July 12- Chicago White Sox

It’s been a while since I’ve kicked off a post with providing a soundtrack for the reader. And for with that, I can’t think of anything more fitting than this.

Now, for those of you who don’t really know music the first question floating around your head is probably something around the lines of, “Hey Ben, what does Detroit and rocking have to do with the Chicago White Sox?” Well, good question. I assure you that this question will be answered several times throughout this post. But first, here’s a little bit of a back-story about the hat. For some weird reason this is not only one of my favorite White Sox caps in their history, it’s also one of my favorite Major League Baseball caps of all time. I’ve never felt that getting flashy with a logo or color scheme has helped with an overall look of a cap, sometimes less is more. The White Sox introduced this cap at the start of the 1976 season in honor of the United States’ bicentennial. A number of teams throughout the league actually did this for only one season, and in most cases those caps have become extremely difficult to find. The most difficult of the bunch being the umpires cap in which I’ve only known of one person to have it in their possession.

This particular White Sox cap was used for all home games and a few road games in 1976 as there was a similar cap with white panels and a navy blue “SOX” used for most road games. This cap is yet another difficult one to track down. After the ’76 season the White Sox used this cap for every game from 1977 through the end of the 1981 season, and upgraded to another amazing cap in 1982. One thing to keep in mind is that it was the ’76 White Sox who were forced to wear this hideous uniform below for three games throughout the season.

There are very few writers who DON’T have this uniform listed as one of the 10 worst of all-time. I definitely have it listed in permanent ink at #2. Needless to say it was one of then-owner Bill Veeck’s ideas that went bust.

7/12/79- Speaking of Veeck, remember that time a full-scale riot almost broke out at a White Sox game back on July 12, 1979? If you don’t, you’re in for a treat.

For those of you who weren’t alive during the 1970s, myself included, it’s hard to argue that disco reined supreme on the airwaves in the latter part of the decade. The film Saturday Night Fever catapulted a "relatively-unknown" (sarcasm) pop group named the Bee Gees into superstardom after they recorded most of the songs that helped fuel the soundtrack and the story for the film. As it stands now, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack is still, not only the best-selling soundtrack of all-time, but the fifth best-selling album of all-time. Disco had been pumping over the airwaves and in disco halls for a few years leading up to the successful film; however, Saturday Night Fever and its soundtrack are what put the genre on the map. Nobody was more incensed by this fad as much as Chicago disc jockey Steve Dahl.

In 1978, New York's WKTU-FM, a low-rated rock station, switched to disco and became the most popular station in the country; other stations sought to emulate its success. In Chicago, Dahl was fired from local radio station WDAI on Christmas Eve 1978 when the station switched formats from rock to disco. The 24-year-old DJ was subsequently hired by rival album-rock station WLUP, "The Loop". Sensing an incipient anti-disco backlash and playing off the publicity surrounding his firing (Dahl frequently mocked WDAI's "Disco DAI" slogan on the air as "Disco DIE"), Dahl created a mock organization called "The Insane Coho Lips", an anti-disco army consisting of his listeners. According to Andy Behrens of ESPN, Dahl and his broadcast partner Garry Meier "organized the Cohos around a simple and surprisingly powerful idea: Disco Sucks".

According to Dahl in 1979, the Cohos were locked in a war "dedicated to the eradication of the dread musical disease known as DISCO". For months Dahl promoted a number of anti-disco public events, several of which became unruly. When a discotheque in Linwood, Indiana, switched from disco to rock in June, Dahl showed up, as did several thousand Cohos, and the police had to be called. Later that month, Dahl and several thousand Cohos occupied a teen disco in the Chicago suburbs. At the end of June, Dahl urged his listeners to throw marshmallows at a WDAI promotional van, which was at a shopping mall where a teen disco had been built. The Cohos chased the van and driver and cornered them in a nearby park, though the situation ended without violence. On July 1, a near-riot occurred in Hanover Park, Illinois, when hundreds of Cohos could not enter a sold-out promotional event, and fights broke out. Some 50 police officers were needed to control the situation. When disco star Van McCoy died suddenly on July 6, Dahl marked the occasion by destroying one of his records, "The Hustle", on the air.

Dahl and Meier regularly mocked disco records on the radio. Dahl also recorded his own parody: "Do You Think I'm Disco?” a satire of Rod Stewart's disco-oriented hit "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?". This parody song presented discotheques as populated by effeminate men and frigid women. The lead character, named Tony like Travolta's character in Saturday Night Fever, is unable to attract a woman until he abandons the disco scene, selling his three-piece white suit at a garage sale and melting down his gold chains for a Led Zeppelin belt buckle.

A number of anti-disco incidents took place elsewhere in the first half of 1979: "the Disco Demolition was not an isolated incident or an aberration". In Seattle, hundreds of rock fans attacked a mobile dance floor, while in Portland, Oregon, a disc jockey destroyed a stack of disco records with a chainsaw as thousands looked on and cheered. In New York, a rock deejay played Donna Summer’s sexualized disco hit, "Hot Stuff"; he was protested by his listeners. But all of these events paled in comparison to what Dahl cooked up in July of 1979.

