Hat O' The Day, 02/07

The picture at right is of Chief Myers, catcher for the 1911 NL Champion New York Giants. Today's hat is a replica of the one that he wears proudly, just as you see it there, a black had with white bill.

Why the crazy black and white uniforms? John McGraw, the Giants manager at the time, was really into showing-off. He had these uniforms created just for the World Series, to make his team look classy and tough. Actually, he had them made for the 1905 World Series, against the Philadelphia (now Oakland) Athletics, and they whipped them soundly. The 1911 World Series was a rematch, and the Giants brought back their special B&W jerseys for the occasion, and were soundly beaten by the A's. Oh well, they had it coming. Who makes World Series jerseys and gets away with it, anyway?

Apparently, and by way of this story, they don't make this hat anymore.
Not that I went to an auction house and got an original hat for a pricey sum (reminds me of the auction scene from North by Northwest- see 3:00 into the clip below, which doesn't do it justice, but it reminds me none the less, and goddamn, that woman gave me the creeps!).

Today's hat comes to me by way of the Oakland A's, for TWO whole bucks.

Yea, its a Giants hat, too.

I got it at the 2005 A's Year-end Coliseum Store Tent Clearance Sale. It was sitting alongside some Colorado Rockies hats, and a sweet Montreal Expos hat, which I knew would be rare, because they moved to Washington that year, but it was too small.

A blank, Black and White, size 7 3/4 (relatively huge for most), cap. I only knew it was a Giants cap because the nice tag that said "$2" had some details on the other side.

I guess maybe I felt in a Giants mood because of the KNBR fanfest, which I avoid because of the crowds. Maybe its because its in line with my fetish of getting unrecognizable hats for teams I like just so that I'm wearing something different from everyone else.

I wore it out today to the Oakland Farmers' Market before going into work (got some nice flavored almonds, a 10 lb bag of organic oranges, and some awesome Andy & Cindy's Thai Cuisine fish in a homemade leaf-wrapper, among others). It made me feel like a King, while spotting a guy with a "Notre Dame Soccer" cap. Maybe he was a nice guy, but I didn't get to ask. Just combining the 'Irish with a soccer team cap is asking for the Douche'Cap nomination. Sorry dude, whoever you are. Please don't track down my address and take my cool non-logo Giants cap. Maybe we can talk about caps over lunch sometime, and I'll buy. We'll talk about Touchdown Jesus, and the Golden Dome, and all will be forgotten... boy, are you a D-Bag!

Now without further ado,
the trailer to North By Northwest,
why?
Because it reminded me of getting my hat really cheap.

thanks for your patience,

Laffy

A New Beginning

So its been a while, friends.

A while ago (sometime between the 2008 MLB All-Star Game and now, according to my blog), I kept hearing this song (click on the player below) in my head, which is a pretty darn good song, and I knew that I had heard it in a movie somewhere along the line, but I couldn't remember where.

Turns out, its the end-credits to the hockey movie Miracle, with Kurt Russell as Coach Herb Brooks of the 1980 USA Olympic Hockey team.



This video is great, and credit some guy/woman called "chamilton268" with that one, but its not the end credits to the film. I guess I'll have to post what I saw, so that you can see what I like about it; the music, along with the credits for the actors, and what the real players went on to do with their lives after their hockey days. Then a nice dedication to the real Coach Brooks, who passed away before the film came out, but who did go and talk with the actors while they were filming. That was a nice touch.

Anyway, that got me to thinking about what I want to do with my life (too deep to go into detail here), and then I wanted to start writing again. So I am. Please excuse the short first column, but if this were a media-covered event (a televised return to blog-posting?! what is this, the Truman Show?!) then I would cite that song revolving in my head as the starting point for my new way of life. Well, new ways of life, but I'm not getting into all that.

You know how a lot of people take their blog(s) and open 'em up to everyone, and spill their guts and messes in life for all to see, and then TMZ or some crazy media outlet gets a hold of it, and all of a sudden, Michael Phelps gets stoned and everyone knows?! Well, this one is not gonna be like that. I'm not even gonna link that guy's name to some TMZ site for the pix, because I'm gonna leave that guy alone. I swam a mile a few times before, and I didn't even like pot when I tried it a few times, so I know what that guy is going through. (NO, I did not laugh a bunch after hitting it, I can do that w/o that stuff - it just made me really sleepy, and then I had some kind of hangover the next day, I didn't like it)

But I did, however, change the name of this fine establishment from its previous title (Laffy's Once a Month Baseball Extravaganza), to the generic reincarnation title (Laffy's More-Often, Imagination-Driven, Drivel Pad), to its current signage.

Sure hope this isn't my last posting till the All Star Break...

Knockin' on wood,

Laffy