Showing posts with the label Carolina League
1992 Peninsula Pilots
Welp I ran out of Carolina League teams to show y'all but that's not shocking considering it's a small league after all. Until 2016 there were only eight teams in the Carolina League and I've already written about six (seven including last week's Winston-Salem Spirits cap) of the cities with current teams, as well as the Durham Bulls who are no longer in the league. As for the other cities (both former and current) in the league, there isn't a hat that I've felt the a strong enough need to obtain about besides, of course, the crown jewel of my Carolina League collection: the Peninsula Pilots. Objectively, the logo is nothing special and could easily be confused with a Detroit Pistons hat. In fact, the only other Pilots hat that I ever found was mislabeled as a Pistons hat in an eBay listing. Unfortunately, the seller removed the item before I had a chance to bid on it and for that reason I feel extra fortunate that I found this beater a few years l
Ok so before we get started here, I have something to admit: this week's edition of Fresh Fitted Friday features photos of a cap that isn't actually in my possession but it's one that I just had to share as the cap logo worn by the Winston-Salem Spirits from 1990 through 1995 is a Carolina League classic that evokes warm memories for me when I look at it. As long as I've been into minor league baseball, there have been hats that piqued my interest yet never committed to buying. This Spirits hat is a great example of that because there were so many other logos that drew me in while this one was in its prime that it got lost in the mix but oh, how I pine for it now that I rarely see it for sale anywhere. What's worse is I'm feeling a sort of double regret because I came across one that was too small a while back but the seller wanted $100 which I felt was too much to spend on one hat. I'm sure I would have appreciated this hat as much as four $25 hats
1992-95 Prince William Cannons Cap
I've probably mentioned this more than a few times already but my life-long love for baseball truly is something that's shaped the person I am today. F lipping through baseball cards as a child helped developed my knack for matching names with faces while poring over stats on the backs of those cards led to my o bsession with analyzing data. As far as the subject matter in this blog, my appreciation for visual aesthetics in design is rooted in hours spent staring at logos on caps and uniforms of ballplayers while organizing my cards and watching games on television. My penchant for nostalgia is so blatant, it should't surprise you that my first hats are ones that resonate the deepest with me. My first MLB caps were the caps worn by the Chicago White Sox and Florida Marlins in the early 1990's and my first MILB caps were the New Haven Ravens, Greensboro Hornets and Prince William Cannons. Because the current theme here is the Carolina League, I've got not one, b
1988-91 Lynchburg Red Sox
I realize that not all of my readers are football fans but I really do think most of y'all are at least a little pumped up for the Super Series, er, World Bowl, um, I mean Super Bowl this weekend. I'm obviously more of a baseball fan but I do enjoy watching "The Big Game" with friends plus you can't deny the awesomeness of the food at Super Bowl parties. The dilemma for this year's Super Bowl matchup is almost as bad as what I faced during the 2018 World Series: having to make a decision on whether to root for Boston or Los Angeles is nauseating for a resident of New York City who is a fan of San Francisco teams. I'm not a die-hard 49ers fan but they share a division with the Los Angeles Rams and besides, I can't fathom ever rooting for any team from LA. Thus the New England Patriots are my team this time around even though they are division rivals to the Buffalo Bills, which is the team that I have half-heartedly followed ever since moving to New
Early 1990's Durham Bulls
Disclaimer: So I said last week that the International League celebration would be coming to an end then and while you think I'm breaking my word for today's Fresh Fitted Friday selection, I'm actually well within the rules because this Durham Bulls cap dates back to when they were members of the Single-A Carolina League. The first year the Bulls wore this logo on their cap was in 1988 but I have a feeling that the paper tags that came attached to New Era caps didn't begin to appear until sometime in the early 1990's. If anyone has any proof otherwise, I'm all ears however a nother reason I presume this one to be from then is because of the tags on the sweatband. My apologies for the crummy quality of these photos but would you believe that they're from 2011? If you're ever been in awe about how old some of these caps are, just remember that some of the photos of these old caps are almost 10 years old themselves! Now, I must
1992-93 Carolina Mudcats
Has it really been almost four months since my last post? Of course that's a rhetorical question but I still want to explain why I lapsed for so long. The quick answer is I've been preoccupied with other activities over the past few months however at some point during that time I should have posted a quick blurb about the hiatus but I kept getting distracted. I also lost interest in all things baseball as I saw my San Francisco Giants play terribly once again this year and now that the regular season has come to a close, I've decided to hate-watch the NLCS. For the second year in a row, the Los Angeles Dodgers are clear favorites to win the pennant but I'm going to be rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers in the series. This petty tactic is the reason why this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection is a Carolina Mudcats cap as they are the Class A affiliate of the Brewers in the Carolina League. How fortuitous that I just happened to have the tags still on this cap that's ov
Prince William Cannons - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!
MLB's 2018 season is just a month in however it didn't truly begin for me until I got to attend my first game of the year this past Wednesday. I'm thankful that technology allows me to watch multiple games in split screen mode on my TV but it can't compare to the sensation I felt when I made my maiden voyage through the turnstiles at Yankee Stadium. I was fortunate to enjoy the game among the company of three friends who are all hardcore baseball fans and each attending their first game of the season as well. Of course, it was lots of fun and the cherry on top was that I christened a retro Prince William Yankees cap! This custom retro cap of the cap worn by the former Yankees Carolina League affiliate was spearheaded by a friend of mine with whom I jaws about hats a lot on Twitter ( @TerryT804) and Instagram ( @djtdawg) Like the OG cap, this one has a green underbrim but features a black sweatband and but the cap is made of the more modern polyester material, which I pref
2002 Myrtle Beach Pelicans Snapback Hat - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!
In last week's Vermont Lake Monsters write-up I discussed how in addition to redesigning the current Vermont Lake Monsters logo, San Diego design-firm Brandiose was also recently hired to redesign the logo for the Norfolk Tides. The news definitely prompted my selection for last week's Fresh Fitted and it definitely has a role in this one's as well, which - please Hammers, don't hurt me - is actually a snapback of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans from the 2002 season. This cap suffers from a mild case of 1990's Tealism, which is defined (by me) as excessive use of teal in a team's design colorway. Most of the caps that I've obtained from 2003 and after feature New Era/59Fifty branding on the cap's inside panel lining and its absence here tells me this cap is from 2002 at the latest. The sweatband tags stay doing in that early 2000's style Y'all can't be mad at me cos I already announced that this is a snapback; let that dark teal batterman logo soothe the ne