theme of these posts topical with current events, anniversaries of historical occurrences and the like however this Burlington Expos hat was selected as tribute to my favorite band, Phish, who originated in Burlington, Vermont. Tonight is the first of  7 consecutive shows that Phish will play at Madison Square Garden and as you can imagine, I'm thrilled about attending all of them however if you are reading this blog you are perhaps knowledgeable enough about minor league baseball to know that the Burlington where these Expos played is actually in the state of Iowa. According to my latest tally via Wikipedia , approximately half of the states in the US have a town, city or county named Burlington however the cities in Iowa and Vermont are actually connected in the sense that a native of the latter called John Gray chose the name Burlington for the former as a tribute to his hometown back east. I was thrilled to pick this cap up from Ha