July 29- Houston Astros

The 1994 Major League Baseball season was an odd year for more than just the players’ strike that took effect on August 12^th. Several teams like the Montreal Expos had dug themselves out of the cellar and were on their way to potentially winning their first World Series title in the franchise’s history. Tony Gwynn was batting .394, becoming the first person since Ted Williams in 1941 to potentially hit for .400 or better in a season. Matt Williams was rapidly approaching the 62 home run mark for the San Francisco Giants as he already had a league-leading 43 on the season at the time. But most important, 11 teams introduced, changed or added new pieces to their uniforms/caps which were already boosting merchandise sales. Those teams were: the Giants (jersey), Oakland Athletics (hats/jerseys), Chicago Cubs (hat), Texas Rangers (hats/uniforms), Detroit Tigers (hat), Seattle Mariners (hats/uniforms), Milwaukee Brewers (hats/uniforms), Philadelphia Phillies (hat), Cleveland Indians (jersey), Toronto Blue Jays (jersey) and the Houston Astros (above- hats/uniforms). So, for the season to come to just an abrupt end was especially peculiar as there really wasn’t any kind of a warning sign, besides players wanting more money, to see it coming. And without a doubt one of the biggest companies potentially affecting by the strike was New Era.

The strike left a sour taste in the mouths of a lot of the fans and sales for anything took a bit of a dive. Hat culture was seemingly in its prime, but clearly not as much as it is in today’s times. Back then if you wore a cap it was no doubt a baseball cap, and the important thing to remember about baseball caps is that if you were wearing a fitted one, it was a New Era cap. New Era had won the MLB manufacturing contract prior to the 1993 season, making them the only company to design, produce and sell every Major League cap. So, when 1994 came around and eight new teams introduced new caps, things got a little bit crazy when the business of baseball came to a standstill. That’s not to say that people didn’t still buy caps, but the sheer volume wasn’t as high as it could have been. It’s funny to look back on all of it now because, as a cap collector, I know how hard it is to find a lot of the caps that were introduced that season. Of the eight teams listed above I have been able to track down and buy seven of them (including this one obviously), the only one that still remains a challenge is the alternate Phillies cap that I mentioned in a previous post from March 28^th.

Anyway, I’ve strayed slightly off topic. The Astros, besides the Brewers, had the most dramatic change of all. Rather than change maybe just the hat or something about the logo like a lot of teams do, they overhauled everything. They went from this…

To this.

And, unlike most teams, it proved to be a little bit of a game changer when it came to the success of the team.

At the end of the 1993 season then-Astros owner John McMullen sold the team to Drayton McLane, Jr. after McMullen’s attempts to move the team to Washington, D.C. were shot down by the other National League owners. McMullen was no impressed with low attendances even after the Astrodome had been completely renovated for the benefit of the Houston Oilers whom they shared the facility with. In McLane’s case, the timing couldn’t have been any better as Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell were on the verge of having breakout careers. Coinciding with the change in ownership, the team switched uniforms and team colors after the 1993 season in order to go for a new, more serious image. The team's trademark rainbow uniforms were retired, and the team's colors changed to midnight blue and metallic gold. The "Astros" font on the team logo was changed to a more aggressive one, and the team's traditional star logo was changed to a stylized, "flying" star with an open left end. It marked the first time since the team's inception that orange was not part of the team's colors. Despite general agreement that the rainbow uniforms, which most identified with the team, had become tired (and looked too much like a minor league team according to the new owners), the new uniforms and caps were never especially popular with many Astros fans. This cap in particular was the least popular of the three that were brought out, but this one was worn for the most games as it served as the game cap from 1994-1999.

The Astros faired pretty well under this cap including three straight National League Central Division titles under Larry Dierker after the team fired then-manager Terry Collins following the 1996 season when the team went 82-80, his only winning season. Dierker’s second season (1998) was met with the team’s best regular season record of 102-60, the only time the team has ever hit triple digits in wins; however, Dierker and the Astros never made it beyond the first round of the playoffs during his tenure.

On of the problems that has come up with writing these posts is not having enough material or even cramming too much material into one post. I’ve been doing my best to find a balance and if there is clearly one post that I have written that could have been a lot more it has to be my post on the Astros from January 19^th. With one cap I wrote about three of the most notable players in the team’s history and I honestly feel like I didn’t do it justice. I could have gone with different players, possibly even written about Biggio and Bagwell with this cap, but that was my mistake. I didn’t really know that my blog would evolve into something so big so quickly, so I apologize to you, the readers and especially the Astros fans who don’t get a lot of credit anyway. So, without further ado, I think my marking selection for this cap is more than worthy.

#12/20/’98- It’s funny how certainly numbers follow a player throughout their career and no one knows more about this than Ricky Gutierrez. A native of Miami, Florida, Gutierrez was the 28^th overall pick by the Baltimore Orioles back in 1988 out of American Senior High School in Hialeah. For five years he worked his way through the Orioles’ minor league system and was even traded to the San Diego Padres as a Player to be Named Later in 1992. On April 13, 1993 Gutierrez made his Major League debut batting .251 with 110 hits, 76 runs scored, five triples, five home runs and 26 RBI which were good enough for an 11^th place finish for the NL Rookie of the Year. Even though baseball had been shut down Gutierrez still found himself getting traded to the Astros in a blockbuster 11-player deal which also sent Derek Bell and Craig Shipley to Houston while the Padres received Steve Finley and future NL MVP Ken Caminiti as the centerpieces. For five years Gutierrez would play in Houston, the longest stint of his career, while wearing the #12. His stats weren’t really that impressive: .266 average, seven home runs, 13 triples and 132 RBI, but it’s the two moments in 1998 (’98) that involve the number 20 that are most identified with his career.

May 6, 1998- Gutierrez was batting in the seven-hole when the Astros were playing the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Rookie sensation Kerry Wood took the mound for the Cubs, making his fifth start of his Major League career. Wood had gotten the first five outs by the way of the strikeout and got the last out of the second inning on a flyball to centerfield by Dave Clark. When Gutierrez came up to bat to lead off the third inning Wood worked the count in his favor getting Gutierrez to a 1-2 count after four pitches. On the fifth pitch, a fastball down the pike, Gutierrez smacked a hotshot grounder in between Kevin Orie (third base) and Jeff Blauser (shortstop) for the first hit of the game for the Astros. That early into the game very few had any comprehension of what was about to happen, not even my friend and Oakland Athletics 2013 MLB Fan Cave Top-30 representative, who happened to be at the game. Wood would go on to strikeout 15 more Astros while only allowing one more base-runner for throughout the rest of the game, a hit by pitch to Biggio. 20 times the Astros had fallen victim to the K, tying the regulation game record set by Roger Clemens twice in 1986 and 1996 while with the Boston Red Sox. Gutierrez was the only person able to slap wood on any of Wood’s pitches and could have easily have been victim number six.

