July 6- Eugene Emeralds

March 7^th was a pretty spectacular day. It was the day when the Eugene Emeralds were selling all of their brand new 2013 caps for $20 outside of the bar (@TheWebfootBar) my friend Justin owns. Having all ready scored the alternate cap back in January, and seeing how $20 is too good of a price to pass up, I bought the remaining two I needed to round out my collection. It’s days like this that cap collectors like myself love and hate as we all love to get new caps, but hate how quickly the money evaporates from our pockets. No matter. Down the road we are all happy for our purchase when we don our newly purchased caps and hear the ever-familiar, “Hey! Where did you get that cap? It’s awesome!” In the case of this cap, the fine folks at Brandiose in San Diego deserve the most credit.

For those of you who don’t know, Brandiose, or Plan B. Branding as they were formerly known, have been at the forefront of team logo design for the better part of the last decade based out of San Diego, California. The founders, Jason & Casey, started out in their college dorm room designing logos for high school teams and eventually were given their big break by the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx as they were the only team to respond to the 150 letters they sent out to every minor league team. After their first success, many more followed. They are responsible for many of the logos I have all ready written about for teams such as the: Everett AquaSox, Pensacola Blue Wahoos, Stockton Ports, Lakeland Flying Tigers, Casper Ghosts and even revision for the oldest team in Major League Baseball, the Cincinnati Reds. In 2012 Jason & Casey were tapped by Emeralds General Manager Allan Benavides.

"When we started this process, we wanted to end up with something fun that fans could really associate with," said Ems General Manager Allan Benavides. "Sasquatch gives the Emeralds a face for the first time in our long history." Sasquatch biting the tree will be the emblem on the home hat while the foot-shaped "E" will serve as an alternate. The road uniforms will feature the "Eugene" script with feet on each end. Home, away and alternate uniforms will be released in the spring.

The new identity pays tribute to America's greatest urban legend, the legend of Sasquatch in the Pacific Northwest. The primary logo features a Sasquatch unearthing trees behind "Emeralds" lettering. Fans will also enjoy the iconic "E" Sasquatch foot logo, and several other Sasquatch and foot related marks. A number of different options were considered including themes that involved forests, trees and various woodland creatures. "Ultimately, we felt that sasquatch was the best fit to represent the mystique of the Northwest woodlands," said Benavides.

The development process began last June when Jason and Casey met in Eugene with fans, staff and community members to learn about the stories, history, and personality of the Emeralds and Eugene. Brandiose developed the logos, uniforms and is dreaming up enhancements for the 2013 fan experience. "Eugene is a hotbed of countercultural ideas," said Brandiose's Jason Klein. "From Sasquatch sightings to hippy culture, the Ems are honoring Eugene's eccentricities with a few of their own." – MiLB.com

Back in November of 2012 when the Ems unveiled their new logos I was stuck in Portland for the holidays and working as was unable to attend the event. But that didn’t stop Benavides from hitting me up asking me if I wanted any of the new caps later that night. I of course said yes and they made sure to hold the alternate cap aside for me until I moved back to Eugene to finish up school this last winter. As I’ve mentioned in my previous Ems articles, they run a pretty solid program and I’m always happy to share the love in my blog posts. Kudos!

Now, as I’ve mentioned in a lot of my other “new to 2013” posts it’s hard to tell a story about a hat or player who wore that if it hasn’t been used on the field. In this case I figured it would be a cool time to share a random, but true story about Eugene that only a few people know about in keeping with the theme of Eugene’s oddball history. Since this cap is the team’s road cap, it kind of makes for an appropriate discussion piece as most of my 2012 was spent on the road; only a few weeks were actually spent in or around Eugene.

