The Blue Jersey Army

Someone cue Eiffel 65. Why? 'Cause I'm blue.

Earlier this morning, MetsPolice ran a guest column by yours truly that detailed a conversation I had with a higher up in the Mets marketing department. The 20 minute call back at the end of November covered a wide range of topics on the various Mets uniform schemes.

In my conversation, I suggested to the exec that the Mets might want to explore the possibility of a blue alternate jersey to replace the black. I was met with resistance. Here's a recap of the exchange from my article. Casey was the name given to the exec to secure his/her identity:

Based on (Casey’s) comments about the black, essentially saying it sells well, but it doesn’t seem to be because of their overwhelming loyalty to the black color, I asked if (Casey) thought a blue alternate jersey may be a good avenue to explore? (Casey’s) response was a resounding no. (Casey) referenced the poor sales of the blue batting practice jersey. I immediately reminded (Casey) how low the visibility is for batting practice items probably suppresses sales—especially since the Mets have taken to wearing their snow whites during home spring training games during the last 3 seasons—and (Casey) agreed that it might be a factor, but insisted the market wasn’t there for a blue alternate top. I found that fairly surprising, but (Casey) said they had done extensive research on a blue alternate top and the interest just isn’t there.

Now, I don't buy this one bit. You can read more about my analysis of this exchange here. But in the meantime, let me explain to you just the lengths Mets fans are willing to go to get their hands on a look they think the Amazin's should be wearing.

The timeframe was August 2007. The Mets, seemingly on their way to their second straight division title, were in Washington to play the Nationals. My parents were at the final game of the series in RFK's final season and I was holding down the fort on the homefront. Using my late night alone time to troll the web for, what else, new stuff to buy, I came across this:



A sight of beauty! I couldn't believe my eyes! Was this...could this be...a glimpse to the future?! I did a quick eye inspection and saw the tagging was consistent with a replica. Also, no patch sleeve where the normal skyline patch would sit. And, of course, this was August. Definitely NOT unveiling season. But this royal blue Mets top was gorgeous and EXACTLY what I thought a blue Mets alternate should look like.



As you inspect it, notice the orange piping, which is consistently placed to the Mets other three piped looks. The orange color really makes the piping jump out, unlike the blue piping on the black alternates, which I always thought blended in a bit too much for my liking. The script...it's so...perfect. No dropshadow. No black. Two colors. Orange and white on pure, unadulterated blue. This HAD to be a sign of thing to come, right? The Mets had heard our pleas. This was just a preview or a leak of what was coming for the final season at Shea.



I immediately snatched a blank one up (they were selling customized ones with two color block numbers and one color names, but the lettering was generic and gave the jersey too much of a replica feel) thinking maybe one day I'd customize it.*

Of course we know this jersey never came to be. Unfortunately so, too. Because I really think this could be the best alternate look in all of baseball. Who knows how this fashion jersey actually sold. Part of me suspects the Mets' "extensive research" could have just been looking how sales for this and the batting practice jersey sold. But you can't deny the aesthetic orgasm. Check out how it looks paired with the blue hats.



Absolutely awesome. Could you imagine if they introduced the same hat, but with an orange brim? My mind can't handle the giddiness that would spark. Look, a lot of my collection is the Mets. I own every jersey: pinstripes, cream pinstripes, black home, black road, snow whites batting practice and so on and so forth. But that's because i have...well...OJD. It's time for the Mets to adopt this look. As far as alternates go, it's the best of anything they could conceive.

*As a matter of fact, someone beat me to the punch on this. Someone on the Creamer boards owns this jersey and took it to Stitches in Queens (the official stitcher of the Mets and Islanders). He put authentic orange and white customizing on the back and number on the usual front placement and chose Johan's 57. He also added an old school Mets patch (with interlocking NY) on the sleeve. If you're out there, sorry I don't remember your username, but make yourself known in the comments section!

A Uni Conversation with the Mets

To the few and faithful readers, today I have a guest post on Shannon Shark's MetsPolice.com

The post details my late November discussion with a high level Mets front office executive regarding uniforms.