June 28, 1998- The Astros were on the road in Cleveland at Jacobs Field, squaring off against the Indians in the second year of Interleague. Gutierrez squared off against pitcher Bartolo Colon to open the top of the eighth inning. Colon's first two pitches were strikes, but over the next 17, Gutierrez took three balls and hit 14 fouls. With the 20th pitch of the at bat, Gutierrez struck out. This single match up accounted for 18% of the pitches that Colon threw in the game and it went down as the modern-day MLB record for seeing the most pitches (20) in a single at-bat.

The most interesting thing about Gutierrez’s career is that it improved significantly after the 1998 season as he joined both teams which helped make him a trivia answer for years to come. He signed with Cubs after the 1999 season and played in 125 and 147 games respectively in his two years there, batting .284 with 21 home runs and 122 RBI. He played two years with the Indians in 2002 and 2003, but got hurt throughout his second year despite hitting .275 in his first year. In 2004 the Indians sent Gutierrez to the New York Mets as part of a conditional deal, was later released to be picked up be the Cubs who then dealt him to the Boston Red Sox. This would turn out to be Gutierrez’s final season in the Majors, but at least it came with a World Series ring at the end.

June 20- Houston Astros

It’s funny to see where my life has ended up in just the last 365 days. On this date last year I was sitting exactly where I am now, at my parent’s house in Portland, Oregon with a little over $14,000 in my pocket, a car and nothing to do until school resumed in the fall after I had been sent home from the MLB Fan Cave. Today, I’m broke. My car died back in February when my girlfriend Angie (@sconnieangie) came to visit me, I graduated from the University of Oregon with three degrees, I work in retail and I’m back living at my parent’s place for the first time since I was 19-years-old. There are times when I reflect on what happened over the last year and walk away with a smile as I accomplished more than most than most will do in their lifetime, living out my dream of touring all the Major League Baseball stadiums, meeting and making new friends and realizing that my story-telling abilities have made a lot of people happy including myself. On the inverse, I get the feeling that I’m no better off then where I was when I graduated high school. I’ve never been one to look at things so pessimistically, but without any direction or knowledge of how to attain a job as a writer for a living, things can get to be pretty tough. But like I said, I don’t always feel this way. I know that this is merely a slight fork in the road. I need to regroup and strategize a new plan and I KNOW that the dreariness will soon be left in my wake.

It’s not my intention to be so philosophical with any of these posts, but occasionally that’s where my mind wanders every night. Baseball is a game that I’ve loved since I was a kid, but I also understand that it’s a business. Like life, some days a player will go out and have the game of their life, while other days they’ll struggle and be at the mercy of those who once cheered them on. These are the thoughts I have when I look at this Houston Astros cap. Last week I was supposed to go to at least one game in Seattle to see the Astros take on the Seattle Mariners during a three-game series. Somewhere around the end of May Travis Blackley had hit me up after I posted a tweet in applause of the “lighting of the halo” that takes place in Anaheim whenever the Los Angeles Angels win a game. I’m not at all saying that I support the Angels, I just find it to be a cool gesture that the team does to let fans, who may not have seen the game, but may be driving by on the freeway, know that their team won. No other team does this and I think it’s a nice nostalgic touch for the fans. Travis saw my tweet, thought I was in Southern California and asked if I wanted to meet up while they were in Anaheim for their upcoming series. I was sitting on my couch watching “The Wire” at that moment, but wished more than anything that I was down south. I responded back to let him know that I wasn’t, but looked ahead to see when the Astros would be rolling to Seattle before I responded. Portland is only 180 miles away from Seattle and I figured I could have caught a ride or a bus for one of the games. I let him know this and he said, “Cool, first round is on me.”

Needless to say, I didn’t make it up. It’s not often that I fail to achieve my goals or missions, but this was one of those cases where I didn’t have much of a choice. I couldn’t get a lift, no matter how many people I asked, and the bus was way too problematic based on scheduling conflicts and other bits of nonsense. I sent him a direct message to let him know this and that was it. I was pissed. The last time I saw Travis in person was right after the Oakland Athletics won the final game of the regular season. I wasn’t able to go down for Spring Training this season and I have yet to look him in the eye and truly thank him for being such a stand up guy to all the A’s fans and myself after I wrote about him earlier this year with my post on the Australian World Baseball Classic cap. Even though we have passed words and Instagram photos back and forth to one another, it’s just not the same. I was raised on the principle of always thanking people in person, and I know that time will come soon. Banking on August or September now.

One thing I suppose I can take away from this is that I have a lot of good people in my life who will do what they can to cheer me up. This photo came from a buddy of mine, Mike McDonnell (@IrishCARBomb21). He didn't have to do it, but little things like this really go a long way. Thank you Mike and thank you Travis. First round is on me now.

This is the first of three caps from the now-American League West Astros that I will be writing about, and it will never stop being weird to say that. If you read my post about the Astros on June 8^th you’d know and understand my beef with their realignment into the AL, especially considering I:

1. Devised a better, more accurate and effective realignment strategy.

2. Now have to explain why my Astros tattoos are on the National League side of my body for the rest of my life.

So with that, I figure its best to just start with the home cap… which really doesn’t have a story behind it on account of the fact that it’s a new cap. One thing I can tell you is that I do like it; however, I feel that the designers could have done a better job with it. I realize that they wanted to go with a throwback style; it’s just that it’s way too similar to the 1965-1970/1980-1993 cap that I write about on February 27^th. The differences in this cap are that the orange star features different tints and that the white “H” has a bit more luster to it. Other than that, it’s kind of boring. Sorry.

The two marks on my cap are jersey numbers that belong to guys who I could have met while I was in the MLB Fan Cave, but unfortunately was given the axe a few weeks before they dropped by.

#27- Jose Altuve was featured in a Fan Cave video along with Bud Norris and the other guy I have numbered on my cap in which they measured things based on Altuves. Altuve is 5’5’’ and so the idea was to literally measure things in the Fan Cave with a life-size cardboard cutout of Altuve. It was pretty clever, although I’ll admit I only got about 30 seconds into the video before I turned it off. Nothing against the three players involved, it’s just hard for me to watch something that I still have mixed feelings about after getting let go. Anyway…

Altuve hails from Maracay, Aragua, Venezuela and was singed as a free agent by the Astros in 2007. For five seasons Altuve shuffled around the minor leagues starting with the Venezuelan League Astros after signing and working his way through the Greensville Astros of the Rookie Appalachian League (2008-2009), Tri-City ValleyCats of the short season-A New York-Pennsylvania League (2009), the Class-A Lexington Legends of the South Atlantic League (2010), the advanced-A Lancaster Jethawks of the California League (2010-2011) and the AA Corpus Christi Hooks of the Texas League (2011) before making his Major League debut on July 20, 2011. Throughout Altuve’s minor league run he batted .327 with 479 hits, 208 RBI, 117 stolen bases and an OPS of .867. He was named the second baseman on Baseball America's 2011 Minor League All Star team and represented the Astros at the 2011 All-Star Futures Game.

