June 28- San Jose Giants

For those of you who may have noticed that I have continually gotten a bit off track from my daily posts, I assure you that there is decent reason for my last gap in between posts. One of the things that I have been trying to make a habit of is anytime I write a specific date on any of my hats I save that date to pay a true tribute to the event that took place. As you’ll soon learn with this post, I decided to keep the date open until it arrived.

This is one of the few moments where becoming a bit burnt out in writing these posts ended up paying off in the end. Granted, I could have just posted the title and the linking words like two of my other posts (which I still need to write), but I found that, like the other two posts, it’s taking a bit longer than it should to get around to writing them. So, I decided to just wait it out and not progress until I accomplished my goal at hand. Not to sound like I’m jumping into a Delorean and going into the future, but this story actually first came to be on June 29^th when I received a text from my friend, and fellow Oakland Athletics MLB Fan Cave finalist Vanessa Demske.

On that afternoon I was sitting around on the couch as I had a rare day off from work. Being the productive person that I am, I found myself watching episode five of season four of “The Wire,” as I am still trying to get through the entire series. At this point I think it’s best to inform you that if any of you decide to spoil the second half of season four or all of season five you will have a swift kick to the gonads (even if you’re female) awaiting you. Anyway, I won’t go into detail as far as what was going down on screen (I don’t like to spoil things), but I received a text message from Vanessa while she was in the gift shop at Municipal Stadium, the home of the San Jose Giants. Like a lot of my friends out of state who go to minor league games, she sent me a photo of the hat wall which always puts me in a good mood.

She then informed me that the Giants held a Breast Cancer Awareness Night during the previous game and that they were cleaning out all the BCA hats and asked if I wanted one. As it stood at the time, I didn’t have any San Jose Giants caps in my collection, so any cap that the team wore on the field was one that I was more than happy to add to my bag. I told her yes and that my size was 7 3/8. She then responded back and let me know that they were all out of that size. Grumble!!! No big deal though, with my hair continuing to grow a 7 ½ would work just as well and feel a little bit looser on my melon. She obliged and said that she would mail it out later in the week.

At that point in time the last post I had written was my Fort Wayne Wizards piece on LaTroy Hawkins. Since the game in which this cap was used took place on the 28^th and the Hawkins piece was dated for June 15^th, I figured I had plenty of time to write 12 more posts before it arrived. So, I wrote a few stories here and there to make a strong effort to get all caught up. Unfortunately my availability to write with my intense work schedule, daily commute and additional writing I do for three other Web sites has really slowed down my process. Nonetheless, I braved on, all with the anticipation that this cap would arrive shortly; so I write and waited. Wrote and waited some more. Wrote and waited even more. And then I just waited. I’m not busting Vanessa’s chops when I say this, but the package took a little bit longer than expected. And trust me, these things happen as I am notorious for not having the time or resources to get packages out sometimes, BUT… it did arrive today.

I was at work when it showed up on the front porch, but my mother (yes, I still live at home temporarily) was nice enough to inform me that she found it when she got home from work and threw it on my bed. When I got home around 11:30 PM I grabbed my Benchmade knife (Murica!!!), popped it open and admired it for a bit before grabbing a bowl of cereal so I could have a little bit of sustenance in my tummy-tum before writing this up. I should also point out that I’m absolutely exhausted and that I’m not trying to pass out as I write this. Just as promised, the grey with pink “SJ”-logoed Giants cap was in my possession. Vanessa even made sure to leave me a little note to remind me of the date and the event and that all of the other research was on me. So nice of her.

Of all the 315 or so hats that I own this is the first one which served as a charitable promotion. This is the second year in which the Giants have teamed up with Team KRTY and Sutter Home to host the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer Night. As part of the promotion anyone wearing pink was given two tickets to a future Giants game. On top of that the Giants hosted a silent auction in which patrons who had the highest bid were allowed to jump onto the field after the game and select which pink jersey they wanted off the back of the player who wore it, along with an autograph to boot.

