Mets with varsity numbers at home (movie)

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

Because the previous two threads on uniforms in movies have been closed, I thought I'd give this topic its own thread.

 

Just today I found out about the existence of a 2007 TV movie called For One More Day.  It was produced by Oprah Winfrey, and was based on a book by Mitch Albom about a retired baseball player who had played with the 1973 Mets. But the home uniforms shown in the movie featured the varsity numbers that the Mets wore on the road uniform through 1977.

 

 

 

Here we see the fictional character wearing number 16 flanked by actors portraying Rusty Staub and John Milner.

 

 

 

 

It is strange that this production would have taken such care to get the other details of the Mets' uniforms right, but mess up on the numbers. 

 

From a purely aesthetically, leaving aside the historical inaccuracy, the varsity numbers are an interesting choice for the Mets.  I'd say that they look great from the back, as we can tell by comparing the bold number 11 on the back of the jersey worn by actor portraying Wayne Garrett with the relatively scrawny number 11 on the back of a real Garrett jersey.

But the varsity numbers do not go well with the Mets' home wordmark, as we saw when the home wordmark replaced the Tuscan "New York" on the road jersey starting in 1974, and was paired with the varsity numbers through 1977.

 

 

 

 

However, the varsity numbers looked fantastic with the road "New York" road wordmark; this pairing was used on the uniform fronts from 1964 through 1973. 

 

 

 

It is very unusual for a team to have different numbers at home versus on the road.  The Yankees did it in the 1960s for a while; but I cannot think of another team that did this.  Generally I would not be for such a choice; but in the case of the Mets, the varsity numbers look great on the road. 

But not at home.  Get it together, Oprah and Albom.