Altuve made a quick positive impression with the Astros and their fans immediately. On July 27, 2011, Altuve tied Russ Johnson for the Astros record for most consecutive games with a hit to start a career with 7. On August 20, 2011, Altuve hit an inside-the-park home run, his first major league home-run. He became the first Astros player since Adam Everett in 2003 to hit an inside-the-park home run, the first Astros player to get his first major league home run on an inside-the-park home run since pitcher Butch Henry in 1992, and the first Astros player to lead off a game with an inside-the-park home run since Bill Doran in 1987. That season he finished batting .276 with 61 hits, 26 runs and seven stolen bases. This last season (2012) Altuve made the first, of many trips to the All-Star Game and finished the season batting .290 with seven home runs, 167 hits, 33 stolen bases and 34 doubles; pretty impressive for his first full year.

#64- Lucas Harrell was also featured in the “How Many Altuves” video, and yet another person I didn’t have the chance to meet. Harrell was drafted out of Ozark High School by the Chicago White Sox in the 4th round (119th overall) of the 2004 amateur draft. Harrell began his professional career for the Rookie League Bristol White Sox that same year, making 9 starts in 13 appearances; he had a 3–5 record with a 5.59 ERA. In 2005, Harrell advanced to the Single-A Kannapolis Intimidators. He went 7–11 with a 3.65 ERA. His 26 starts and 11 losses led the Intimidators, were tied for 3rd on the team in wins, and were third on the team in strikeouts (85). In 2006, Harrell split the season between the Single-A Winston-Salem Warthogs and the Double-A Birmingham Barons. Making a combined 20 starts, he went 7–4 with a 3.18 ERA. Harrell was also a Carolina League midseason All-Star. In 2007, Harrell missed the entire season following right shoulder surgery. On November 20, 2007, the White Sox purchased Harrell's contract, protecting him from the Rule 5 Draft. Harrell made his MLB debut on July 30, 2010, pitching six innings and allowing only one run in a 6–1 win over the Oakland Athletics and immediately returned to the Triple-A Charlotte Knights.

Harrell pitched in a total of 11 games for the White Sox before he was waived in July of 2011, only to be picked up by the Astros on July 8^th. On April 2, 2012 Harrell was declared a starting pitcher in the Astro's Opening Day rotation. In his first start of the season, he was very sharp, as he threw seven scoreless innings and allowed just three hits while striking out four against the Colorado Rockies. Harrell also got his first major league hit, a bunt that hugged the third-base line and stayed fair. Harrell went on to record 11 wins and 11 losses on the season with a 3.76 ERA in 32 games started/pitched.

June 8- Houston Astros

There are a lot of stupid moments that have taken place in Major League Baseball history, but very few of them were able to make me cock my eyebrow as much as what took place on November 17, 2011. It’s one of those moments where I remember exactly where I was when “the news” broke. In fact, I was lying on my right side as my tattoo artist Felix the Tat was putting in the finishing touches on the National League side of my MLB tattoos as I was wishing my brother Adam a happy birthday via text message. The entire irony of what I was doing came to full fruition the second I got a text message from my friend Scott Landis (@ScottCLandis) who broke the word on the story that I had been dreading they’d make official since it was first announced earlier that year. “The Houston Astros will be playing their final season in the National league in 2012.”

In the months to follow, especially when my stock took off in my MLB Fan Cave campaign, I received a flurry of questions from fans and journalists in regard to the Astros tattoo that I have on my left hip, “so now that the Astros are in the American League, what does that mean for the tattoo you have? Are you going to have it grafted over?”

The first time I heard these questions I laughed. Upon the 10^th time I couldn’t help but tell people how stupid they are for asking that question. It wasn’t my intention to be insulting when I said it. It was all just a matter of a lack of research on their part. You see, one thing that everyone seemed to forget in the whole League switch melee is that I had designed my tattoos in the format that 1996 never ended. By this I mean I had the Milwaukee Brewers on the AL side to begin with as they never should have been moved in the first place.

And just like the Brewers, even if it was announced before I got the ink done, I still would have put the Astros on the side in which they were first brought into the league. After all, it’s MLB’s fault by screwing everything up in the first place by adding two NL teams (Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins) in 1993 as opposed to an AL and NL. What’s most interesting about the Astros move is that MLB could have fixed the ever-growing problem easily by moving the Brewers to the AL Central, where they belong, and the Kansas City Royals to the AL West and still have the three divisions with five teams each format that they were trying to assemble. Why the Royals you might ask? Well, since their inaugural season in 1969 the Royals had always been members of the AL West. From then until 1994 the Royals won six western division titles and a World Series in 1985. Since the divisional realignment in 1994 they haven’t won a thing. Even more interesting is that the Royals were the first team approached to switch to the NL at the end of the 1997 season, but they declined.

While my plan to correct everything back to the way things originally were may seem incredibly selfish, the reality is that in the long-run it would actually be financially beneficial to all parties involved. For starters, the Brewers would be able to go back to putting out new product and once again cash in on their 1982 AL Championship run without it looking awkward as current members of the NL. The Royals can once again take heed of the fact that their still, statistically, the second best team in the AL West, and probably improve up their seasonal fortune on the field by not having to face Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers so often throughout the season. But the biggest reason comes in with less money spent in regard to travel for the teams. I realize that’s kind of a frivolous thing to bring up, but with teams like the Oakland Athletics and the Royals who love to stretch every penny. Granted, in the case of the Athletics and Angels we’re literally talking about a 100-200 mile difference. But still!

There is a reason why I brought all of this up and it has to do with the date and the numbers I marked on my cap. MLB first started interleague on June 12, 1997 as the Texas Rangers squared off against the San Francisco Giants at The Ballpark in Arlington. With interleague one of the for sure matchups that occur every season is for every team to play their “rival” as assessed by MLB, not necessarily the fan bases. This is why you get such classic “storied” matchups of the San Diego Padres taking on the Mariners every season. When it came to the Astros, one would think that the Rangers, their in-state counterpart, would have met this standard. Nope! The Astros and Rangers wouldn’t face one another until four seasons after interleague first started. On June 8, 2001 the Rangers hosted the Astros for the first ever Lone Star Series (Lone Star Showdown sounds better) which ended with a 5-4 victory for the Astros.

The Astros first introduced these caps at the start of the 2000 season as one of the accoutrements for their first season at their new stadium, The Ballpark at Union Station. This of course was its first name before becoming Enron Field (2000-2002), which then became Astros Field (2002) until they sold the naming rights to Coca-Cola in July of 2002 in which it has been Minute Maid Park ever since. The really weird thing about this cap is that the Astros used at both home and only the road, it mostly depended on which uniform they were wearing. From 2000-2012 they definitely wore it on the road with their grey jerseys which said Houston written across the chest; however, whenever they wore their black pinstriped uniforms at home, they also donned this cap. In these cases it relied mostly upon who was pitching that day.

2001 was the beginning of what should have been the Astros domination of the NL Central for well over a decade. They came close at times, but alas, things have sadly gotten back to the way it used to be back when they were the Houston .45s. As much as people want to say that the 2000s Astros relied heavily upon the Killer B’s and some solid pitching from Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt, there are two guys who played a major impact in the team’s success. Two guys who rarely get the credit they deserve… until now.

