Camouflage Uniforms

[Ceetar]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: There are many, many, many better ways-- efficacy-wise and aesthetics-wise-- for a sports team/potential jersey-purchaser to assist or pay homage to veterans.

yes, you can just make EVERYTHING pink for an entire month. That's really the only good way to do it.

[Edgy MD]

In fair fairness, it's not about veterans per se, as the associated promotion isn't for vets, but for active duty or retired military personnel. And unless I'm wrong, it takes 20 years of service to earn the "retired" designation. They just chose Veteran's Day to launch it, which may or may not have been wise.

[Lefty Specialist]

God, those are awfully ugly. You know, it's possible to honor the military without trying to look like them. Like giving returning veterans a job.

Pardon my soapbox, but these are like the magnetic yellow ribbons people put on their cars after 9/11. A meaningless exercise which creates the appearance of giving a crap. (Apologies in advance for anyone who did, but those always annoyed me.)

It's like the pink shoes in football. Like Richie Incognito gave a crap about breast cancer.

Okay, off the soapbox, running and hiding.

[HahnSolo]

Don't like em all that much. I suppose I wouldn't be bothered so much with a 1-time event, but five home games????

[Edgy MD]

Again, this promotion isn't about veterans per se. But from my observation over the last 32 years, I'd guess that veterans' causes rival only the University of Michigan among Fred Wilpon's personal favorite beneficiaries, whatever his faults. And MLB's broader efforts on behalf of veterans have largely been driven by Wilpon's initiative.

That's my observation, anyhow.

http://metsmerizedonline.com/2010/07/welcome-back-veterans-thank-you-fred-wilpon.html

[Vic Sage]

Personally, I find the orchestrated public displays of "patriotism for profit" not only embarrassing but insulting. That being said, i also find the metro-sexual obsession some fans have over the stylishness (or lack thereof) of our team's uniforms to be almost (but certainly not quite) as tedious.

Actually, I think they should bring back those sci-fi uniforms from a few years back. And maybe use those ChiSox softball jerseys once in a while. We should consider reviving the Astros starburst-rainbow pattern, while we're at it, since the Stros seem to have abandoned it. Frankly, I'd love to see a game where the guys play in white-tie-and-tails... that would be elegant. And how about a "naked day"? i bet they could charge a lot for those tickets and show the game on pay-per-view. But they shouldn't let the fans be naked. Have you seen our fans? Eww, gross.

The only solution, really, is to have the team's uniform made in the pattern of an orange and blue Rorschach Test, so everybody can see what they want to in it.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I think the thing that bothers me most about this is the fact that the Mets once again are doing what some other team did better 5+ years ago and passing it off as an innovation.

I am in favor of whatever the Mets/MLB charities can do to reduce the worsening epidemic of fucked-up veterans but they needn't make a spectacle of themselves to do it. Or maybe they do, I dunno. Maybe we should stop engaging in wars.

[Ceetar]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I think the thing that bothers me most about this is the fact that the Mets once again are doing what some other team did better 5+ years ago and passing it off as an innovation. I am in favor of whatever the Mets/MLB charities can do to reduce the worsening epidemic of fucked-up veterans but they needn't make a spectacle of themselves to do it. Or maybe they do, I dunno. Maybe we should stop engaging in wars.

I'm a big supporter of creating no more veterans.

Mets have probably been been at the front of support, if you can really measure those things, with the inviting service people to games and honoring one a game and my cousin's husband was on the field for Opening Day colors a couple of years ago as a Coast Guarder.

Edgy's probably right, this has a lot more to do with Wilpon and his Welcome Back Veteran's foundation. It's not the Mets so much copying things that happened 5+ years ago, because Fred was probably a big part of pushing those things then and now.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

The uniform, I'm talking about. San Diego's been doing it forever.

The Mets in the meantime lack the courage to do anything innovative or original or meaningful on their own (the service department hats for example) and wait instead to follow someone else's lead on a uniform tweak.

[batmagadanleadoff]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: The Mets in the meantime lack the courage to do anything innovative or original or meaningful on their own (the service department hats for example) and wait instead to follow someone else's lead on a uniform tweak.

Stadiums too. Not just uniforms.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yes. It's not even accurate to say they lack the courage of their convictions because that requires us to believe they have convictions to begin with.

