Special edition for Mets Police
Even after the black drop shadows were removed from all Mets jerseys and new alternate jerseys and hats were introduced to replace their black counterparts, the black alternate Mets jersey has proven to be hard to kill. Used just twice in 2012 and not at all in 2013, the black jersey is back as an official alternate in 2014. It’s anyone’s guess as to whether it will see any use in the future, but if you’re looking for a black jersey fix, Topps has you covered. Because they’ve been slow to get the memo about black being out of style.
2013 Bowman
It wasn’t a long wait to see the first Mets cards with photoshopped black jerseys. 2013 Bowman featured black jerseys on two of the Mets Cream of the Crop mini cards. For Travis d’Arnaud, it makes sense that Topps wouldn’t have much to work with, considering that he became part of the Mets organization just five months before 2013 Bowman was released. But Michael Fulmer? He does not look amused.
2013 Bowman Platinum
Man, the Blue Jays sure must love black jerseys. Noah Syndergaard’s first Mets cards (released in 2013 Bowman along with d’Arnaud) showed him in a decent attempt at a photoshopped gray Mets jersey. For Bowman Platinum though, Topps made the rare decision to use different photographs for Syndergaard’s base and insert cards. The insert used the gray version and the base cards got this snazzy black number.
2013 Bowman Chrome
Colored borders can’t even make this photo of Matt Reynolds look good. Maybe a signature could spice things up.
Nope, that only makes the photo and its black jersey look worse. Are there really so few pictures of these guys that this is the best they could come up with?
2013 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects
Oh, hello again Noah Syndergaard black jersey photo. You know, Topps, if you needed some photos of Syndergaard in an easy-to-photoshop gray Binghamton Mets jersey, you could have just asked. I would even have been willing to cut you a discount on the licensing fee. The Syndergaard card looks even worse when you consider that three of the six Mets draft picks in this product are shown in blue jerseys.
And at least in the case of Andrew Church, it turns out that Topps can turn a black jersey blue. Because there is apparently only one Andrew Church photo to work with.
2013 Bowman Sterling
Looks like I spoke too soon. Topps found a different photo of Church for Bowman Sterling (but not for Syndergaard, who is back in the gray version) and turned it black. But at least all of these black jerseys are only used on prospects. Topps has its own photo shoots in spring training to make sure that it always has a couple of photos of each player on the team they start the season with.
And then they go and slap a cut-rate black jersey photoshop job on an old photo and call it a day. Because the black jersey will not, can not die.
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