Stovepipe League: Please Do Not Mock Jim Leyland's Beekeeper Hat

stovepipe league, baseball, baseball cards, jim leyland, pittsburgh pirates

Please Do Not Mock Jim Leyland's Beekeeper Hat

The year is 1986. Out of Africa wins the Academy Award for best picture; the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates soon after launch over the coast of central Florida; and the Pittsburgh Pirates are wearing very tall hats. I came upon this glorious snapshot in time courtesy of The Ugly Baseball Card Blog; the site that allows us to fall in love with baseball cards once again.

From the site's description of Jim Leyland's '86 Topps card:

Oh, Jim. Before you go. One more thing. We almost forgot. You'll still get the talent, and the raise, and the big chair, and all that. But you're going to have to wear a hat made of mosquito netting. And it's about three feet tall. It's a completely ridiculous hat, Jim, but, well, we feel very strongly about this.

But my favorite card has to be the one below. Bottom of the ninth, down by three, bases loaded with two outs; the only thing that can save us now is a home run. Knoop, grab the biggest bat you can find and get in there!

The Ugly Baseball Card Blog

3:15 PM on Wed Apr 30 2008
By Rick
6,567 views
46 comments

Comments

Whitey Fisk at 03:24 PM on 04/30/08
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Leyland kept a carton of smokes under there.

I had that Knoop card!
Weed Against Speed at 03:24 PM on 04/30/08
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Leyland could fit a carton of Marlboro Reds in that cap.
sassydeerrun at 03:25 PM on 04/30/08
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Jim personally designed that hat to look like a smokestack.
WayneFontesFanatic at 03:26 PM on 04/30/08
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Man, Knoop uses the heavy lumber, AND he is clearly adverse to the concept of choking up. What a power hitter.
ltwinslow at 03:26 PM on 04/30/08
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tony gwynn hit .390 using a ticonderoga #2
Civil Negligence at 03:26 PM on 04/30/08
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Abe Lincoln approves.
Le Légende de Vincent... at 03:26 PM on 04/30/08
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Jim Leyland's first order of business with the Pirates: Get rid of those stupid hats.
Doyle McPoyle at 03:26 PM on 04/30/08
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My God, is Dickie Thon Daulerio's dad?
Weed Against Speed at 03:27 PM on 04/30/08
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@Whitey Fisk: Well how do you do?
LeagueofShadows at 03:27 PM on 04/30/08
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The seventies re-introduction of the stove-pipe hat did not catch on.
Steve Trachsel, ACE at 03:27 PM on 04/30/08
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Buzz and Leyland in consecutive post? Next thing you know Matlock will be in the What to Watch listing.
ASox at 03:27 PM on 04/30/08
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Leyland had a part time job at Long John Silver's
BigRicks at 03:28 PM on 04/30/08
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I'm waiting for the stove top hat to come back in style. A la the trucker hat a few years ago.
thesepretzels at 03:28 PM on 04/30/08
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"Tickets, please. Tickets!"
Civil Negligence at 03:28 PM on 04/30/08
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Why did the 1986 Pirates have their photo shoot in an open field?
Weed Against Speed at 03:29 PM on 04/30/08
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Bobby Knoop's bat needs Enzyte.
McCroskey at 03:29 PM on 04/30/08
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Mesh stovepipe hat. Receding hairline. Not good.
TheLou-Do at 03:29 PM on 04/30/08
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@Civil Negligence: 4 scores and 7 relief pitchers ago....
Detective Bunk at 03:29 PM on 04/30/08
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The closing statement to the Pittsburgh management meeting: "But it'll keep your head cool - it's vented!"