In the weeks prior to Disco Demolition Night Dahl invited his listeners to bring records they wanted to see destroyed to Comiskey Park. For a while he feared that the promotion would fail to draw people to the ballpark, and that he would be humiliated. The previous night's attendance had been 15,520, and Comiskey Park had a capacity of 44,492. The White Sox were not having a good year, and were 40–46 going into the July 12 doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers. Detroit, see where this is going? The White Sox and WLUP hoped for a crowd of 20,000. Mike Veeck, the son of Bill, hired enough security for 35,000 just in case. The stipulation for the night’s events was that if you brought a disco record you could get into Comiskey Park for 98 cents.

Owner Bill Veeck was concerned the promotion might turn into a disaster and checked himself out of the hospital, where he had been undergoing tests. The elder Veeck's fears were substantiated when he saw the people walking towards the ballpark that afternoon; many carried signs that described disco in profane terms. The doubleheader sold out, leaving at least 20,000 people outside the ballpark. Some were not content to remain there, leaping turnstiles, climbing fences, and entering through open windows. It was like the first day of Woodstock, except if you can only imagine all of the peaceful hippies as bloodthirsty, disco-hating hooligans. The attendance was officially announced as 47,795; however, nearly all observers believed the crowd was far larger than that. Mike Veeck believed the actual attendance was closer to 60,000. Bill Veeck estimated that there were anywhere from 50,000 to 55,000 in the park, easily the largest of his second stint as White Sox owner. Others estimate the crowd was as large as 90,000. Whatever the case, the crowd was well over capacity, prompting the Chicago Police Department to close off-ramps from the Dan Ryan Expressway near the stadium. Attendees were supposed to deposit their records into a large box, but once it filled many of the patrons held onto their records which would later turn out to be equally as disastrous.

The first game was to begin at 6 pm, with the second game to follow. Lorelei, a model who did public appearances for WLUP and who was very popular in Chicago that summer for her sexually-provocative poses in the station's advertisements, threw out the first pitch. As the first game began, Mike Veeck got word that thousands of people were trying to get into the park without tickets. He sent his security personnel to the stadium gates to keep the would-be gate crashers at bay. This left the field unattended, and fans began throwing the uncollected disco LPs and singles from the stands. Tigers' outfielder Rusty Staub remembered that the records would slice through the air, and land sticking out of the ground. He urged teammates to wear batting helmets when playing their positions, "It wasn't just one, it was many. Oh, God almighty, I've never seen anything so dangerous in my life." Attendees also threw firecrackers, empty liquor bottles, and lighters onto the field. The game was stopped several times because of the rain of foreign objects. Dozens of hand-painted banners with such legends as "Disco sucks" were hung from the ballpark's seating decks.

White Sox broadcaster Harry Caray could see groups of people, who were clearly music rather than baseball fans, wandering through the stadium. Others sat intently in their seats, awaiting the explosion which was set to take place in between the games. Mike Veeck later remembered an odor of marijuana in the grandstand and said of the attendees, "This is the Woodstock they never had." The stench permeated the press box, which both Caray and his broadcast partner, Jimmy Piersall, commented on over the air. The crowds outside the stadium threw records as well, or gathered them together and burned them in bonfires. Detroit won the first game, 4–1. I’m pretty sure the feeling by both teams at this point was mutual, “We have to play another game!?”

The first game ended at 8:16 pm; at 8:40 Dahl, dressed in army fatigues and a helmet, emerged onto the playing surface together with Meier and Lorelei.

They proceeded to center field where the vinyl-filled box awaited, though they first did a lap of the field in a Jeep, showered by his troops with firecrackers and beer. The large box containing the collected records had been rigged with explosives. Dahl and Meier warmed up the crowd, leading attendees in a chant of "disco sucks". Lorelei recalled that the view from center field was surreal. On the mound, White Sox pitcher Ken Kravec, scheduled to start the second game, began to warm up. Other White Sox, in the dugout and wearing batting helmets, looked out upon the scene. Fans who felt events were getting out of control and who wished to leave the ballpark had difficulty in doing so; in an effort to deny the intruders entry, security had padlocked all but one gate. Oops!

Dahl told the crowd, “This is now officially the world's largest anti-disco rally! Now listen—we took all the disco records you brought tonight, we got 'em in a giant box, and we're gonna blow 'em up reeeeeeal goooood.”

Dahl set off the explosives, destroying the records and tearing a large hole in the outfield grass.

It was right about here.

No… actually it was right here.

