New Era Alphabet Challenge - I

So now we're up to letter I. This one was really easy because I only have one cap with a single letter I in it. It's a team that plays in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. It's a team whose cap won my heart by doing the one thing that I love best about a Minor League Baseball logo. That is, integrate the parent club's logo into its own. This one goes a step further. It is essentially the same cap, just with a different letter.

Oddly enough, several letters ago I passed up parent cap of this team.

Here is the Iowa Cubs cap, in all its glory:

So simple. So beautiful. Other teams should pay attention.

This one was acquired in a very roundabout way. It started, actually, with a jersey purchase. I found an Iowa Cubs jersey on ebay which I purchased.

Worn by Ricky Gutiérrez, who played with them briefly in 2004.

This was before I had any cap of theirs. Of course, once I had the jersey I had to have the cap. The only available cap at that time (nearly 10 years ago) was this one:

Leaves nothing to the imagination.

Eventually I saw that they had a new cap that was the Chicago Cubs-esque I and I had to have it. I had a nice little email exchange with their merchandise director and she was kind enough to facilitate my purchase and acquisition.

Iowa Cubs. Front view.

It's a very solid looking cap. If you (or someone you love) is a Chicago Cubs fan, I would highly recommend getting this one.

Incidentally, a gorgeously simple cap like this has always led me to wonder why minor league teams don't at the least have an alternate cap that mirrors the parent club? The Braves are the best at this (of course, almost all of their affiliates are called the Braves) The Dodgers used to do this. Great Falls had a great one. Also, the Jacksonville Suns had a cap that interlocked the JS in Dodgers fashion. Even the Angels, back in the day had many minor league affiliates that incorporated a halo around a letter in the logo. It's the small touches such as those that really show pride and a connection between a team and its parent club.

Difficult these days because teams want their own identity.

But that's another story.