Sponsored by Shea Stadium Remembered
The game was forgettable, but the clothes they wore left a mark—like forgetting your sunscreen on the planet closest to the sun. Twenty years ago “Turn Ahead the Clock Day” was a promotion from realtor Century 21 that assumed a lot of changes in this solar system between 1999 and 2021. Chief among those changes were huge logos in odd places with horrible fonts—at least for most of the clubs involved (the old school uniformed Red Sox and Tigers conveniently “lost” their versions of new age togs for the promotion). The Mets were relocated—not across the city or across the country, but across the universe. To Mercury.
Rickey Henderson grew a third eye and pointed ears—at least on the Shea DiamondVision rendering. Robin Ventura was suddenly bald. Bobby Valentine grew horns. And the uniforms were easily the worst the Mets had ever donned on this planet. The Mets, in the midst of a 65-30 run that began after three of Valentine’s coaches were fired in the midst of a June swoon, meekly fell to the Pirates, 5-1, on the third rock from the sun. In the locker room, Mets starter Orel Hershiser, who lost his first outing following his 200th career win, summed it up for many in the 20th century (and subsequent millennia): “If we can’t sell the product as it is, maybe we should give it a rest.”