[Ceetar]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: The uniform, I'm talking about. San Diego's been doing it forever. The Mets in the meantime lack the courage to do anything innovative or original or meaningful on their own (the service department hats for example) and wait instead to follow someone else's lead on a uniform tweak.

The service dept hats were original and meaningful originally. Doing it now would be the same as these uniforms are. A "look at us, we're patriotic!" display.

But 99.9% of all these things things in sports are copying someone else. It's not just the Mets. 1 time in a 1000 someone does something neat and then everyone copies it for all eternity.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I disagree with just about all of that.

[Ceetar]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I disagree with just about all of that.

Well, what original ideas are other teams trotting out there regularly? I don't find myself stumbling upon "woah, that's neat." a lot during road broadcasts.


Booming nightclub in LF? Does that count?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

For god sakes Ceets, just look at anything the Mets do and you can trace it back to someone else's idea. Black unis. Camo unis. Their ballpark. There's hardly a thing the Mets do that is in the least bit innovative or unique unto themselves anymore and much of what did distinguish them (banners, service dept hats, their 1960s heritage) has largely been ignored and/or forgotten.

They were polling fans on whether they should have a mascot race for god sakes. Are you really so in the dark on this?

[Ceetar]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: For god sakes Ceets, just look at anything the Mets do and you can trace it back to someone else's idea. Black unis. Camo unis. Their ballpark. There's hardly a thing the Mets do that is in the least bit innovative or unique unto themselves anymore and much of what did distinguish them (banners, service dept hats, their 1960s heritage) has largely been ignored and/or forgotten. They were polling fans on whether they should have a mascot race for god sakes. Are you really so in the dark on this?

Home Run apple, Lazy Mary, Orange foul poles, Shea Bridge, etc.

I'm in favor of a mascot race.

My point was, this is how sports are. it's not unique to the Mets. Look at all the ridiculous mascot races out there for example.

I don't know if the Mets home run apple was unique in the sense of HR celebrations, but the Marlins home run thing is an extension of that, as much as it's artsy and "original".

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

The fucking "Shea bridge" is a lame ripoff of PNC Park's setting.

You got me on the apple. Good for the Mets on that.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Of course, the apple has been around for about 30 years. If that's the last time the Mets did anything innovative, they're in quite a slump.

[Centerfield]

Agree a thousand percent with JCL.

With the first responder hats, not only do they lack the ingenuity and conviction to be able to come up with something like this, but when a fantastic tradition is born right into their organization by the players, they lack the resolve to stand up for it and defend it.

I know to some it's just a hat, but in my mind, there couldn't be a better display of what is wrong with this organization.

I'm glad that fan allegiances are created when young. There is not a chance in the world that as an adult, I would ever choose to root for this organization, knowing what I know.

[metsmarathon]

realizing it would be an escape from the team's colors, but what would work a hell of a lot better on a digital camo uniform would be if the team name were piped in matte black, with tan/olive fill, matching the actual uniforms on our soldiers. have the only color be the colors of the flag. and probably the manufacturers logo because they can't help themselves...

it wouldn't solve the gi-joeing of the game, but it would help the aesthetic a ton.

also, ugh, god, no mascot races. unless everybody is going to dres up in jay horowitz mascot costumes, i don't want to see it. we don't need giant costumed skyscrapers, or giant costumed bridges, or happy bouncing checks, or... whatever... running around.

maybe giant costumed apples could work. tying in nicely with the home run thingy (and sponsored in part by fruit of hte loom?)... but i still really don't want to see it.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Ceetar wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: For god sakes Ceets, just look at anything the Mets do and you can trace it back to someone else's idea. Black unis. Camo unis. Their ballpark. There's hardly a thing the Mets do that is in the least bit innovative or unique unto themselves anymore and much of what did distinguish them (banners, service dept hats, their 1960s heritage) has largely been ignored and/or forgotten. They were polling fans on whether they should have a mascot race for god sakes. Are you really so in the dark on this? Home Run apple, Lazy Mary, Orange foul poles, Shea Bridge, etc. I'm in favor of a mascot race. My point was, this is how sports are. it's not unique to the Mets. Look at all the ridiculous mascot races out there for example. I don't know if the Mets home run apple was unique in the sense of HR celebrations, but the Marlins home run thing is an extension of that, as much as it's artsy and "original".

