February 22 (late)- Baltimore Orioles

Back on January 3 I had written about a hat very similar to this in lieu of the University of Oregon Ducks taking down the Kansas State Wildcats in the Fiesta Bowl. After the vicious drubbing the Ducks gave the Wildcats I was hoping this version of a custom 1901 Baltimore Orioles cap would give the Duck baseball team the same luck for their home opener against the Loyola-Marymount Lions. Even with my girlfriend Angie Kinderman in attendance with me, luck was certainly not on our side.

I’ve made it a habit not to mark up my custom hats as they are than until itself, customs. No team ever really wore the hat, but based on the color and logo scheme one can draw their own conclusions from it. I saw this hat about three days after I had received the original black panel, yellow “O” and green bill hat thinking the same thing as when I purchased the first, “This hat is awesome!” I had it sitting with the rest of my hoard for the last month and a half, all the while waiting for today to roll around. Going into tonight’s game the Ducks were ranked fifth in the AP poll, their highest in team history. Not too bad after rejoining the PAC-10/12 in 2008 after a long hiatus. Rain had been pouring all day long, but the Oregon Baseball Twitter account assured everyone that the game was still on. Angie and I stopped for a beer at Max’s Tavern and headed on our way to PK Park.

It was especially cold tonight, but not freezing. The rain was still coming down at a light drizzle as we entered the park. The grounds crew was removing the tarp the covered the pitchers mound; oddly enough the only spot of real dirt on the field. The national anthem was just getting underway as we headed down to our seats. It was around this time that the rain miraculously stopped; not showing itself again until after the game. The game started out fine, but not exactly in an utmost favorable way for Oregon. At the end of the first two innings the Ducks had left six runners stranded while Jake Reed, the starting pitcher, did what he could to keep the Lions at bay. Angie and I bundled up with one another, trying to keep warm. As the game progressed the Lions drew first blood in the fourth, and then tagged on four more runs in the fifth. Despite the Ducks’ best effort, they lost to the Lions 7-2.

This was not how I imagined my last night with Angie would go after the wonderful week I spent with her, but this was the least of my worries. We got in the car and headed north to my parents’ house in Portland to crash for the night so I could get her to her plane which heads back to Miami at noon on Saturday. Angie had done her best to keep things together, but I could see teardrops falling from her eyes as I drove into the wet night. I tried to come up with something, but I was still stewing about a recent blog post from 3UP 3DOWN, a group of friends of mine I had made over the last year based on our MLB Fan Cave applications. I asked he about the situation: They had written a draft style post about all 30 of the new batting practice hats, something I was about to do starting on Monday one at a time. My issue with this merely came in the form that all of them have been aware of my hat a day post and they wrote it and sent it to me without asking if I was going to write about any of them. I realize that I don’t own the market on talking about New Era hats; however, if someone you know, who is vying for a prestigious position you held the previous year with Major League Baseball, writes about a similar topic and then says that they were merely trying to “compliment” what you’ve done without consultation, wouldn’t you be a bit stewed about it? Angie and I looked at every angle of this problem, all the while trying to keep the focus off of our impending separation.

We got to about the halfway point, Salem, when I noticed that my car was losing velocity. I quickly down shifted and moved off of the freeway to a safe area. I got to about ¾ of the way up the off ramp when my car keeled out. We were stuck. I got on the horn to AAA, got a tow truck out and the guy at the wheel checked things out. After trying to turn the car over we both came to the conclusion that my timing belt had snapped. The feeling of absolute failure had washed over me. He hooked up the car while Angie and I waited in the truck. He hopped back in and we headed back on our way to Portland. I stared out the window, thoughtless and stroking Angie’s hand, for about 10 miles before the silence was broken by the driver. We chatted about the car for a moment and then the conversation somehow shifted to where we were from. He had mentioned he was from the West Bay while I said I was from the East. I then made a remark about his San Francisco Giants hat and the conversation carried on amongst all three of us from there. All the worry and stress slipped away over the next 35 miles.

Baseball, I’ve found, unites people. It doesn’t matter if you’re rivals or comrades, the mere love of the game can turn the worst of situations into a positive. Without baseball I wouldn’t have met Angie last September. Without baseball I wouldn’t have met my friends. Without baseball I really wouldn’t be the person I am today. I’ll get over my differences with my friends, because that is what they are, my friends. Differences may break out, but I’ll find a way to come to a resolution after a good night’s sleep. In the morning I’ll bid Angie a safe flight, but not a goodbye, as we’ll see each other again soon when I visit her in Miami around the start of the regular baseball season. Life is just weird sometimes, but we cope with adversity and move on. Just like tomorrow I’ll get my car situation and get back to Eugene to write my next post just as Angie makes it back home. Things always get better if you want them to.

January 10- Eugene Emeralds

The Eugene Emeralds unveiled this bad boy last season as a tribute the school they share their stadium with, the University of Oregon Ducks. I was on the road touring the country when the hat was released and was lucky enough to pick one up when I stopped off in Eugene for a few games.

I have to say, I was quite impress by it, but what I always thought was really funny is that this was not their normal game hat, nor colors. The traditional colors of navy and neon green for the Emeralds never really sat well with me. I mean take the team name for starters: Emeralds. I’m no PhD laureate geologist, but I’ve always knows emeralds to be green. Keeping with this, Seattle, to my knowledge, has been known as the Emerald City for quite some time. While one could contest that the Emeralds have similar colors to the Seattle Mariners, I could also argue that the Seattle Supersonics were the dominant sports powerhouse, getting flashy with their green and gold uniforms. And so with that, I’ve always felt that the combination of those colors would have suited the Emeralds well.

