February 19- American League Umpire

I can’t even begin to tell you how much of a pain in the ass doing research for this hat has been. For starters, there isn’t a single dedicated Web site or listing to prove the use of each and every style of cap used by MLB, American League and National League umpires. Trust me; the last fours hours prior to writing this were dedicated to scouring every last terabyte of information revolving around umpires caps. I started with the obvious, “Dressed to the Nines,” a Web site operated by the Hall of Fame which showcases every hat, pant and jersey combination for every team throughout Major League Baseball’s history. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed a lot of flaws with their displays. For instance, the wrong colors are used on a number of hats, which has prompted me to use other resources a number of times on my daily task. Most importantly, none of the umpire uniforms are listed on the site. And with that, a seemingly easy task became more of a vision quest.

Lucky for me, I knew a rough time frame in which this particular cap was used; however, I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to these things so accuracy was key. The first time in my life I could recall ever seeing this cap was in one of my favorite comedies of all time, “The Naked Gun.” If you don’t follow me on Twitter, you should, but I bring my account up because of something I said earlier while I was watching clips from the film: “Why isn’t The Naked Gun in anyone’s Top 10 baseball movies of all time list?” It’s a valid point. I mean, it has actual MLB stars from the era (Jay Johnstone and Reggie Jackson), not to mention one of the funniest portrayals of umpiring/Leslie Nielsen’s brilliance in a five minute clip on the field at Dodger Stadium. (Sidebar: The mere fact that they filmed the California Angels/Seattle Mariners game at Dodger Stadium proves how much people actually hate the Angels outside of Los Angeles) But the most vital detail of this clip is that this is in fact the first indication of when this hat was used on a professional field. Watch…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7igsvOqOYXA 

As a frequent user of IMDB.com I made sure to do my research on my last catharsis. “The Naked Gun” was released on December 2, 1988, which was obviously after Kirk Gibson and the God damn Dodgers beat the Oakland Athletics in the 1988 World Series. After doing some digging I found out that the entire film production took place between February 16, 1988 and some time in April 1988; which means that filming of the baseball scenes took place during spring training OR April 21-24 when the Mariners were in Anaheim playing the Angels (Which is more than likely). Like I said, I did a lot of research. Now, the other part of this question is, “how do I know that the hats weren’t used before then?” Easy, I looked through every World Series, American League Championship Series or significant date within the A.L. I could find from 1980-1988. In an ironic twist that will come up in several blog posts in the future, the 1987 video I found was a Dan Gladden highlight compilation.

Now, I figured out the first part, but I still had to find the end date. The easiest thing to do was start in 1994 when the updated version of “Angels in the Outfield” was released. You remember, Christopher Lloyd saying, “you can call me AL” as he put the cap on. By the way, I’m curious to know if Disney was sued by Paul Simon for that quote. Hmmmmm… anyway, I then bounced around a bit more and found a few photos from 1995 which featured the hat, but not in 1996. ’96 was the first year in which the umpires started wearing those horrific red shirts, but most importantly, it’s the first year in which they rocked the caps with the giant red “A” with an eagle in the middle.

So yah, I did a lot of research on something you’ve probably given little to no thought about. But hey! We have an answer! As for the marks, I had to be just as clever about it.

#11- The American League didn’t adopt numbers for umpires until the start of the 1980 season, so with that I had to roll with someone who umped during the time when this cap was used. So, who better than Don Denkinger? Now, I know what you’re thinking, “who the hell is that clown?” Well, Denkinger is the guy personally responsible for giving the Kansas City Royals their one and only World Series title in 1985, thus preventing the St. Louis Cardinals from winning what would have been their 10^th. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, look it up; Game 6. It is probably one of the most ridiculously blown final out calls outside of Armando Galarraga’s perfect game. Denkinger umped until the end of the 1998 season and served as the crew chief for the 1988 and 1992 ALCS as well as the 1991 World Series.

#50- After doing all of this research I decided to have a bit of fun. If you didn’t watch “The Naked Gun” link I posted, here’s your chance to redeem yourself. Since the filming was one of the first times the cap was used I couldn’t think of anyone better to pay tribute to than Leslie Nielsen. It’s hard to spot, but Nielsen wore the #50 during his umpiring scenes. Baseball is first, and foremost a game and Nielsen did a wonderful job showing just how much fun the guys in blue could have on the field. Granted, if modern day umpires acted like he did they would probably get their immediate walking papers. But just imagine how much more fun the excitement and entertainment would be.