Home Run apple -- Bill Veeck's exploding scoreboard; Astrodome Scoreboard goes nuts; dg1ApY8niNk

Lazy Mary -- continues a 100+ year tradition of baseball stadium sing a longs.

Orange foul poles -- foul poles gotta be some color.

Shea Bridge -- This is a contrived PNC knock-off. I didn't know Shea even had a bridge. This one makes no sense unless you're Jeff Wilpon.

[seawolf17]

Centerfield wrote: Agree a thousand percent with JCL. With the first responder hats, not only do they lack the ingenuity and conviction to be able to come up with something like this, but when a fantastic tradition is born right into their organization by the players, they lack the resolve to stand up for it and defend it. I know to some it's just a hat, but in my mind, there couldn't be a better display of what is wrong with this organization. I'm glad that fan allegiances are created when young. There is not a chance in the world that as an adult, I would ever choose to root for this organization, knowing what I know.

THIS. ALL OF THIS.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Centerfield wrote: Agree a thousand percent with JCL. With the first responder hats ....

If I'm remembering correctly (and I might not be) the responder hats was a player/team inspired thing. I ain't giving Wilpon credit for that, if there's credit due.

[batmagadanleadoff]

What if we named the escalator in the Rotunda the Polo Grounds Staircase?

[Ceetar]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: The fucking "Shea bridge" is a lame ripoff of PNC Park's setting. You got me on the apple. Good for the Mets on that.

Maybe. It's a bridge, NYC is known for bridges. bridges though, aren't exactly original, no.

Of course, the Mets birth was all via copycat. 1960s heritage would hardly be unique, and they get killed for any hint of the Dodgers on one hand and killed for not honoring the Giants enough on the other. Tributes will never be unique by definition, but were the Mets not a part of the whole Jackie Robinson Day thing to begin with? (I don't know how it all went down, but I doubt the Mets just sat back and let MLB tell them exactly what to say and do)

What about los Mets? Latin outreach is something the Mets seemingly have been on the forefront of, but maybe not. I don't remember other teams doing the los thing before them, though that's just as gimmicky as the camo really.

Of course they could always do more. I'm a big fan of pushing boundaries and all that, but the Mets, and baseball, are a very conservative bunch.

Does anyone dare not play Take Me Out To The Ballgame? Every really different uniform idea gets routinely lambasted. A lot of people are even against making sure umpires get calls right.

I've gotten more and more into the Mets as I've become an adult myself. It seems like some of you are ashamed to be a Mets fan, and I just don't get it. It's a corporate entity and it always has been and always will. It's not going to run the way I think it should, to my moral or aesthetic compass, and I don't expect that my view is the majority or even what gets fans to the park and watching games and spending money.

[Edgy MD]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: The uniform, I'm talking about. San Diego's been doing it forever. The Mets in the meantime lack the courage to do anything innovative or original or meaningful on their own (the service department hats for example) and wait instead to follow someone else's lead on a uniform tweak.

Yes, that's the real issue.

[G-Fafif]

Los Gigantes beat Los Mets to the field by dos a�os.

[Edgy MD]

With regard to Latino outreach, yes and no. If they were ahead of the field, the field has caught up to them, and generically so. "Los Mets," of course, sounds stupid in any language.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Let's just pretend for a second that Ceetar's right and that the Mets are no lamer than any other franchise when it comes to their lack of originality, lack of imagination, lack of conviction and lack of self awareness.

How is that OK?

[batmagadanleadoff]

The Mets don't necessarily have to be groundbreaking trendsetters. They don't have to be the first. But they're not exactly progressive either. They're clearly followers -- and the worst kind. They follow bad trends, dated trends, dead trends, dumb trends. They're like the Statue of Liberty of trends. Give us your tired, your poor, your dumb and stupid. We'll try everything. Especially if you already tried it. And we'll not only try it, but we'll dumb it up, cheap it up, philistine it up in ways that you didn''t know were even imagineable. I mean, if they ever copycatted something cool, it'd be a hundredfold improvement. Mascot races? And they're polling fans on this? I didn't even know about this but what another embarrassment.