So… it was July, only a few days after I had returned to Oregon after the West Coast leg of my MLB road trip. I still had until the end of the month until my roommate and my lease expired on our apartment in Eugene so I made as much use of that as I possibly could on any random nights when I felt like going back home to visit and catch up with friends. Since my apartment was only about five blocks from the campus of the University of Oregon and about a 9-iron shot away from the bar I worked at (Max’s Tavern), I rarely ever strayed far from that area. It was some time around 9:30 PM when a few of my friends who worked at the tattoo parlor across the street rolled in and saw me drinking a few beers and enjoying whatever game was on MLB Network that night. None of them knew I was in town so they were all especially excited to see me, as I was excited to see them. Everyone had questions about my experience in New York and why I was home so early, all of which eventually was made worse by the fact that the MLB tickets commercial I was featured in was blaring on the television in the background. Most of the people I knew from the tattoo parlor weren’t fans of baseball, but all of them had grown a particular interest on account of me. At the same time, most of them didn’t have MLB Network so seeing me on TV as I sat in front of them blew most of their minds. To me, it was really uncomfortable as more people around the bar started taking notice to the fact that “the guy from the commercial” was sitting in their midst. Luckily my friends quickly realized how embarrassed I was to be “that guy from the MLB Fan Cave” and they all suggested that we head somewhere else for a few drinks and to catch up. This was something I was more than happy to oblige.

The bar they chose was a bit of a metal/punk rock/anything goes type bar called John Henry’s, which also serves as the 80s night hotspot for all of Eugene on Thursdays and a burlesque house on Sundays. In other words, the place is pretty rad. The only problem that I ever had with it is that it sits in the “Barmuda Triangle,” an area in downtown Eugene where to larger hub of popular bars reside. I’ve never been a huge fan of going to ridiculously jammed up bars, so this was definitely a pole vault out of my comfort zone. My friend Brendan got me a 32 ounce bottle of Miller High Life; yes, they serve those there, and it’s awesome. The group of five us shot the breeze, talked about what we had all been up to and I made sure not to be the centerpiece of the conversation. I just wanted to have a normal night back in the reality I was used to before I left for New York. As my MHL emptied I headed back to the bar for a refill, but ended up staying for a little bit longer than expected due to a conversation I got myself into with someone who seemed really out of place.

When I got to the bar I could see the bartender was busy so I took a seat on the only open stool and waited until I could flag them down. Just as I sat down I felt a hand upon my right shoulder and a voice ring out, “Excuse me, but you’re in my seat.” Not being the jerk who takes seemingly open seats, I got up and said I was sorry. I then followed it up with the routine, “I didn’t know it was taken, I’m just waiting to get a drink.” In all of this time I still didn’t look over my shoulder to really see who I was talking to, a constant theme in my life as I’ve always been the kind of person who does reasonable things on command like duck when someone shouts it, as opposed to looking to see what’s about to blast me in the face right before it happens. Just as I finished my comment the stranger replied, “No worries young man… what are you having? It’s on me.” At this point I chuckled and was about to say, “No worries, I got it,” but all that came out was “Nnnnn…” as I finally looked to see who I was talking to.

Dave Chappelle.

At this point I just froze and laughed some more, but then muttered out what I was originally trying to say. He then said, “No really, I’m buying.” I half-expected him to follow that up with yelling, “It’s a celebration!” in his Rick James voice, but he didn’t. Not wanting to be rude I told him what I was drinking and sure enough he put it on his tab… after he made fun of me for drinking a “32 ounce bottle of urine.” To which I replied, “You know, kids are going hard these days. And when I drink piss, I make sure it’s the finest the great city of Milwaukee has to offer.” He laughed and said, “I’ll have to remember to think of that if I find myself passed out in a bathroom stall in Milwaukee.” We then shook hands, said goodbye and I walked back over to my friends. I never bothered to find out why he was in town, but for that moment, it made me feel better about everything. I figured that at the end of the day, if I can make one of the best comedians in the game laugh, life isn’t so bad.

#50- When I marked this cap up I did under the guise that I was writing down the number on the roster for the 2013 season. Nope! It ended up being someone from 2012; however, the name alone is well worth the acknowledgement.