February 18- Washington Senators

Like a lot of kids I grew up with, we all had dreams of breaking out in Major League Baseball. I recall as a youth always going to Pin Oak Park or Leo B. Hart Elementary School in Bakersfield, California to play ball with my friends almost every day after school. We all had our favorite players that we tried to mimic; mine of course was Mark McGwire. I always made sure to keep my knees bent, and do the slow wag of the bat while taking wide, open-mouthed chomps of my Big League Chew every time I was at the plate. While I didn’t have McGwire’s ropey forearms, I could still muscle a few over the chain-link fence that stood, what seemed like a mile away, 200 feet away from home plate. On the inverse of that, anytime any of my friends teed off on me and gave the Kirk Gibson fist pump while rounding the bases, I made sure to plunk them the next time they were at bat. We fought, we cussed, we spit, we got down and dirty, but most of all, we played until we couldn’t see the ball anymore. Every walk home from the ball field was taken right out of the movie “The Sandlot;” discussions of how to hit the opposite direction and knowing the proper way to play the angles off the wall if we were stuck in the outfield. We were all modern day Sparky Andersons, Tony Larussas and Earl Weavers on and off the field. Baseball was our life.

I bring up this bit of my past because it’s not all the different from any kid growing up in any city, small town or country in which baseball is a national sport. Some of us make it to the Show, while the rest of us move on with our lives; but we still make sure to visit the local stadium for a brief reminder of how precious, endearing and simple life once was when we were young.

One player in baseball history knew this all too well, but very few, and I mean very few, even have the slightest clue who he is. I’ll start with the hat though. From 1952-1960 the Washington Senators donned the navy blue and red in what would be the final nine years of the original incarnation’s existence. At the end of the 1960 season the Senators packed up and moved to greener pastures in Minnesota; a tale I wrote on February 15. Poor attendance and poor showings in the standings year-after-year, not to mention western geographical expansion (Manifest Destiny), helped aid the team in their departure. Not a lot of well-known players came from this era with the exception of Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew and Whitey Herzog (went in as a manager). But… as I mentioned above, one player in particular popped out and I had to pay tribute to him.

.293/0/2- Pompeyo Antonio "Yo-Yo" Davalillo Romero was born in Cabimas, Venezuela in 1931 and made his Major League debit for the Senators on August 1, 1953. Yo-Yo was the fourth Venezuelan born player to make it to the big leagues at the time, but like the others (Alex Carrasquel, Chucho Ramos and Chico Carrasquel); they only went down in the history books as a name. At 5’3’’ and 140 pounds, Yo-Yo wasn’t expected to do much other than take up space at shortstop; however, he was remarked by some to being a pretty decent defensive player despite six career errors… in only 19 career games. Yo-Yo’s career came to a close on August 23, 1953, and yes, before the season even ended. He had an average on .293, no home runs and two RBI for his career. He is one of the very rare cases of a player leaving the game under their own volition while in the prime of their career. I realize the term prime is a bit arbitrary in this case as his career never really went up or down, but for someone who was still physically able to play, it’s a pretty big deal. Yo-Yo had played Minor League ball for 11 seasons, nine of which came in AAA; however, the one thing that most guys back in those days (as well as today) will tell you is that all travel to games came via the team bus. As it turned out, Yo-Yo was deathly afraid of traveling by airplane. Therefore, he walked away from his shot on the top. Yo-Yo continued to play ball in Mexico from 1962-64, as well as back in Venezuela from 1965-66. He was inducted into the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006 and even managed in the Venezuelan League for several years after his playing career ended.

Going back to my introduction, the case of Yo-Yo Davalillo is a reminder to all of us that we’re all destined for something great, but we don’t necessarily understand what that is until we come face-to-face with our dream once it’s attained. In my case, a series of injuries kept me from playing ball, but it didn’t keep me away from the game. I merely adapted and continued to love the game as I saw fit.

February 17- Florida Marlins

Believe it or not, I tend to be a smartass from time-to-time. I know, I know, shocker, right!? And to be honest, of all the hats I own, this particular Florida Marlins hat brings out the most sinister of qualities buried deep in the recesses of my soul. Mwahahahahaha!!! Want proof? As you’ll learn from all of these New Era Caps, or even my tattoos, I love talking about the lesser-known, oddball stories that have taken place in baseball. 2012 was definitely a prime year for me, and it all started when we went to the head office of Major League Baseball within the first week of being in New York for the MLB Fan Cave. We were told to wear dress-casual attire; however, since I was about to head into the lion’s den I decided to class it up quite a bit and wore a three-piece suit. In keeping with my daily hat habit I opted to roll with a hat that “matched” my outfit… this one.

