To be fair to Osh41 he actually sent this to me Monday night, but if you think I was gonna waste a week of Seaver posts in the middle of winter after I already worked on them, you’re crazy. Here’s Osh… (Click on the photos especially the Bamberger one for better looks)
Opening day, April 1983 – high excitement at Shea Stadium. Seaver returns after a 5 plus year status, the Mets beat Steve Carlton and the Phils and there was cause for even more excitement – new uniforms!!!! The Mets took the field wearing the uniforms we now call – the ‘racing stripe’. The uniforms remain pullover however they have lost the collar/sleeve blue orange blue trim and the Mets logo on the left sleeve.
The ‘racing stripe’ look actually appeared a year earlier – the 82 club road unifroms featured the racing stripe style.
I remember being excited that the team had a new look. Metspolice and I were a few short months away from meeting but I am sure he approved of them as well – he’s a dork like me. The 78-82 uniforms represented a terrible era in club history. New uniforms, new start. And indeed the new uni’s did see a new era of Mets success punctuated by the clubs 1986 World Championship.
Footnote – although Seaver never wore the 78-82 jerseys ‘officially’ he did wear them for a photo op – these must have been taken over the winter of 82 after he was reacquired.