Goose Kallunki was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 27^th round of the 2012 amateur draft out of Utah Valley State University in Orem, Utah. The son of collegiate athletes, Goose prepped at Orem High School and helped the team make it to the Region Championship in 2006 and a fifth place finish at State Championship in 2008 as a four-year starter for the Tigers. He was also a three-time All-Region and two-time All-State selection. He also played basketball and golf at Orem, earning All-Valley, All-Region and All-State honors in basketball.

At UVSU he played first and third base, becoming the first player from the school to receive All-America honors during his senior year by Louisville Slugger, National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and CollegeBaseballInsider.com. He was also named third-team All-America by Baseball America and Perfect Game, was one of three finalists for 2012 Dick Howser Trophy, honor nation's top collegiate player, a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, which goes to top amateur baseball player, District VIII Player of the Year (NCBWA), ABCA First-Team All-Region selection, Great West Conference Player of the Year and First-Team All-Great West Conference Selection. He was quite the busy boy.

Goose’s time with the Emeralds only lasted one season for 53 games. He hit .254 with two home runs and 13 RBI in which 51/53 of those games came as the team’s first baseman. This year Goose has been moving around to various Independent League teams such as the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings, the Joliet Slammers and the Roswell Invaders (minor league teams always have the best names). Between all three teams he is batting .286 with two home runs and 32 RBI.

April 18- Fort Myers Miracle

I don’t think I can ever express into words how much I absolutely adore my girlfriend Angie Kinderman (@sconnieangie). I also realize my affection for her is probably causing a lot of you to projectile vomit as we speak; for which I make no apologies for. :D

A few days before I arrived in Florida she had informed that she had a “big” surprise for me when I got to town. Now, in my head this could have gone any numbers of ways; all of which exceeded a PG-13 rating, but as I walked into her house and into the bedroom to throw my bag in the closet, I was met with this…

For those of you who are unaware what this is supposed to be, watching this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hPTkmQCGOY

When I was living in New York City working for the MLB Fan Cave I shot this video to show people how to make their very own hat walls in an effort to show off their collections for cheap. Knowing that I would be staying with her for an extended period of time, she constructed her own little hat wall to make me feel more at home. She even took the liberty to start my new collection by attaching a Fort Myers Miracle hat she picked up during a Minnesota Twins Spring Training game in March. Needless to say, a hug, kiss and “I love you” soon followed. This is bar far one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me. I am so lucky and so grateful to have her in my life.

I’ve dated quite a few ladies in my life. Some of them were great, while others made my question if I had a fully-functional brain to stay with them for as long as I did. In almost every case each one of the previous wanted me to change something about myself; despite the fact that they had said they liked everything about me. (Every guy reading this knows exactly what I’m talking about. Every woman reading this now doesn’t know what I’m talking about.) One of the biggest habits I was asked to change was the amount of time I devoted to baseball; something that I will never bend. In the case of Angie, she has been more than supportive of my passions. Whether it’s my writing, my New Era Cap collecting, my fantasy baseball teams or even just staying up late to watch a game, she fully supports my lifestyle 100%; all to the point where she’ll do something as thoughtful as buy me a hat to help continue my goal of a new post a day for the whole year. I don’t know how I got to be so lucky, but I thank the Lord every day I wake up to see her smiling face next to mine. She’s smart, she’s funny, she’s beautiful, but most important, she’s a baseball fan. And I’m madly in love with her.

