Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

After a busy few weeks of travel in September and holidays leading up to now, I had considered not posting this week however I am not quite sure what else to do besides write about a hat since the playoff schedule features no games today the Wild Card Series have only just wrapped up yesterday. With the Division Series matchups being firmly set for each league on the first Friday in October, I selected this retro of the 1951 Ottawa Giants cap for this week's Fresh Fitted Friday into the realm of both Spooky Season and wishful thinking for next season as I hope my San Francisco Giants can make a return to the postseason! I wrote about the V2 edition of this cap in May 2024 but the serifs on this variant which I purchased prior to that one is superior in all ways as it screams "Giants" in the best way! Ebbets is no longer the mighty purveyor of interesting minor league logos that it once was but I'm thankful to have this "Made In U.S.A." gem in my collection k...

Unless your favorite team is in the mix for a postseason run, the last week of baseball's regular season is an objectively boring time. Sadly, the San Francisco Giants were eliminated from the Wild Card race Tuesday night, so without that pressure, I'll try to simply be happy for the winning teams, especially if their success comes at the expense of the Los Angeles Dodgers! My pettiness will only subside once the Dodgers are knocked out of contention; however, their odds to repeat as World Series champions are incredibly favorable, with only the Philadelphia Phillies having a slight advantage over them at this point in time. Thus, to subside my feelings of hopelessness, I have shifted my focus to the minor league baseball playoff landscape! In fact, as I sat down to write this post, I streamed the deciding game of the 2025 International League Championship Series between the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Marlins) and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (Yankees), in which Jackson...

Roberto Clemente Day was celebrated across Major League Baseball games earlier this week on September 15 and while I have previously honored the date with a post just three years ago ,  this year's tribute aligns with International Talk Like a Pirate Day which happens to be today! I like the svelt "P" here about as much as the overblown version that the team wears now and think it would be neat to see them wear this version every now again. I've posted Roman caps only twice before however one was a fitted with a leather band and the other had a white sweatband was a snapback  which makes this one the first of its kind featured here! I love the kelly green on this undervisor and am looking forward to seeing how it ages as the cap gets even more age on it. I don't have much to add in terms of thoughts on this cap but perhaps that is for the best as it allows us to reflect on Clemente's legacy and how his impact will continue to be felt as the years go by. The n...

I have been holding onto this Savannah Bananas cap for a few years now and am finally featuring it as this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection as I am finally be attending my first-ever Banana Ball game at Yankee Stadium this coming Sunday!  The all-blue cap might be the main one worn on-field by Savannah, but I love the way the yellow pops on the white crown on this alternate more than any other cap that was available at my time of purchase. It's also worth mentioning that was before they sold a New Era version, which reverses the blue visor and yellow rear from this hat.   Not a crazy fan of the tonal visor and undervisor, but all in all, this is a great cap that I cannot wait to finally wear out in the wild on Sunday at Yankee Stadium. My first-ever cap from Zephyr Headwear just had to be a Savannah Bananas hat, didn't it?!? I have been following along the Bananas' inspiring journey since their inaugural season in the Coastal Plain League in 2016, as they filled the...

Ahead of the Modesto Nuts final homestand, I have finally procured my first ever Nuts cap as I stated that I hoped I would do this year back in my  San Bernardino Spirit post   from December 20, 2024. As I mentioned in that post, Modesto has fielded a team for almost 80 years so closing out the California League's season with this cap seems like a fitting tribute. This logo is not the first one that comes to mind when minor league fans first think of the team but it has made its fair share of appearances over the past 20 years of their existence and it plays a fine straight man to the wild embroidery design of the side patch. I had a hard time trying to decide if I wanted a cap featuring Al Almond or Wally Walnut so thankfully Topperzstoreusa came through in the clutch by featuring both on the embroidery. It is done up in a metallic style that is not easy to read however if you are familiar with the team's designs it's fairly obvious. The embroidery is so massive the hat is...

The big conversation topic in the baseball world this week was spawned by comments made by Commissioner Rob Manfred in an interview during the fourth inning of the 2025 MLB Little League Classic this past Sunday. In that segment he discussed his support for expansion and a geographic realignment which has not happened since the strike-shortened 1994 season . The last time MLB introduced new teams was in 1998 when the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now Tampa Bay Rays) joined the National and American Leagues, respectively. The next expansion clubs, however, might not even be part of either "league" in the current sense if the realignment reorganizes each circuit into geographical conferences. The first thing to sort is which cities get teams and I am glad Portland has finally emerged as a frontrunner for one on the West Coast. Their presence brings us closer to my favorite period in baseball history: the heyday of the Pacific Coast League (PCL), which effective...