Giovany A. Gonzalez Hat Day

Okay, so I'm a year late on the Gio Gonzalez bandwagon.  The former Oakland A's lefty is now one of the hottest young pitchers in baseball, playing for the Washington Nationals.  Gio has won seven of his last eight starts for the NL East leading Nationals as he takes the mound today against the Atlanta Braves.

I only write about this amazing young pitcher because yesterday, while second hand shopping at a thrift store, I picked up a nice, navy green PGA Tour windbreaker at bargain price.  While at the register to pay I browsed the hat box and spied a new, bright yellow baseball cap and thought, hey, this'll go great with the wind breaker. I turn the cap around to find green team lettering with a small Oakland Athletics patch below.  Also, on the bill of the cap, was a number 47 with stitched in signature black lettering of a name I couldn't make out.  


It must've been an A's give-away-day cap, but I didn't care, the color was just what I needed to set off the green wind breaker.  So what if I'm a Giants fan, style would prevail on this day. Yellow and Navy Green would replace orange and black this Sunday.


I could've sworn what I saw in the store, splashed across the front of the cap in green said Athletics, but to my surprise when I got home I saw Atleticos.  No problem, I can hang with some Latin, though I can't force myself to buy a Gigantes item, Atleticos looks okay. 


Then I look closely at the name stitched into the cap's bill and it hits me; Gio Gonzalez. I vaguely recall him playing for the A's but the stitched in first name is much longer than three characters. So I do what I do and search the internet for Gio Gonzalez information; presto!  #47 Giovany A. Gonzalez, Oakland Atletics 2011.  He won 16 games for the A's last season and was voted to the MLB All-Star Team. What do I know, I'm a National League fan, "real baseball."


I'm sorry I missed Gio's tenure here in the bay area, but it's never too late to sport the name and number of a true competitor.  And all for just .99 cents.  


Note:  Last week's find was a black and grey New Zealand cap in the colors of my beloved Oakland Raiders. Like the Gio cap it was new, but with a two dollar price tag.  I'd written about the N.Z. national rugby team, the All Blacks, and was hoping to someday find something with their team name and/or fern emblem on it.  The sports Gods are certainly blessing me these days. 
The new hat has NZ on the front, Silver Fern on one side showing a fern and Kiwi on the other side showing a ........Kiwi?  On the fitted back is spelled out New Zealand.  All for the price of a 16oz coke.  This calls for a good'ol Haka celebration!