I’ve touched up on this in previous posts, but Angie is a die-hard Twins fan. She hails from Eau Claire, Wisconsin and grew up watching the Twins because her father was an avid fan. Much like myself, my father was a die-hard San Francisco Giants fan; however, I of course took the latter route, like most smart mouthed kids do, and rooted for the most opposite team, the Oakland Athletics. Angie is currently attending physician’s assistant school at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida, a hotbed for baseball talent. Washington Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez has a home there, and just down the street at Nova High School several Major League stars cut their teeth before getting drafted. Such talent includes: Twins pitcher Anthony Swarzak, former Chicago White Sox shortstop Harry Chappas, former Baltimore Orioles and Athletics outfielder Jeff Fiorentino and Seattle Mariners outfielder Michael Morse. We met, like so many people, through the magic of Twitter while I was in the Fan Cave last season. Since I was the Athletics representative she took it upon herself to routinely remind me how great Josh Willingham was doing for the Twins. I was immediately attracted to her smack talk. We talked off and on throughout the three months I was in New York as well as during my baseball road trip following my exodus. When the time came to head to Florida I gave her shout and asked if she wanted to go to a Miami Marlins game with me. Not only did she say yes, she offered me her couch to crash on for the night. If you want to know the rest of the story, please go back and read my post on the Florida Marlins from February 23. It’s been seven wonderful months, most of which has been separated by over 3000 miles, but our love for each other grows just as strongly as our first common love, baseball, by the day.

Tomorrow we are headed to Tampa to catch the Rays play a three-game series against my Athletics, but for now we are in Venice Beach. Angie, always full of surprises, kept this little trip from me until last night; at which I asked her if there was any chance we might be able to catch a Miracle game tonight if they were in town. Always the baseball enthusiast, she was happy to oblige. We looked over the schedule and saw that were on the road. Rats! No matter, we had the whole day to ourselves, and that’s what mattered most.

In lieu of my new gift, I decided to wear the Miracle hat. Even now as I write this post I’m still beaming that she got it for me. We left the house around 11:00 AM and made a quick stop at Chick-Fil-A for lunch. True story: I hadn’t eaten at a Chick-Fil-A in over 13 years, so I was especially happy for this little perk. We finished up and continued our journey, always telling each other that we loved one another during moments of silence, but always trying to make the other laugh as we tore through the vast, desolate wasteland that is Alligator Alley. For some strange reason I had forgotten that we were going to be passing through Fort Myers, despite having looked at the map about 20 minutes before we left. I asked Angie if she wouldn’t mind stopping by real quick for a photo. Being the amazing girlfriend that she is, she was more than happy to oblige. As we pulled into the parking lot we were greeted by a slew of recreational vehicles for an upcoming weekend RV Show. We parked the car, stretched and headed on a merry way to the façade of the stadium whilst holding each other’s hand. Angie led the way around since she had been there before. There are two practice fields on the left side of the stadium that we walked past, one of which had two members of the grounds crew watering the field. Neither of them paid much attention to us as we walked through a tunnel next to the batting cage facility on into Hammond Stadium. And when I say we walked into the stadium, I mean we were standing 10 feet away from the dugout. The sprinklers were on in left field and Angie had mentioned how awesome it would be to jump the fence and run through them, which we easily could have done. I laughed and said we should. She just smiled back. I popped out my camera, held her close and popped this photo…

I’ve always preferred to have some sort of a theme going on in the photos of me wearing the hat, and what better one to take than while wearing the hat of the team at their facility with the person who got it for me? As I slipped my camera back into my pocket I looked around to see if anyone noticed that we were there; crickets. I then asked Angie again if she would run onto the field with me. She laughed, but said no. I then asked one last time to make sure. I could tell in her eyes that she really wanted to, but didn’t want to take the risk of getting caught; a move I totally understood.

The whole walk back to the car plus the first 15 miles away from the stadium we kept talking about it. Both of us are avid fans of the film “Bull Durham” and we both brought up the scene when Crash Davis, Nuke LaLoosh and a few of the other players sneak onto the field the night before the game to turn on the sprinkler system to force a rainout. But alas, we both chickened out, but perhaps not for long. It may not happen in Fort Myers, but at some field we’re going to have to make it so.