Now, most people were under the impression that I had chosen this hat because the colors complimented the suit I was wearing. The real story behind why I wore this hat is because 1. I hated that Jeff Loria changed the Marlins logo/colors. 2. It was a silent protest to MLB to let them know that I will stand by my convictions. Oh, and in case you wondering, the suits of MLB made sure to let me know that I couldn’t wear Florida Marlins gear any day that I was in the Fan Cave in order to keep up appearances with Jeff Loria’s wishes.

I declined to adhere to that rule. Like I said, I stand by my convictions.

This hat lasted the entire run of the Florida Marlins from 1993 through its unfortunate demise at the end of the 2011 season. The team saw 11 managers take the helm while only two of them, Jim Leyland and Jack McKeon, took the team to the Promised Land in 1997 and 2003 respectively. A slew of All-Stars and future Hall of Famers came and went, much like hired guns of the Old West, or… in the case of the results of winning both World Series, the owner’s built up a high caliber team, won a championship and auctioned off their players in an attempt to line their pockets with extra cash. Moneyball at its finest.

I think you’ll all agree on all of my choices for marking this beast up. And just so you know, I threw the numbers down in order of relevancy.

#19- It wouldn’t make a lot of sense if I left Jeff Conine off of this, or any of my Marlins caps. Conine is one of THREE guys to be a member of both World Series teams in ’97 and ’03. In 1997 Conine played in 151 games and was the primary first baseman on into the playoffs. What’s most interesting about Conine is that ’97 was his worst career year offensively for the Marlins as he went .242/17/61; however, then manager Jim Leyland opted to keep him in for every day duties. The three best years of his career came during his first three full years in the league (1993-1995). In ’93 Conine finished in third place for the Rookie of the Year Award; however, his first season in the league was in back in 1990 when he took the field for nine games with the Kansas City Royals. ’91 was spent in AAA and ’92 only saw him coming in for 28 games with the Royals. In 1994 and 1995 Conine cracked the Top 25 in MVP voting after hitting at least .304 with at least 18 home runs and 82 RBI in each of those seasons. Conine found himself back in Kansas City for the 1998 season before moving on to the Baltimore Orioles from 1999 though the All-Star break in 2003 when he was sent back to the Marlins. This time; however, he wore #18 as some up-and-comer named Mike Lowell had taken #19 at the start of the 2000 season.

#1- Luis Castillo is the second member of the All-Florida Marlins squad. Castillo’s first year in baseball was with the Marlins in 1996, but wore the #34 in all 41 games he played in. At the start of the 1997 Castillo opted to change his number, hoping for better fortune and more playing time. Castillo platooned at second base with former Oakland Athletic, and current Marin County Sheriff’s Deputy Kurt Abbott. Castillo didn’t see a single second of action in the postseason that year, but still got a ring for his service throughout the season. In 2003 Castillo’s presence became more well-known as the every day second baseman throughout the regular season and playoffs. Besides the two rings, Castillo won three Gold Gloves (all with the Marlins) from 2003-05, made three All-Star appearances (2002-05 and 2005) and finished his Marlins career with a solid .293 average.

#38- I decided to roll with #38, but could have gone with #33 as well as Rick Helling wore each number throughout his career with the Marlins; however, like Castillo is 1997, Helling didn’t see any action in the playoffs, which had more to do with being traded to the Texas Rangers around the trade deadline. But, he still got a ring. In 2003 he found himself back on the Marlins, once again as a trade deadline addition from the Baltimore Orioles. Helling saw action out of the bullpen during the playoffs, but got shelled during every appearance. Either way, he got two rings out of the deal.

February 16- Montreal Expos

To get a full sense of how last year started for me be sure to read this first. http://beardtobefeared.blogspot.com/2012/02/kid.html

It’s the original post I had before I went to Arizona for the MLB Fan Cave final audition.

It’s amazing how much I’ve grown as a person in the last 366 days. On February 15, 2012 I was just a happy-go-lucky 29-year-old kid, bound for bigger and better things as my campaign for the MLB Fan Cave had been going better than expected. After doing one TV interview with the local Fox/CBS affiliate in Eugene my story had been picked up by all of the major sports Web sites (Yahoo!, Deadspin, ESPN, NBCSports, etc.), and I was quickly making a name for myself throughout the baseball community. As great of a feeling as it was that I was almost guaranteeing my entrance into the Fan Cave, none of it really seemed to matter by the afternoon of February 16. Gary Carter, my childhood idol and inspiration for my path into baseball had passed away.

