Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

I am not going to front: I had multiple Philadelphia-adjacent caps at the ready for this week and the next but the Phillies' elimination in the NLCS by the Arizona Diamondbacks has summarily drained my desire to post photos of those hats thus, this week I am channeling National Black Cat Day energy for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post. And since I don't have any caps with a black cat on the logo we are pivoting by showcasing the embroidery of a white bat on a black hat which I guess which is acceptable because we are staying within the spooky parameters of the Halloween season! I've mentioned this before but I would really like to see some sort of "Clink Room" sweatband  tag on these caps if for no other reason than experiencing the joy of pure symmetry!  See how nice the Clink Kong logo looks in his symmetrically embroidered glory here? I love this! My life is filled with few regrets which is why I have no misgivings about posting Mystery "N" S

It has been over five years since my  1980-92 Reading Phillies snapback  post so I am extra excited bout this this week's  Fresh Fitted Friday  which is a special one because I am finally able to feature a fitted version of the cap. This cap is one of the many stunning MILB releases by the one and only  @djmach716  from New Era shop in Buffalo, NY. Back in August I featured the  "New Era Buffalo Exclusive" Vermont Expos  which was also obtained from the flagship via an assist from my friend  @yellowsub73 . I was hesitant to name which other caps I wanted to scoop up from the store however this week's Reading Phillies hat marks the first revelation of that set and soon enough I will be sharing more from my recent haul. This is about as close as you can get to the 1980s Reading Phillies logo and I am fairly certain we won't see a retro this good ever again. My fear is based on releases in the recent past where the bigger stores have messed up the font on elegant log

Now that the 2023 ALCS and NLCS matchups are fully fleshed out, this week's Fresh Fitted Friday post seems like a good time to finally discuss the MLB teams that have had memorable campaigns and have earned the chance to compete in this year's postseason. I'd like to begin by first shouting out the clubs who are not moving forward in the playoffs. As a San Francisco Giants fan, my Schadenfreude was firing into overdrive as the "looking good on paper while winning 100 regular season games"  Los Angeles Dodgers were swept in the NLDS  this past Wednesday although I would have taken greater pleasure in that event had it not also meant success for the Arizona Diamondbacks. To their credit the Dbacks finished the season strong and have not lost a postseason game however they are a division rival so that is the extent to which I will tip my cap. I admittedly enjoy watching Zac Gallen pitch and Ketel Marte was a solid performer on one of my fantasy teams this year but I

A few weeks back I mentioned wanting to write about teams in the playoff race but instead opted to feature the  "Mystery 'N' Star" post —which in a way is adjacent to the Texas Rangers, who are now in the postseason—however despite the League Division Series starting this weekend, I am holding off on showcasing any of those eight teams until the games are officially underway. Of course, half the teams could be eliminated by the time next Friday comes along but I am taking that risk because today's date is October 6 and any fan of Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland  should associate 10/6 with the Hatter and thus felt compelled to write about a cap where the logo prominently features a hat for National Mad Hatter Day. I write about the Trading Block a lot and while I do hoard a large portion of my caps, there are a good amount that I am willing to move if I can find the right trading partner. And that's what happened recently when

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