Our “Let’s go Mess” T-shirts

It’s hard to describe the 2009 season.  I’ve heard a lot of different words to describe this season and none of them are very nice.  Some people blame ownership and others blame management but I have a hard time with blaming either.  The number of injured players is bad enough but the number of injured all-star players is astounding.  During the two weeks David Wright was on the Disabled List, the Mets had 6 all-stars on the DL.

In recognition of the extraordinary way injuries have shaped the Mets' 2009 season, I had the graphic shown here made for the back window of the Met Car. It shows the uniform numbers of the active players that were out with injuries at the time. We used the "numbers on a pinstriped background" theme usually used for retired numbers and combined them with the international "NO" symbol to show a list of players who were not able to participate this year -- No Reyes, no Beltran, no Delgado, etc. Then we summarized it all with a "No '09" graphic.

Then, things got worse. We counted things up and found a total of 12 players, most of them fairly significant, who either had been or would be on the DL for large parts of the season. So, using the same graphical theme, we made T-shirts, which you can see to the right.

The word I have been using is “mess”.  The whole year was just a big mess.  On the other hand, this is still my team — still my mess — so I still support and root for them, despite there being no hope at all this year.  Hence, “Let’s go mess.”

The back of the shirt again shows ’09 with a line through it, accepting that this year is effectively done, but it holds out hope for next year as it reminds us that pitchers & catchers will be reporting for Spring Training on February 14, 2010.

We are now offering these shirts to all who want to commiserate with us. The shirts are available for $20 each, which includes all applicable sales taxes and Priority Mail shipping anywhere within the U.S. To order your shirt, go here.