Mid-1990's Retro National League Umpire Cap - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!

The time is nigh for any final preparations for next week's MLB All-Star Game so for San Francisco Giants fans like me, that means lamenting the fact that Boston and Chicago fans gamed the voting system better than we did. Who knows? Maybe it's not so bad that more of our guys aren't making the trip to San Diego while Dexter Fowler and Ben Zobrist will be.

Fine, let them enjoy Addison Russell at shortstop rather than benefit from a defensive wizard like Brandon Crawford. Since Wil Myers is the host city's lone representative this year, I do however understand selecting him over Brandon Belt as a backup at first base.

While it does annoy me that there will be so much team homogeny at the All-Star Game, I'm more annoyed with myself because for the first time in as long as I can remember, I forgot to submit even a single ballot this year. Simply put, I have no right to complain about the selections so I'm just hoping the National League wins this year. 

I'm a Giants fan and since they're a National League team, that's the squad I'm rooting for. Even if it means cheering as Corey Seager gets a bases-clearing double or when Clayton Kershaw strikes out the side. It's gonna be weird but I'm doing it. 

Here's the retro National League umpire's hat I'll be wearing all the way through the All-Star break.

The sweatband tags are the retro reproduction style and even though they indicate the cap was made in China, my wife got it for me as a birthday gift on a trip to Cooperstown so I love it.

Yes, my wife is standing over my shoulder as I write this. She wants me to remind you that I love it when reproduction caps do not have the New Era cap flag and the MLB batterman logo.

One difference between this week's cap and the vintage one directly above is this one doesn't jam the word "National" between the baseball seams. 

Unlike this week's cap, the one above has a flat MLB batterman logo which is consistent with all on-field New Era caps made after 1992.

Note the dark green under brim which was present on all umpire caps even during the era in which players wore ones with grey under brims.

Now this is what proper mid-1990's sweatband tags look like. I have owned many caps from that era so I'd say these are probably from 1995.

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