#14- Back in 1994 the Mariners selected a third baseman with a lot of promise out of Redondo Beach High School in the 61^st round of the amateur draft. Being chosen that late he had a flurry of options, and elected to take the smarter route by enrolling at USC to play for the Trojans. In 1998, his senior year, he and the Trojans won the NCAA National Championship over then-PAC-10 rival Arizona State. This particular player is still the only Trojan to hit 20 home runs and steal 20 bases in a season. With the championship and a few stellar seasons under his belt he re-entered the draft in 1998 and was selected in the ninth round by the Astros. On September 20, 2000 during 40-man roster call-ups, Morgan Ensberg made his Major League debut wearing #2 as a pinch hitter for Chris Truby. Ensberg would only play in four games that season and spend all of 2001 and half of 2002 in AAA with the New Orleans Zephyrs of the Pacific Coast League.

With a new outlook and a new number (#14), Ensberg played in 49 games in 2002 and batted .242 with three home runs and 19 RBI. In 2003 Ensberg and regular third baseman Geoff Blum were alternated at the hot corner, with Ensberg having the better offensive season. That year he hit .291 with 25 home runs and 60 RBI in 127 games, a fine breakout year. In 2004 Ensberg’s numbers dipped a little bit, merely from the power output perspective, but by 2005 he was back on his game.

As I mentioned above with the Killer B's (Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell and Lance Berkman), it’s pretty easy to see how a guy like Ensberg wouldn’t get much attention for his accomplishments, All three of the other guys had all ready had established careers and had been in the running for, or won (Bagwell in 1994) a NL MVP award. In 2005, the only year the Astros had ever made it to the World Series, Ensberg was the man. That season Ensberg played in 150 games and hit a solid .283 on the year. He paired that with career highs, and team high in home runs (36) and RBI (101). Seriously, the next closest in home runs was 26 by Biggio and Jason Lane, and the closest in RBI was Bagwell with 82. Bagwell missed the majority of the regular season and Ensberg did what he could to fill in. Besides a trip to the World Series, Ensberg was rewarded with his one and only Silver Slugger award, his only trip to the All-Star Game and a respectable fourth place finish for the NL MVP award.

Ensberg would only play for three more seasons: one-and-a-half more years with the Astros, a half season with the Padres after being traded and a short tint with the New York Yankees. These days he works for the Astros as a developmental specialist with the Lancaster Jethawks, the team’s advanced-A affiliate in the California League.

#15- Despite being signed as a free agent by the Astros in 1991 at the age of 16, it wouldn’t be until September 1, 1997 that Venezuelan-born outfielder Richard Hidalgo would make his MLB debut. Hidalgo was a powerful hitter, with good instincts in the outfield and a strong throwing arm. He was supposed to be an all around player in all areas, but a congenital knee defect changed those plans. After hitting .306 and .303 in his first two seasons, Hidalgo had a disappointing 1999 campaign with a .227 average, although he showed some power with 15 home runs in 383 at-bats. He required season-ending kneecap surgery.

Hidalgo blossomed in 2000, when he hit .314 with 44 home runs and 122 RBI. Despite the solid numbers Hidalgo only finished 20^th for the NL MVP that season. His numbers dipped a bit in 2001 (.275, 19, 80) and 2002 (.235, 15, 48), but in 2003 he returned to good form both at the plate and in the field. He posted numbers of .309/28/88, collected three homers in a game, and led the Majors in outfield assists with 22, while committing only four errors. Once again he got the short end of the stick by only finishing 18^th for the NL MVP that season, not even a Gold Glove award.

Hidalgo split the 2004 season between the Astros and the Mets, hitting .239 with 25 homers and 82 RBI. A highlight of the 2004 season was a Met record of home runs in 5 consecutive games, 3 of them in interleague games against the Yankees. In 2006, he signed a minor league contract with the Baltimore Orioles, but left the team before the season started, when his wife became ill. Hidalgo requested to be released from his contract, allowing to him to go to Japan where he would have a starting role. In the 2006 off-season, the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs reportedly showed interest in signing Hidalgo. In January 2007, the Astros signed him again, this time to a minor league contract. This second tenure was short-lived, as Hidalgo was released by the Astros on March 25, 2007, after refusing a minor league assignment. Despite being drafted so young, Hidalgo’s last game came at 30 years of age. Wild.

April 10- Houston Astros

Every now-and-then I find myself perusing the various amounts of “this day in baseball” Web sites in search of inspiration for any kind of accomplishment that pops out. I’ve always been more fascinated with the lesser known stories hat have taken place in baseball. As kind of an oddball myself, in appearance that is, I love being able to research a new discovery; something that I know I can relay to the general public with my enthusiasm for history, as well as the game. The biggest problem with today; however, is that two very important, and hardly talked about things occurred for the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves. Not really knowing which one to write about I decided to put it to a vote on Twitter. Without anybody knowing what story I was going to cover for each team, an unexpected amount of votes went in favor of the Astros, simply because they’ve been playing extremely well despite thoughts that they would roll over and die this season. Actually, come to think of it, the “rolling over and dying” part is a rather interesting theme with the Astros post. So with the votes in hand and my new-found literary discovery, it looks like the Astros are on deck for tonight.

Tonight is my 100^th night of sitting at my computer, writing about a clothing accessory that I’m passionate about. Every post has been a unique story about the men who have sacrificed their lives to play the game they love most and to entertain the fans who cheer them on for over 162 games every year until they fade into the record books. Last week I kicked the actual Major League Baseball season off with my post about the Houston Colt .45s. It’s not very becoming of me to write posts from the same franchise so close together, but this is one of those opportunities that I couldn’t pass up. My .45s post touched on the life and times of Jim Umbricht, a pitcher who played an entire season in 1963 with cancer festering and eating away at his body without effecting his determination to win. Tonight’s post takes an oddly similar route, as a man who very few outside of the Astros fan base, clawed his way to stardom, only to have it come crashing down. Not all of my stories take such a serious tone; however, when I do go down this road I intend to do a great service to the subject for the sake of the player, the team, the fans, and most important, the game itself.

While many players have channeled through the Astros organization in its 50-year history, there are a small handful of players who donned this hat who get more than deserved credit for their time with the organization. Guys like Nolan Ryan, Jose Cruz, Joe Niekro, Larry Dierker, Bruce Bochy, Art Howe and Joe Morgan, but very few ever add J.R. Richard to that list. This hat was used primarily as the Astros game cap from 1971-1980, and then used as their home cap from 1981-1982. If there was ever one player who best represented the original 10-year era of this cap, it’s definitely Richard.