With most of the security personnel still watching the gates per Mike Veeck's orders, there was almost no one guarding the playing surface. Immediately, the first of what would be thousands of attendees rushed onto the field, causing Kravec to flee the mound and join his teammates in a barricaded clubhouse. You can see that here. Between 5,000 and 7,000 people are estimated to have taken the field. Some climbed the foul poles; others set records on fire, or ripped up the grass. The batting cage was destroyed; the bases were pulled up and stolen. Among those taking the field was 21-year-old aspiring actor Michael Clarke Duncan: during the melee, Duncan slid into third base, had a silver belt buckle stolen, and went home with a bat from the dugout. What’s actually a really interesting tidbit about Duncan is that on the day he passed away, September 3, 2012, that was actually the first day I ever attended a game at US Cellular field. I’ll get to that post in a month of so.

Bill Veeck stood with a microphone near where home plate had been, begging people to return to the stands, a bonfire raged in center field.

Years later, Lorelei remembered that she had been waving to the crowd when she was grabbed by two of the bodyguards who had accompanied the Jeep and placed back in the vehicle. The party was unable to return to home plate because of the rowdy fans, so the Jeep was driven out of the stadium and through the surrounding streets, to the delight of the many Cohos outside the stadium who recognized the occupants. They were driven to the front of the stadium, ushered back inside, and taken up to the press room where they had spent most of the first game.

Caray unsuccessfully attempted to restore order via the public address system. The scoreboard, flashing "PLEASE RETURN TO YOUR SEATS", was ignored as was the playing of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". Some of the attendees were dancing in circles around the burning vinyl shards. Dahl offered his help in getting the rowdy fans to leave, but it was declined.

At 9:08 pm, Chicago police in full riot gear arrived to the applause of the baseball fans in the stands. Those on the field hastily dispersed upon seeing the police. Thirty-nine people were arrested for disorderly conduct; estimates of injuries to those at the event range from none to over thirty. Bill Veeck wanted the teams to play the second game once order was restored. However, the field was so badly torn up that umpiring crew chief Dave Phillips felt that the field was still unplayable even after White Sox groundskeepers spent an hour clearing away debris. Tigers' manager Sparky Anderson let it be known that he would not allow his players to take the field in any event due to safety concerns. Phillips called American League president Lee MacPhail, who postponed the second game to Sunday after hearing a report on conditions. Anderson, however, demanded that the game be forfeited to the Tigers. He argued that under baseball's rules, a game can only be postponed due to an act of God, and that, as the home team, the White Sox were responsible for field conditions. The next day, largely upholding Anderson's arguments, MacPhail forfeited the second game to the Tigers 9–0, holding that the White Sox had failed to provide acceptable playing conditions. All of the ridiculousness of that night from start-to-finish can be seen here.

The morning after, Dahl began his regular broadcast by reading the indignant headlines in the local papers. He mocked the coverage, "I think for the most part everything was wonderful. Some maniac Cohos got wild and went down on the field. Which you shouldn't have done. Bad little Cohos." Tigers manager Anderson stated of the events, "Beer and baseball go together, they have for years. But I think those kids were doing things other than beer." Columnist David Israel of the Chicago Tribune commented on the day after that he was not surprised by what had occurred, "It would have happened any place 50,000 teenagers got together on a sultry summer night with beer and reefer." White Sox pitcher Rich Wortham, a Texan, suggested, "This wouldn't have happened if they had country and western night."

Although Bill Veeck took much of the public criticism for the fiasco, his son Mike suffered repercussions as the actual front-office promoter behind it. Mike Veeck remained with the White Sox until late 1980, when he resigned; his father sold the team to Jerry Reinsdorf soon afterward. He was unable to find a job in baseball for several years, leading him to claim that he had been blackballed from the game. For several years, he worked for a while for a jai-alai fronton in Florida, battling alcoholism. As Mike Veeck related, "The second that first guy shimmied down the outfield wall, I knew my life was over!" Mike Veeck has since become a successful owner of minor league baseball teams. Steve Dahl remained a disc jockey and radio personality in Chicago until 2008; he has continued to reach his listeners through podcasting.

The unplayed second game remains the last American League game to be forfeited. The last National League game to be forfeited was on August 10, 1995, when a baseball giveaway promotion at Dodger Stadium went awry, forcing the Los Angeles Dodgers to concede the game to the St. Louis Cardinals. According to baseball analyst Jeremiah Graves, "To this day Disco Demolition Night stands in infamy as one of the most ill-advised promotions of all-time, but arguably one of the most successful as 30 years later we’re all still talking about it."

My last thoughts on the matter revolve around the song I linked above, “Detroit Rock City” by KISS. I’ve seen a lot of movies in my lifetime, as a major in film studies for a bit during my time at the University of Oregon I kind of had to. One of my guilty pleasure films just happens to be Detroit Rock City, the story of four kids who will do whatever it takes to see their favorite band, KISS,  live at Cobo Hall in Detroit.