It was pretty much a for sure thing that I would be writing about this hat today, as it is not only a year later from Carter’s passing, it’s also one of the more important hats that I own. From the Montreal Expos first season in Major League Baseball in 1969 through the end of the 1991 season the team donned this amazing, and truly iconic hat. It was one of the first of its kind; a pinwheel of colors which also captured the spirit of the city in which the franchise was founded. For those who don’t know the name Expos comes from the 1967 World’s Fair which was dubbed Expo 67, and is in fact the most successful World’s Fair of the 20^th century in regard to attendance and number of countries who participated. As a kid the only time I ever really got to watch the Expos on TV was whenever TBS played the Atlanta Braves games in which they played throughout the season. Aside from that, the Expos cards were always my favorite to collect because they had the most interesting players and colors. Despite being an avid Oakland Athletics fan, I quickly developed a love for the Expos which I justified as my National League team. I wouldn’t be until I was 14-year-old that I would finally purchase an Expos cap, this one to be precise.

This is the first fitted cap I’ve ever owned, and truly the inspiration for my love of New Era Caps. More importantly, this is around the time when the internet really began to take off, and I was finally able to watch Gary Carter in some Expos highlights, as opposed to trying to recreate a play from his career based on the assortment of Carter Expos cards I owned. You see, the first time I ever saw Carter in action was during the 1986 World Series as a member of the New York Mets. I understood that he had played on a different team because of his baseball cards, but never got to enjoy it the way that my elders and the fine people of Montreal got to experience. In my lifetime I was only fortunate enough to see Carter play live once, but as a member of the San Francisco Giants, which has always left a sour taste in my mouth. But the most important thing that I value about this hat is that I bought it while the team still existed.

#4001- This number actually represents me. Like Montreal, I was heartbroken when the players strike ended the 1994 season for the Montreal Expos. If you don’t remember, the team had gone 74-40 in their first 114 games, and were primed to not only win their second division title (1981 being their only), but most analysts were saying the team was the outright favorite to win the World Series. Being 11-year-old, I didn’t really have a full understanding of what was going on. All I knew is that it was over. As years followed the Expos had difficulty keeping their talent; Larry Walker, Pedro Martinez, Marquis Grissom and Moises Alou all moved on to greener pastures, and the attendance at Olympic Stadium dipped to an average of 4000 fans per game. Therefore, even though I never attended a single Expos game in person, I watched all of them after the ’94 season on whatever channel would play them. I am fan #4001, and I never stopped supporting the team until they packed up and moved to Washington, D.C.; a move which I will forever be upset about.

#8- It wasn’t until his passing that I put hi number on this cap. I’m still not sure how I was able to keep it together, as this is the only hat I’ve ever marked with tears streaming down my face. I never met Gary Carter, but from every article I read, and every time I saw him on TV, I could tell that he was one of the most genuine human beings the world had ever known. His smile radiated, and his hard work and determination motivated others, especially a three-year-old kid living in Stockton, California. When Carter passed I cried almost as hard as when I found out the news that my best friend had been killed when I was 19-years-old. I’ve always been an extremely emotional person; however, this was one of the few times I had ever been truly inspired to do better for as many people as possible. With the Fan Cave only a few weeks away, I couldn’t think of a better platform to be able to inspire kids and spread my love of the game in the way that Carter inspired me.

It started in Phoenix during Day 1 of the Fan Cave auditions. I’ve always been a rather superstitious person, so I made sure to pack the one hat that I felt most comfortable wearing throughout my trip. I got a lot of questions from the other candidates and executives about it, as I was supposed to be the representative of the Oakland A’s. Every answer I gave consisted primarily of me pointing to the number on my hat and saying, “I’m a bigger fan of him.” Most people got it, or so I thought. Our first task was an “elevator pitch” to the suits of MLB, which is basically a 60 second reason why they should take us. I only needed 58 seconds, but every word that came out of my mouth felt as if every baseball fan who couldn’t be there took over my body. I never used the word “deserve,” I used the word “earned,” but most important, I talked about all of the things that made the game great… al the while with #8 on top of my head. The rest of the day consisted of killing it at MLB trivia and singing in public for the first time since I was 13-years-old. I don’t think I’ve ever been so “on” in all my life.

