The Hat
I know most of you read this last night but this is the best. Just the best. There’s nothing I could write today, or ever, that is better than this.
I love the fact that I’ve met Flav’s dad and he keeps an eye on the blog.
January 31st was the 4 year anniversary of my dad passing away. I’ve posted about my dad on here a few times over the years. He wasn’t much of a sports fan, but he knew how much I loved sports so he took me to some Giants games growing up and also occasionally to see the Warriors, the A’s, and even a few Sacramento Solons games.
When I was around 15, I bought him a Giants hat for what must have been a birthday or Father’s Day present. It was a stylish hat for the time, an alternative look to the classic on-field hat. That same year—I’m guessing it was 1980—we went on a summer trip to the midwest to visit my dad’s side of the family in Iowa and Minnesota. My siblings were all out of the house by then, so it was just me with my mom and dad in our GMC truck pulling a trailer. I was very pleased to see my dad wore that Giants hat as we made our journey. I loved that he was repping the Giants and wearing a hat that I considered to be cool.
When we were in Minnesota, we set up our trailer at my Aunt Virginia and Uncle Don’s farm and spent time with their family. Among them, were my oldest cousin Jim and his wife Connie. They were probably in their late 20’s then and I could tell my dad had a close bond with both of them. At one point, Connie mentioned that she had a hat collection and that she loved my dad’s hat and asked if he would be nice enough to pass it along to her for her collection. I can’t remember if I voiced my objections publicly or privately, but I definitely was not down with that plan. I loved him wearing that and I didn’t want to see him just give it away to the wife of my cousin who I barely knew. But somehow my dad, as was his way, sold me on the idea that it would be a nice gesture and I grudgingly went along with it.
As the years went by, I didn’t see much of Jim and Connie. They made a brief stop at our house in Woodland a year or two later and in 1987 I visited that farm again on a cross country trip with a college friend. I don’t remember bringing up the hat incident on either visit. But last year, my Aunt Virginia passed away and it was decided that my brother Mark and I would represent our family at the memorial service in August. We had a great trip reconnecting with my dad’s Iowa roots and one night we stayed in a classic farmhouse AirBnB outside Sheldon, Iowa with several of my cousins—including Jim and Connie. One afternoon, we were in the yard having some drinks and shooting the breeze in a beautiful rural setting and I asked Connie if she remembered that deal with the hat. She said she did remember collecting hats and that the incident sounded vaguely familiar, but didn’t specifically remember the hat and had no idea what may have come of it. We had a laugh about it and moved on to other topics and I honestly hadn’t given it another thought since that conversation.
Fast forward to yesterday, where I had a helluva day. As some of you know, I work at a high school as a school counselor and also coach boys’ varsity basketball. I went directly from working my job to setting up the gym, to coaching the JV game as my partner is out of town, to running the clock for the girls game, to announcing the line-ups and honoring my seniors before our game, which went to overtime—where we scratched out a one point win. I was totally gassed as I left campus, but I checked my box on the way out and to my surprise there was a package in there from Connie. I had no idea what could be in the box as she and Jim had literally never mailed me anything in my life. I was so tired and hungry and curious to see about the New Hampshire primary that I really wasn’t even that curious what was inside. But after a while, I grabbed a pocket knife and opened it up. There was some wadded up Christmas wrapping paper in the box and when I got past it, there it was—-the exact same hat I had given my dad roughly 40 years earlier. Wrapped in plastic and in damn good condition! She had a post-it attached to it that simply read “Found it!”
I couldn’t believe it. I still haven’t unwrapped it and put it on. I cried a little bit right then and there, but for some reason it hit me harder this morning when I took another look at it and I broke down pretty good.
I’ll send Flav a picture of that sweet bastard so you can all check it out. Better yet, maybe I’ll wear that sucker to a Flapalooza with all of you at Oracle this season.
Go Giants!
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
What an awesome story, thanks for sharing that Sandog.
Yeah that was great stuff SanDawg!
Tremendous very moving story from SD, and he has another hat to wear proudly from back in the day.
The new playoff proposal seems like nothing more than a money grab. Owners now go from hosting 1 WC game in each league to potentially as many as 9 to get playoffs down to 4 teams (where it is now). Ch-ching!
Plus, with more teams qualifying and fighting just to get in that means there likely will be way more meaningful late September games. Again a big boost in attendance to games where otherwise teams without playoff hopes might have been playing out the string in front of few thou.
wow scathing denunciation of Stros press conference led by owner Jim Crane in lead story on MLBTR. No one buys what Crane is selling. One of the bloggers, Android Dawesome, said “The more they say the worse it gets.”
