Capshot: Águilas de Mexicali 1976 70th Anniversary 59Fifty

The second in the series of hats commemorating the Águilas de Mexicali’s (Mexicali Eagles) 70th anniversary marks the team’s ascent into the league they currently play in today, the Liga Mexicana del Pacifico (Mexican Pacific League).

The previous Águilas hat featured on SDHC took inspiration from the inaugural 1948 team. That particular Águilas team played in what was called the Sunset League. The Águilas of the 50s would play in various leagues such as the Southwest International, Arizona-Texas, and Arizona-Mexico leagues.

A period of inactivity in the 60s would eventually led the team to the Northern League of Sonora in 1968 where they would play until the year this cap commemorates. The 1976 Águilas squad did not have the greatest inaugural season in the LMP, finishing 6th out of 9 teams with a 30-36 record and falling out in the first round of the playoffs. A player of note for the 1976 team was Charlie Sands, a journeyman MLBer who won a World Series ring with the Pirates in 1971. The lefty hitter from Virginia led the LMP in home runs with 13.

The hat is based on the very cap the Águilas wore pictured here during their inaugural season with the LMP though some license has been taken on the brim; the caps in this picture appear to be all red. The early Águilas generally wore solid red hats. I imagine these changes were made to prevent the collection from being primarily red hats with different logos.

On to the hat:

Red crown
Navy brim
White M logo and New Era logo

The M on this hat is very similar to the M that appears on the picture above. At some point between 1948 and 1976 the team switched from the letter A to the letter M on their caps though exactly when isn’t made apparent through research.

Here’s a better look at the block M logo.

Found on the wearer’s right is the same anniversary patch as found on the previous hat and will be on future hats within this series.

The rear of the cap features the modern LMP logo.

The underbrim is throwback kelly green; the sweatband is black.

Featured on the sweatband is the year the cap commemorates. A very cool detail for the wearer on an otherwise underrated piece of real estate on a cap.

Cap Availability Status: Import

This cap along with the previous cap and the rest in this series are relegated to import status. You’ll have to make the journey to the stadium team store in Mexicali and plunk down $730 pesos if you want to add this cap to your archive.