If you haven’t read THIS yet, go, leave this place…READ THIS then come back to discuss.
THIS is the most important Mets related article since..I dunno…June 16, 1977 (well maybe that one in October ’86).
THIS is the key to the universe.
Where to begin….
Great job by General Paul Lukas, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces To Ditch The Black. HERO
Let’s look at the other players…
This man Bob Halfacre (go read Lukas to follow along). He is the Oppenheimer of our story. Villain? Hero? Both?
What do we make of him?
He is the purveyor of the black. You can almost imagine him saying, “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Yet, as the story unfolds, he may have saved the Mets from even greater uniform foolishness.
Halfacre, bringer of the black, but protector of tradition. (Read the story). As bad as black is, what could have been is “big changes, where they really wanted to change the whole look.”
If Halfacre’s version of the story is correct, it seems that the villain is the long suspected villain. A man even the Real Police are at odds with. Even though I was told over and over that Charlie Samuels was not behind the black, by people who I believe believed they were dealing me straight, Halfacre outs Charlie. (Again, I don’t think it’s fair to excerpt at length – Paul deserves the pageviews).
The Mets could have had a halfway palatable cap with some dropshadow on a blue cap…”but Charlie ended up messing with that”…..instead we got hybrids.
Charlie started with the black undershirts etc. In Halfacre’s story, all the truly yucky aspects of black Mets uniforms come back to Charlie. Even Halfacre, Bringer of the Black, says the look clutters the pinstripes:
It’s a little cloudy-looking on the pinstriped jersey — that might be too much. I think it looks really good on the names and numbers, but the Mets logo kinda loses something.
There is so much to say about this article…as the days go by I am sure I will dive in more. In the meantime lets talk about it and give Paul his well earned praise and pageviews.
As for the Mets…I know you guys have seen or will see the article.
The 50th Anniversary looms. Mistakes were made. 50 gives you the perfect chance to clean your look. Retro is cool. Even the Bringer of Black sees the errors.
The man who allegedly stole from you has left the building. If Halfacre is right he led you down a dark path. 2012 provides you the way out. Take back control of your own image.
Well great article by Paul I always wanted to know who was responsible for this mess. I hope they add some years onto Charlies sentence for screwin around with the uniform. It’s amazing to me how badly the Wilpons miss the boat. Obviously the color of the Yankee hat was the difference in sales it had nothing to do with them winning the World Series. And along those lines I guess to some degree we all owe Bob Halfacre a debt of gratitude for getting involved. God only knows what the team would look like today if the Wilpons redesigned the whole look. I shudder to think.
Next year should go back to the 1962 uniform
Since the present team seems to be going back to the 1962 team in their bumbling and ineptitude, why not go back to the original Amazin’ Metsies uni?
although, had they completely changed the look mabye it would’ve stayed a ‘fad’ and they would’ve reverted or changed the look again recently.
They changed the look in 1993 with the disastrous underline (I’d love for Paul to find the culprit of that one)…changed it back in 1995…why would they make another major change in 1998?…oh I forgot, it’s the Mets.
An important part of the story is a bit muddy to me…Halfacre says black was mainly Charlie’s doing and he controlled things, then he said it was marketing’s idea.
I also realize that I am sick of the glacier twill…it is annoying already…oh well, another thing to hate about the Met uniforms along with black and Wilpon script.
i plan/hope to go through the article thoroughly
The Met game just started after long delay…if you are against black, softball type jerseys, don’t watch it on TV…it is Mets in black vs. Colorado in purple. Gary and Keith mocked it as a softball game.
Yes all that is missing is 3 or 4 300 pound guys with a giant cooler full of beer in the dugout. Also just was thinking if Charlie Samuels was responsable for the black socks and undershirts you would think they would go away from it now that he is goin off to the stoney lonesom
Of course if they wore blue socks and undershirts with the black jersey they would look like big walking bruises
They did that for the first few weeks of ’98. I liked it much better.
I also remember reading in the mets.com story on photo day in ’98 that John Franco took issue with wearing blue belts and shoes with the black cap, so maybe he had something to do with it, too.
How did an equipment manager get that much power and influence ???
Is that normal ??
Did he have a boss ???
No idea…I don’t think we know the full story yet.
Can’t answer that fully…but wasn’t he tight with Piazza? He probably became close to key players over the years…probably knew a lot of dirt also.
In terms of the uniform, it’s to be expected that he’d be a big influence, especially in the days before MLB-wide contracts and the regulations that go along with it.
As for the other stuff, from what’s been made public, there’s little doubt he purposely put himself in the position of “guy who does favors for everybody.” He basically set himself up as a de facto personal assistant for some of the players, which wasn’t very professional and should’ve raised the antennae of management if they knew.
It was fascinating to get an inside perspective on the origin of the black uniforms.
For the 50th anniversary, I’d like to make the pinstripes the main home uniform. Keep the blacks as a Friday-only alternate to honor the legacy of Generation Piazza. Add a blue alternate for home day games, and eliminate the “snow whites.” Drop all traces of black from all Mets uniforms except the black alternate jerseys.
It will never happen.
The biggest problem with the black uniforms is that they don’t make sense. Many times the Mets wear them for day games, and we all know black uniforms attract heat. This makes players hotter, more tired, and therefore, more prone to stupid mistakes.
Love the cream pinstrips..all blue and orange….now would love to see some of the players wear the sanitary socks and blue stirrups…ok….I’m showing my age.
I thought I read somewhere that Dave Howard. the Mets VP in the 90’s stated the introduction of black in the uni was a Focus Group outcome. So I guess ole’ Charlie was given his orders to run with it, or being the ‘go getter’ he was, he took it on his own to go forth & create mayhem.
That quote that the Yanks were outselling them so thats why they flipped out….well duh, you put a winning team out there, then people want their stuff! If the Yanks hadn’t won their 27 rings, they would be wearing polka dots with tutti-frutti by now….winning is what sells!
I would shudder to think what the Mets unis would have looked like without Mr Halfacre’s suggestions….probably would have ended up with the Mercury Mets uni for 162 games….Ugghh