#50- James Rodney Richard was born to Clayton and Lizzie Richard in Vienna, Louisiana and gained prominence at Lincoln High School in nearby Ruston in both baseball and basketball. By the time he was a high school senior, Richard stood 6’8’’ and weighed 220 pounds. That year, he was one of the starting pitchers for Lincoln High School and did not concede a run for the entire season. In one game Richard hit four consecutive home runs while pitching his team to a 48–0 victory against its local rival, Jonesboro's Jackson High School. Richard, whose baseball idol was St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson, never lost a game he started in his high school career. Upon graduating from high school, he turned down more than 200 basketball scholarship offers to sign with the Houston Astros as they took him with the second overall pick in the 1969 amateur draft. The first overall pick by the Washington Senators was 1974 American League MVP Jeff Burroughs, father of eventual MLB prospect Sean Burroughs. Richard later recalled, "There were other guys in my high school with as much ability as I had, but instead of working at a job, they wanted to drink wine on Saturday nights. They thought that was the in thing to do, and consequently our lives went in different directions. For some people it takes that to make a world. It does not for me."

From 1969- the end of August 1971 Richard moved his way through the Astros minor league system, getting a lot of starts, but not necessarily having the greatest of games until he got to the AAA affiliate the Oklahoma City 89ers where he went 12-7 with a 2.45 ERA and 202 strikeouts. With a month left to go in the season those stats were phenomenal. In early September Richard got called up as one of many pieces to the 40-man roster. He had worn #50 throughout his entire minor league journey and kept it throughout his entire Major League career as well. On September 5 Richard, then 21-years-old, made his debut on the mound against the San Francisco Giants in the second game of a doubleheader. Richard was a fastball-slider combination pitcher and in the process he gave up only seven hits, three walks, and two earned runs and tied Brooklyn Dodger Karl Spooner’s record of 15 strikeouts in a debut game set in 1954. That record still stands. It should also be noted that Richard pitched a complete game as well.

From 1972-1974 Richard moved up and down between the minors and the Majors, making a total of 20 starts in the Show with a record of 8-5 and an ERA of 4.69 with 125 strikeouts. In the minors his results were mixed. He struck out a lot of batters, but had difficulty hitting his marks as he was tagged for just as many runs. After the completion of the 1974 season the Astros traded starting pitcher Claude Osteen to the Cardinals, and lost pitching ace Don Wilson, who died from carbon monoxide poisoning at the age of 29 on January 5, 1975. As a result, Richard entered the 1975 season as the third starter of the Astros' pitching rotation, behind veterans Dierker and Dave Roberts. Richard was scheduled to start on April 9 versus the Braves. He was removed from the game in the fifth inning after jamming his toe on the first base bag but gave up no earned runs in his start. Richard continued to exhibit wildness, as shown when he issued eight walks in both his third and fourth starts of the season. He followed by pitching a complete game win against the San Diego Padres on April 29. The following start, he walked a career-high eleven batters in just six innings of pitching and also gave up seven runs in the Astros' 12–8 win over the Giants. By the All-Star break, Richard had six wins and four losses with a 4.93 ERA in just over 98 innings of work.

In an August 10 game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Richard yielded just one hit in six innings but walked 10 batters. He rebounded with a complete game shutout against the New York Mets eight days later. Richard ended the season on a strong note by winning three of his last four starts, including his final two games against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He finished the year with a 12–10 record for the Astros, who finished with a franchise-worst 64–97 record. Richard was the only starter on the Astros' pitching staff who had a winning record for the season. He led the team with 176 strikeouts, which was also the fifth-highest in the National League. Richard also led the league in walks allowed and wild pitches thrown, with 138 and 20, respectively.

In 1976 Richard was given the role as the team’s ace and got his first Opening Day start against the defending World Series champion Cincinnati Reds where he got tagged for four runs in the first four innings. He followed his rough season debut with five wins over his next six starts. The rest of the year had more highs than lows as Richard wrapped up the year going 20-15, becoming only the second pitcher in Astros’ history to record 20 wins in a season; Dierker being the first. Richard pitched 14 complete games in 39 starts, maintained an ERA of 2.75 and struck out a then career high 214 batters. It should also be noted that he knocked in nine runners on the season and hit two home runs, one of which came on his last start of the season which also ended in a complete game performance with 13 strikeouts. At season’s end Richard finished in seventh place for the National League Cy Young award as well as seventeenth for the NL MVP.

1977 was just as prosperous as he finished the year with an 18-12 record, a 2.97 ERA and another 214 strikeouts, but it was in Richard’s next two seasons where everything came together. Richard entered the 1978 season as the Astros' Opening Day starter. In the first game of the season, he gave up seven runs on 11 hits and just made it into the fifth inning before being replaced in a loss to the Reds. He recovered from the loss by pitching a complete game two-hit shutout in his next outing against the Dodgers. In an eight-start period from April 26 to June 4, Richard threw six complete games, including two back-to-back shutouts, and lowered his ERA from 4.15 to 3.05. He struck out 67 and gave up only 39 hits in the 63 total innings he pitched. On a June 9 start against the Cardinals, Richard struck out 12 batters but also walked six and gave up five earned runs. By the end of the first half of the season Richard had pitched back-to-back games with nine and 12 strikeout performances, against the Reds and Dodgers, respectively. At the All-Star break, he had an 8–9 record with a 3.49 ERA but also had 157 strikeouts in 139 innings of work.

After the break, Richard threw an 11-inning, 10-strikeout game against the Montreal Expos and followed with two complete games and another nine-inning performance in a game that went into extra innings. He was selected as the National League Pitcher of the Month after going a perfect 4–0 with a 1.29 ERA and 58 strikeouts in 56 innings during July. Throughout much of August, his season ERA hovered below 3.00, and he averaged well over a strikeout per inning. On August 21, in an 8–3 victory over the Chicago Cubs, he broke Don Wilson's 1969 club record of 235 strikeouts. In the final two months of the season, Richard's strikeout average dramatically increased, and he struck out a double-digit number of batters in three of his last five starts. In his third-to-last start, Richard broke Tom Seaver's NL record of 290 strikeouts by a right-hander when he struck out Bob Horner. In his final outing of the season, Richard reached the 300-strikeout pinnacle by striking out Rowland Office in a September 28 victory over the Braves. He also hit his seventh career home run, making him the Astros' career leader in home runs by a pitcher. At that time, he became only the tenth pitcher, third National Leaguer and first NL right-hander in history to strike out more than 300 batters in a single season. Not even Nolan Ryan tallied 300 strikeouts in any of the nine years (most with any team) in Houston. Richard finished the season with an 18-11 record, 3.11 ERA and of course, 303 strikeouts. Despite his dominant numbers he only managed to finish in fourth place in the NL Cy Young vote behind Gaylord Perry (Padres), Burt Hooten (Dodgers) and Vida Blue (Giants). Richard’s strikeout total was double that of Perry’s and Hooten’s.

