Kids,

One time one of the most beloved Mets was a man named Bud Harrelson.

You can look up his stats and you’ll wonder how a man with a .236 lifetime average could last 16 seasons in the majors never mind be loved.  I have met Bud, he’s a nice man, gives off a nice vibe, and definitely isn’t on the roids.  Baseball Reference has him at 5 foot 11.  No way.

Never mind my passion for donuts, I’m much bigger than he is – and I am not big.   It was a different time in baseball.

Before Ripken and steroids, you could bat .219 and still start at SS as long as you got to enough balls.  That was a defensive position, much like catcher is now.  If you got some offense, that was a bonus.

Most of Buddy’s exploits were before my time, although I frequently saw his plays in the rain delay films that are now repurposed as Mets Yearbook on SNY.

In 1985 one of baseball’s great dynasties was born.  Although the pesky Cardinals edged out the Mets, the Amazins were surely on the rise with their young pitching, three sure-fire Hall of Famers, and a cast of gritty gamers.

Davey Johnson ran the team, and when Davey got tossed Buddy would take the reigns.  You’ll see Buddy wearing #23 in the Game 6 video as there goes Knight.

By 1991 something had gone horribly wrong.  The dynasty only won once.   Davey had been fired.   The Captain had not only gone to Cleveland, his career was now over.   Young stud pitcher Ron Darling was an Expo.   Mookie had gone to Toronto.  Dykstra and McDowell to Philly for someone named Juan Samuel .  The great Dwight (now “Doc”) Gooden won 13.

And we booed.

There was nothing more entertaining in those days than listening to Mad Dog Russo kill the Mets, and specifically Buddy, for hours at a time.

And we booed.

We booed so much that Buddy stopped coming out to make pitching changes.

So we booed more.

Our beloved shortstop and someone who was always the SS on the “all-time Mets” until Reyes came along was now the target of boos.

Since then Buddy hasn’t been around much.  I bet if you’re under 30 you don’t know much about him.   Both are a shame.

Buddy, I was one of the boo-ers.   I apologize.  20 years too late.

Randy who runs the Mets-humor site The Apple sent this over and swears it’s not a joke.  These are the instructions for this year’s plan-holder’s gift: the Floating Baseball. (Which reminds me, I never got mine)   I know the Mets have been fan-friendly and are in first place and all, but this is kinda what I do…it’s all in good fun Metsies.

I vote right now that if the Mets aren’t going to take Orange and Blue seriously (black is neither of those colors) we all agree that the new fans motto is:

Injoy the Floating Feeling.

Win 9 of 10?  Injoy the Floating Feeling! Be honest, is it better than We Believe In Comebacks?  Yes.   Your Season Has Come.  Way better.  Our Team, Our Time.  Please.

Who’s with me?  I know you are.

(If you’re good with photoshop you know what to do…and if say you run a large Mets blog and it’s an off-day…)

One more post before first-pitch.  An email exchange with Clancy:

Hey, Shannon

I was just looking through my pictures from the Mets Hall of Fame that I took on opening day and, minutiae geek that I am, noticed something – the Seaver jersey that he signed and indicated was one of his ’69 jerseys:

There doesn’t appear to be an MLB 100th Anniversary patch on the right shoulder, or am I missing it?

(I know you’re not the uniform detail guy, but I can never remember who that is …)

So I went to my uniform guy, Osh41 (oh yeah along with Mushnick, Uni Watch and Straight Cash Homey I also rip off everything Osh41 says to me on the phone)…here’s Osh:

during the season and nlcs they had the mlb 100 patch on the left sleeve for home and road. no mets logo patch.

for the WS (home only) they had 2 patches.  the mets logo on the left sleeve and the 100 on the right.

could have had the patch removed from the jersey for the 1970 season?  dunno –

Hmmm…well that was more than I knew.   I told Clancy I’d share it with the class.  Anyone out there know?  Back to Clancy…

Well, if anyone would know …

Wow, I always associated the ’69 unis with the team patch on the left shoulder and the MLB patch on the right. I just remembered an old Mets book I have that has pix from ’69 and checked it out – yep, primarily MLB patch throughout the season, though I did see one photo, purportedly taken during a game in May, that was just a Mets-only patch. Interestin’.

Who knows how much Mitchell & Ness eventually came to influence my selective memory over the years …

Thanks for looking into it!

No problem.  This is what we do.   I find all this stuff fascinating and I’m learning I am not the only one.

I enjoyed this weekend’s discussion that asked if it is too soon to wear a Bonilla jersey and it inspired me to see if we could get everyone to open up their closet.

I don’t know if this will catch on or not, but let’s try.  If you have an odd jersey, snap a pic, email it to [email protected] and we may or may not make fun of you (in a loving way).

We’re a Jewish family, so back in ’06 when I was in college, the family got to talking one night about Jewish players, or lack thereof, in the majors.  Being as how I knew the Mets were on the verge of picking up Shawn Green, I said to my parents, “if the Mets pick up a Jewish player, will you buy me their jersey?”  Seeing as how they had no idea Green was coming, and thinking it was a longshot they’d ever have to pay up, they said ‘Sure!’  I found the jersey at Shea early in ’07, and have been wearing it to home games every since.  I’ve since graduated, and the cat’s out of the bag about Ike Davis being Jewish, so I think i’ll have to buy that jersey myself.

-Greg

I’m just laughing about the amount of hits this post will get next March when people Google “green mets jersey.”  If you wore that to Shea Citi I would think it cool.

OK folks, Greg manned up, who’s next?

If you enjoy oddball jerseys check out Straight Cash Homey, who I guess I’m totally ripping off with this but I already ripped off Mushnick and Uniwatch so what’s the difference.   Just having fun everyone….