Author: Shannon Shark @metspolice

I was thinking about Mets uniforms the other day and realized how annoying it is to never quite be sure what the team is going to wear.

It seems like every year in the spring I’ll get a call from fellow MetsPoliceman Osh41 where we discuss what they are wearing because we’re caught off guard.  

The call goes something like, “Hey check out the “New York script” on the road jerseys.”  (We just won the World Series, let’s change the uniforms!)  The next year,  “Hey they changed the road jerseys again to rip off the Yankees look.”  “Hey look at the hideous new swoosh jerseys with the underline.”  “Hey look at the white Mets hats!”   Even last year when they played the Civil Rights game I wasn’t sure if the charcoal jerseys they showed up were “real” or not.

This week this was a little flurry over the Daily News blog reporting this new black jersey.   The consesus is that the News was wrong.   The point is that none of us are quite sure.

Why don’t we know what the 2009 Mets will wear?  We hear rumor of a patch.  We hear the unsubstantiated “Charcoal” rumor.  

Why can’t they just tell us.

Anyone want to know what the Yankees are wearing this season?  Oh yeah that’s right they sell tons of stuff without ever changing it (plus or minus a patch or armband).

How about Boston?  Oh yeah they held a press conference to tell everyone – and I betcha that translated into jersey sales.

The Mets Police continue to beg the franchise to go back to what Casey is wearing on the left.  Borrow some font from the Giants (remember them Fred Wilpon?) and some color(ish) from the Dodgers.   See the nice road jersey peeking out?   At home where pinstripes with no black trim.   On both don’t have names.   You can read a name from the upper deck, on radio it doesn’t matter and on TV there is chiron and an announcer.   Our compromise is that the Mets can wear whatever they’d like on Sunday (pink uniforms with shorts – go for it!) and sell whatever pleases the Wilpons.

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The Connecticut Post has this article with Bobby Valentine.

“The WBC is the world event that baseball needs,” Valentine said. “But personally, I’d rather see championship teams from each country play each other. However, that’s not realistic so an All-Star event like the WBC is the next best thing. I hope the WBC is a catalyst to grow baseball internationally.”

‘Great life experience’

Make no mistake at age 58, Bobby Valentine is better thanks to his time in Japan. And Japan is a better baseball nation for having experienced Bobby Valentine.

“It has been a great life experience. I lived in Japan as a minority, which is quite a different perspective on life,” Valentine said. “I feel good about myself. I learned a new language. I learned a lot about baseball. I learned a lot about patience. I learned a lot about cultural diversity and people’s motivations.

“I’m glad that I was young enough when I went there to experience it,” Valentine continued. “It is so challenging. It is such a demanding baseball culture. Japan was a place where there was room for baseball growth. A place where I got to see the fruits of my labors. Japan is full of 30,000-capacity baseball stadiums. My first year we drew 400,000 fans. Now attendance is up to 1.7 million and my Japanese players come out and sign autographs before games. I was truly part of some positive change.”

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An awful week for the Jets continues – awesome – as Peter King has reported that Mike Shanahan will sit out until 2010.

The Jets are going to wind up with a rookie coach which is going to be a step back for the franchise.  Yeah go ahead and hit comments about how successful the rookie coaches were this season, and then go read this:    I Hate The Jets

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