#6/313- On April 10, 1979 Richard took the mound in the Astros’ second game of the season against the Dodgers. Despite pitching a 13-strikeout 2-1 complete game victory, Richard set the modern day (1900-present) record for most wild pitches thrown in a game with six. Today is the 34^th anniversary of that record which has yet to be broken. For the rest of the season Richard was on point, by his own standards that is. He pitched nine straight complete games and matched a career-high with 15 strikeouts against the Reds on September 21. He finished the season with 18–13 record and a league-best 2.71 ERA. He struck out 10 or more batters 14 times in the season, and totaled a league-leading 313 strikeouts for the season, breaking his own club record. Richard joined Ryan and Sandy Koufax as the only modern-day pitchers to strike out over 300 batters in consecutive seasons. He led the club in ERA, complete games and innings pitched and tied Joe Niekro in number of games started. He gave up 220 hits in the season, which gave him a league-best 6.77 hits per nine innings ratio. He led the league by limiting the opposing hitters' batting averages to .209 that year. Still, despite his best efforts, he fell short of the NL Cy Young by finishing third, in which he also finished in 19^th place for the NL MVP.

Richard was among the best pitchers in baseball. When asked in 2012 who was the "toughest pitcher to get a hit off of" during his career, Atlanta Brave great Dale Murphy answered "Anybody that played in the late 70's or early 80's will probably give you the same answer: JR Richard". In 1980, Richard was now teamed with seven-time American League strikeout champion Nolan Ryan, who had joined the Astros as a free agent. During the first half of the season, Richard was virtually unhittable, starting the year with five straight wins, 48 strikeouts (including two starts with 12 and 13 strikeouts), and a sub-2.00 ERA. He was named National League Pitcher of the Month for April. At one point, Richard threw three straight complete-game shutouts, two against the Giants and one against the Cubs. On July 3, he broke Dierker's team record of 1487 career strikeouts in a 5–3 win over the Braves; it was to be Richard's last major league victory. After finishing the first half of the season with a 10–4 record, 115 strikeouts and a 1.96 ERA, Richard was selected to be the National League's starting pitcher in the All-Star Game, the only appearance of his career. He lasted only two innings due to intense pain in his back and shoulder.

Every start Richard made after the All-Star Game came with a great deal of pain as he complained of “dead arm,” citing discomfort in his shoulder and throwing arm. His concerns fell on deaf ears. Some in the media even interpreted these complaints as whining or malingering, citing Richard's reputation for moodiness. Others theorized that Richard was egotistical and could not handle the pressure of pitching for the Astros, while others suggested he was jealous of Ryan's $4.5 million contract.

On July 14^th Richard took the mound against the Braves and pitched well through the first two innings, but was having trouble reading the signs from catcher Alan Ashby. He then began having difficulty moving his arm. In the fourth inning after throwing a fastball he felt his right arm go "dead". He had numbness in the fingers of his right hand and could not grasp a baseball. The Astros placed Richard on the 21-day disabled list.

Nine days later, he checked into Methodist Hospital in Houston for a series of physical and psychological tests to determine the cause of his mysterious arm problems. An angiogram revealed an obstruction in the distal subclavian and axillary arteries of the right arm. Richard's blood pressure in his left arm was normal but pressure was nearly absent in his right arm due to the completely obstructed artery. On July 25, however, the arteries in his neck were studied, and the doctors reached a conclusion that all was normal and no surgical treatment needed to be performed.

On July 30, Richard went to see a chiropractor who rotated his neck to fix the flow of blood in his upper torso region. Later that day, Richard was participating in warm-ups before the game when he suffered a major stroke and collapsed in the outfield. Before the stroke, he had a headache and a feeling of weakness through his body. Eventually, that progressed into vision problems and paralysis in the left side of his body. A massive blockage in his right carotid artery necessitated emergency surgery that evening. An examination by neurologist William S. Fields showed that Richard was still experiencing weakness in his extremities and on the left side of his face. He also had blurred vision through his left eye. A CAT scan of Richard's brain later showed that Richard had experienced three separate strokes from the different obstructions in his arterial system. Furthermore, the arteries in his right arm were still obstructed. Later examinations showed that Richard was suffering from extensive arterial thoracic outlet syndrome. While pitching, his clavicle and first rib pinched his subclavian artery. As a result of this problem, Richard would feel normal for the first few innings of the game but after putting repeated pressure on his subclavian artery, his arm would start to ache in pain and eventually start to feel "heavy". His wife at the time, Carolyn, told reporters, "It took death, or nearly death, to get an apology. They should have believed him."- Wikipeadia

Richard underwent rehabilitation and missed the rest of the season. Meanwhile, the Astros recovered from the loss of one of their staff aces and made for the playoffs the first time in the club's 18-year history. Richard would never play in the Majors again.

Richard made an attempt to comeback in 1981, but lost a lot of control on his pitches. While he did make the 40-man roster in during September-callups, then manager Bill Virdon did not use him. In 1983, Richard started to complain of pain in his left calf. The synthetic graft inserted in his July 1980 surgery had closed off, which meant that he needed a surgical bypass in his left leg. Richard was granted free agency by the Astros on November 7, 1983, but the Astros still had faith in him, so he was re-signed on February 17 of the following year. Just a little over two months later, he was released by the Astros, thus ending his baseball career. Despite an almost complete recovery, the risk of future complications was so great that he never pitched again. His final major league record was 107–71, with 1,493 strikeouts and a 3.15 ERA in 238 games and 1,606 innings. Nolan Ryan broke his Astros record for career strikeouts in 1987. - Wikipedia

After his baseball career ended Richard moved back to Louisiana where he made failed attempts at random business ventures including a $300,000 oil scheme. Years later Richard’s first wife divorced him and took $669,000 in the divorce settlement. He married again down the road, but once again got divorced at which he lost his house in Houston and most of the money that remained. In 1989 Richard was drafted into the Senior Professional Baseball League, but was cut during preseason. By 1994 Richard was broke and homeless, living under a highway overpass in Houston. The only amount of money made public that Richard made in his career was $75,000 he made in 1977, and yet Nolan Ryan cut a $ 4.5 million contract in 1980. Luckily for Richard’s sake when 1995 came around his pension from MLB kicked in and he played in the Old Timers’ Day game at the Astrodome that season, but every night, at day’s end, Richard continued to sleep under the Highway 59 overpass.

He turned to the Now Testament Church and sought help from its minister, Reverend Floyd Lewis. Richard overcame his homelessness by working with this minister, with a belief that he "always knew God was on his side". He started working at an asphalt company and later returned to the church as a minister. Richard became involved in the Houston community, working with local financial donors to help establish baseball programs for children. Even a small-budget 2005 movie, Resurrection: The J.R. Richard Story, was maid to pay tribute to the legend that had fallen so far.

Prior to a few years ago I had never heard of J.R. Richard. I remember scrolling across his name a number of times when looking at old Astros stats, but never gave much thought to it. Today I was mostly going to focus on the six wild pitches he threw against the Dodgers, but I found his life story too hard to not write about or talk about. Such a damn shame the way his career shook out, but perhaps this can be a first step in getting him the recognition he deserves. For starters, I don’t understand why the Astros didn’t retire his numbers. They’ve given #50 to nine different players and a bullpen coach since his retirement. Talk about an ass-backwards franchise.