1. Because the movie is pretty funny.

2. Because I'm actually a huge KISS fan.

The battle between rock and disco is a prevalent theme throughout the film, but in the end the message is pretty loud and clear, “rock will never die.” In the case of the Disco Demolition Night incident Dahl later admitted in an interview in 2004 that disco was on its way out, but Disco Demolition Night helped usher in its demise a little bit quicker. In the case of the song it’s hard to deny that all who took to the field were avid rock and roll fans, but at the end of the festivities, it was Detroit who gained the most by winning two games in one day, but for only having to play one. In the end, Detroit rocks!

June 11- Kannapolis Intimidators

I have to once again tip my cap to Will MacNeil (@RFWill149) for this pickup. During the Oakland Athletics Fan Fest he and I had talked at length about scooping up this cap as it is the only cap inspired by someone outside of the baseball realm. Within about a week after I had gotten back to Eugene, Oregon to wrap up my studies at the University of Oregon Will had messaged me on Facebook, letting me know he ha scooped it up for me. Very rarely in my life has someone ever done so much for me with something as seemingly insignificant as giving me a hat.

The Intimidators franchise moved to Kannapolis in 1995 from Spartanburg, South Carolina, where they had been a Class A-affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies in the South Atlantic League. With all new teams, debate raged in Kannapolis over what to name the team, with team officials finally decided to call the team the Piedmont Phillies for the 1995 season until they could figure out a suitable replacement.

A name-the-team contest in the fall of 1995 drew thousands of entries, and team officials settled on the boll weevil as the team's new mascot, indicative of Kannapolis' history as a textile mill town (Kannapolis natives are even called "lintheads"). The Piedmont Boll Weevils would keep that mascot until after the 2000 season, when NASCAR racing legend Dale Earnhardt purchased a share in the team's ownership. It was then that the name was changed to the Kannapolis Intimidators, in honor of Earnhardt's legendary nickname. It was also during that offseason that the team's parent club changed from the Phillies to the Chicago White Sox, making the Intimidators the third White Sox farm team to be located in the Carolinas, following the Charlotte Knights (who actually play their home games in suburban Fort Mill, South Carolina) and the Winston-Salem Warthogs, now called the Winston-Salem Dash.

Earnhardt, who drove the #3 car in NASCAR, was killed in an accident at the Daytona 500 in February 2001. Following Earnhardt's death, the Intimidators avoided assigning the number 3 for team members. Team manager Razor Shines, originally slated to wear #3, and subsequently changed his uniform number to #43. The team officially retired #3 on May 15, 2002, in memory of their former co-owner, similar to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim retiring the number 26 (the 26th man) in honor of former owner Gene Autry. I wrote about this tribute on April 8^th.

The team's logo was designed by Sam Bass, who has designed paint schemes and uniforms on many NASCAR, Champ Car, and IRL race cars, another rarity within the realm of baseball.

The team plays in CMC-Northeast Stadium (formerly Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium) in Kannapolis. "The Cannon" was still under construction when the Piedmont Phillies began play in 1995. Upon completion in the winter of 1995, the stadium seated 4,700 fans. The stadium officially changed names on April 3, 2012 under a new naming rights agreement for the 2012 season.

In their 18-year history in Kannapolis the Intimidators/Boll Weevils/Phillies have only won one South Atlantic League title, which came in 2005. However, the team has yet to win a division crown. That year the team went 74-59 under then-manager Nick Capra who played for five seasons in Major League Baseball with the Texas Rangers (1982-1983, 1985 and 1991) and the Kansas City Royals (1988).

When trying to come up with marks for this cap I did quite a bit of digging. As most of you who read these posts have come to learn I don’t usually take things at face value. I always like to find little patterns within the names, dates and numbers to tell a story that I find particularly interesting that also has to do with something going on in my life. With this hat I scored big time.

#1- This tall, lanky right-handed pitcher was taken in the 17^th round by the White Sox in the 2002 amateur draft out of Lamar Community College in Lamar, Colorado. In 2002 and 2003 he battled through the Rookie Leagues with the AZL White Sox and the Great Fall White Sox respectively, posting solid numbers as a starter. In 2004 he made got bumped up to Kannapolis where he made 15 starts, going 8-5 with a 3.64 ERA and 113 strikeouts before moving on to advanced-A Winston-Salem and AA Birmingham to play with the Barons. In 2005 he made his Major League debut on May 22^nd, only pitching in 12 games, 10 as a starter going 3-2 with a 4.03 ERA and 48 strikeouts. That season he split time between the big club and in AAA with the Charlotte Knights. But despite his split time he still won a World Series ring as the White defeated the Houston Astros in four games.

In the offseason after the end of the 2006 season he was traded to the Rangers where he stuck it out until the end of the 2010 season, going 13-15 with a 4.68 ERA and 134 strikeouts. On December 14, 2010 he signed as a free agent with the Athletics where he became the ace in 2012 and helped the team win their first American League Western Division title since 2006 despite missing the month of the regular season and postseason after taking a liner off of his dome due to a pitch hit by Angels shortstop Erick Aybar.

