Marlins Rebranding

A few weeks ago, the Florida Marlins announced that their new logo will make a "huge splash" in the city of Miami, and would completely rebrand their team with the move to downtown Miami into their new stadium, Marlins Ballpark. The Marlins are a baseball team that have won two World Series titles, but have never won a division title, this is all thanks to them taking full advantage of the Wild Card in the baseball playoffs. For the past 18 seasons, they had to suffer in the Orange Bowl/Sun Life Stadium, a football stadium that was slightly modified to be able to fit a baseball field, and this stadium has proven to be disastrous for the team due to the stadium's age and inadequate location.

Sun Life Stadium

New Marlins Ballpark

Now that's just the ballpark, the Marlins rebranding is not only going to be a move to a new ballpark, but will be a complete change on all levels. Say goodbye to the Florida Marlins, and say hello to the Miami Marlins.

Florida Marlins

Miami Marlins

Over the past few seasons in the MLB, a few teams have made huge changes in their uniform and colour scheme, most notably the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Rays. And I'm willing to let the changes go, all because the Marlins really needed to do something to bring their fan base back..... but this gets better. This is a sculpture that was designed to be fired up every time a Marlins player hits a Home Run, video located below.

Should that .gif not work, feel free to indulge yourself the video located on the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs personal facebook:
The Video

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts about the new logo, stadium, and "The Sculpture" that the team has introduced.

Throwback Diamondbacks New Era

In my previous posts ranting about how the Arizona Diamondbacks and New Era caps botched their sale of "throwback" caps by making them grossly inaccurate, I did a lot of internet hunting to find myself some accurate reproductions of the cap I was looking for. I eventually found myself on Facebook and looking at a physical store's page located in Brooklyn, New York called Lee's Sneakers and sent them an e-mail, within 4 days I had negotiated my purchase and ordered their whole stock of the cap in my size of 7-1/8 :)


I think this cap turned out fantastic! It is an incredibly accurate representation of the original dbacks cap. About the only difference, is that the colour of the "A" is a little too light, but this can be explained due to New Era discontinuing that colour a few years back.

Now as expected, the caps are Made in China, which is a disappointment but something that really can't be avoided in this day and age when it comes to New Era caps, if it isn't On-Field is most likely won't be American. Another anomaly is that the cap isn't a Cooperstown Collection, but listed as just "Genuine Merchandise."

The back of the cap is also accurate due to its flat embroidery, at the start of the 2007 season New Era started giving the rear raised embroidery like they do with the front.

REPRODUCTION

ORIGINAL

The embroidery on the front also looks fantastic, it is an awesome reproduction of the original in every detail. As described above, the only difference is the colour of the "A", due to a discontinuation of the thread that was used originally.

REPRODUCTION

ORIGINAL

And here are the two caps next to each other, don't mind the colour difference too much between the shades of purple, the original cap could have been made from anywhere between 1998-2006.

Original vs. Reproduction

For any information on these caps or any other caps that you may be interested in purchasing, please contact Lee's Sneakers for any information.  I recommend that you Like him on Facebook and give a look at his pictures, there you can copy URLs and send them to Lee's Sneakers and they will be more than happy to mail you the caps and they also take PayPal. Now I'm just a young college student attending a university, but I can assure you that the caps are definitely worth the money should you decided to buy them! And with PayPal, your purchases are definitely insured better than the best car insurance you will ever buy!

New Era by far isn't a cheap baseball hat, they are the best quality baseball hats you can find, and they have a wide range of custom baseball hats too.

Please visit Lee's Sneakers at: http://www.facebook.com/leesneakers

E-mail them with any questions at: leesneakers@yahoo.com

Diamondbacks Throwback New Era Caps

All right, time to do some god damned ranting now...........

Last weekend, the Arizona Diamondbacks were having a throwback weekend back to when they wore Purple and Teal uniforms, they switched to Red, Beige, and Black back in 2007. The Diamondbacks New Era caps haven't been produced in purple since 2006 so no non-custom order caps have been produced since then.

With the upcoming throwback weekend, we all knew that New Era was going to produce the caps for the team, so everyone anticipated the upcoming Polyester version of the purple dbacks hat. Turns out, New Era's competency can't expand THAT far. We all know they've fucked up before on throwbacks such as with the Orioles from the 70s and what not, but not on a cap that they discontinued under 5 years ago.