As far as charitable promotions go, I’ve always been a huge fan of stuff like this. In the Majors teams will participate in charity-related events and host special nights; however, everything is done on the exterior of the game itself. By this I mean there is nothing really at play during the game with the exception of games which take place on Mother’s Day when all of the players use special pink bats. The great thing about the minor leagues is that special uniforms are provided for these events and usually donated, raffled off or sold to fans after the game. Even though they’re only used for one game, it’s still a very creative and joyous experience for everyone involved, especially the fans.

6/28/13- Unlike a lot of my other caps, where I get really in depth and creative with my marks, I decided to keep things simple and straight to the point this time around. The Giants hosted their Bay Area rival the Stockton Ports in the second of a four-game series which lasted over the final weekend of June. The Giants had all ready locked up the first half of the season Northern Division title, so it was on to the next challenge.

After leading the Ports by a score of 3-0 the wheels came off (so to speak) in the top of the sixth inning as the Ports rallied hard and dismantled Giants pitchers Adalberto Mejia and Luis Rojas to the tune of eight runs in the inning. This would prove to be the only offense the Ports would need behind the bats of Antonio Lamas and Max Muncy.

Despite the 6-8 loss for the Giants, winning the game on this night would have only made for a small victory in their effort to continue their contributions to help fund research and bring awareness in the fight against breast cancer. And for that, as begrudging as it may be being an Athletics fan and all, I tip my cap to you Giants. Because after all, everyone's goal in this fight is the same, to eradicate breast cancer, or any cancer for that matter, once and for all.

April 5- Stockton Ports

So I’m currently in Maguire’s Pub in downtown Petaluma, California (the home of Jonny Gomes) crushing a few mimosas as I write this piece. I will apologize in advance for any errors that may occur.

After four brilliant games at the Coliseum between the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners it was time to get back to the Minors to catch a game in Stockton, California on Friday to watch the hometown Stockton Ports take on my former employer, the Bakersfield Blaze, with Vanessa Demske (@vdemske) and Will MacNeil (@RFWill149). Will had told both of us about the series and Vanessa and I both decided early yesterday morning that it would be a good idea to roll down for a game. It took us about an hour-and-a-half to drive, but we got there right as the top half of the first inning was wrapping up; so no major loss. 

Will met us at the game with a pair of tickets, which was more than appreciated. Our seats were front row, just a few slots down from the Blaze dugout, but right at the section when the protective net ended. We joked about how easy it would be to take a ball to the face, something that almost happened to me when Will got up for a beer run as infielder Dominic D’Anna fouled one back into the seat next to mine. Spooky.

Another fellow A’s fan in attendance was Nick Badders (@nickbatters), a very talent 14-year-old writer who has a blog on MLBlogs.com under the pseudonym 7000 Coliseum Way. If you get a chance, read his posts here: http://nbbaseball.wordpress.com/author/nickbatters/  His blog hast been in the Top-100 since 2011. Absolutely amazing stuff.

When I had originally plotted this trip down to the Bay Area I made sure to pack enough hats to write about for my nightly posts. What’s incredibly ironic is that I had a Blaze and a Ports hat in each hand, debating on which Minor League cap I could write about if my trip ended up going an extra day. Being the resourceful planner that I am, I left both of them, thinking that I would be back in Portland in enough time. Boy was I wrong. Having worn my lucky A’s home cap for the last few days I decided to roll with a 2002 red batting practice-style Montreal Expos hat in order to not really have a horse in the race, so to speak since I had previously worked for the Blaze and since the Ports are the advanced-A affiliate of the A’s. It was really hard to pick sides.

The game itself moved by rather quickly as most of the batters flew out or grounded out, thus causing each pitcher to not develop a high pitch count. Since it was still early in the year each team kept their pitchers at a minimum count of around 80 in order to keep their arms preserved throughout the first month. No sense in burning out a solid prospect. The one thing I had totally forgotten about was that A’s top prospect Addison Russell was on the team. For some reason I had figured he’d been moved up to the AA Midland Rock Hounds or AAA Sacramento River Cats, but sure enough, there he was batting leadoff and playing shortstop. There was a brief moment during his third at-bat when he slightly rolled his ankle whilst legging out an infield hit. The entire stadium went silent as the trainer and manager Webster Garrison bolted to first base to look after their guy. After a few stretches and quick dashes, he was good to continue. Whew!

