Over at Amazin’ Avenue, James offers (his title) A tepid defense of the black jerseys.
I enjoyed the article. I get his point that “his” Mets wore black. It’s a real point, and one that increases my sense of urgency. Black needs to stay a dumb aberration, not the norm. (I imagine the A’s Police losing a similar battle against green, after all the great Philly teams wore blue.)
I agree that black looks nice on some civilians. No problem. Sell whatever, but the baseball team should look like a baseball team. Insert my “Yankees sell plenty of stuff” argument and my “Have ‘Anything Goes’ Sunday” where the Mets can wear black, green, shorts, throwbacks, Mercury or whatever they feel like selling. In fact I think that quirky Sunday jerseys could become a tradition and actually increase both merchandise and ticket sales. I might show up at Hawaiian Shirt Jersey Sunday and would probably buy the jersey.
As for black honoring the Giants? Puh-leez. That’s right up there with the green seats honoring the Polo Grounds. Next you will try to sell me the Shea bridge.
What’s most important is that my day in day out constant compaining about this issue has started a discussion….and actually important people are having similar discussions.
Every now and then I hear a tidbit or two, and with the 50th anniversary celebration coming up I am very hopeful that sometime later this year I will post the long-awaited article that starts with the VJ Day photo of the sailor kissing the woman in Times Square.
I have no problem whatsoever with the black alternate uni & caps. Black is a neutral base color, and personally, I think they look sharp under the lights.
The problem came when they (almost immediately) moved from “alternate uniform” to forcing black into everything else simply for the sake of doing it. There is no logical reason for wearing black socks with white pants that have blue piping or reducing your primary team color to essentially trim on the road.
As I’ve said before, if the Mets think black is so great and feel so strongly about it, then they should at least have the cajones to stand behind it and make a wholesale change like the White Sox did back in the late ’80s or early ’90s. This “oh, we have THREE colors” bit is just half-a$$ed silliness that throws another log onto the roaring fire that is the Mets 2nd-class image.
i too, do not have a problem with the black jerseys. I like the look of the black jerseys and hats with the white pants. My biggest problem is the hybrid cap. Even further, I can’t stand when they wear it with the white or grey jerseys and then have to wear a black undergarment. I don’t mind the black drop shadows on both the white and grey jerseys but they look hideous on the new pinstripe alternate. I can’t stress enough how bad it makes this supposed retro jersey look. It’s even prevented me from purchasing one. If they must keep the black within the color scheme here’s what i’d do:
Keep the white and grey jerseys the way they are but ditch the hybrid caps and wear the blue caps with blue undergarments for both home and road games respectively. I’d keep the black uniform the way it is(don’t bring it on the road) and remove the black drop shadow from the alternate.
I’d be OK with that. Go back to blue caps and socks, and the rest is just details.
That said, if you give up the hybrid caps, there’s no point in keeping the dropshadow on anything. The only reason it’s there is to force the jerseys to tie in with the black caps (which they don’t anyway).
BLUE AND ORANGE!!!
for eff’s sake get rid of it. lose the drop shadow and lets exorcise this already. it was never done for the sake of history or honoring a long gone club. its time for them to go.
Yeah my Mets wore black too. They also wore a pullover with a racing stripe down the sides. They also wore the classic with no name on the back. What I’m trying to say is 1962, 1997, 1986, 2130, it doesn’t matter if I saw them play or haven’t seen them yet. They are my Mets. I friggin hate the black more than anything but I still rooted for the team. There is something to be said about tradition and origins. Uniforms are part of a story there not supposed to be a worn out advertising gimmick long past it’s usefulness. Mets history doesn’t start in 1996, in fact the history prior to that is a hell of alot better than it’s been since.