I spent yesterday in New York City to help watch my two grandsons who live there. At his request, I took my 4-year-old grandson to the F.A.O. Schwarz store at Rockefeller Center early in the afternoon. As we were walking down 6th Avenue, I spotted the flagship MLB Store across the street and suggested we stop by.
My grandson demurred, so we went directly into the chaos of the big toy store a few blocks away. Having managed to extricate ourselves from the crowd and the revolving door on 49th Street, we headed back uptown.
With a new toy airplane in hand, my grandson relented and gave me the OK to check out the baseball store, which I hadn’t visited in several years.
We spent about 15 minutes on the main floor, gawking at all the caps and shirts on sale. In the room at the back, official caps lined the wall on the right top to bottom. On the opposite wall were the teams’ City Connect caps, which, were it to be written today, Leviticus would decry as an abomination.
The little guy balked at going downstairs to see the other merchandise on display. On our way out, we took one last pass at the T-shirts set out on shelves. So many temptations — Phillies, Brewers, Guardians, Mariners and more, including a Giants shirt that surprisingly got me for a moment near to sobbing when I picked it up.
We left without having spent a dime. All I could think of walking through midtown Manhattan was, man, I miss The City — the one by the bay out west. 🧢
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Ball Caps on The Ball Caps Blog!! As it should be. Tough to turn kids onto baseball. I’m in a bit of a bind with my grandson too…..don’t want to force baseball on him, but don’t want him to miss any opportunities either. I love how you ended this piece….unexpected. I prefer the Giants over New York too.
My grandson is definitely baseball aware. He went to his first game at Fenway recently and came back with a stuffed Wally, the Sox mascot. But he REALLY wanted to go to the toy store. Can’t blame him.
And yeah, for some reason, the Giants thing snuck up on me. I just saw they beat the Dodgers last night, so it’s already a good day!
Glad to hear that your grandson has caught the fever for baseball Dan and dang, can’t beat a first game at Fenway!
I always liked the Giants and had the good luck to go to a game at Candlestick and the new stadium which has to be one of the best.
My boys just spent a few days in SF with their mom and took in a game. It was Pac Bell when I lived put there and I saw a few Giants games…and Springsteen there. I cam still smell the garlic fries. My 13 year old is MLB cap collector so he added the black cap orange SF to his collection. It’s a sharp cap.
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I just recently visited this pub in Ireland for lunch! I have never seen so many baseball hats in one place in my life 😳
Oh my goodness! I’ll have to check that place out whenever I get to Ireland (it’s on the list). 🙂
Another fun post, Dan. I am enjoying your style of writing and your choice of subjects. You’re an inspiration to me as I try to get out of my writing slump. Kindest Regards, Michael, AKA: Grubby Glove.
Michael! It’s great to hear from you. Thanks for the kind comments.