When I went to New York as one of the nine finalists for the Fan Cave I had said publicly that I would honor Gary Carter when I first walked in, but that didn’t come without its moments of controversy. All eight of the other Cave Dwellers had work the gear of the team they were representing, while I opted to wear a Mets Gary Carter Player-T along with an Expos cap. This was the first time I realized that no one ever listened to a word I said. When we were finally allowed inside I dropped my hooded sweatshirt, showing off my Carter shirt. People finally started to get it, but not until I wrote this on the top of one of chalkboard pillars…

In early April I was finally able to meet Dave Kaufman, a radio personality in Montreal who I became good friends with after a late night of boozery and Montreal Expos chatter.

Dave had given me an open invitation to visit and stay with him in Montreal after I was done with the Fan Cave, something we both had chalked up to taking place some time in 2013. Little did either of us know that I was going to be the first person axed. So, at the end of July I made my way out to take him up on his word. I stayed with him for a week and he was kind enough to tell me stories of all the Expos games he attended throughout his life, and even took me to the stadium which the Expos called home from 1977-2004. We had only planned on taking exterior shots, but lucky for us, someone had left the doors unlocked…

Throughout the week Dave and I talked about how the team’s departure affected the city. Almost every day in which I wore an Expos hat we were greeted with praise from the locals, but I never stopped any of them to go into more detail; a move I truly regret. From what I had gathered, the team was still reeling from the loss of their team, especially in the wake of the Washington Nationals having a very successful season. One of the things that Dave and I made sure to do was visit Cooperstown and the MLB Hall of Fame. It was the first time I had ever visited the museum, and I of course couldn’t think of a better hat to rock than this one.

When I visited Washington, D.C. I happened to be there for when the Nationals started a three game series against the Mets. The first day happened to be “throwback” day. This made perfect for the fact that I was all ready going to wear my Expos game, but it was especially weird when the Nationals decided to honor the Senators, as opposed to the actual past. So, I made sure be that representative. I even tried (unsuccessfully) to move the team back to Montreal…

I think if there’s one thing I’m most proud of over this last year it’s that I never lost myself. My mission over the last year was to be an inspiration to the next generation of baseball fans, much in the same light that Carter was to me. Despite having a short run in the Fan Cave I can honestly say that it was a success. I visited 27 of 30 stadiums and treated fans to tickets and good conversation, all the while I stopped and talked to every fan who recognized me and wanted to chat. I met my girlfriend, Angie Kinderman, during my stop in Miami, and I got to be there for almost every big moment the A’s had this season including their miraculous run to win the American League West title. Despite all the hardships I faced on the road, as well as the coldness I’ve received from MLB since my exile, I can still look at this hat and smile like Carter at all of the great, and amazing things I’ve done. Thank you Gary; everything I’ve become is because of the drive and passion you gave every day of your life. I will go and do likewise until my final breath.

February 15- Minnesota Twins

If you didn’t read my post from January about the Minnesota Twins “M” logo cap, I highly suggest going back and checking it out before continuing with this. It’ll fill in a few gaps of back story on my personal relationship with the franchise. The most important thing to know is that my girlfriend, Angie Kinderman, is a huge Twins fan, while I am on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. Back on December 31, 2012 I flew out to Miami, Florida to visit Angie and spend a week with her before we both started up class again on January 7, 2013. Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I decided to wear this cap when I flew in to put a smile on her face. Needless to say, it did the trick. Today she flew into Portland, Oregon to visit me and I decided to wear the same cap again. I suppose in this matter it’s best to leave my differences aside and do something nice for my sweetie. So now, this is my official Angie airport greeting cap.

I originally picked this hat up off of EBay, along with a few others from independent dealers. I had purchased the “M” logo cap at first, but ended up not really digging the 2010 Target Field patch in the side so I opted for a new style. I figured in this case, it’s best to go with the original. When the first incarnation of the Washington Senators moved to Minneapolis at the end of the 1960 season, the team changed its name to the Minnesota Twins, as to appease the obvious Minneapolis/St. Paul twin cities moniker. With that, the team also made the “TC”, which stands for Twin Cities, its official logo. From 1961-1986 the white “T” with a red “C” intertwined on a navy blue cap reigned throughout the league and made a reappearance prior to the 2002 season where it has remained as the team’s home field/game cap. As a fan of the classics, I had to roll with two greats when marking up this cap.

