Hopefully you have read the great fantastic super awesome must-read Uni Watch on ESPN about how the black Mets uniforms came to be as well as my initial reaction.
I’m fascinated by this article. We need to savor it. Dissect it. Discuss it.
So that’s what we’re gonna do until we’re done. A little at a time.
Today let’s look at this…
UW: So that explains all the black shadow elements. But how did the solid-black jersey come about?
BH: I remember getting a yell from the office: “Come here, Charlie wants to talk to you for a minute.” So I got on the phone and he says, “I want a black jersey — what should I do, what colors should I use?” And I say, “Blue and white with an orange shadow.” And he says, “Right, OK.” It was that arbitrary. Honest to goodness, Paul, that’s how it was back then — there was no league approval needed …
But then what? Charlie runs upstairs and says, “Hey Fred, got an idea…” and suddenly a softball team takes the field? Someone in marketing must have weighed in. The owner? Someone?
Did Charlie just have 25 uniforms made and hoped nobody would notice?
Do equipment managers have this much influence? If they usually don’t, how did this particular equipment manager get this much influence?
Was there research that made Charlie say to Halfacre that he wants a black jersey? Was he working on someone else’s behalf?
None of my questions are meant to question the article or the interview. I think it’s the greatest thing ever, and this Halfacre fellow is such a fascinating story. Hero? Villain?
But the box has been opened and now I have 8 zillion questions. As I said at the top, we’ll poke at this a little at a time.