New Era Alphabet Challenge - L

Today's cap representing Letter L is another that was a challenge. Not because I had a tough time choosing. I only have three. But of the three I had to choose from, all three have logos which nearly drown out the letter, and two of them are same team, same logo, just different colorways. So I went with the one which I've always liked best:

The former logo of the Lancaster JetHawks of the California League.

Back before life caught up with me I actually attended three or four JetHawks games per season. Lancaster is around an hour from where I live, so it was a nice little drive, but always a nice park to watch games. And by that, I mean there's nothing else to look at but the games. No real view out there to look at. Also a lot of wind. And it can be hot in the summer. You know, take my word for it, it's a nice place to catch a game.

So anyway, as I've mentioned I went through this phase where I was really into buying minor league baseball jerseys. The JetHawks jerseys, both home and road, were to die for. I had to have them. They went with this futuristic, yet retro Jetsons kind of look in the font. Very pleasing to the eyes.

Sleeveless home jersey.

Lancaster road jersey.

And of course they had to be #19. Both of these jerseys were worn by a pitcher named AJ Shappi, who made it as high as a few games with Tucson in the PCL in 2008. I love both of these jerseys. And I've said that I'm looking to purge a good percentage of my jersey collection, I can say that these two will not be available for sale.

But back to the cap, I always thought it was really unfortunate that Lancaster never chose to integrate this font or style into the cap logo. In fact, as you'll see momentarily, the cap that went with these jerseys was actually the original cap in a different color scheme. Those jerseys were completely different. They looked like this:

Must have been a 90s thing.

And here are the other two letter L caps I have, including the JetHawks cap that goes with this jersey.

The other cap is the defunct Lethbridge Black Diamonds.

Several years ago Lancaster rebranded completely, and now have a cap which does not feature any letter. I have not yet picked up that cap, but I'm sure I will someday. It has been far too long since I've been out that way for a game.      

On the whole, I like the Lancaster franchise, but there is always this bittersweet feeling I have towards them. You see, they were relocated there in 1996 after spending three years in Riverside, CA as the Riverside Pilots. The story behind my feeling regarding that is a long and sad one which I will save for another time.

For now, representing Letter L are the Lancaster JetHawks.

New Era Alphabet Challenge - K

So here I am again, working on the latest letter and having nothing in particular to say about it. Letter K is one where I only own a single cap with that letter. In fact, when I purchased this cap two years ago, that was actually the reason I bought it. Because I thought it looked cool and I didn't have a cap with the letter K.

So let's just cut to the chase:

Kingsport Mets. Rookie league affiliate of the, you guessed it!

It's hard to explain but I think that blue and orange work well together. Denver Broncos (prior to those nasty USFL jerseys they wear these days), New York Islanders (even though I don't like the team), and the New York Mets. And as I've previously stated, I really like minor league teams that incorporate the parent logo into their own. A simple Mets-esque K. Looks simple and beautiful. And actually, the only NY Mets cap I own is the same colorway as the Kingsport one.

I do intend on getting a standard Mets cap someday.

I acquired the Kingsport cap a couple of years back after checking every minor league website, which is something I do a month or so into baseball season. A lot of teams offer unique alternate caps that you won't see on any other website. I've gotten a lot of caps that way, directly from the team. This one, however I did order through Lids.com. The Kingsport website does not link directly to their store, but checking out their site did give me a good look at it, which made choosing to order it easy when I saw it available through Lids.

As I stated, I have no other cap featuring a single letter K, so here you go. Kingsport Mets, representing Letter K.

(I just found out while writing this that Kingsport is in Tennessee. Who knew?)

New Era Alphabet Challenge - J

So today's cap is the toughest choice yet. When you're talking about J caps, these are some of the coolest ones I own. I mean, just look at these:

A dream come true for someone who likes parent team logo influence.

You've got, from left to right, Jacksonville Suns (throwback), Jacksonville Expos and (believe it or not) the current alternate cap of the Jacksonville Suns. Earlier this year I wrote extensively of my Jacksonville cap collection, which you can read about here.

The middle cap, the Jacksonville Expos cap, I must confess, is a "snapback." Back in the 80s when this cap was worn, we called it an "adjustable." And I must further confess that if this cap was fitted it probably would have been my selection to represent Letter J. I mean, come on. It's the Montreal Expos logo, one of the greatest ever, trimmed to a J. How freaking awesome is that? Doubtful that a fitted version of this cap will ever exist.

Or will it?

The New Era Flagship store in Miami, FL has a custom version of this cap, albeit in a different colorway, available for sale. At least they did as evidenced by the following blog entry by Benjamin Christensen (Twitter handle @shakabrodie) He has written extensively about this amazing cap. You can read about it here. Hopefully they still do as I'm hoping to somehow score one someday.

 So of the two remaining, which one did I choose to represent J? The Mets or Pirates lookalike? They are both incredible logos, but in the end I had to roll with this one:

Nolan Ryan and Tom Seaver wore this cap! Well, not this one, but you get it.

From 1966-68 the Suns were affiliated with the New York Mets and wore this incredible cap. It is one of my favorites of my entire collection. Unfortunately, the Suns do not offer this cap for sale any longer on their website, which makes me grateful I bought it when I did.

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.

New Era Alphabet Challenge - H

Today's cap has a little more of a background than the previous letter. My choice for H, despite having some decent competition, is a cap that comes from another learning experience from the early days of my collecting. Specifically, if you think you're gonna regret not getting it, then you'd better get it.

In an earlier installment of the Alphabet Challenge, I referenced a purchase made in 1996, and the StarStruck catalog that came with each purchase. After I received the catalog, I poured over it, studying every cap, every logo, dreaming of how cool it would be to have a number of these caps. I was quite limited in funds at that time, so I had to stick with what I considered essential, which were the three I had bought. The rest would have to wait.