You can read it here

Later in the day, I'll be posting in regards to something Mets fans are crying out for, whether Flushing hears us or not: a blue alternate jersey in place of the black. In the meantime, happy reading. And if MetsPolice isn't on your daily blog roll, it should be! Bookmark it today. Big thanks to Shannon for giving me an opportunity to write this up.

The Michael Joseph Piazza Love Affair: the Beginning

I was at middle school baseball practice. I saw my grandfather's Nissan Altima pull into the parking lot, as it did every afternoon to catch me playing ball at the field located a short ride from his home. Sensing something was different, I saw him walking with purpose in his step. His stride increased, my heart raced and all of a sudden, he delivered the news I anticipate will be up on the same level as the day I hear "yes" to my marriage proposal and "it's a boy (or girl)" in a waiting room: "the Mets got Piazza!"



My life had changed. Growing up as a catcher, Mike Piazza hitting the scene in 1992 with the Los Angeles Dodgers was like the first time you hear a love song on the radio and realized you could actually relate it to a girl. It was the validation of everything you thought was possible. At the time, I was 13, so I had missed the days of Bench and was left to watch the likes of Don Slaught, Macky Sasser and Benito Santiago play the position I played. Gifted with the glove and calling a good game, sure. But as we learned in 1995 thanks to Maddux and Glavine, chicks dig the long ball. So when a young, scrappy, mountain of a man with a mustache so incredibly '90s in awesome it can only be described as mint exploded onto the scene hitting for average and power, it made young catchers like me dream of a day we too could not only block balls and call the right pitches, but hit bombs.

I came home one day that summer and there it sat. Back then, I didn't even know each league had special JERSEYS for the Home Run Derby. "What a great idea," I thought. Besides the obvious merchandising benefits for the league, it gave each league a kind of common banner to identify under. I thought it was great. And plus...MIKE FREAKIN' PIAZZA! I actually had some form of a Mets jersey with Piazza on it. I was through the roof.



I think my favorite part of this piece is three fold:

A) The color. The American League got a more traditonal black that year and, thankfully, the National League avoided looking like Barney the Dinosaur, clad in purple. I think the green still stands out as one of the coolest All Star Batting Practice jerseys in my closet.

B) The pro-mesh. I love this jersey because of the fabric. Pro mesh it light. It almost feels silky, as opposed to most meshes that have the typical feel you'd associate with a traditional mesh. This is one jersey I love to wear without an undershirt because it's so incredibly comfortable.

C) The quirks. The Diamond Collection tagging (this was pre-Authentic Collection) days and the Majestic wordmark is etched at the bottom of the now very visibile mountains which is a rare sight. I love the plain customization job along with, of course, the blue skyline patch that includes the interlocking NY. Plus this implied one: after being shut out in both the 1995 and '96 Home Run Derby, Piazza never competed in another one. So whenever I brought a Piazza Home Run Derby/All Star BP jersey, it was kind of with a chuckle knowing I'd probably never see him wear it, but knew it was awesome just the same.



After 37 games with the Dodgers and the always comical 5 with the Marlins, Piazza played in 109 games for the Mets in 1998, hitting .348, 23 homers and driving in 76 runs for the orange and blue. His overall line that year was .328, 32 and 111, or as Mets fans began to know them as the typical Piazza year.

While Piazza belted extra base hits, everything changed in my life. I started dating my high school sweetheart shortly after I started high school that fall. I woke up early morning bleary eyed and raced to the paper with my father to find out what happened in the previous night's Mets/Astros series that seemed to last for the month of September.* I saw the Mets collapse...for the first time, losing 6 of their last 8 games, include 3 of 5 on their final homestand to the Marlins and Expos. But, when I look back on it all, it set up probably two of the most fun three years I've had so far watching baseball. The acquisition of Mike Piazza created so many moments where my dad and I went absolutely ballistic and, as my mom puts it, almost ended up in the basement from jumping up and down so much that I will never forget 1998. It was the gateway to my baseball destiny: a lifelong, die hard, bleed royal and citrus masochist. And quite frankly I wouldn't have it any other way. This jersey epitomizes my coming of age. And I hold it in such esteem because of it.



