Guest Post: The New York Mets Lose Games When They Wear Black

Did you know that even in the U.K. they hate black uniforms?  Thomas from the Checked Swing blog dropped me a note:


Dear Mets Police Chief,

Back in May I blogged at Checked Swing about the Mets Uniforms.  I’ve updated my research and would be honoured to have it used on Mets Police, since I know how strongly you feel about the black uniforms.  I’ve already posted it here: http://checkedswing.blogspot.com/2009/08/mets-uniforms-2.html




A great guest article below.  Oh, someone tell Charlie to unpack the black uniforms, I’ll be there tonight.   Everyone please add Checked Swing to the list of blogs you check out.

Since the beginning of the season I’ve been checking what uniforms the Mets had been wearing, bemoaning the lack of pinstripes. Back in June we discovered that the Mets themselves have been tracking their record with the different uniforms. Here’s the records for the games up to August 2nd (note that where the Mets wore a special cap, such as for holiday weekends, the color of the batting helmet is used to determine the uniform):

Uniform No. of times worn Record Winning %
Road Grays with Hybrid Cap 36 15-21 0.417
Black with Black Cap 23 10-13 0.435
Home White with Blue Caps 21 15-6 0.714
Home White with Hybrid Caps 18 8-10 0.444
Pinstripes with Blue Caps 5 1-4 0.200
Pinstripes with Hybrid Caps 1 1-0 1.000

So Pinstripes have been avoided as if they’ve got leprosy. In fact they were worn twice in April, twice in May (including once with the hybrids), once in June and once in July. Meanwhile the all-black uniform has been worn 23 times, including seven games in a row between the 19th and 26th of July.If we discount the poor Pinstripes due to small sample size, we can see that the only time the Mets have a winning percentage is with the white jerseys and blue caps. When the Mets won five straight at the end of last month, they won games 3, 4 and 5 of the streak wearing blue caps. Second game of the doubleheader against the Rockies, they don the Black again and Bam! The streak is over.Even if Charlie Samuels prefers the Black and hates the pinstripes, as has been claimed, the fact that the Mets lose games when you put a black or hybrid cap on them and win games when you put a blue cap on them should convince him otherwise.

Main Mets Police page
Follow us on twitter @metspolice
Facebook page
send ideas/guest columns to shannon at metspolice.com

Bookmark and Share

The Mets Police
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.