#3- The Killer himself, Harmon Killebrew is arguably the greatest Twin, and the greatest Mormon baseball player to ever take the field; however, in my humble opinion, is one of those few guys who made the Hall of Fame for having played during an interesting era. Killebrew started his career in 1954 and saw minimal playing time until 1959 when he hit a League-leading 42 home runs with the Senators. When the team made it’s debut in Minnesota Killer continued hitting bombs for the Twins by hitting at least 45 home runs for four consecutive seasons (1961-1964). His best year came in 1969 when he went .276/49/140 and won the American League MVP outright that season, the only one of his career. Killebrew made 11 All-Star appearances throughout his career and only made the World Series once in 1965 when they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games. Killebrew finished his career with 573 home runs and 1559 RBI, but only hit 2086 times with a career average of .256 in 22 years. Killebrew was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984 and sadly passed away on May 17, 2011.

#29- Like a lot of kids from my elementary school days, the first time I heard the name Rod Carew was in Adam Sandler’s “The Hanukah Song.” As I got older I made sure to do my homework as to not besmirch his name in jest. Carew started his Hall of Fame career in 1967 and played with the Twins until the end of the 1978 season. In ’67 Carew took home the Rookie of the Year crown after going .292 with 150 hits on the year. That year and the following would be the only two years in which Carew would hit below .300. In the 12 years that Carew gave to the Twins he went .334/74/733, but he attained 2085 of his career 3053 hits while rocking the “TC.” Carew won seven batting titles, lead the league in hits three times, but only one MVP in 1977. Throughout his 19-year career, Carew only missed making an All-Star appearance once; his final season. Carew made the Hall of Fame with ease in 1991 on his first ballot.

Update

#12- Cesar Tovar was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela where as a child, he shined shoes to earn extra income for his family. At the age of 15, he befriended Gus Gil, another Venezuelan who went on to play in Major League Baseball. In January 1959, Cincinnati Reds General Manager, Gabe Paul, attempted to sign Gil to a contract however; Gil insisted that Paul should also have Tovar sign a contract. Paul relented in order to make Gil agree to sign. Tovar began his professional baseball career when he was assigned to the Geneva Redlegs in the D-league New York-Penn League. He hit .252 in 87 games as an infielder for Geneva in 1959. That winter, he returned to Venezuela to play for the Leones del Caracas, and won the league's rookie of the year award.

In 1960, he played with the Missoula Timberjacks of the Pioneer League where he produced a promising .304 batting average along with 12 home runs and 68 RBI. After being selected to the league's All-Star team, he was rewarded by getting to play two games at the top level of the Reds' minor league system with the Seattle Rainiers. Tovar was sent back to Geneva in 1961, where he batted .338 with 19 home runs and 78 runs batted in. He stole 88 bases in 100 attempts to lead the league while setting a new league record for stolen bases. In 1962, he played for the Rocky Mount Leafs of the Carolina League, and led the league in batting with a .329 batting average along with 10 home runs and 78 runs batted in. The Reds had a promising second baseman in Pete Rose, who would win the 1963 National League Rookie of the Year Award, and with second basemen Bobby Klaus and Gus Gil in their minor league system, there was little room left for Tovar to progress. The Reds sent him on loan to play for the Minnesota Twins minor league affiliate, the Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers. In 1964, Tovar returned to the Reds organization, where he played for the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League. He helped the Padres win the league championship by hitting for a .275 with 7 home runs and 52 runs batted in, while playing as a third baseman, shortstop, second baseman, and as an outfielder.

Before the start of the 1965 season, the Twins traded pitcher Gerry Arrigo to the Reds for Tovar. The Twins had originally sought to get Tommy Helms from the Reds, but they refused to trade him and the Twins settled for Tovar. At the age of 24, Tovar made his major league debut on April 12, 1965, becoming the ninth Venezuelan to play in Major League Baseball. Tovar’s career with the Twins stretched until the end of the 1972 season, but his career ended after the 1976 season after making a few stops with the Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees along the way. Between 1967 and 1971 Tovar finished in the top-25 in voting for the AL MVP thanks in part to his decent average, ability to steal bases and the amount of hits he was able to rake in ever season. His 204 hits lead the AL in 1971.

As far as career notes are concerned, Tovar racked up a few records: On September 22, 1968, Tovar became the second player after Bert Campaneris (Kansas City Athletics, 1965) to play all nine fielding positions in a game. The two were later joined by Scott Sheldon (Texas Rangers, 2000) and Shane Halter (Detroit Tigers, 2000) as the only four players in MLB history to have accomplished the feat. Tovar started the game on the mound against Oakland and pitched one scoreless inning in which he struck out Reggie Jackson. As fate would have it, the first batter he faced was Campaneris.

