Casper Ghosts

When it comes to Minor League Baseball, teams generally have absolutely no fear in the way they name their teams, design their logos, insane mascots, or submit their fans to the wackiest promotions, for that I salute them. For if it were not for Minor League Baseball's inability to feel shame, we would not have such great logos on New Era caps that we currently have, instead we could possibly have just the same blend that we see in Major League Baseball, even though they are always respectable.

One of my favourite Minor League Baseball logos is the city of Casper, which decided to take the play on words and emulate the name of that old cartoon that we've all probably seen at least once in our lifetimes, Casper the Friendly Ghost. Casper, Wyoming didn't think their logo needed to be all that friendly though, and through the process of taking the city's name and putting it through the mind of an eight year old we are submitted to the magic embroidered below.

The Casper Ghosts originated as the Butte Copper Kings in Butte, Montana, but the team ended up in its current location of Casper, Wyoming until 2001 when they became the Single-A Affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, but the team was then known as the Casper Rockies. After 7 solid seasons as the Casper Rockies the creativity set in and come opening day of 2008 the Casper Ghosts hit the field.

The embroidered on the front of the cap for the Casper Ghosts is a fierce skull-like face which represents the ghoul, along with this is a simple baseball stitching on the top which makes it appear as if it's a baseball. The background and outline of the logo is embroidered with a shading technique that creates a haze giving the cap an eerie look to it.

One of the most simple and unique aspects of the cap that won't be appreciated until it dawns upon the viewer is the fact that when viewed in the dark a “G” appears due to the glow-in-the-dark threading used for the certain area. The hidden “G” in the hat is what really takes this cap up a notch, and really adds to the cool factor.

As of the end of the 2011 season, the Casper Ghosts will be moving out of their ballpark of Mike Lansing Field and will relocate to Suplizio Field in Grand Junction, Colorado. This move will effectively kill the team name and the brief history the team had, and the team will revert back to the name Rockies. The team called the Casper Ghosts were short lived, and I'm sure they will be missed.

Is that the Pizza Hut symbol in purple and grey?

Tucson Sidewinders

Being an Arizona Diamondbacks fan, this cap was a huge part of my childhood and was a cap that I always wanted to get my hands on. I grew up in Las Vegas, NV and often attended Las Vegas Stars and 51's MiLB games, and I currently am a Season Ticket Holder, so the Diamondbacks' Triple-A Affiliate was always something that had interested me greatly, and I was also a die-hard Sidewinders fan and always wanted one of their caps, but by the time the Sidewinders left Tucson, it appeared that it was too late. The internet allowed me to do the required hunting though, it was a lot harder than it sounds but after 3 years of hunting I finally came upon it and I snagged it up immediately.

The Tucson Sidewinders began their organization as the Tucson Toros in 1969 as part of the Pacific Coast League, this team went through 5 different Major League Affiliates prior to the emergence of the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix, and thus the Tucson Sidewinders were born. When the Arizona Diamondbacks moved in, it was natural that the team wanted the affiliate close to them, and Tucson was a perfect candidate. The team evidently had its name changed from the Toros to the Sidewinders, in an attempt to tie their names together by basing them both off of rattlesnakes local to the area.

Come the 1998 Season when the Arizona Diamondbacks had their first year, the Tucson Toros finally became the Sidewinders and were a strong force in the PCL South for the beginning of the next decade and saw many famous veterans from their MLB affiliate take stints down in the minors. However after constant years of low attendance over location and playing field maintenance at Tucson Electric Park, the Tucson Baseball LLC made the decision to sell the Sidewinders and the team eventually moved to Reno and became the Reno Aces.

The cap is a basic flat black that is complimented with a copper snake with turquoise diamonds on the back, this snake has a single coil that wraps in a loop and points up to reveal it's rattle located at the tip of the tail. The threading on the snake is rather unimpressive when it comes to comparing it to other caps in the minor leagues. The thing that really strikes me about this cap is the way that the logo really sticks out on the base black cap, and this is caused due to the simple fact that New Era utilized a metallic thread on the copper much like they did on the Arizona Diamondbacks road cap of the same era, and these two caps show a great amount of similarities.

The caps both utilize black caps as the base along with copper threading that makes the logo really stand out from the background, and they both have turquoise coloured diamonds radiating from the back of the snake. The sidewinder logo is however much more detailed and more fluent than the Diamondbacks' due to the fact that the “D” on the road cap appears to be a little more forced due to the sharp turn and swoop to complete the typographical image that is trying to be expressed; the detail has since been repaired on the team's current uniform representations.

This is a great cap for any fan of the Arizona Diamondbacks, but it evidently may be uninteresting or bland for a casual baseball or cap fan, or just anyone from the Tucson or Arizona area. The details on the cap are fairly static and doesn't appear to express any great breakthroughs in embroidery in regards to detail.

Portland Beavers 2008-2010

The Portland Beavers have a vast history that were part of four different incarnations over the years, each being a rebirth of a team that has since left the vicinity but picking up after its predecessor. The Beavers' history began in 1903 as one of the first of the Pacific Coast League teams and continued to run until 1917 when the team took a one year hiatus from the Pacific Coast League to join the Class B Pacific Coast International League; regardless of this move they became a PCL team in 1919 and were so until 1972.