"Sold!"
$Image of josereyes.theroof wishes to perform Tim Harris\'s sack-dance for you$ josereyes.theroof... at 03:31 PM on 04/30/08
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@BigRicks: [www.theonion.com]
ILovePaleHoseandPaleHos at 03:33 PM on 04/30/08
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Wow - I might be over at that baseball card blog for the next 5 days.
BarbarobicsInstructor at 03:33 PM on 04/30/08
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I'm so glad the days of Pittsburgh fielding a ridiculous-looking baseball team have passed
Brazil Thrill at 03:34 PM on 04/30/08
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They tried to get Gary Sheffield to wear a chef's hat for his rookie card. He didn't comply, seeing as he's not a Hispanic player who can be easily manipulated into that stuff.
Hernandez-is-the-Mandez at 03:34 PM on 04/30/08
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@Doyle McPoyle: Oh my god, yes! Apparently Dickie Thon did more than visit Independence Hall on those road trips to Philly.
Doyle McPoyle at 03:35 PM on 04/30/08
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@Doyle McPoyle: In case anyone was wondering what the hell I was talking ab....
Glass_Family at 03:36 PM on 04/30/08
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Gimme 5 Bees for a Quarter!
Arriaga_II at 03:37 PM on 04/30/08
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'86 was also the year the Bucco's drafted Barry Bonds. Coincidence? I think not.
Yostal at 03:38 PM on 04/30/08
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@TheLou-Do: ...our fathers brought forth on this diamond a world championship, conceived in victory, and dedicated to the proposition that a leadoff walk and a leadoff single are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great pennant race, testing whether that division, or any division so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure into September.
Civil Negligence at 03:38 PM on 04/30/08
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@Arriaga_II: Did the Pirates really foresee that Bonds' dome would fill all that space?
BigRicks at 03:40 PM on 04/30/08
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@josereyes.theroof wishes to perform Tim Harris's sack-dance...: Bring back public floggings and the pillory! Buzz Bissinger would approve.
BigTenObsession at 03:45 PM on 04/30/08
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@Brazil Thrill - Hawks Aficionado:

TITI IS NOT OVER-RATED!

/yes, I did read DU!AN this morning, why do you ask?
Arriaga_II at 03:46 PM on 04/30/08
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@Civil Negligence: Not sure if anyone forsook it, but if Barry was wearing that hat, maybe he would have had less wind resistance and made that throw on Sid Bream.

/still bitter at him for shattering my childhood
stealofthedraft at 03:46 PM on 04/30/08
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@ASox:
Should've gone to freecreditreport.com...
WoodBatsSteelBalls at 03:46 PM on 04/30/08
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Jim Leyland is a railroad conductor in the offseason according to the back of the card.
MeanMachine at 03:49 PM on 04/30/08
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I shit bigger than that bat.
Wilf at 03:51 PM on 04/30/08
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I'm glad that Leyland card has "MGR" on it so you don't mistake him for a rookie pitcher or something.
stealofthedraft at 04:03 PM on 04/30/08
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Santonio Holmes laughs at that bat.
Bluenatic at 04:17 PM on 04/30/08
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With all due respect, The Ugly Baseball Card Blog couldn't hold Cardboard Gods' jock.
THEGINOCIMOLICONSPIRACY at 04:20 PM on 04/30/08
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Doc Medich still wears his stovepipe Bucco hat to take out the garbage.
FightTiger at 04:48 PM on 04/30/08
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He appears to be wearing a smaller* tophat inside of that mesh Pirates hat.

* - Could be regular size
Brazil Thrill at 04:49 PM on 04/30/08
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@BigTenObsession: Oh no, that was a typo. I meant to write underrated, not overrated.

*gulp*
Yellow Tail Swine at 04:57 PM on 04/30/08
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that bat pisses the shit out of me
ChitownChick at 05:26 PM on 04/30/08
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Heh heh. You can put your weeeed in there.
PeteJayhawk at 06:51 PM on 04/30/08
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@LeagueofShadows: 70s? What are you, like, 10? Those are obviously '86 Topps.
$Image of Zapp Brannigan\'s Girdle$ Zapp Brannigan's Girdle at 12:48 AM on 05/01/08
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Is it a bug zapper? If so, where's the cord?

Or is it one of those citronella things?
blastitbiggs at 10:45 AM on 05/01/08
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