Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

We are two weeks into Hispanic Heritage Month and calling back to last year's Los Murciélagos de Louisville  post is this week's Abejas de Salt Lake cap, which is another stunning logo created for the Copa de la Diversión campaign which itself is an expansion of the Es Divertido Ser Un Fan ("It's Fun to Be a Fan") fan engagement program that began in 2017. This logo is one of the more understated Copa designs but the clean lines and bright colors—featuring just the right amount of Tealism , by the way—caught my eye instantly and I especially  appreciate how they implement the bee stripes into the "A" here.   The grey undervisor is a special treat due to this cap being a Hat Club exclusive that I purchased in March 2020. Obviously the entire MILB season was canceled that year but even it had not, the team would not have worn this cap as this was a fan only release.  I love how relaxed the Miami Nights/San Antonio Spurs vibe is on this batterman. All of a

Many of the themes for this blog's posts are planned out well in advance however there are times when inspiration strikes or perhaps some current event takes priority and this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection falls somewhere in between the latter two categories. I considered a few ideas related to the playoff race in the mighty American League East, whose second and third best teams will likely be the ones battling during the Wild Card series. At the last minute though, I decided to hold off on the congratulatory posts because I became aware of a significant baseball-related event that happened on this date 30 years ago. When I first starting got into baseball in the mid 1980s, the style and gas of pitchers like Dwight Gooden and Roger Clemens held my full attention however I am thankful to have eventually learned to appreciate the mastery of future Hall of Famers like Nolan Ryan and Jack Morris before they retired. While I have not yet discussed Morris in any previous pos

The Atlanta Braves clinched the National League East Division earlier this week, however instead of dedicating this week's  Fresh Fitted Friday  to the big news of being the first MLB team this year to gain a postseason berth, we honor the centennial of the birth of Hank Williams—another iconic Southern entity—which is this coming Sunday, September 17. I have recently featured two Hip Hop 50 related hats so now is a good time to temporarily shift gears with a country-tinged cap. As I have mentioned before, I grew up listening to lots of hard rock and rap in the 1980s although sadly never appreciated country music until I went to college in Colorado which is where I first learned about bluegrass and Americana in general. My first exposure to "The Hillbilly Shakespeare" is not a memory I can accurately retrace however I suspect a key catalyst to that moment was my chemistry lab partner, Nathan, who grew up in Nashville, TN. Each of us had diverse musical tastes that we enj

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