Little did I realize that sometimes logos and affiliates change. By the time I got around to expanding my collection, several of the caps that I had my eyes on in '96 were no longer available. After a brief period of mourning, I started scouting eBay. Eventually I did come across a fitted version of one of the caps I'd coveted all those years ago.

It is representing letter H:

Defunct logo of the Helena Brewers.

There was just something about this one that caught my eye. I just knew this was one I wanted. I was very ecstatic when I was able to add this one to the collection. Let's just say it was a life changing experience. Now, I'm a lot less likely to hesitate if I think there's a chance a cap may not be available down the road. Sometimes I'm wrong, but those times when I jump and then find that the cap is no longer available, well, win for me.

Early last decade I also was into collecting Minor League baseball jerseys. A Helena Brewers road jersey became available on eBay and I got outbid at the last second. I was devastated! I knew (and I've been right for 10+ years) that I would never see another one. I always referred to that jersey as the one that got away. I'm over it now, mainly because I don't buy jerseys anymore, but it took a long time.

The current Helena Brewers logo is a nice one as well, though I have not picked one up. I probably will at some point, but I'm not as desperate for that one as I was this one. They did have a cap that had a variation of the current logo H inside a gold state of Montana. Very awesome, but it was one of those old meshy style BP caps. No thanks. Would love to see it on a 59Fifty. Here is a 39Thirty version of it from their website:

So Helena Brewers, think about it. If you build it, I will buy...

Anyway, to summarize, my advice to anyone who collects caps:  Just get it. Don't be that person who hesitates then regrets it later on when they can't find the cap. Just get it.

Now, onto the H caps that didn't make the cut:

Yes, I passed over the classic Houston Astros.

Funny thing about the Astros cap. When I was but a lad in the early 80s, my very first baseball hat was a mesh (now called "trucker") California Angels cap on sale in a Stater Bros grocery store. They had a rack full of these caps, and my dad would let me get one every month for a while. The mesh version of this Astros cap was the second cap I had gotten. I think I was caught up in the hype of Nolan Ryan's no-hitter, but the logo is somewhat nostalgic for me. I ended up with about 10 mesh caps, but they are long gone.

New Era Alphabet Challenge - G

Moving on tonight to Letter G. I honestly don't have any particular story behind the cap I chose. I remember I bought it for its simplicity and unique colorway. Also, the team is an affiliate of the Red Sox, so the G was stylized to look like their cap, except this one was done in a deep green, so it looked cool.

Greenville Drive. One letter says it all.

Yes, the Greenville Drive. Not a very exciting name. Especially considering they were the Capital City Bombers for 12 years prior. Of course, naming your team Capital City is kinda lame as well.

As I said, no real story behind this one. I just like the color. Good looking hat. Not much else to say about it.

Here are the other two G caps I own:

Both of these are Greeneville Astros caps.

I like that orange hat so much, if I were to do this again in another year I might choose it to represent G.

And that's all I have to say about that.

New Era Alphabet Challenge - F

Today's cap choice not only represents the letter F in my Alphabet Cap Challenge, but also represents a tough lesson I learned about cap collecting. That is, don't get rid of a cap if there is the slightest chance that you might want that cap again someday. Actually, now I don't ever get rid of any caps.

Well, I did give a University of Wyoming cap to a friend, but that's excusable because I had three of them, and the one I gave her was a few sizes too large. I actually have two entire New Era 24 cap carriers filled with duplicates. But those are for years down the road in case of loss, or God forbid, another theft.

Anyway, the cap representing letter F is...

I really didn't care about losing this one, until it became the one I couldn't live without.

In 1993, on the eve of the inaugural seasons of the newly minted Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins, I decided to make a trip to my local sports apparel store, which if I recall was a Pro Image located in the outlet mall in Barstow. My goal was simply to acquire my first Rockies cap.

I had decided to become a Rockies fan for two reasons:
1) I have family in the vacinity (Wyoming, actually)
2) On visits to see said family, I fell in love with Colorado.

It was difficult, seeing how I had grown up a California Angels fan. I figured it was no big deal. I could root for both. They played in different leagues and never played during the regular season. (a valid statement until interleague play ruined everything) So I was off to purchase that first Rockies cap. When I got there, they also had the cap of the other expansion team, the Florida Marlins.

Now, keep in mind I was not necessarily a "collector" at that point, but there was something about that awful teal and weird fish that just made me have to buy that cap. So I left the store with one of each.

I honestly don't think I ever wore the Marlins cap.

I'm not entirely positive but I believe I gave that cap to my at-the-time girlfriend's younger brother. That was 1995 when that happened. I did not miss that cap until around 2010, when talk started circulating that the Marlins were planning on changing their name to the Miami Marlins and doing a complete rebranding. That would mean no more teal. And it had been many years since the Marlins had donned the all teal cap during a game anyway. Who really liked teal anyway?

I reflected on how I once owned that cap. Oh, what was I thinking? How could I just give a cap away like that? Why didn't somebody tell me that 15 years later I'd really, really be wanting that cap?

So I trolled eBay and eventually found a mid-90s model. High crown and everything. It was fine, but then one day I found a more modern version at lids.com. Yes, made in China. Yes, it has that uniquely velvety material and pizza box visor, but oh man it's a good looking cap.

I proudly select this cap to represent the letter F, and give my solemn promise that I will never part with this cap again.

And for the record, the one I bought on eBay is inside one of the cap carriers, just in case.

Like E, I have a limited number of F caps. Here are the other two that I own.

I don't know why I bought the Fresno cap, honestly. However, I love the Frederick cap.