On May 18, 1969, Tovar combined with Carew to set a major league record for most steals by a club in one inning with five. In the third inning against a Detroit battery of Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan, Tovar stole third base and home. Carew followed by stealing second base, third base and home. The two steals of home in the same inning also tied a record

Along with Eddie Milner, Tovar is regarded as the major league's all-time leader in breaking up no-hit attempts with five. César Tovar died on July 14, 1994 of pancreatic cancer in Caracas, Venezuelan Capital District, Venezuela, at 54 years of age. Tovar was inducted into the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003

February 14- Fort Wayne TinCaps

In honor of today being Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d get a little creative with my post. Needless to day, I failed. I looked through all 247 hats I had, hoping to find some kind of a heart on any of them. Instead, I found a little red apple doing a Johnny Appleseed impersonation. Close enough I suppose.

In November of 2011 I went on a Minor League hat binge. At the time I didn’t think too much of it as I was just buying up hats with really cool and interesting logos. When I bought this hat, I also bought it with a Eugene Emeralds, a San Antonio Missions and a random San Diego Padres hat. Little did I know at the time, but essentially I had bought four Padres hats as the three Minor League hats are all affiliates on various levels. Crazy! The first time I wore this was at the bar I work at, Max’s Tavern. The first dude who spotted it asked me if I was a big Padres fan. I’ll be honest, at the time I didn’t have the foggiest of knowing who the Fort Wayne TinCaps belonged to, so I of course played it off like I knew what he was talking about. Definitely a first in my life. The logo itself is a tribute to John Chapman (Appleseed) who lived in Fort Wayne at the end of his life, and is in fact buried there as well. While most people associate the cooking pot cap with Chapman, at no time in his life was he known to wear one. The 1948 Disney film we all watched in our youth created the the lore of the TinCap, which the team adopted as their logo. Clever.

This cap in particular is one of a fours caps the TinCaps use, and have been using since they were released in 2008. The green in the home cap while the variety of grey styles are the road, alternate and batting practice caps, but I’ll bring those up in the future. The TinCaps are a single-A affiliate of the Padres and have been so since 1999; however, prior to that they were the high-A club of the Minnesota Twins. For those of you who didn’t know, Fort Wayne is in Indiana, which is not exactly close to San Diego, unlike the Padres’ other Minor League affiliates. Also, I’ve certainly written a lot about the Padres over the last few weeks. They need to stop having so many cool hats.

The numbers I marked were a relatively easy choice. Both players were on the team in 2008 as well as the start of the 2009 season, but they moved upward and onward through the system as the TinCaps won their first Midwest League Championship that season.

#13- Believe it or not, this guy is now a member of the Oakland Athletics. Andy Parrino was drafted by the Padres in the 26^th round of the 2007 Amateur Draft. Parrino and my paths have crossed a few times oddly enough, the first time being when he made his professional debut in Eugene, Oregon with the Emeralds. The second time, well, kind of an interesting story, but here’s a photo to help illustrate…

We had a brief run-in during warm-up of a Padres/Arizona Diamondbacks game in Phoenix during my summer tour, but it was literally a three second glance and wave. And now he’s on the A’s. Anyway, Parrino spent all of 2008 in Fort Wayne going .252/4/43, and started the first five games of the 2009 season there as well before moving southward to Lake Elsinore to play for the Storm. Parrino made hi Major League debut on August 26, 2011 and is likely to be a decent utility infielder for the A’s, but may have to fight for a spot amongst all the other acquired talent.

#32- As I mentioned earlier, this cat and Parrino were both members of the 2008 and 2009 TinCaps and both made their professional debut with the Emeralds. Weird. Mat Latos was drafted in the 11^th round of the 2006 Amateur Draft, but made his MLB debut three years later. Latos never played AAA ball, he simply made the jump from Eugene to Rookie ball back to Eugene to Fort Wayne to San Antonio to San Diego relatively fast. 2008 proved to be a very interesting year for Latos. He started the season in the Rookie League in Arizona where he pitched five games before moving on to Eugene for three games, and finally ended up in Fort Wayne for seven games. During his time in Fort Wayne Latos pitched 24.2 innings, struck out 23 (Latos struck out exactly 23 batters at every stop he made in 2008) and maintained an ERA of 3.28 while going 0-3. Despite the rough finish, Latos persevered and went 3-0 with a 0.36 ERA in the four games he made an appearance in at the start of the 2009 season. And now, he’s with the Reds… with a smokin’ hot wife. Well played Latos. Well played indeed.