The Miracle have been using this hat as their game style cap since the start of the 2011 season. The logo of the “M” with a palm tree was first introduced at the start of the 1993 season, but featured an all-black cap with a red trim logo. The Miracle are an advanced-A affiliate of the Twins and have been a member of the Florida State League since 1964. The team was around in 1963; however, they were set as a Class D squad. An interesting fact about the Miracle is that two of the minority owners are musician Jimmy Buffet and comedy legend Bill Murray. Both of whom bought into the team in 1989. Another cool fact is that the original team was called the Miami Hustlers from 1927-1928, one of the most badass, yet foreshadowingly (not a real word) ironic team names for the area in sports history.

Since this cap has only been around for the last two seasons I really didn’t expect to find anything worthy enough to mark it up with. Boy was I wrong! For those of you who didn’t know, Joe Mauer’s older brother, Jake, is actually the manager of the Miracle; however, I’ve all ready written a post about him back on January 11 with the Cedar Rapids Kernels. Instead I found two up-and-coming studs currently on the Major League roster.

#5- Throughout Spring Training there were very few players making a case for themselves much like #98 prospect Aaron Hicks. With the loss of Denard Span to the Washington Nationals Hicks went into preseason with the starting centerfield spot up for grabs. With only motivation and raw talent in his favor, Hicks went on to hit .370 with four home runs and 18 RBI. With an OPS of 1.051 it was hard for Ron Gardenhire to say no to the former 14^th overall pick in the 2008 amateur draft. While Hicks’s regular season hasn’t been quite as prosperous, he’s still young and willing to learn.

In 2011 Hicks played 122 games in Fort Myers, having played the previous two seasons with the Beloit Snappers in the Midwest League. With the Miracle he hit .242 with five home runs, 38 RBI and five triples.

#11- This guy was an eighth round pick in 2009 out of Southern Mississippi and made his Major League debut on May 7, 2012. Brian “Bull” (as I like to call him) Dozier played two seasons with the Miracle in 2010 and only 49 games in 2011. In his combined one full year Dozier hit .291 with seven home runs and 64 RBI and has been a fan favorite of the organization for a number of years. So far this season he’s hitting .279 with zero home runs and six RBI as the Twins’ second baseman.

January 25- St. Louis Cardinals

Last night was the third time I’ve seen the comedic duo of Randy and Jason Sklar at the now infamous Helium Comedy Club in Portland, Oregon. I’ve been watching/listening to the Sklar Brothers for years starting with their Comedy Central Presents special from 2001, on up through Cheap Seats (2004-2006) and into the their numerous TV appearances, films, Jim Rome fill-ins and especially their podcast entitled Sklarbro Country. The first time I caught them live was back in 2010 with my friend Sean Davis. We shared some laughs; grabbed some beers and he gave me a savage ass-beating at darts after the show. In 2011 I invited my best friend Sam Spencer for round two with Sean and me. This time, I was a little more prepared. Randy and Jason hail from St. Louis, Missouri and a die hard St. Louis Cardinals fans. Trying to score some points and maybe a few words after the show, I threw on my Cardinals road cap that night. Sure enough Cardinals baseball was a hot topic. Granted, this was before their World Series victory that year, and well before I really started venting my disdain for the team.

During the first month of my time in the MLB Fan Cave, I think it was the second week, Todd Pellegrino, one of the producers/directors of the production company overtaking all of the filming in the Fan Cave, came downstairs to talk to me while I was still in the process of mastering the new Samsung Galaxy Note I had won the previous day. He mentioned that he saw my (old) twitter photo (below) and asked if I was a big Sklar Brothers fan. 

For a second I had debated on laying some thick sarcasm, but I was in a good mood and responded with, “of course!” with a huge smile on my face. He sat down next to me and told me stories of how he was the director/producer for Cheap Seats during its run on ESPN Classic, and is also one of my favorite shows of all-time. Needless to say, my nerdisms kicked into full gear. I was hoping after that conversation that one day the two would come in to work on a sketch with us, but no dice. No big deal though. It was at least nice to hear some stories.

