Capshot: San Antonio Missions Copa de Diversión “Flying Chancla” 59Fifty

One of the most fun promotions in the vast ocean of Minor League Baseball promotions is the inclusion of a “Fun Cup” to celebrate Hispanic diversity in baseball. Teams in the Copa de Diversión will have alternate uniforms and team names flipped to Spanish translations (in some cases) for select games during the MiLB season.

My personal favorite for the season comes courtesy of the Padres AA affiliate San Antonio Missions. While this is the last year that San Antonio will be affiliated with the Padres (the city of San Antonio is receiving a AAA team while this AA franchise will move to Amarillo) the team is going out with a bang on this design alone:

Sky blue rear panels and brim
White front panels
Yellow squatcho
Pink eyelets and New Era logo

This is the “Flying Chanclas”, the team name the Missions have decided to rebrand with for their Copa games. Why a flying sandal? Popular in Mexican and Hispanic culture in general is the matriarch of the family, usually a doting mom or grandma (abuela or nana) taking care of the kids and keeping them in line. The flying shoe (chancla) is a childhood reminder of transgressions committed as a hard-headed kid; if you messed up, you usually saw the flat end of a sandal coming your way.

Here’s a better look at the flying sandal logo. The vibrant colors also reflect the fiesta colors popular in San Antonio. I’d like to think this logo also strikes fear into opposing teams.

The MiLB logo (Batterman?) is also done up in the bright festive colors of pink, yellow, and white.

The underbrim and sweatband are on-field black as this cap is indeed meant to be worn during play.

Cap Availability Status: Common

This cap is still relatively common and is available at most hat retailers. This cap is only to be worn this season so I do recommend grabbing it sooner rather than later if you’d like to add it to your collection.