Los Mets

[powersurge]

No it doesn't translate well on this board because sarcasm is an example of higher level thinking.

....and a good sense of smell

HA!

...the wiffs will get ya!

[BB61]

Whoever thinks this is an issue is being ridiculous. They are trying to do something nice. It is better than what they do on Jewish Heritage Day when they announce the lineups using made up Hebrew names for the players!

These never were official, never worn on the field, but I remember them being sold -- even at the baseball hall of fame -- as far back as 1998. I really wanted a Phillies one.

[meetthemets]

Why is everyone making such a big deal about this? It's a one night thing. Who cares? The majority of the Mets are latin players and none off them seem to have a problem with it. I'm half Puerto Rican and I don't see what the big deal is. They added a tiny 'los' to the jerseys for one game. WGAS.

And for the record here is a list (from the Mets schedule) of other promotions at Shea stadium for those looking for equal opportunity:

Asian Night - May 1

Greek Night - June 1

Italian Day - June 24

Korean Night - July 13

Merengue Night - July 27

Polish-American Night - August 22

Pakistani-American Night - August 23

Fiesta Latina - August 24

Irish Day - August 25

Jewish Heritage Day - August 26

Taiwan Night - September 7

Oktoberfest - September 28

[kid_17]

What do the hispanics think of this? do they really even care? Is it really going to attract any more hispanics to the game by making a hispanic version of the jersey? I don't know what do they think about this? i know what the whites think of this but what about them?

Heres what I think of this.

The reason why they went with "Los Mets" is because thats how the team is referred to in the spanish speaking community. A team that doesnt have a literal translation (ok, Metropolitanos coulda worked) is usually just called "Los" followed by the team name. My dad and all of his buddies here in San Diego are spanish speaking and they refer to teams by their english names, like "Los Dodgers", "Los Phillies", "Los Yankees" and so on. The teams that do translate (and by "do translate I mean they translate into a frequently used spanish word) like the Giants are referred to as Los Gigantes, the Brewers as Los Cerveceros and so on.

Other teams that translate well: the Blue Jays as "Los Azulejos", the A's as "Los Atleticos", the Red Sox as "Los Medias Rojas", and also Los Piratas, Los Marineros, Los Cardenales and most any other team with an animal name. Except for the Diamondbacks who usually translate as "Los Diamantes" which literally means (you guessed it) the Diamonds. I've been trying to get people to call them "Las Viboras" or the snakes.

Oh and some teams like the Astros and Orioles mean the same thing in spanish. While we know that the Padres are a completely different thing.

So getting back to the whole Mets thing, I dont know if they're pandering especially since they should have a large hispanic base already established, its less pandering than it is recognizing it. Just like the Padres do being so close to the border. The wording they're using is not wrong since its what the team is called in Spanish speaking circles. At least the "Los" part of the jersey is subtle, that "Los Rangers" jersey is just asking for an ass kickin.

[Gothamite]

Why is everyone making such a big deal about this? It's a one night thing. Who cares? The majority of the Mets are latin players and none off them seem to have a problem with it. I'm half Puerto Rican and I don't see what the big deal is. They added a tiny 'los' to the jerseys for one game. WGAS.

Any time a team changes its uniform, even for one night, it is a big deal. Not that it shouldn't be done, only that it should be done cautiously.

Of course, the way the Mets have already diluted and devalued their brand over the last decade....

[toxostoma rufum]

Perhaps your particular brand of humor will be more apparent the longer you're a member of this community. In the future though, I'd avoid sarcasm unless it's incredibly obvious; it most often doesn't translate.

Yeah, don't hold your breath for that...take care.

[Armadillo]

I, for one, don't have a problem with a team honoring a culture like this. What I would prefer is for all fans of all races, genders, sexual orientations, shoe sizes, etc. to be fans of a team because we all share these passions as residents of a particular city, as Americans, and as human beings. There's a reason we insist on emphasizing that which makes us different, rather than what makes us similar, but I don't quite get why.

Oh, and since it seems like people need to know this in order to decide whether an opinion is valid or not, I'm a 29-year-old white agnostic male from Minnesota.

[meetthemets]

Of course, the way the Mets have already diluted and devalued their brand over the last decade....

Well that is your opinion.

[VitaminD]

I Agree, rather than "Honoring" Latino players this kinda says "Hey, we tried to think of a way to honor you, but we were too lazy to come up with anything original, so we half assed it and just tossed a Latin word in front of the name. Cool huh?". Hell, I could thik of about a thousand ways to better serve Latinos everywhere. Maybe add a patch of a different Latino influenced country to the sleeve of all the players jerseys and auction them off after the game and give the money to a Latino Charity, change the pinstripes to red and green, give the Mets baseball patch more of a Latino feel, or hell, even my personal favorite, just take all that extra money you were gonna waste on these crappy Los jerseys and donate it to a New York based Latino charity.