What an embarrassing scenario for Dusty Baker to have to apologize for everyone when he had zero to do with it.
I wonder if Manfred would go so far as what was done with Marge Schott and force him to sell the team.
Hey, check out Vera’s kid sporting #88, no doubt discussing the merits of a good jello mold salad.
great shot. just hope Z doesn’t sign the Prez to be player-coach.
She already looks out of place with the SF emblem stirrups, and does she have ankle bracelets on?
Crane: “Our opinion is this didn’t impact the game. We had a good team. We won the world series and we’ll leave it at that.” wow
Crane is a major scumbag, really worse then even the GM,Hinch,and the cheaters.By being the owner it’s all about plausible deniability! MLB should force him to sell the team!
I’m already starting to think Dusty made a mistake taking the Astros job. He’s getting his reputation dragged into that mess. I know Dusty was eager to manage again, but that’s a rancid situation with the Astros.
Things the Astros players from ‘17 could do to show true remorse:
Donate playoff pay from that season to charity.
Auction off their World Series rings, and donate the money to charity.
The team could announce it will not display the trophy in any way. Just put it in a closet somewhere.
The team could ask MLB to officially vacate that championship. MLB would probably decline, but it would be a nice gesture from the team.
Amazing story, can’t wait to see the hat!
I did not see SanD’s story last night, so I am very happy that you shared it as today’s thread, Flav. What a great read.
SanDog – thank you so much for sharing the story. I damn near cried myself, dude. And I would LOVE to meet up with any number of you guys for a Flapalooza at the O this year. Let’s make it happen! Cannot wait to see the hat, Dog.
A Flapalooza would be a good reason to bust-out my “We Score – We Win” custom shirt that we had made years ago for a Flapalooza (and at which we surprised Flav with his shirt).
This is just one more reason why I continue to hang at this blog. This place goes beyond a bunch of Giants fans shooting the shit about baseball. This place has truly had a family feel for me. I have said it before, and I will say it again…I am so grateful to have met a number of you guys, not only here, but in person. These are the things that truly enrichen lives.
Make it an awesome day, Flappers.
I wasn’t in favor of this, but after seeing and hearing Crane’s comments, MLB should seriously consider vacating the ’17 title and make the Astros give back their rings, from the front office and the players to the towel boys, every last one of them. It’s obvious they haven’t learned their lesson and are completely clueless and indifferent to how angry the rest of MLB is over this.
I feel for Astros fans. They’re team won it all, but it’s as if the trophy is made of bullshit. You don’t want to see it or touch it. It stinks. Over time it will dry up and blow away, if they’re lucky…
They’ll be fine…
Manfred is complicit here too imo and after yesterday he hasn’t done near enough. Cashman complained about Red sox using electronics vs. Yanks way back in August of 2017. Manfred reprimanded the Sox in September and said their explanations didn’t cover it. Then he issued the warning to everyone that using electronics was taboo. So he must have known there were other inklings around league regarding apple watches etc. being used by teams to steal catcher’s signs electronically and relay them to hitters.
Jury of course remains out on Red Sox 2018, another team that won WS. After listening to Crane, it’s obvious the message hasn’t been delivered. The “impact” is irrelevant. What went on was wrong in the first place and players like Correa admitted it wasn’t all Beltran and Cora, it was on everyone.
I believe the team buys the rings for the players.
I don’t think MLB can confiscate them.
I could fuckin’ have one made for myself if I want.
At Finnerty’s in 2011, I made Bow-Tie personally pin the 2010 WC pin to my jacket.
Told him he owed me at least that much…
Yeah, good point. Just take away the trophy, that’s symbolic enough.
Damn, I wish I could’ve made it to Finnerty’s in 2011.
Just remember, you only hear about the scams that are uncovered, the criminals that are caught, the drug rings that are busted, etc. I suspect 99% of the rest continue to operate (or in some cases masturbate)…
yes exactly. Beltran’s comment to Stros iirc was “we need to up our game” when it came to sign stealing. So he knew then there was more going on from different teams. And by August/September 2017 so did Manfred.
Verlander: “I wish I had said more.”
He didn’t say jack.
“More”? That’s completely laughable.
Verlander and McCann allowed it to happen. And Beltran was a ringleader.
Awesome veteran leadership in the clubhouse.