Which brings thing back to last night. Much like their show in 2011, I opted to rock another Cardinals hat; this time their classic red game style shown above. If you’ve been keeping pace with my blog, I always have a goofy photo of me wearing the hat, so I figured I could kill two birds with one stone on this one: a photo for this post and make the guys smile. This has always been kind of a theme of mine whenever I know I’m going to be in the presence of baseball fans, players or management, and it truly came out when I was in New York. Despite the fact that I went in as the Oakland Athletics representative, I still had a grip of hats, shirts and jerseys that I wanted to wear during my time. At the same time, only seven other teams were actually being represented throughout the season: Ricardo Marquez (Angels), Lindsay Guentzel (Twins), Ricky Mast and Shaun Kippins (Braves), Eddie Mata (Yankees), Ashley Chavez (Giants) and Kyle Thompson (Cardinals). I had made a promise to the others that I would never wear gear of their teams in the event that a player from their team would show up. I felt it would be too distracting and I didn’t want to spoil their fun. But, anytime a player came in without their team being represented, I stepped up to the plate. This may explain a few things for the people who followed. So, much like those times, and the previous Sklar Brothers show, I bit the bullet to even bring a few seconds of joy and conversation.

But now, onto the numbers…

#1- If you’re any kind of a baseball fan I would truly hope you know who this is. Ozzie Smith played shortstop for the Cardinals from 1982-1996 after playing his first four year with the San Diego Padres which he got hosed on the Rookie if the Year in 1978 by Atlanta Braves third/first baseman Bob Horner. (Yah, I don’t know who the hell that is either.) Despite the folly of the BBWAA, Smith would later go on to win 13 consecutive Gold Gloves as well as make 15 All-Star Game appearances. He also won a World Series title in his first year in St. Louis by beating the Milwaukee Brewers in seven games, but only after sweeping Bob Horner and the Braves in the National League Championship Series. I tried to find a photo of Smith giving the DEGENERATION-X “suck it” sign to Horner, but had no such luck. Smith was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2002, primarily for his defensive prowess.

#5- Before greed and disloyalty plagued him and his wife, Albert Pujols was a dead lock for the Hall of Fame, and probably would have gone down as the second greatest player to don a Cardinals uniform behind Stan Musial. But, Arte Moreno gets what he wants. From 2001-2011 The Machine took St. Louis and the baseball world by storm. He won Rookie of the Year honors easily, three MVPs in 2005, 2008 and 2009 and won two World Series rings in 2006 and 2011. His stats were all ready a fast track into the Hall as well: 2073 hits, .328/445/1329. While I realize where he’s playing now, I couldn’t leave him off of this hat. But it was incredibly hard to leave Willie McGee off.

#45- If there was ever a guy who played Major League Baseball, that I could easily argue is a Top 10 right handed pitcher of all-time, it’s certainly Bob Gibson. Hoot started his career in 1959 and threw his last game on September 3, 1975. Every year he played in the bigs came while wearing a Cardinals uniform. He was one of the calmest pitchers to ever play the game, but at the same time he was one of the fiercest. He never hesitated to throw some chin music if a batter crowded the plate and he certainly never backed down from a challenge. He helped the Cardinals win two World Series trophies in 1964 over the New York Yankees and in 1967 over the Boston Red Sox. In both Series Gibson won the MVP, most notably going 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA and 26 strikeouts. Throughout his career Gibson struck out 3117 batters, won the Cy Young award in 1968 and 1970, as well as the MVP in ’68 after going 22-9 with a 1.12 ERA and 268 strikeouts. Oh, he also won nine Gold Gloves. The man was a gamer every single time he pitched. In 1981 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame by a vote of 337/401. How he didn’t get every vote is beyond me.

While I make a lot of snide jokes and comments about the Cardinals and their fans, I still respect the history of the franchise and the men who suited up. But at the end of the day, I still hate the Cardinals. Knocking the A’s down to the third most successful organization will do that to you.