March 31- Houston Colt .45s

Tonight the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros are kicking off the 2013 Major League Baseball season as the Astros make their debut in the American League. The last two years have been an interesting prelude, to say the least, when the decision to move the Astros into the AL was made roughly two days after I completed my MLB tattoo outline. Since that day I’ve received numerous questions asking how I was going to cope with that decision or whether or not I was going to skin graft the Astros tattoo to the other side. First off, skin graft!? Are you stupid? The cost of that alone would be ridiculous. But even more important, I also had the Milwaukee Brewers tattoo added to the AL side for the main reasons that their greatest success came with the AL in 1982 and I never quite accepted the relocation in the first place. I’ve always been a bit of purist when it comes to teams, especially when it comes to keeping original team names as they were intended when they first entered the league. Unfortunately over time, my thoughts have always been superseded by the owners and governing bodies of MLB. For example: the Washington Senators moving twice and becoming the Minnesota Twins and Rangers before I was born, the Montreal Expos becoming the Washington Nationals and the Seattle Pilots becoming the Brewers. Finally, there’s the team/hat, the Houston Colt .45s.

This season the Astros are trying to avoid becoming the second team to lose at least 106 games in at least three consecutive seasons, a mark established by the expansion 1962-1965 New York Mets. What’s most interesting about this stat is that the Colt .45s became an expansion team in the National League the same year as the Mets. Also, the Colt .45s name only lasted from 1962-1964, the same time frame as the first three 106+ loss seasons of the streak. This hat was one of the first few that I picked up when I started actively collecting New Era caps. I have always thought that this is one of the coolest hats released; it’s simple, much like most of the classic hats that have survived for more than 40 years in the league. What has become most important to me with this team, let alone the hat, is that it baseball fans don’t lose sight off this as a mark in history of MLB. When I was in the MLB Fan Cave last year I only asked for one thing during my time, a Colt .45s jersey. I was told that wouldn’t be a problem, just as long as I never wore it inside the Fan Cave because of the gun blazing across the chest. I complied, but I never got the jersey. The one thing I always found incredibly funny amount the conditions behind getting the jersey was that I had the gun from the jersey tattooed on my body…

Like I said, I’m a purist. I captured every era of Colt .45s/Astros baseball within one tattoo because the things matter to me.

When I marked up this cap there were only two names that made the most sense, and no, they’re not Joe Morgan or Nellie Fox. Morgan was originally draft by Houston and went on to have a Hall of Fame career. Fox ended his Hall of Fame career with Houston, but neither of them made a great impact on the team. These two guys were essential to the team.

#32- Jim Umbricht made his MLB debut on September 26, 1959 as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1959 and 1961 Umbricht only pitched in one game per season; however, in 1960 he started three games and came out of the bullpen for 14 others. Umbricht unfortunately didn’t make the playoff roster during the 1960 season; however, he played in enough games to help the Pirates win the NL pennant and earn a World Series ring. His numbers with the Pirates weren’t much to sniff at: 1-2 with 5.12 ERA and 30 strikeouts, and he found himself of the expansion draft list for the upcoming 1962 season. With the 35^th pick the Colt .45s took Umbricht.

Umbricht made 34 appearances out of the bullpen in 1962 and finished the season as one of the most dominant players on the team. He went 4-0 with a 2.01 ERA and 55 strikeouts. Not too bad for a guy who never got much playing time for the first few years of his career. At the beginning of spring training for the 1963 season, Umbricht noticed a small black mole in his right leg, near the thigh while on a golf outing with Richards. Umbricht ignored the mole at first, but it grew at a rapid pace. Richards and team trainer Jim Ewell told Umbricht to have it checked out by a doctor back in Houston. A three-inch section of the mole was removed for testing and a doctor confirmed it was a "black mole" tumor that had spread to his groin area. A lifelong clean-cut bachelor, Umbricht had developed a reputation as a cheerful person who only cared about others' well-being. Ewell, the team trainer said, Umbricht "had the most wonderful attitude of anyone you'll ever meet". As a result, Umbricht's cancer diagnosis shocked baseball and made national headlines. On March 7, Umbricht underwent a six-hour operation using perfusion to remove the tumor from his right leg. The perfusion technique was radical at the time, and began to be used as a surgical procedure not long before Umbricht's surgery. After a month-long hospital stay, Umbricht and his doctors told the media that he beat the cancer, crediting "early detection and good physical condition," further stating that he "should have five or six good years left" in his baseball career. Umbricht, however, learned that the doctors were unsure if the cancer surgery was a success, or even if it had been completely removed from his body. Even if it was, his chance of survival was slim at best. Upon hearing the news, Umbricht decided to keep it a secret outside his immediate family. That season Umbricht made 35 appearances and started three of those games. He went 4-3 with a 2.61 ERA and 48 strikeouts and a .961 WHIP. For a guy who had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor, find out that the operation wasn’t a 100 percent success and then go back to playing baseball is beyond an incredible accomplishment. But sadly, September 29, 1963 would turn out to be Umbricht’s final game.

In the last month of the season Umbricht's cancer had started to spread throughout his body and he needed to be sedated at times because of the pain. In November, Umbricht learned that the cancer spread to his chest area and was incurable. He was released from his contract on December 16 due to his deteriorating health. The National League allowed the Colts to sign Umbricht to a scout contract given the circumstances, with the proviso that it would become a player contract if he rejoined the active roster. By the time 1964 came around Umbricht’s health was progressively getting worse. He didn’t make the trip to Cocoa Beach to meet with the team for Spring Training as he was in-and-out of the hospital. On March 16^th Umbricht checked into the hospital for the last time with the hopes that a third operation would be the last needed. During his final hospital stay, the Colts' management, his family and the hospital staff agreed not to release any further details about his illness, though word had leaked that he was dying. He remained optimistic that he would beat the illness until his final days, stating that "everything will be ok" in an interview with United Press International sports Editor Milton Richman. Umbricht succumbed to the disease on April 8, 1964 in the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Umbricht's death came on the eve of the Colts' 1964 season.

The team wore black patched on their sleeves for the 1964 season and the newly renamed Astros retired his number in 1965. He was 33-years-old when he passed.

#49- Lawrence Edward Dierker was signed as a free agent by the Colt .45s in 1964 and made his MLB debut on September 22 of that same year. He pitched in three games going 0-1 with a 2.00 ERA and five strikeouts in the final year in the history of Colt .45s name. From 1965-1976 Dierker played for the Astros making two All-Star Game appearances in 1969 and 1971 and finished 23^rd in the NL MVP vote going 20-13 with a 2.33 ERA, 232 strikeouts and 305.1 innings pitched; all career bests, yet for some reason he wasn’t even considered for the NL Cy Young award. The rest of Dierker’s playing career was welcomed with modest success. His final year came in 1977 with the St. Louis Cardinals, but his Colt .45s/Astros run ended with a record of 139-123, an ERA of 3.28 and 1493 strikeouts.