Friday’s game in Stockton was the first game I had attended in the port town since I had lived there back when I was three through five-years-old. I think we had broken down that 1987 was the last home game I had been to when the Ports were still playing at Billy Hebert Field when they were an affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewer from 1985-1999. The most notable player from that squad: Gary Sheffield who batted .277 with 17 home runs and 103 RBI. Another fun fact about the ports is that they were the inspiration for the poem “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Thayer written in 1888. For a brief period in the late 1990s/early 2000s the Ports changed their name to the Mudville Nine in honor of the team that Casey played for.

By the seventh inning the game was knotted at two apiece. All four of us were joking whether or not the game was going to turn into a 15 inning affair, as well as the appearance of the Ports’s mascot Splash, which I’m still trying to figure out what exactly he’s supposed to be. I can only assume the name comes from the fact that Banner Island Park was built alongside the San Joaquin River delta, and is similar to the San Francisco Giants who occasionally have home runs hit into the Bay at AT&T Park in which they call them Splash Hits. Will had gotten up briefly, for what Vanessa and I could only assume was a trip to the bathroom, but when he returned he came bearing gifts. Will, the sly dog, came back with a Ports shirt for Vanessa and the Friday alternate hat that the Ports introduced this season for me. Will had all ready hooked me up with two Ports hats at Fan Fest and now a third on top of a Kannapolis Intimidators cap he’s sending my way in the future; such a kindhearted gesture from such a wonderful person. The debt will be repaid, I assure you all. The logo is in homage to the longshoreman who work the docks of Stockton, one of the busiest ports on the West Coast. The asparagus is because Stockton is one of the largest producers of the vegetable in the country and they hold a festival every year to mark that.

Now, having the Ports hat they were wearing on this night, I had a good subject and story to write about, as well as the perfect numbers in which to mark up this cap.

#27- Addison Russell was taken with the 11^th overall pick in the 2012 amateur draft by the A’s out of Pace, Florida. Lat season he played 55 games in all three Rookie level leagues (AZL Athletics, Vermont Lake Monsters and Burlington Bees) in which he hit .369 with seven home runs, 45 RBI and 16 stolen bases. Last night he went 1-4 with a walk. Clearly I’m bad luck. The A’s and the fans have a lot of promise for this up-and-coming prospect, but as it stands right now it’s all just a waiting process to see if he’ll take off in the California League this season and move up. He’s only 19-years-old right now; plenty of time to see what’s he’s made of.

#28- At first I didn’t have a second number to throw on this hat as I wasn’t too familiar with the current roster for the Ports. I’ve never been on to keep up fluently with Minor League rosters, perhaps I need to change my tune. In the bottom of the eighth inning with the score tied at two and one runner on, designated hitter Tony Thompson stepped up to the plate against Blaze pitcher Brooks Picknard. With a 2-1 count Picknard sent a fastball right down Main Street… which Thompson took over the left field wall. This proved to be the go-ahead/game-winning home run which inevitably gave Thompson the Player of the Game award.

Thompson was a sixth round draft pick by the A’s in 2010 out of the University of Kansas. This is his second year with the Ports and after two games it’s pretty fair to say that he’s off to a solid start.

While I’ve always been more of a fan of the Major League game, I always find the time to make it out to as many Minor League games as possible. The truth is that they’re way more relaxing, and a great environment to meet up with friends or family, drink a few beers and just talk about life as you watch all of these kids come up through the ranks to make it into the Show. Sometimes players fizzle out, while others make the jump. Either way, those moments are their time to shine, and your time to escape from reality for a bit to have a good time.

March 9- Stockton Ports

It’s quite amazing the friends I’ve made this season, and I truly have the MLB Fan Cave to thank for it no matter how sarcastic they may think I am to say that. It’s really the truth. Before last season I went to an average of seven Oakland Athletics games a season, and for every game I attended I either sat with the friends I came with or the few people that sat around me. Without the MLB Fan Cave I wouldn’t have known or met the most passionate, dedicated fan base in Major League Baseball, the right field crew. You know who they are, the bunch of raucous die hards who wave their flags, Bernie Lean, Bacon Tuesday and Balfour Rage for every home game on the A’s schedule. For the past few seasons I had seen them at work anytime I made my way south for a game, and every time I saw them I would sit and admire their craft. But I never walked over and sat with them.

