In 2014, the city of El Paso Welcomed, to much excitement, a triple A Minor League Baseball team, The El Paso Chihuahuas. The Chihuahua’s are an affiliate of the San Diego Padres. Being a baseball fan myself, I was excited to watch the team start its tenure at the downtown “Southwest University Park” ballpark, which is truly a wonderful place to watch a baseball game.
When the time approached for my birthday that year, Monica and I were able to clear off time to go to a Chihuahua baseball game. Prior to the game, I wanted to have a ball cap of the home team. So, I went downtown to the park gift shop and picked up a black cap with a Chihuahua on it. The dog’s name is “Chico”. “Chico is the name of the mascot that pops up around town. The team management held a contest to name the mascot and the winning entry was “Chico”. The word “Chico” is a Spanish slang for small—but locally brings up the idea of “Chico’s Taco’s” which is a popular longtime local restaurant chain. The word also can mean “Friend” or “office boy” depending on where you are from. I also saw that it is the most popular name for Chihuahuas.
The black hat with the Chihuahua dog logo was voted as favorite cap in MiLB’s 2014 Clash of Caps contest. I was excited to be able to pick up one last season and to add it to my collection. It is fun to go to different places and see people recognizing and smiling when the see this cap—it is a lot of fun to own and wear!