This series is inspired by the must read book “All Caps, Stories That Justify an Outrageous Hat Collection” by Craig Colby. Craig wrote this book about the many caps he has and the stories behind it. Anyhow, this series will be about the caps I own and the stories behind them.
In this episode of “Personal Stories About Ballcaps,” we pay attention to the special home cap of the now defunct Lancaster JetHawks.
The background of how I got this cap goes back to 2016. My oldest daughter worked as an Au pair at a family in Passadena in California. The brother of the lady of the house is a huge baseball fan, so I brought him a cap of Curaçao Neptunus, multiple Dutch champions, when I went there to visit my daughter. This brother, named Javier, lives in Lancaster, the former home of the Lancaster JetHawks, back then part of the California League.
Javier took me and my youngest daughter to Dodger Stadium for a ballpark tour and to downtown Los Angeles. He guided us around and showed us the Cathedral of the Lady of the Angels, Disney Music Hall and many other buildings next to the really old part of Los Angeles that goes back to the Spanish missionaries. I must say, downtown Los Angeles is a photographer’s playground. I took a lot of photos there. Unfortunately, I lost many since my laptop crashed when I was editing them, so all photos I had edited already were gone, since I had not made a backup. Well, at least I have an excuse to go back now. 😉
When my daughter returned from the US, she took a cap of the Lancaster JetHawks with her, which Javier had given her. And this one was very special, since it had a California League All-Star Game patch on the side. As the JetHawks organized the All-Star Game that year, they could put this patch on their cap. Of course, I was very pleased with this special cap.
Unfortunately, the club ceased to exist after MLB took over Minor League Baseball and cut 42 minor league clubs in a money grab move at the end of 2020. As a result, the club sold all its merchandise for dump prices, of which I took advantage by buying a game worn jersey for only $50.00.
At least I got a piece of Minor League history in this cap and jersey, even though I feel sad that the JetHawks and several other minor league clubs do not exist anymore. . For long, attending a game at the Hangar, the home field of the JetHawks, was on my bucket list. Perhaps it may happen in the future, as the Pecos League has filled the void with a team called the Soundbreakers. That name can be explained by the Bell X1, that broke the sound barrier in 1947, flown by Chuck Yeager, cousin of Los Angeles Dodgers great Steve Yeager. The B29 bomber, that dropped the Bell X1 at an altitude of 20,000 feet, took off from a military airfield in Lancaster.
Like I wrote before, I like this cap because of its uniqueness. The All-Star Game patch makes it special. I also like the gold trimming of the JetHawks logo and the old MiLB logo at the back of the cap.
Dutch Baseball Hangout 