To this date, I've only cried at a ballpark twice in my life: the final game at Shea Stadium and the last day of Mike Piazza's New York Mets career. I lived and died with every single one of the 220 balls that flew over the wall during his tenure as King of Flushing and I always dreaded the day he wouldn't be listed batting fourth and catching on the Shea scoreboard. To me, only a toddler in 1986, the good times were the Mike times, and I consider this jersey the beginning of it all.

*Two posts and I've reference that Mets/'Stros series twice already. For my money, maybe the best regular season series of my years. From September 14th-16th, the Mets and Astros played a series that teetered back and forth. Game One, Brian McRae homered off Billy Wagner down two to tie the game at four, and they'd score 3 runs in the top of the 13th to win. Game Two, Jeff Bagwell tied the game up in the bottom of the 11th with a solo homer off John Franco, not to be outdone by Derrick Bell's walk off shot off Jeff Tam to win it. Then the Mets, trailing 3-2 in Game Three, scored 3 runs in the 8th on a John Olerud 3 run shot, and 3 more in the 9th, to take 2 of 3 in the series and move 1/2 game back of the eventual Wild Card winners the Chicago Cubs.

Big Pimpin' Back in 2000

Okay, let me explain. I was 15 years old. I was in 10th grade. I was in love with my favorite baseball team. So I ended up getting this:




A little history: back in my pre-driving, high school days, my parents and I had a deal. Right around the first weekend in June, I'd get my end of the school year trip into Roosevelt Field Mall to go to the Mets Clubhouse Shop. Back then, with MLB's online shop fairly lackluster, this oasis about 40 minutes from my Smithtown home was the best place for me to get full access to all my Mets apparel needs. Every year, I would bring a jersey I wanted to customize. I'd spend days, weeks, even months of valuable class time pouring over which Met should be stitched on the back to create my most recent concoction.

The jersey up for customization this year? My blank black Authentic.

In the summer of 1998, I brought the Mets new alternate jersey. The black seemed pretty cool at the time, a welcomed break from the norm. Little did I know it'd become the bane of my existence in my young adulthood. But my parents and I invested in this blank, ebony Mets jersey and it stayed nameless for two solid seasons. Two summers later, a player would adorn it's back that would not only be amusing in retrospect, but also create some technical errors.



If you look here, I snapped a picture with the patch. The original Mets patch (the blue and orange skyline with the NY in the left corner) was only used on the black jerseys for the first season. Not to mention the tagging. The Mets used Russell as their distributer in 1998, but two years later for Bell's first and only season as a Met, they had switched to Rawlings. Also note the absence of the MLB logo on the back of the collar, which was first used in the 2000, all of which technically makes my customization choice inaccurate. But I mean...it was Derek Bell.

Yes, okay he's not a Hall of Famer. But this selection was so brilliant and reeked of so much of adolescent innocence that it's often the first jersey I mention when I talk about my Mets' Authentic collection.

It was about to be the summer of 2000 and Bell was HOT. I mean blazing hot. Strolling up to the plate to the tune of Jay Z's new single "Big Pimpin'", Bell endeared himself to all Mets fans first by hitting a solo home run in the team's home opener against the San Diego Padres to give the team a 2-1 win. Then, by a torrid first half that included 12 multi-hit games before the calendar flipped to June (7 of which were games of 3 hits or more). After a 2-5 game against the Diamondbacks on May 21st, Bell was hitting..ready?....360! .360?! Yeah, Derek Bell was 15 year old Brian's kind of guy. Ridiculously baggy uniform and ugly looking face with his 'Oh my God!" home run at the Astrodome still etched in my mind.

My father still laughs when I mention this one. And really, who wouldn't? Between the quirks in accuracy and the player himself, it's quite a comedic jewel.