He’s hands down on of the funniest cats on Twitter, along with his wife Amanda. Brandon McCarthy.

#16- This outfielder grew up in Houston, Texas and was drafted in the 16^th round of the 2001 amateur draft by the White Sox out of Bellaire High School. Like McCarthy, the two went through the same system together, starting out in the Rookie Leagues with the AZL White Sox, Great Falls White Sox, but also the Bristol White Sox from 2002-2003. In 2004 he spent the entire season in Kannapolis and hit .261 with 24 home runs, 56 RBI and 31 stolen bases. In 2005 he moved on to Birmingham where he won praise by making Baseball America’s first-team Minor League All-Star outfielder as well as the White Sox Minor League Player of the Year award after going .277/26/77 with 32 stolen bases. Despite this prestige he was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks at season’s end with Luis Viscaino and Orlando Hernandez for Javier Vasquez and cash considerations.

Despite rolling to a new team, this cat continued his ball-hitting barrage with the Tucson Sidewinders before getting called up in August of 2006 where he made his MLB debut on the 18^th. From then until the end of the 2012 season he hit .239 with 132 home runs and 408 RBI. He finished fourth for National League Rookie of the Year in 2007 and made his only All-Star Game appearance thus far in 2010. At the end of the 2012 season he was traded to the Athletics for infielder Cliff Pennington and Yordy Cabrera. This cat, Chris Young.

#18- I actually all ready wrote about this guy on March 13^th, but he’s still a crowd favorite. He was selected 38^th overall in the first round of the 2004 amateur draft by the White Sox out of Monsignor Edward Pace High School in Opa Locka, Florida. That year he split hit time in Bristol as well as a few games in Kannapolis. In 2005 he made 10 starts for the Intimidators, going 5-3 with a 1.87 ERA and 84 strikeouts before moving on to Winston-Salem for another 13 starts, going 9-3 with a 3.56 ERA and 79 strikeouts in the process.

Between 2005 and 2008 he was traded three times. First to the Phillies along with Aaron Rowand and Daniel Haigwood for Jim Thome. The he was traded back to the White Sox at the end of the 2006 season along with Gavin Floyd for Freddy Garcia. In 2007 this guy led the Minor Leagues in strikeouts with 185 while playing for the Barons. In 2008 he was traded to the Athletics along with Ryan Sweeney and Fautino de los Santos for Nick Swisher. Showing some solid promise in AAA with the Sacramento River Cats he was called up and made his MLB debut on August 6, 2008.

Despite a few rough outing in 2008 and 2009 he moved up and down between The Show and AAA before finally getting a solid spot in the rotation in 2010 where he went 15-9 with a 3.23 ERA and 171 strikeouts. In 2011 he made his first All-Star Game appearance behind a 16-12 record, a 3.12 ERA and 197 strikeouts. In the offseason he was traded to the Washington Nationals along with Robert Gilliam for catcher Derek Norris and pitchers Brad Peacock, A.J. Cole and Tommy Milone. Gio Gonzalez, we still miss you brother!

#33- This guy was selected by the White Sox in the 15^th round of the 2005 amateur draft out of Sierra Vista High School in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2005 and most of 2006 he played with Bristol and Great Falls before finishing out 2006 in Kannapolis for 16 games. In 2007 he had a monster year with the Intimidators, batting .291 with 25 home runs and 93 RBI. As soon as the season wrapped up he was traded to the Diamondbacks for Carlos Quentin. Two weeks after that he was dealt to the Athletics as part of a package for Dan Haren.

Between 2008 and 2012 he became a professional ball hitter throughout the Minor Leagues, mostly sticking it out in Sacramento. On August 9, 2010 he made his MLB debut. He would only play a total of 106 games for the Athletics in three years before getting traded to the Houston Astros at the end of the 2012 season. During his time in Oakland; however, his most memorable moments (for me) came on July 6^th when he hit a walk-off three-run blast against the Seattle Mariners in the 11^th inning and the other coming on August 28^th when he went 3-5 with a home run against the Cleveland Indians at The Jake. The moment I’ll never forget about this is how I yelled, “X-Files!” after his home run and first base coach Tye Waller didn’t stop laughing until the end of the inning. Chris Carter, you are clutch kid.

While there were a slew of other players I could have paid tribute to I couldn’t help but find all the guys whose tenures in Oakland were all paved through the pathway of Kannapolis. The only person I forgot to mention was Brandon Allen who played alongside Carter in 2006.

April 4- Chicago White Sox

The last four days have been truly spectacular. The Oakland Athletics and the Seattle Mariners played an amazing four games series ending in a 2-2 decision as both team hit the road. I have decided to stay in the Bay Area for another day to let the intense baseball experience I just lived sink in a little bit more as well as to get some much needed rest before I take an 18-hour train ride back to Portland on Saturday night. I must apologize to all of you who have been loyal readers to keep you hanging for my blog posts. Things have been a bit hectic as I’ve been running around to different corners of the Bay, meeting up with long-time friends and making new ones. If there’s anything that I’ve learned from this it’s that I need to figure out a new way to balance my days, especially if I’m going to hitting the road and finding work over the next few months of the season. Busy busy busy!!!