During my time in New York I was finally able to establish a dialogue with the most of the crew trough Twitter. Since I was watching every A’s game I’d always see them on TV; and every time I saw them on the screen I couldn’t help but think about how much I wanted to be there with them. The Fan Cave was great and all, but the craving to be at a live game, watching my team was always at the forefront of my mind. I don’t want to go into too much detail right now, as I have a more explicit tribute to my friends in the future. But I will say, without them, my summer, and my baseball experience would not have been the same.

This hat was a gift from my friend Will MacNeil, a long-time member of the right field crew at the Oakland A’s Fan Fest which was held on January 27^th of this year. For a while Will had promised me a Stockton Ports hat as he had a friend who worked in the front office for the team. As it turned out, Will gave me their red game style AND this one. The amount of generosity I had received over the past few months from everyone in the crew was absolutely endearing, but this act went beyond that. As an avid hat collector I had always turned down the offer of freebies, especially when member of the executive staff of MLB had offered them to me in the Fan Cave. My response to them was always on the lines of, “if I didn’t earn it, I don’t deserve it.” Not once in the Fan Cave did I ever ask for something for free. I suppose I have my upbringing to blame for that one. So when Will offered me a free hat it took quite a bit of convincing on his part to get me to accept it. When we met in the parking lot at the end of Fan Fest I didn’t really have the words to express how I felt. I was truly moved that someone would do something so important, out of the kindness of their heart for me. I’ll never be able to say it enough, but seriously, thank you so much Will.

Doing research on this hat proved to be a bit of a challenge. I didn’t know much of it, other than the fact that the Ports had obviously worn for at least one game over the last few years. I hit up Will and asked as good of questions as I could to help get to the bottom of it. When was it worn? Who wore it? Did anything significant happen while the team wore it? I didn’t have an internet connection on my bus back to Eugene this afternoon so our conversation was broken up quite a bit throughout the day. By the time I got to Max’s Tavern to start my shift at 4:00 PM, Will had the answers. This hat was only worn once on June 20, 2009 in an unfortunate 6-5 losing effort against the San Jose Giants on their “Go Green” day at Banner Island Ballpark. As a kid I had seen quite a few Ports games when I lived in Stockton in 1986-1988, but that was when they were playing their games at Billy Hebert Field as an affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers organization. Since they became an affiliate of the A’s in 2005 I have yet to see them play. I really need to change that by this next season.

Since the team only wore it the one time I had to revolve my numbers around that day.

#3- Jemile Weeks was the up-and-coming star for the Ports during those days. A first round draft pick (12^th overall) in the 2008 amateur draft, Weeks played in 50 games that season, going .299/7/31. His most notable accomplishment during the season was an impressive 22-game hit streak he had amassed in his first 22 games as a member of the club. During that stretch he batted .400 with five doubles, a triple, all seven of his home runs and 23 RBI. With numbers like that it wasn’t much of a mystery that he only hung around for 50 games. By halfway through the 2011 season Weeks was called up to the Majors where he continued to eviscerate pitchers with a .303 average and 22 stolen bases.

#19- Scott Mitchinson was the starter who received the no decision for the Go Green game. That day he got tagged for two runs off of three hits and no strikeouts. Despite making five starts previous to the 20^th Mitchinson’s record was a dismal 0-1 with a 4.29 ERA. I don’t mean to knock the guy or anything, but these are certainly the breaks of playing in the pros. You take your lumps and move on to play another day. As I mentioned before, this hat was worn only one day, so I had to give it up for Australian-born right hander. His most notable moment in his career was as a member of the 2009 Australian World Baseball Classic team as a replacement for Ryan Rowland-Smith after he opted out. Unless you’re an avid A’s or Ports fan, you probably had never heard of him, which is the most important reason I added him to my hat.

Everyone has their day, and so with that, I tip my cap to you Scott.