After a mini hot streak in August, Bell's last day as a .300 hitter for the Mets was August 7th against his former Astros squad. Bell finished his second to last Major League season with a .266 average, 18 home runs and 69 RBIs. After chasing down a ball in the right fielder corner against the San Francisco Giants in a Game 1 loss of the National League Division Series, Bell tore his hamstring and never played in another game for the Mets. His replacement? The incomparable Timo Perez. But in a season a lot of Mets fans are reminded of Mike Piazza's 40 home runs or the 10 run inning against the Braves or Benny Agbayani and Bobby Jones' postseason heroics, the early season play of Bell provided a much needed spark for a team that nearly lost their manager in early June. So to start of this blog: my (semi) Authentic Mets black alternate home Derek Bell jersey: a true testament to an overlooked hero.

The Official Launch

After years of mulling, it's time to finally undertake this project.

It all started in my mind about 10 years ago, before new media fully took over the world. I was wearing my Dennis Rodman Chicago Bulls jersey, roughly 4 years after it had any relevence. I said to myself, "I wonder what people think when they see me wearing this thing?" In fact, I often wonder that to this day. Then I came up with a thought: for us jersey collectors, admirers or Uni Watchers, seeing a rare breed of jersey out in the world is sort of like spotting an endangered species in the wild. Wouldn't it be cool if we had a place where we could share our crazy experiences that make us smile while roaming the grocery store or on line at the concession stand at the game? Let me set the scene: image you're walking through Disney World when, all of a sudden, there it is. A rare breed of jersey someone is rockin' that you NEVER thought you'd see on anyone other than the player themselves. That's a true moment where your OJD sets in: your Obsessive Jersey Disorder.

Since I first had this thought, the blogosphere has exploded. Sparing you the history lesson on new and social media and how it impacts the way we see the world, I believe the climate is now right to start this thing off right.

Throughout our own little social experiment, I will be sharing with you some of my own collection and a little story on how each came to be. And I encourage you to do the same. You can reach me at submitojd@gmail.com Got the most unique jersey that you're dying to tell the story of how it came to be in your closet? Snap some pics and send them over. Saw someone wearing a jersey that made you chuckle? Get that camera phone out, snap a picture and send it our way. If nothing else, this will be fun. Maybe I'll look back on this one day and see the birth of something great.

A little about the author:

My name is Brian Erni. I'm a full time public relations professional, part time baseball player and die hard Mets fan. From the child sized Pittsburgh Pirates gold t-shirt my mother wrote 'Bonds 24' with t-shirt paint on the back to the latest incarnation of Mets pinstripes, I've been fixated on the athletic heroes who come into our home and the cloth they wear on their back.

Some of my inspirations undertaking this project are:

Paul Lukas of Uni Watch and ESPN Page 2: Never read Paul's insight into the world of sports uniforms? You're missing out. Acting as the watch dog on all athletic aesthics, Paul is as cool of a guy as he is gifted of a writer. I truly can not imagine by day without reading Uni Watch in the morning, and that's testament to his hard work and dedication to his trade. Check out his insight at www.uniwatchblog.com

Matt Cerrone of MetsBlog.com: After starting MetsBlog as a college project, Matt parlayed his love of his team into one of the most well-read blogs on the 'net, landing a sponsorship from Verizon and a partnership with SNY. Matt, who is always accessable to his followers, can be found at www.metsblog.com and www.matthewcerrone.com

Shannon Shark of MetsPolice.com: I began reading Shannon's work last year and I have to say, I was truly struck by how he's able to essentially read the mind of most Mets fans and compile all our musings into a blog so influential that Citi Field will never be the same. I met Shannon at Opening Day this year and he couldn't have been a nicer guy. You can read his work at www.metspolice.com and shannonshark.wordpress.com

Chris Creamer and the guys at Jersey Central: Two incredible insightful boards, www.chriscreamer.com (and sportslogos.net) and jerseycentral.org made me understand I wasn't alone in how I see the word. For that, I'm incredibly greatful.

My parents: My parents deserve most of the credit, as my jersey collecting days may never have even begun if it wasn't for them. In all seriousness, if my parents were ever guilty of anything, it was giving me too much. They have looked the other way on far too many pricey purchases all because they know my fascination with jerseys has all to do with my love of baseball and nothing to do with my need to have the new, hot ticket item. Thanks, Mom and Dad. Love you!