But this is part of the problem if you're trying to celebrate Latino culture as a whole. Red and green pinstripes would pay tribute to Mexico nicely (and Bolivia somewhat), but shuts out every other Latin American country. If you want to use colors, you're going to need gold, blue, sky blue along with red and green. You wind up with rainbow pinstripes, which is going to spark an entirely new round of grousing for entirely different reasons not worth enumerating. The NBA had a creative idea by adding piping made up of all the Latin American flags up and down the uniforms.

And how would you give the Mets logo a Latino feel? It's a representation of the NYC skyline with the team name in simple script. Given today's social climate, I'd bet that any attempts at "Latinizing" the logo would piss off someone.

That said, I have no real problem with tacking "Los" before Mets. It's corny but if they want to give a conspicuous nod to a significant portion of their fan base, who's it really bothering? Granted, it works better for teams with translatable names, but if this is the public forum they seek to say "thanks for supporting our ballclub" for one game out of 162, whatever.

Now, as for this Jewish Heritage Night - I'd love to know what kind of wacky Hebrew name I'd wind up with - there's not a whole lot you could do to "Michael" that would make it -- oh. Never mind.

[powersurge]

I, for one, don't have a problem with a team honoring a culture like this. What I would prefer is for all fans of all races, genders, sexual orientations, shoe sizes, etc. to be fans of a team because we all share these passions as residents of a particular city, as Americans, and as human beings. There's a reason we insist on emphasizing that which makes us different, rather than what makes us similar, but I don't quite get why.

Oh, and since it seems like people need to know this in order to decide whether an opinion is valid or not, I'm a 29-year-old white agnostic male from Minnesota.

Well that fits the demographic we're looking for....

I think the big deal here is that they are messing with the uniforms, and being a sports logos community, messing with uniforms causes a great deal of debate...Especially when the intentions and/or executions are debatable. That being said, I think the intention is great the execution is poor at best.

[f-ing palko]

Do they really do that? Like David Wrightstein? Shawn Greenberg? Oh, wait...

Whoever thinks this is an issue is being ridiculous. They are trying to do something nice. It is better than what they do on Jewish Heritage Day when they announce the lineups using made up Hebrew names for the players!

losmets.com is also the Spanish version of their website.

[Gothamite]

Of course, the way the Mets have already diluted and devalued their brand over the last decade....

Well that is your opinion.

Of course it is my opinion. This is the Internets, after all.

Even so, I think it's a very defensible one. They have too many uniforms, no central identifiable "look" and the elevation of black over the traditional colors has broken what was a visual chain back to the early days of the franchise.

Regardless of what you think of their club, the Yankees have the most solid "brand" in baseball. Instantly identifiable, constant and unchanging. They wear one home uniform, one road uniform, and one cap between them. They don't do "event" uniforms, throwbacks, special day promotional uniforms, even alternate uniforms. That's one extreme.

Their crosstown rivals have taken it in the opposite direction. They have a different uniform combination for every inning, and can't even seem to decide on what their official colors are.

[Armadillo]

I, for one, don't have a problem with a team honoring a culture like this. What I would prefer is for all fans of all races, genders, sexual orientations, shoe sizes, etc. to be fans of a team because we all share these passions as residents of a particular city, as Americans, and as human beings. There's a reason we insist on emphasizing that which makes us different, rather than what makes us similar, but I don't quite get why.

Oh, and since it seems like people need to know this in order to decide whether an opinion is valid or not, I'm a 29-year-old white agnostic male from Minnesota.

Well that fits the demographic we're looking for....

I think the big deal here is that they are messing with the uniforms, and being a sports logos community, messing with uniforms causes a great deal of debate...Especially when the intentions and/or executions are debatable. That being said, I think the intention is great the execution is poor at best.

Oh, I get that perfectly. My issue is more with the societal and political aspects being discussed here, not the uniform itself. Kinda off-topic, I know, but I didn't start it.

The Mets half-assed this to the best of their abilities.

[powersurge]

I, for one, don't have a problem with a team honoring a culture like this. What I would prefer is for all fans of all races, genders, sexual orientations, shoe sizes, etc. to be fans of a team because we all share these passions as residents of a particular city, as Americans, and as human beings. There's a reason we insist on emphasizing that which makes us different, rather than what makes us similar, but I don't quite get why.

Oh, and since it seems like people need to know this in order to decide whether an opinion is valid or not, I'm a 29-year-old white agnostic male from Minnesota.

Well that fits the demographic we're looking for....

