This Saturday marks the 20th Anniversary of the Mercury Mets. Some of you may not know what the hell this is. Well..
The short version is that on July 27, 1999 MLB did a “Turn Ahead The Clock” night where teams wore what they would supposedly be wearing in 2021. Uni Watch has a nice recap here and here to catch you up if all this is new to you.
Most teams went with something like an oversized logo and maybe some funky colors. The Yankees declined to do it, saying (seemingly correctly) that they were already wearing what they would wear in 2021.
The Mets decided to take it to another level and played as The Mercury Mets against the Pirates. Apparently your boycotts are effective, and maybe even the Sell The Team movement is working – as the Mets lore is that they will be playing on Mercury just two seasons from now. Look what you have done.
The silver-and-black shirts, which resembled an Oakland Raiders tear-away jersey that had been torn away, were really a tribute to Mercury, the Roman god of merchandise and merchants. Some were raffled off last night for Easter Seals and the Mets Foundation. Even some Mets’ players were wondering if they could retain the shirts.
”Are we keeping these?” Brian McRae asked. ”Do they think we’re just wearing these and giving them back? Not adding them to our collection?”
Rickey Henderson, who is playing lately as if he would still be leading off in 2021, watched McRae tuck his shirt into his pants.
”You got to wear it outside,” Henderson said. ”The future is, you got to wear it outside. We’ll look like Bozo the Clown out there.” (Via NY Times)
I thought I had found the mother-lode in a reddit post that said the entire game was up!!! However the video has been taken down – presumably for MLBAM’s upcoming Mercury Mets box set (that’s not an actual thing) or whatever dumb reason this was taken down for.
But I did find the pregame show, which uncovered some gems…
In that video…..THIS!!!
As the video explains, that was a mock design based upon what other teams did, with the oversized logo and whatnot. You can see the Pirates version in this Uni Watch column about Turn Ahead The Clock Fun Facts or here’s Barry Bonds!
Swingin’ so hard he’ll turn ahead the clock pic.twitter.com/X05PdCwAtA
— Zach (@BarroldBonds) February 28, 2014
I kinda like how that design looks, and I wish someone would make it so I could own one.
However, it’s so less awful and thus so less interesting than what the Mets actually did do – The Mercury Mets!
Over the years, Mercury has kind of disappeared, with only a few images here and there on-line…
But thanks to that pre-game show video, we now have more!
The Mets also did photshopped images of the players that were shown on DiamonVision. Many people remember three eyed Rickey Henderson, but what about Spock Eyebrows Mike Piazza? I can’t figure out how to embed them, so click here to see them.
Many fans have collected Mercury Merch over the years…
…and if you set an alert on eBay it won’t take you long to find something for sale. I believe there is a fair amount of knockoff Mercury stuff out there…so depending in your wallet and tolerance for such things, you might be able to get a jersey in this style for $100 or maybe for $600. Caps also regularly come up, as they were given away that night. I believe I own two Mercury jerseys myself!
@mediagoon even sold these on his own a few years back…
..which is fun to see in blue.
As fate would have it, the Mets once again play the Pirates on July 27th. I asked the Mets if they would wear the Mercury jerseys. Unfortunately the answer is no (a missed opportunity IMHO) but they do plan to somehow acknowledge the date. Man, I would love to see these on the field. Sometimes things are so bad that they are good. This is one of those times.
I look forward to seeing what the Mets plan to do. Hey Mets, maybe PRE-PROMOTE IT – I will even consider coming to a game! It’s rare that I get to wear my Mercs out in public.