Here is a picture of two Diamondbacks hats next to each other, the left is the authentic dbacks New Era and the right is the version that New Era made for the throwbacks which were sold in the Diamondbacks Official Team Shop.

Here we can see there are some huge differences right off of the bat. The first error is the immense size of the “A” on the front of the cap, it's a good 130% larger than the original caps and the embroidery is mainly flat instead of raised as it should be. The central part of the “A” is also incorrect, as you can see the piece is supposed to be black instead of turquoise.

Many New Era customers were extremely disappointed with the way that they handled this cap, one customer who was disappointed was the team itself! The Arizona Diamondbacks didn't even wear these caps on the field, instead they wore caps they had in stock which dated back to 2006, at least they knew then they would be getting the correct cap to give the throwback uniforms some justice.

Here is a screencap of manager Kirk Gibson the September 9th game vs. the Padres, wearing the correct throwback caps.

Imaged owned by Major League Baseball

About the only plus about the cap was the fact that it was made in the USA, I was extremely disappointed because I've been an Arizona Diamondbacks fan since their formation in 1998 and I was looking forward to getting a modern throwback hat which is made out of the modern Performance Polyester material, I was so irritated with New Era that I didn't even buy the cap, which is amazing due to the fact that I normally can't let anything Dbacks go.

New Era: Made in USA vs. China

USA vs. China

I have been purchasing New Era caps ever since 1999, my first cap was the original purple Arizona Diamondbacks, I ordered it from the Dbacks own website and I loved that hat to death.  To this date, I own more than 40 New Era caps, and I don't plan on discontinuing my love of them any time soon.

New Era was always a company that prided itself in advertizing that their caps were made in the USA, but up until about 2007 however, New Era started to outsource their cap manufacturing to China.  New Era still does produce some of their stock in the United States, but since the caps are made of the same materials and basically the same way, you wouldn't think there would be that much of a difference, but there is.

Currently as it seems, most of the MLB On-Field caps are made in America, but some of them are Chinese made, especially the god awful Stars and Stripes collection.  Come to think of it.... why the fuck are the STARS AND STRIPES hats made in fucking China?  Minor League Baseball hats are also currently made in China, and it appears that most custom logo/colour hats are Chinese also.

New Era caps have always been subject to debate when it comes to quality and sizing, but when I see a cap that's made in China, I really don't know what to think.  When I buy American caps, I know that I will fit somewhere between a size 7 and a size 7-1/8, but when it comes to Chinese hats, I can fit between a size 6-7/8 and 7-1/4, that's a huge difference, thankfully the sizing for me hasn't caused too much of a problem, but it makes me feel like it's impossible to order a cap online, not knowing what it will fit like when it gets here.

The size of the crown is also subject of distortion, in American caps the crown sits somewhat high, and will allow for it to fall as the user wears it so that it will conform to his/her head, but with Chinese caps the goal seems to be to make the crown as high and boxy as possible, and it is nearly impossible to remove the shape even through alterations to the cap's crown.

USA on Left, Chinese "Stars and Stripes" on right.

Now here are two identical caps located next to each other on the shelf at Chase Field in Phoenix, AZ; home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

There are major differences between the two caps, the cap on the left is made in the USA and the cap on the right is made in China.

1. Colour Difference
The colour of the two caps are noticeably different, and the picture doesn't do it justice; The American made cap has a lot more colour to it, a much deeper red to it while the Chinese made cap is extremely faded and just looks dusty, overall disappointing.

2. Material Difference
Both of the caps claim to be 100% "performance" polyester, but they are most definitely two different materials. The American cap is much softer whereas the Chinese cap feels extremely stiff, as if it was soaking in starch all day; almost helmet like.

3. Embroidery Detail
The American embroidery is pristine and fantastic, the detail of the snake is awesome and everything is clean without stray strings ruining the overall look.  As you can see in the Chinese cap, there are some loose strings which ruin the overall look and would easily be pulled upon and could destroy the logo.  The Chinese logo also has poor detail such as if you look into the eye of the snake.....where is it on the Chinese cap?

4.Sizing
The sizing between the two are awful.  The hats pictured are not the ones I tried on, trying on two size 7-1/8 caps the Chinese cap was noticabley larger, and trying on a 2nd one it felt smaller; trying a size 7 and it fit right.


Bottom line is, the Chinese caps have no quality control and should be discontinued immediately.  The only time I can tolerate Chinese caps are when it comes to Customs and Minor League Baseball caps.  I advise everyone who buys New Era to avoid these Chinese caps if at all possible.