It may not seem like it, but there is a surprising amount of work that goes into these daily posts, something I really took for granted in the first month. I originally started doing this as a side project to motivate me to write on a daily basis, as I had been somewhat lazy about keeping a better habit for the last two years. As I’ve gone back and re-read the ones I’ve all ready written I’ve noticed that the length and depth of information I’ve provided grew exponentially after the first two weeks, something I’m very proud of as a researcher. More important, I felt that adding my own personal twist to each story was vital to my storytelling. After all, hats are easy to come by, and researching a particular time frame can be just as so, but adding intricate details about the time of when I purchased them, the mood as well adding my own personal touch to each hat, I feel, goes further. I appreciate all the time you’ve taken to read these posts and I am more than welcome to comments and suggestions for future posts. After all, this experience isn’t all about me; I do it mostly for you, the fans.

This Chicago White Sox hat is one that I really liked from a distance, but never fully understood why I picked it up. If you recall in my Cincinnati Reds post from yesterday, custom hats can be cool, but only as long as they make sense and have a purpose. This is one of the few hats that I definitely enjoy having on my wall, but always feels a little weird wearing it as the White Sox themselves never wore in their history. Rather, like the Reds hats from yesterday, the logo on the center of this cap was never featured on any of their hats. This logo, which is one of my favorites in MLB history, served as the team’s primary logo from 1976-1990, and was a frequent attraction on a lot of the baseball cards I came across during the 1980s. In fact, I like it so much that I had it tattooed on me as my representation of the White Sox for the American League half of my MLB tattoos.

There is a very similar hat that the White Sox did use and are bringing back for the 2013 season, but I will write about that in a future post. To be honest, I totally would have been on board if they ever made this into an actual hat. There’s something about it that doesn’t fit entirely with the old and current history of the team, mostly the colors and the lack of the classic interlinking “SOX” logo; however, it is an iconic throwback to the time when legendary, visionary owner Bill Veeck owned the team from 1959-1961 and then again from 1975-1980. This logo made its debut during the 1976 season as an innovative bicentennial themed emblem, hence why their colors changed to red, white and blue. While other teams opted the 200^th birthday of our country by keeping things relatively the same, Veeck always knew how to make an extra buck, but also give the fan a much more intimate, original experience.

The marks on my hat were originally going to be used for another White Sox hat in my collection; however, I changed my mind in order to pay tribute to a Veeck-created even that I will write about in July. Since the numbers I have in mind fall suit with the time frame in which this logo was used, I felt it was a perfect choice.

#9- One of the first, and most prominent Cuban-born players in MLB history, Minnie Minoso broke out was signed by the Cleveland Indians as a free agent in 1948 and made his debut in 1949, only playing nine games. It would be two years before he stepped onto a Major League field again at which it turned out to be the most successful of his career. In 1951 Minoso played eight games for the Indians before getting dealt to the White Sox. He finished the season in second place for the AL Rookie of the Year award as well as in fourth place for the MVP after batting .326 with 10 home runs, 76 RBI and a league-leading 14 triples and a league-leading 31 stolen bases. He also made the first of seven All-Star Game appearances with that campaign. Throughout his career Minoso finished in the Top-five for AL MVP voting a total of four times; 1953-1954 and 1960 being the other three years. In 1957 he was one of the first few players to receive a Rawlings Gold Glove award for being the best defender at his position, left field, an honor he would go on to receive two more time throughout his career (1959-1960). Minoso was a very disciplined batter, always sacrificing his body for the good of the team which he did to the tune of leading the league in hit-by-pitches a total of 10 times. He also led the league in stolen bases and triples three times each. He finished his career with a .298 average, 1963 hits and 1023 RBI. Of all of his accomplishments in the field the one thing Minoso is most known for is being one of two players in MLB history to play in five different decades: 1949-1964, 1976 and 1980; three-time World Series champion Nick Altrock is the first to accomplish this feat. Minoso’s professional career did not end after the 1980 season; he went on to make appearances in with the St. Paul Saints in 1993 and 2003, being the only player in professional baseball history to play in seven decades. In 1990 Minoso presented the lineup card for the White Sox in a new uniform they were debuting on September 30, the final game ever played at Comiskey Park.

#17- This one is kind of an interesting pick, but Oscar Gamble’s best year of his career came in the first of two years that he played for the White Sox; those years being 1977 and 1985. Gamble made a few stops around the league, but the two teams he is mostly remembered for al the Indians and the New York Yankees; however, the best year of his career came during the ’77 season when Gamble finished in 29^th place for the AL MVP awards with a career bests in home runs (31), RBI (83), doubles (22), games played (137) and runs (75). Also, when you look this awesome as you accomplish all of these feats, it’s totally worth recognizing.