Have fun with the 2027 reunion day, Astros. That’ll be a proud day.
Didn’t Beltran have to get his former Puerto Rican Alex Cora on board 1st to get this whole sign stealing, garbage 🗑 trash cans, buzzer shockers,are this plot may never had started?
Reese’s Cups probably has the perfect Trump era slogan: “Not sorry.”
“We sell addictive junk food, and we’re not sorry.”
The Astros are the baseball team of the Trump era.
I never said the Astros’ rings should be taken from them. That’s not what I meant, anyway.
I meant they should do it voluntarily. If even one of the players chose to give up their ring, that would be a great act by them. A sign of true remorse and regret for defrauding the entire sport.
F/G has top 100 columns on prospect ratings for 2020 and 2021. Bart is #10 in all baseball and they really like his power and D.
Luciano is #24 and might be in San Jose this season but still 2-3 yrs away. They think if he continues to hit well for power in low A he would be one of the top prospects in all baseball next season. Not sure if he will be SS or not.
Ramos they are little down on but #68–how he handles pitching at next level for Ks, and likely a corner not CF.
Toribio and Matos make 2021 list.
Toribio btw is 3b ! Matos an OF. All 5 of above of course, drafted acquired by previous admin. insert smiley face here next to “stinking pile” adjectives applied to same. Like him or not, Sabes did some scouting/evaluation.
Something to get excited about — and good timing, it comes out when the Giants will be about 20 games out of first.
thx Mac. If you click on the link to amazon, underneath is “customers who viewed this” suggestions include Pawlie’s “Chasing Willie Mays” too. I generally like Shea better than any of the other locals, so see how the book turns out. Wonder how the genesis for this came out; if maybe Shea figured not much more time to get into Mays thoughts and rememberances etc.
The genesis is what it is for everything in this fuckin’ world.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Lesson 1:
How to be a surly old prick…
text from my dad today:
love it that sanddog remembers me
great story about his dad
need more of this on your blog
positive
bobby
Very cool…
Damm that bad boy hat is in prestige condition for being 40 years old SanDog!
Between your Dad,Jim&Connie that hat has past the test of times with both good and bad Giant memories and has survived!
sandog, that’s a sharp hat and a wonderful story. Thanks for sharing it.
lol this is gonna dog them all season long and beyond
One of Altuve’s quotes from today, talking about the Astros cheating in ‘17:
“We knew it was wrong; kind of.”
Love the hat. Cannot wait for a Flapalooza and seeing you rock it, SanDog!
Power ranking for the year. I don’t put a lot into these, but this one has the hated bumbinos at top of the heap (no surprise).
Our Gigantes come in at 25…not sure how we got rated so high. 😉
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/mlb-power-rankings-for-the-2020-season/ar-BBZYbi1?li=BBnb7Kz
Awesome story, Dawg. And that hat is insane. It looks brand spanking new. Can’t tell but it looks like those mesh trucker hats that came into style back then. Was it Convoy? Had a 49ers and Cal Bears hat like those.
After today, it’s becoming clear that Hinch, Cora, and Beltran will not be managing an MLB team ever again. No team will take on that baggage.
And the hiring of Dusty by the Astros seems even more cynical.
They asked Dusty to dive on a live grenade today, and that was just bogus.
Dusty only got a 1 year deal, which tells me the owner Jim Crane doesn’t give a shit about Dusty putting any special moral values in the Houston Bullseyes 🎯 ..He is so FOS if he thinks he wasn’t involved from the beginning.And it’s more pathetic that Manfred, is covering up the players involvements, probably cause he doesn’t want to take on the players union, he is a slimy coward..
That’s a really unique hat, Dawg. And beautifully preserved.
Does Connie have any KC Chief stuff?
Great post, SanDiggityDawg. Glad Flava Flav made that the headline. See you in Reno on your next excursion.
Sandog..I think maybe you planted a seed in Connie’s head about that hat, which rightfully should of be yours and maybe she felt remorse and sent it back to you..
Crane was pretty idiotic today.
That look on Bregman’s face is classic. He knows he’ll be wearing this a long time.
The players that win a World Series get more playoff money than I would have guessed.
“The Astros got to keep their 2017 championship. The players and staff got to keep their postseason shares — nearly $439,000 as opposed to roughly $260,000 for winning the pennant. The Astros got to keep all of the profits gained from increased advertising, ticket, merchandise, and concession sales, and from generally having an improved brand and reputation.”