As for the numbers; I didn’t really feel the need to throw any on. Since it was only a temporary hat, and I missed the games in which they wore the colors, I didn’t have a frame of reference to really know who would have been a good fit. So, blank it is.

January 9- Cleveland Indians

When I woke up this morning it was a bit of a struggle to find a decent cap to wear. Shuffling through the large assortment of hats I have at 5 AM didn’t exactly put me in the best of moods. For the first month and a half I’d like to write about and wear a different team; however, every time I grabbed a hat a different style for the 8 hats I’ve all ready written about kept showing up in my hand. It was pouring rain all morning as well, and I wanted to wear something dark so that it got a little water-logged, it wouldn’t be too noticeable. So, I came across the “I” logo Indians cap and said, “What the hell!”

The Indians used this bad boy from 2002-2007 and it served as their alternate cap. The really interesting, personal, thing I recall about this hat is that no one outside of Cleveland really seemed to appreciate it. By that I mean no one really bought it when I was working as a store manager for Just Sports in Woodburn, Oregon from 2005- April of 2007. For months on end they sat on the shelf and collected dust. For those who don’t know, Woodburn is comprised of a large population of Mexicans and Russians. Draw your own conclusions, but basically I sold a lot of Dodgers, Giants, A’s, Yankees and Red Sox caps during my run. I ended up picking mine up last year on EBay for $20. And believe me, it was a tough one to track down.

Now, like I said, the hat was used from 2002-2007. During that time the Indians only finished with a record over .500 twice in 2005 (93-69) and 2007 (96-66) under current Seattle Mariners manager Eric Wedge. The Indians won the American League Central Division in 2007, but were knocked out in a grueling 7 game battle versus the Boston Red Sox who later won their second World Series since 1918. I was particularly not amused by this.

For my markings I dug a bit deep, and kept it on the personal level.

#17- For some odd reason one of my favorite players on the Indians, who played his last year in 2002 is Travis Fryman. Like I said, not really sure. I’ve always dug the name. The other mystery surrounding that is the fact that he only played in Cleveland for 5 years, compared to the 8 he spent in Detroit. It should also be noted that he hit a career low .217 over 118 games. I guess some mysteries were never meant to be solved.

#41- I was obviously in a more clear-headed mood when I decided to drop Victor Martinez on my hat. How could you keep him off? The dude is a switch-hitting powerhouse who had the best year of his career in 2007 going .301/25/114. Arguably one of the best hitting catchers/first baseman/DH in the game today, well, except for that whole ACL tear thing before last season. But prior to that! The dude is a dynamo.

January 3- Baltimore Orioles

To be honest, I really didn’t give it much thought until this morning. Today marks the first bowl game I will be missing featuring my alma mater THE University of Oregon since they stampeded the Oklahoma State Cowboys during the Holiday Bowl at the end of the 2008 regular season. More importantly, today marks the only BCS Bowl that I’ll miss since Chip Kelly took over as coach prior to the 2009 season. Frankly, I’m cool with this, but like all three BCS games that fell before, I’m still sporting my favorite Ducks shirt and one of the newest additions to my New Era collection, a custom 1901 Baltimore Orioles cap.

One thing that should be known about me is that I’m a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to MLB gear. Every now-and-then I’ll come across something that really blows my mind, but it’s not often. That’s not to say that I don’t like custom gear, I just prefer to rock the classic look. All of that pretty much went out the window; however, when I saw this hat.

During my time in New York with the MLB Fan Cave I had an Oregon Ducks hat that my best friend Sam Spencer had given to me about a month after the Ducks had beaten Wisconsin in the 2012 Rose Bowl. Sam is a clothing designer for Nike, so it was easy for him to snag one for me. Little did I know, it was a prototype, and therefore the only one in existence. Sadly the hat went AWOL some time during my time in NYC and I can only assume that it was stolen, as none of the other 173 or so hats I had were missing.

Only for the sake that it was a rare hat do I even miss that hat. The reality is that I don’t really like how Nike hats, fitted ones at that, rest on my head. However, when it comes to Oregon hats, New Era doesn’t have the rights to produce any, so… I just figured to never buy an Oregon hat again… until 3 weeks ago when I came across this at HatClub.com.

The original 1901 hat has solid black, and featured the yellow “O” only on the front of the jersey, over the heart. It served as the road uniform for the Orioles for one season before they redesigned their uniforms again in 1902, and then they just flat out moved to NYC in 1903 and became the Highlanders, who then changed their name permanently to the Yankees. The only notable player from the 1901 Orioles team is someone who became more well-known for being a manager, and was enshrined in the Hall of Fame as the general of the New York Giants in 1937, John McGraw. Another important piece of info from this time period is that none of the uniforms had numbers on the back as this didn’t become a fixture until the 1920s for the primary reason of establishing batting order.

What’s even more interesting about this hat is that the “O” is nearly identical to the “O” that the U of O has been sporting since 2000, for football, and 2002 for all other sports. Granted, the Oregon “O” is a bit wider, but you can see where I’m going with this. (Interesting fact about the Oregon “O”, it’s a combination of Autzen Stadium for the outside, and Hayward Field for the inside.)

Knowing these important details, I’ve opted to keep the hat blank. I suppose I could have marked it with 1901, but this really isn’t a 1901 Orioles cap. For now, it will be my “hopefully” lucky Oregon hat. Go Ducks!!!