March 18- Chicago White Sox

There’s a bit of nostalgia that comes with this hat, and it really has nothing to do with seeing a particular player wear during a certain game… sort of. Despite all the years of baseball I’ve witnessed I can still remember the first time I really recall seeing this game in action; and coincidentally, it’s also the first time I recall hearing the term and definition of south paw. Like most of you, the film “Field of Dreams” ranks very high on my list of favorite baseball movies of all time. With that, it also ranks very high on my favorite films of all time list, which is saying a lot. Unless you’ve known me for years, very few of you would know that I actually know way more about film, film theory and film production than I do about baseball. This was actually something that came up in the MLB Fan Cave way more than most would expect. For example, the day when the Avett Brothers came to do a live show we were paid a visit by actor David Keith who received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1982 for his role in “An Officer and a Gentleman.” He was also in “Firestarter,” “Brubaker,” “The Indian in the Cupboard” and a slew of other films that I rattled off. When I mentioned this seven of the other eight Cave Dwellers looked at me as if I had lobsters crawling out of my ears… as did a few of the executives. I then said, “He played Jack Parkman in “Major League II.”” A collective, “OOOOOOHHHH!!!” washed over the crowd. I just shook my head.

Anyway, for those of you have seen “Field of Dreams” you know what I’m talking about. Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) is talking to his wife Annie (played by Ed Harris’s wife Amy Madigan) about how the farm is going under. Their daughter Karin (played by Gabby Hoffman who was making her film debut) is watching a Chicago White Sox game asking about the term south paw. One thing about that scene that very few know about is that the White Sox game was chosen specifically as in that same scene “Shoeless” Joe Jackson (played by Ray Liota) makes his first appearance wearing of course, his White Sox uniform.

While I had seen the hat before in baseball cards it never really had the same affect as seeing it in the film. What is even more unusual is that I somehow had missed out on or at least forgotten about that hat any of the times I watched the Oakland Athletics playing them on TV. After all, the film came out in 1989, the year the A’s won the World Series; however, filming was conducted in 1988 as the release date for the film was in April. Yes, I go pretty deep with my research. The White Sox wore this hat from 1987 until the end of the 1990 season, and in my opinion, it still stands as one of the best hats they ever wore mostly for its simplicity as well as it’s one of the few hats they wore with a logo on to not feature the word “SOX” in any form. This was in fact the first and only White Sox hat I ever wanted to scoop up and it took me 10 years to track it down.

Because of “Field of Dreams” I started to really take notice of the White Sox during the 1990 season. And with that, it made much easier to make my marking choices.

#12- From 1986-1990 Psycho Steve Lyons played on the South Side, only really get a chance to be an every day guy during the 1988 season when he played in 146 games. Born in Tacoma, Washington, but college bred at my rival Oregon State University, Lyons was never really the most dominant hitter nor defenseman, but he certainly made his presence known ever time he took the field. The biggest thing he had going for him was that he could play almost every position on the field… and he certainly did. No joke, during his time in Chicago he played every position at least once, including pitcher and catcher, throughout his tenure. One might say that he’s a modern day Trevor Plouffe (I threw that last part in for my Minnesota Twins loving girlfriend Angie Kinderman). After his playing career came to an end after the 1993 season Lyons got go hired by Fox Sports to do color commentary, usually with Thom Brennaman as his partner. The two of them even did the play-by-play for All-Star Baseball 2003 for the Playstation 2 and XBOX. (I have yet to be defeated in the XBOX version. 746 games and counting) But the one moment that Lyons is most known for took place against the Detroit Tigers on July 16, 1990.

In a televised, he created a stir that was replayed countless times. After sliding headfirst into first base to beat out a bunt hit, Lyons pulled down his pants to empty the dirt out and brush off his shirttail. After a few seconds (and a reaction from the crowd of over 14,000), he realized what he had just done and quickly pulled them up, humorously embarrassed. Although wearing sliding shorts under his uniform, this incident earned him another nickname, "Moon Man" Lyons. At the end of the inning, women in the stands waved dollar bills at him as he came to the dugout. How could you not love the guy!?

#72- The original Pudge made his MLB debut in 1969 with the Red Sox and ended his career at the end of the 1993 season with the White Sox. Carlton Fisk signed as a free agent to the White Sox at the end of the 1980 season despite playing 11 historic years, and being an all-around fan favorite in Boston. During his time with the BoSox Fisk made seven All-Star game appearances, won the American League Rookie of the Year award and his only Gold Glove in 1972, but he is most known for one of the most famous moments in World Series history… but that story will have to wait until October.