February 13- Casper Ghosts

Today has been an especially unusual day, and I feel that the hat I’m wearing has some partial blame to it. I’ve always been a pretty superstitious guy, especially when it comes to baseball. I always jump over the chalk, I furiously brushed my teeth before every game like Turk Wendell and I always find patterns in the things that I do/wear when things seem to be amiss. Today is only the third day that I’ve worn this Casper Ghosts cap since I bought it back in August of 2011, and all three days have been especially trying.

The first day I wore it I ended up doing poorly on a photography assignment. Specifically, all of the photos I took were over or underexposed. The second day I wore was during Game 4 of the American League Championship series. The entire day I had been wearing my Detroit Tigers home cap in the hopes that the Tigers would tie the series with the Texas Rangers. It was going really well too; the Tigers and Rangers were tied at the end of the seventh inning. My friend Benji, a huge Tigers fan from Lansing, Michigan had been riding me the whole game for me to go home and grab my Ghosts hat for him to look at, but I wasn’t quite in the mood; at least until the Tigers came back from blowing a 2-0 lead in the top of the sixth. I lived about a 9-iron shot away from the bar I work at, Max’s Tavern, so I ran home to grab it for the remainder of the game. Over the next three innings the Tigers had an effort to score a few times, but came up empty every time. Finally, in the top of the 11^th inning, the Tigers turned to Jose Valverde to put a stop on the Rangers offense. He failed. The Rangers won the game 7-3 and I went home and threw the cap across the room. Today, the MLB Fan Cave Top 30 was announced and two of my friends (Tom Bentley- Mariners and Evan Wansbrough- Blue Jays) didn’t make the cut despite garnering a lot of attention over their campaign. I feel partially responsible for them not making the cut, but not because of the hat. The hat merely aided in the depression that followed.

For those who don’t know too much about this hat, let alone the team, the tale is quite interesting. The team was first established in 2001 when the Butte Copper Kings from Montana had relocated after the 2000 season. From 2001-2007 the Rookie League team was known as the Casper Rockies in honor of their Major League affiliate, the Colorado Rockies. Wanting to bring in new fans and revenue the team held a contest for fans to chime in and rename the team. This process had proved successful in 2003 when the Calgary Cannons had relocated to Albuquerque Dukes had moved to Portland to become the Beavers at the end of the 2001 season. (If you haven’t noticed yet the Beavers and Portland come up frequently in my Minor League hat posts) By an overwhelming 67% majority the fans had chosen the Isotopes as their team name. But I’ll go into more detail in a later post. Unsurprisingly, the fans had chosen the Ghosts as the new team name for the Casper Rockies to start the 2008 season. The team name stuck from 2008-2011, but the team itself did not as they relocated to Grand Junction for the 2012 season. Bad luck all around for everyone it seems.

Keeping with the bad luck theme I did some research and found some interesting choices for my marks. Just a heads up; trying to find jersey numbers for big names in one day in Rookie Leagues is not an easy task, but I think you’ll all approve.

#17- If you know the Rockies, then you certainly should know this number. In 2010 Todd Helton made a rehab trip to Casper for three games: two against the Orem Owls and one against the Ogden Raptors, both of whom have pretty sweet hats. It’s not uncommon for players to do rehab stints, but very few go as far down as Rookie League. In this case the Ghosts were the only nearby affiliate of the Rockies to be playing at home for Helton to get some practice in. Luckily for his sake, he did pretty well. In the three games he played Helton went 5-10 with a double, five RBI and two walks. Just imagine if he had a bad showing.

#40/50- I’ve kept this open for a moment until I can get confirmation of the jersey number, but back in 2009 the Rockies had signed free agent and four-time World Series champion Mike Timlin to a Minor League deal. Guess where he had to start out? Timlin played in two games and threw two scoreless innings for the Ghosts before immediately jumping up to their AAA affiliate the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. Unfortunately the 43-year-old was released two weeks later. As far as the 40/50 is concerned, I’m pretty much making an educated guess as to which number he used since those were the two numbers he wore during his time in the Majors. He wore #40 from 1991-2000 and #50 from 2001-2008. Based on logic I would assume he rocked #50, but I’d rather play it safe until I get confirmation. So, if anyone knows the answer, it would be more than appreciated.