I think the big deal here is that they are messing with the uniforms, and being a sports logos community, messing with uniforms causes a great deal of debate...Especially when the intentions and/or executions are debatable. That being said, I think the intention is great the execution is poor at best.

Oh, I get that perfectly. My issue is more with the societal and political aspects being discussed here, not the uniform itself. Kinda off-topic, I know, but I didn't start it.

The Mets half-assed this to the best of their abilities.

I've yet to see a team FULL-ass a promotion like this

[njmeadowlanders]

To me, it's not that they have Fiesta Latina night (or Merengue Night as it used to be). It's not that they have International week and whatnot. It's that when they try these things they almost always butcher what could be a good idea.

Did you see their St. Patrick's Day hat attempt?

[FiddySicks]

I Agree, rather than "Honoring" Latino players this kinda says "Hey, we tried to think of a way to honor you, but we were too lazy to come up with anything original, so we half assed it and just tossed a Latin word in front of the name. Cool huh?". Hell, I could thik of about a thousand ways to better serve Latinos everywhere. Maybe add a patch of a different Latino influenced country to the sleeve of all the players jerseys and auction them off after the game and give the money to a Latino Charity, change the pinstripes to red and green, give the Mets baseball patch more of a Latino feel, or hell, even my personal favorite, just take all that extra money you were gonna waste on these crappy Los jerseys and donate it to a New York based Latino charity.

But this is part of the problem if you're trying to celebrate Latino culture as a whole. Red and green pinstripes would pay tribute to Mexico nicely (and Bolivia somewhat), but shuts out every other Latin American country. If you want to use colors, you're going to need gold, blue, sky blue along with red and green. You wind up with rainbow pinstripes, which is going to spark an entirely new round of grousing for entirely different reasons not worth enumerating. The NBA had a creative idea by adding piping made up of all the Latin American flags up and down the uniforms.

And how would you give the Mets logo a Latino feel? It's a representation of the NYC skyline with the team name in simple script. Given today's social climate, I'd bet that any attempts at "Latinizing" the logo would piss off someone.

That said, I have no real problem with tacking "Los" before Mets. It's corny but if they want to give a conspicuous nod to a significant portion of their fan base, who's it really bothering? Granted, it works better for teams with translatable names, but if this is the public forum they seek to say "thanks for supporting our ballclub" for one game out of 162, whatever.

Now, as for this Jewish Heritage Night - I'd love to know what kind of wacky Hebrew name I'd wind up with - there's not a whole lot you could do to "Michael" that would make it -- oh. Never mind.

True, and point taken. I was mainly just trying to point out some ideas that seemed less forced than Los in front of the wordmark. I guess more than it being offensive or whatnot, I just think it's a stupid idea that is a complete waste of time and money, and that they should just declare it Latino night, and donate that extra money. But hell, I also thought wearing VT hats after the shooting was a dumb idea, and I know my opinion differs from many on that one.

[meetthemets]

The point is no matter what they tried to do to educate or get some exposure for the Latin community, someone will have an opinion that it's either too over the top or not thoughtful enough. It is what it is. It's no different that a camo jersey or military appreciation day or a negro league jersey to honor the negro leagues. You can't please everybody. Same with the VT hats. Someone thought it would be a nice gesture and they went with it. Simple as that.

And to the comments about the Mets black jerseys by Gothamite, I guess we'll just agree to disagree. They HAVE decided on what their official colors are, and they include black. It's been that way for almost 10 years now. There's really no confusion in my mind what their official colors are. The reason the Yankees don't have 'turn back the clock night' is because their uniforms haven't changed. It works for them and thats fine, doesn't mean everyone has to do it that way. The Mets have had a consistent look for a while even though they change it up every few weeks, but their overall look hasn't changed much since the mid-90's. I don't have a problem switching the jerseys up every now and then to keep it fresh. As I have said many times, I am a fan of the black and I still am. Just my opinion.

[griffelh]

Do they really do that? Like David Wrightstein? Shawn Greenberg? Oh, wait...

Whoever thinks this is an issue is being ridiculous. They are trying to do something nice. It is better than what they do on Jewish Heritage Day when they announce the lineups using made up Hebrew names for the players!

losmets.com is also the Spanish version of their website.

They actually do more like Dovie Wright, Yossi Reyes, Moishe Piazza, Aaron Heilman....oh wait, that last one is his name!

[Drew22]

losmets.com is also the Spanish version of their website.

Dangit, even in Spanish Los Bravos are 6 games back.

[xyzzyva]

The Mets half-assed this to the best of their abilities.

I've yet to see a team FULL-ass a promotion like this

I would say that the Brewers' Cerveceros uniforms are about as full-assed as this type of promotion can get. At least until MLB adds CB Chivas USA, todo en español.