2011 Stars and Stripes Collection - Part 3

All right.......

So as a follow up to the last post about these New Era Caps, my main complaint was that the caps used a cross hatch for the stars. The hats were originally just really ugly modified versions of the regular team hats, with a depression of the American Flag inside of the team's actual logo, but they decided to ditch that concept mid-season and throw US flags back onto the hats. However as I blogged about before, the flags looked like ass with an AWFUL crosshatch. So what does New Era do next? THEY FUCKIN CHANGE IT AGAIN! So what happens to all of the people who all ready bought the hats? Well fuck them I guess, haha.

The new hats actually look pretty decent. The only real change for the 3rd alteration of the caps was that the cross hatch was removed and replaced with a 32 star flag! Now the 32 star flag actually looks pretty damn good, not much to complain about it other than the fact it looks just a tad messy on the edges. It's really hard to complain about the missing 18 stars though, there's only so much detail you can put into a patch that small.... A for effort, but C- for overall effort put into the whole process.

Pardon the foul language here, but as we all know New Era and MLB only throw these patches on here to make money, and I guess that's all right since everyone continues to buy them.  As a Diamondbacks fan, I'm sure I'll eventually cave in and get my cap with the US flag on it..... but I'm glad that I waited until the 32 star design came out.  I honestly couldn't see myself purchasing the caps if they had the cross hatch.  I'm sure if you were one of the people who purchased the first crosshatch version you'd feel pretty screwed over this.

Now the last thing that I must complain about is the fact that these are not made in the USA....these are made in CHINA.  What's awful about this, is that all proceeds go towards the Welcome Home Veterans foundation, yet New Era decides to have these be made in China to stimulate their economy and not ours.  There used to be a time where New Era valued to quality of American made products, but that apparently isn't in their future plans anymore.



So what are your guys thoughts on the change, I'd love to hear your opinions!

Original Crosshatch

32-Star Flag

2011 Stars and Stripes Collection - Part 2

So looks like someone at New Era or MLB read my post and decided to trash their crappy looking Stars and Stripes hats for something a little more traditional.  For Sept 11th, all teams in the Majors will wear their regular hats except they will have an American Flag patch on the side.  Now how can one complain about this?  Well just look at this crap, the flags look awful!

You could think that they could put a little more effort into those.... the embroidery is so bad, that the stripes bleed into each other, and take a look at those stars, that's just a fuckin cross hatch.  The boarder around the flag is another kind of awful in itself, not sure why MLB went so cheap on making these custom for their teams, you would think they'd add a little more effort into them.....


I mean take a look at their patches from previous events?  They look great and have such detail!

If they could add that much detail into the World Series, All-Star, Futures, Game, and Inaugural Patches, you would think that MLB and New Era would have the sense to at least make the American Flag look decent....

Memphis Redbirds - Organ Donor Night?

Memphis Redbirds, the Triple-A Affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals wore uniforms which depicted the organs screen printed on the outside of the jersey in order to honour "Organ Donor Night."  I don't really even know what to say about this, one of the most bizarre promotional nights I've ever heard of.

Thoughts?

2011 AZ Diamondbacks

So as it stands today, the Arizona Diamondbacks have taken the lead in the National League West.  The Arizona Diamondbacks take the lead with a 6-3 win over the Houston Astros as the San Francisco Giants lose 9-2 against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Can we win this?  Fuck yes.



Let's go dbacks!

2011 Stars and Stripes Collection

With the MLB and New Era doing Stars and Stripes every year, it's always a wonder "What will they look like this year?"  Here's your answer, the same last years, but just a little different.  Now I know that the money goes to Welcome Back Veterans and all, but there comes a time where I just have to say "That looks like shit, why would I buy that."

I did however fall victim to purchasing the 2009 cap for the Arizona Diamondbacks, that cap actually doesn't look that bad with the Diamondbacks logo and colour scheme, but the last two years I can't even shake my 4 inch stick at.

Traditional Dbacks New Era vs. Stars and Stripes Dbacks New Era

This year however, I think they just look awful.

The good:

Los Angeles Angels

--Simple and works well for the design, plus it matches the original Angels uniforms.

 

Seattle Mariners

--Look at how awesome that looks, the stitching is fantastic and works well with Seattle's traditional uniforms.

Philadelphia Phillies

--fuckin awesome

The Bad:

Atlanta Braves

--Now look at this, can you really even tell that it is an "A"?