With the White Sox Pudge only made four All-Star game appearances, but did win three Silver Sluggers awards. Despite playing for 24 seasons Fisk unfortunately never won a World Series ring, and the closest he ever came to winning an MVP award came in 1983 when he finished in third place behind Eddie Murray and the winner, Cal Ripken, Jr. Fisk finished his career with 2356 hits (third all-time for a catcher), 376 home runs and 1330 RBI. The 1970s and 80s in the American League for catchers was a weird time period. Guys like Thurman Munson, Lance Parrish, Bob Boone and Jim Sundberg owned the Gold Glove awards, but all of them were mediocre hitters at best. In 2000 Fisk was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame; however, I honestly don’t see why. While he was one of my favorite players growing up, the reality is that he was an above average defenseman, and a pretty solid hitter for a catcher. My biggest beef, and this one come up later during a Milwaukee Brewers post in the future, is that he was not the greatest at his position during that era. But, the media loved him, which transitioned into votes after he retired, despite the fact that a guy like Ted Simmons, who played three less years than Fisk, did not get elected into the Hall of Fame even though he had equal defensive numbers and better offensive numbers. Shame.

Actually, the biggest thing to ever happen to Fisk during his time with the White Sox is that he was awarded a huge settlement by Major League Baseball for the owner’s collusion case in 1985 when Fisk got resigned by the White Sox for a lower yearly wage than the previous years despite being one of the top catchers in the game.

January 29- Chicago White Sox

Speaking of hats that have been around for a long time… the Chicago White Sox game style made a “comeback” in 1991 and is still the centerpiece of their headwear collection. Now, by comeback I am merely talking about the “SOX” logo moving at a downward left-to-right angle. Believe it or not, that particular logo made its original debut in 1951 as an alternate logo until 1963. Different variations were introduced as sleeve patches as well as logos for caps, but I will get to those later in the year.

One of the things that fascinates me most about this hat is that when I was a kid most people didn’t associate it to baseball. The rap group NWA pretty much made it a preferred wardrobe accessory of choice, seen regularly on the heads of either Dr. Dre or Easy-E. Rap. Hip-hop culture adopted this is as one of their flags and the kids who listened to their music ate it up. Ice Cube was more iconic for sporting a Los Angeles Raiders cap; but then again, what do I know? I’m just a white kid from the East Bay.

Unlike most of the kids in my neighborhood, I knew exactly what this hat was. After all, I’m a baseball fan.

Coming up with numbers to mark this hat was relatively easy, and not really choices that can be debated.

#13- Ozzie Guillen made his debut for the White Sox back in 1985… and was probably one of two other guys that most baseball fans could even remember from that era (Harold Baines and Carlton Fisk being the others). Guillen made an immediate impact with the club and easily won Rookie of the Year over guys like: Teddy Higuera, Oddibe McDowell and Stew Cliburn (Yah, I don’t remember them either). Guillen played shortstop for the Sox until 1997, only winning one Gold Glove in 1990 and making three All-Star games. The last three years of career found him bouncing around until he retired at the end of the 2000 season. Guillen went .264/28/619 with 1764 hits. Not exactly high impact numbers, but… it was what he did after his playing career ending that truly made him worthy. In 2004 Guillen was named manager of the Sox after they and Jerry Manuel parted ways at the end of the 2003 season. The move to put Guillen in charge an unusual choice at first, at least in my mind. Shortstops have never really made the greatest managers, but then again, I’m not a White Sox fan, so I was totally on board with them not succeeding. In his first year the Sox went 83-79 with Guillen at the helm, finishing in second place in the American League Central. In his second year the Sox won the World Series. In his third year… wait... WHAT!? That’s right; in 2005 the Sox won 99 games and won their first World Series title since 1917, a longer drought (by two years) than the Boston Red Sox endured the previous season. But, he wasn’t the fastest to win a World Series title within his first few years as manager. In fact, he’s not even in the top 8.

#35- Frank Thomas will probably go down in the history books as one of the three greatest players to ever wear a White Sox uniform. From 1990-2005 Big Hurt OWNED Chicago… from a baseball perspective that is. And don’t even bring up Sammy Sosa! Thomas is one of only a small handful of guys to win back-to-back MVPs, which he did so in 1993 and 1994. He almost won a third in 2000, but lost to Oakland Athletics first baseman Jason Giambi… barely. With a career batting average of .301, 521 home runs and 1704 RBI, Thomas may be a shoo-in (yes, this is the correct spelling) for the Hall of Fame. Another important milestone is that Thomas had 2468 hits for his career, and probably would have gotten 3000 had it not been for a slew of injuries in 2001, 2004-05 and 2008. All of those accolades aside I personally have to tip my cap to Big Hurt for his monster year in 2006 with the A's. Almost every critic had counted him out, but the A's rolled the dice anyway as they needed a jolt of power added to their lineup. Not only did Thomas add that boost, he led the team in home runs (39) and RBI (114) which in turn helped the A's win the American League West Division title and got him a fourth place finish in the AL MVP vote. Seriously, this guy was, and still is the real deal.

Oh! And don't even get me started on him having a video game named after him! WHAAAAAAT!?!?