Six after the Beavers withdrew from existence, they once again sprung up in Portland to become the second true incarnation of the team, and this team stood strong until 1993 when the Beavers' owner evidently moved them to Salt Lake City and forced them to become the Salt Lake Buzz, now the Bees. The city of Portland was once again without baseball until the year 2000, this was until the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers agreed to switch affiliates leaving the Dodgers with Las Vegas and the Padres with Albuquerque, so the Padres decided to move the team up to Portland and create a brand new Beavers team.

The 2000-2010 Beavers were the first in Beavers history to really utilize the team's rich history in their favour, always wearing 1903 patches on their shoulders they boldly celebrated that their team has just as much history behind them as most of the current Major League teams, however come the 2010 season the city of Portland and the Beavers couldn't come to an agreement on a new stadium, due to the fact that Portland General Electric Park was being converted into a primarily soccer stadium which forced the Beavers out. Without a stadium and the 2011 season looming, the Portland Beavers had reached an unfortunate set of events that forced them out of town, with several cities up for bid it eventually fell upon the shoulders of Tucson, AZ to take upon the team.

With the 2011 and the Beavers moving the Tucson, it is unlikely that Portland will be able to regain a stadium in the upcoming years, and with a stadium situation in Escondido, CA under question and a lack of attendance in Tucson the team's most recent incarnation has a questionable future, but the possibility of Portland regaining another Beavers team is always a possibility, perhaps in the Major Leagues next time.

The Portland Beavers have and always will be one of my favourite baseball teams, minor and major league. This is a team wish so much rich history and a team that is naturally a Pacific Coaster as I am, it's hard not to have an affinity for such a team as this. After attending a Portland Beavers game in 2009 while visiting a friend up in the Greater Portland Area, I always regretted not going into the team shop and at least checking out their cap selection, but come a few years later I finally came upon this cap after repeated hunting online to acquire the cap that has eluded me for the past year.

The Beavers cap is a dark blue base that includes a stylized “P” on the front, included with Lucky the Beaver embroidered right on the front. This “P” has a pale blue outline to it and has a beige interior which blends extremely well with the outline and the base of the cap, it allows the logo to really pop on the front although the logo and letter may not be exactly clear without up close investigation. The “P” in a sense isn't completed on the underside of the loop, and to complete this the designers decided to use Lucky's beaver tail to do so, which may mask the letter and cause confusion to those who do not know this is a cap from Portland and is styled with a “P”. The space in the letter is also gone due to the fact that Lucky's head is covering it, the beaver has a great amount of detail in the face and even utilizes two different thread colours to increase the realism of the beaver along with the dimensions of threading and directions they can take. Lucky is also completely with a blue cap which is most likely a throwback to the original Beavers uniforms, along with the jersey top that he appears to be wearing that has been stitched in crème threading.

The detail on this beavers cap is what really draws it to me, this cap once again amazes me with what can be done with a needle and thread when introduced to a ballcap. This cap doesn't appear to be the style that would be desired from a passive fan or just a hat collector, but would most likely be most appreciated by those who were original fans of the team or those who love baseball history.

*Leaked* Miami Marlins New Era

The Miami Marlins new New Era caps have been unofficially released, as it appears according to George Richards of the Miami Herald after posting some pictures to the website after catching the Marlins new cap prior to its official release. Here are some leaked photos of what could be the new Miami Marlins cap for the 2012 season, should all of the speculation go unchanged. The cap seen below appeared to have been located at the New Era store in Buffalo, New York, the very city that New Era spawned from, so that leads us to believe that these caps are 100% authentic and are not preconceived replicas.

One could say that this cap is a prototype, which to me could be true or could not be true, being that the knowledge of if the cap is currently being sold in the store is up to question and debate, the only way to know for sure is to go there and check it out; Richardson's testimony appeared to give insight that the cap was for sale when he acquired it. All that can say is that it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that the cap surfaced in the very city where New Era is located, Buffalo.

The cap unfortunately wasn’t supposed to be seen by the public’s eyes until November 11th, 2011 when the Miami transition is finalized, but this leak apparently has shed some light on what the new caps will look like. Several weeks ago the Marlins announced their new logo, and this cap appears to be a direct copy of that even down to the background colour, so there really should be no surprises here.

As assumed, this hat would most likely be the Marlins Home Cap, and there could be several more in the near future. An Alternate and an Away Cap are the most likely suspects when looking into more caps being released, I personally foresee an away cap and two alternates, but the only way we will find out is either wait for more leaks for listen for the news on November 11th.

The photos seen here were taken by Miami Herald Sports Writer, George Richards, on an apparent trip up to Buffalo; the images were uploaded to the Miami Herald late last night.

*NOTICE* Relocation

Good evening all.

This blog is going to be written exclusively about New Era caps, I will be forwarding a few posts here from my previous blog located at:

Coded & United

The blog Coded & United was originally just a compilation of blog posts that I had written from a multitude of different subjects stretching from video game reviews, New Era Baseball caps, music and movie reviews, or just anything that interested me.

So I appologise if you were a previous viewer of Coded & United to see that the blog is being split and relocated, but I believe that the change is for the best. If I did not split the blog now, I would have to worry about this issue later due to the popularity of Coded & United.