 St. Louis Cardinals

--Who cares if it matches?  Wtf is that shit on the front?

Chicago White Sox
--The letter "S" with a growth below it.  Advert your eyes children!

 

The Ugly:

Toronto Blue Jays

--No.

Florida Marlins
--Oh come on.  That fish looks fuckin diseased, they didn't even add a Stars and Stripes design to it, just did a red, white, and blue colour scheme.  They should have just done a Chief Wahoo-esque design as the Indians had in 2008, instead this disaster hit the field in 2011.

Detroit Tigers
--All that "thing" on the front reminds me of is the weapon Worf from fuckin Star Trek: Generations.

Coup de Graçe

Mobile BayBears

--My favourite of all of the ugly caps......  A diseased bear.

Mobile BayBears New Era

Okay, so I've been holding off on purchasing a Mobile BayBears hat for a long time now, and someone finally offers me to buy one for.... get this.... $40 plus shipping.  Hell no, that's what I think about that, you know what I do next?  I go to the BayBears' store and buy their hat for $23+shipping on their own store.  I would feel really strange about buying a used hat to begin with, so the moral of the story is that if you want to get something, just fuckin buy it, but don't buy used clothes because that's probably gross.

2011 MLB All-Star Game

So with the 2011 All-Star Game in Phoenix, AZ, I made the decision to go for it and splurged the money on some tickets.  The Diamondbacks probably wouldn't host the game for another ±30 years, I figured I might as well just go for it.... so I ended up to go to the game with my dad and we had a great time.

 

Driving to Arizona is always a neat experience.  To me, Arizona is one of the most unique places in the United States, and most likely one of the most unique places in the world to visit due to it's scenery and people within it.  When driving to Arizona I always make sure to stop in a little town called Wikieup and stop at the Wikieup Trading Post for lunch, dinner, or any meal of the day.  The Wikieup Trading Post is known for it's fried rattlesnake that they sell, something you've got to try if you have never had it before.  It basically tastes like chicken but with a rubbery texture, awesome meal.  My only complaint about it is that there isn't enough meat on it, well it is a snake so you shouldn't expect too much going on.

 

So in Phoenix for the All-Star Game, and any time I visit Phoenix, I stay in a little unknown hotel that's right near downtown, the Budget Lodge Phoenix.  It's a great little hotel, pretty cheap too and it's located right near downtown; clean rooms, great price, great location.

So now getting onto the series of events..... Sunday kicked it all off with the Futures Game.  The Futures Game is basically some of the most highly thought of prospects in Minor League Baseball, and the Futures from the USA play against the Futures of the WORLD team.  The Diamondbacks had two representatives, Pitcher Tyler Skaggs and 1st Baseman Paul Goldschmidt; each of whom started the game.  The USA ended up to win the Futures Game with a very nice come from behind by tacking on 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning, they won by a score of 6-4, gotta root for the good ol' USA.

Monday came the Home Run Derby, in it were 8 participants:

Robinson Cano

Adrian Gonzalez
David Ortiz
Prince Fielder
Matt Holliday
Jose Bautista
Rickie Weeks
Matt Kemp

...who finished in that order.  The entire time I was all for Robinson Cano, he was crushing the ball left and right, hit some of the farthest home runs I've ever seen at Chase Field before.  The runner up was Adrian Gonzalez, thankfully he lost since I honestly don't believe he should have been at the All-Star Game anyway.  During the whole Arizona immigration law, Adrian announced he was going to boycott the 2011 All-Star Game simply because it was in Phoenix, and spoke out about it often.  Come 1 year later, he not only showed up to the game, he also participated in the Home Run Derby.

 

Tuesday came the actual All-Star Game, and the defending Champion National League team attempted to make it two wins in a row for the first time in more than a decade.  The American League came out swinging first with a Splash Blast by Adrian Gonzalez to put the American League up 1-0, but immediately following was a 3-run shot by the National League's own Prince Fielder, which put the NL up 3-1.  The Nationals never looked back from there, and went on to take the game 5-1.

Would I go back to the All-Star Game?  Well since it was in Arizona, that's what made the event really special to me.  Other than that, if I were to go to more All-Star events I'd probably just stick to the Futures Game.  Something about seeing the prospects made it really fun for me, probably because I was born in a Minor League Baseball town and see the Las Vegas 51s play all of the time, but any of the events would definitely be something not to miss if you have the opportunity to go.