From 1979 to 1996 Dierker switched up to a broadcasting position as the color commentator for the Astros’ radio and television broadcasts until he took over as the Astros manager in 1997. From 1997-2001 Dierker managed the team to a NL Central division title in every season except 2000 when they finished in fourth place. Dierker won the NL Manager of the Year award in 1998 and he finished his career with a record of 435-348. In 1999, Dierker had a close brush with death during a game against the San Diego Padres. The Houston manager had been plagued by severe headaches for several days. During the game, Dierker had a seizure that rendered him unconscious. He required emergency brain surgery for a cavernous angioma and after four weeks of recovery, returned to the helm of the Astros and guided the team through the duration of the season. The Astros won 97 games and a third consecutive National League Central Division title.

Dierker returned to the broadcast booth from 2004-2005 and up until March 23 of this year he worked with the Astros front office serving as the community outreach executive. Dierker’s number was retired by the Astros on May 19, 2002. This season will be only the third year since his rookie year in 1964 that Dierker won’t be a part of the team.

If you need an idea of how bad things may potentially be in Houston this season, just think about that last stat. It’s a damn shame. In my opinion, he’s more iconic of a figure in the history of the Astros than Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, Jose Cruz and Mike Scott.

February 27- Houston Astros

I had previously owned this Houston Astros cap from 2000-2001 when I was living in Vancouver, Washington and wore it quite often when I went to work at Just Sports at the Vancouver Mall. Since our polo shirts were navy blue it made for a good match along with the khaki shorts or pants I was wearing, depending on which season it was. One night in January of 2001 I was riding the bus back home as I never had a car until I was 19-years-old. I was tuned into my portable CD player and lingering in between a state of consciousness and a light slumber when the bus made a sharp turn to the right onto 92^nd street where my stop was. Due to my state of slight confusion, I quickly hit the stop button and grabbed my backpack. I hopped off and made it about two blocks in the rain before I realized that my head and face were not being protected by the familiar bill that usually kept me dry. I had left the hat on the bus. Pissed off doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt. It would be 10 years before I bought a replacement.

I ended up finding this hat brand new on Ebay for about $10 in August of 2011. Every now-and-then I find a few gems there, but I became incredibly hesitant after I got burned by some kid in the Bay Area selling a “brand new” San Francisco Giants cap for $15. If by “brand new” he meant wore it for three years without taking off the tags, then yes. When the Astros cap came in the mail I immediately went to Baseball-Reference.com and filtered through an array of stats and stories, until inevitably falling on 5714, the number of strikeouts that Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan had throughout his Major League career.

It seemed to make sense to me at the time, but I never really had a good reason for doing it, especially considering that I owned a few New York Mets, California Angels and Texas Rangers hats which would have made just as much sense. I don’t know. Something in my gut just told me to throw that number on the hat, which for me is weird when considering how analytical I am when it comes to marking my hats. Historically it would have made sense to add that number to a 1986-1993 Rangers hat, since he did hit that mark, retire with and go into the Hall of Fame with that hat, or even the 1972-1989 Angels hat since he did tally the most strikeouts of his career with them. But no, I opted to roll with the 1965-1970/1980-1993 Astros hat.

So far I’ve done this post way different than the others. I usually start out with the history of the hat and end with my mark, but you’ll see why at the end. The Astros did in fact use this hat from 1965-1970 and then again from 1980-1993. From 1980-1981 it serves as the team’s road cap, before they transitioned it into the “alternate home” and road cap in 1982, which then became just their game cap by 1983. When it comes to hats and uniform combinations, very few teams have been weirder about this than the Astros. Ryan’s tenure with the team started in 1980 and ended in 1988 when he finished out his career with the Rangers. Prior to the Astros he played with the Angels from 1972-1979 and before that he played with the Mets from 1966-1971. So if you’re keeping score at home it looks something like this: 9 years with the Astros, 8 years with the Angels, 5 years with the Mets and 5 years with the Rangers.

Ryan only won one World Series throughout his 27 year career which came in 1969 with the Miracle Mets. Outside of that, he had 493 strikeouts and was merely a blip on the radar during his time in New York. When he got to California with the Angels his reputation came to light. Throughout his eight year run Ryan went 138-121 with a 3.07 ERA and a staggering 2416 strikeouts, the most with any team he played for. He also threw four no-hitters during that frame, which tied him for the most with Sandy Koufax at the time. No big deal; he was just getting warmed up.

During Ryan’s stretch with the Astros he went 106-94, which gave him a win percentage of .530, only three thousandths of a percentage behind his Angels wins percentage. He struck out 1866 batters, but he did post the two lowest seasonal ERAs of his career in Houston: 1.69 in 1981 and 2.76 in 1987, as well as one no-hitter with the ‘Stros on September 26, 1981… while wearing the orange cap. See!

His time with the Rangers went incredibly well. As you saw in the photo above, he threw two more no-nos and he went 51-39 with 939 strikeouts putting his strikeouts per nine innings at 10.1, the highest of his career. Six years after he was retired he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and perma-plaqued with a Rangers cap, something that I have questioned since Induction Day. Obviously his beast statistical years came with the Angels, not to mention he only won a championship with the Mets. Somehow in 27 years he NEVER won a Cy Young award; the closest he came was runner-up to Jim Palmer in 1973 despite the fact that Ryan struck 383 batters out. Palmer only struck out 158. Daaaaaammmnnnn!!! Ryan led the League in strikeouts 11 times: 7 with the Angels and 2 each with the Rangers and Astros. I realize that Ryan is a Texas boy and got to choose how he went into the Hall, but the powers that be really should have put the kibosh on that one. So glad they changed that rule!

But even with all of these facts and figures, the mystery of why I chose this hat to mark the 5714 on the front panel was still a mystery… until I went to the Hall of Fame. I’ve only been there once, back on August 1, 2012 with my friend Dave Kaufman. With the exception of a few photos of the plaques, I never really did much investigative work about what the Hall had to offer. I wanted to be surprised when I got there. And needless to say I was when Dave and I came across this display.

Not until today did I ever give much thought to it. This whole number investigation and explanation didn’t start until I picked the hat for today’s post. I honestly don’t even remember why I took a photo of this pane, but there it is; the hat with the 5714 strikeout caption below it. A hat which had no real significance on any special occasion for Ryan.

Weird things like this have happened throughout my life. I’ll think about something or get a strong feeling about whatever and it will pop up at some point in time down the road. This sort of “psychic” intuition always proved useful when I would think about a particular episode of The Simpsons and sure enough it would be on later that night. I realize that there is no real way for me to prove that I’m not pulling your leg… or is there?

I went back through all of the photos I’ve taken over the last year on the Samsung Galaxy Note I got while I was in the MLB Fan Cave, as well as a few photo albums on my computer to prove that I’m not full of crap and didn’t just make up an elaborate story.

This photo should all be familiar to you as it serves as the background for my blog. I took it on May 26, 2012, about three days before I got kicked out of the Fan Cave. I realize it’s hard to see, but the numbers are on the hat.

Here’s a close-up of that image.

Still not convinced? How about this photo?

This was taken on October 12, 2011, well before the Fan Cave and well before my hat collection ballooned to the number that it is now.

Sooooooooo… in your face! But like I said, it’s all weird.