Team colors: Mets

In the category of baseball history, I probably know more than most fans. But I am forever coming across basic facts that I never knew. And then I question whether I really do know anything about baseball history at all.

For example, it took me about 30 years of being a fan until I knew that the Mets came up with their team colors based on the two teams that had vacated New York less than five years prior.

The Mets wear blue for the Dodgers, and orange for the Giants.

When I first learned that, I thought it was kind of cool. I'm fascinated with color and history and baseball, so this brought a smile to my face, that a team would pay tribute to the city's past and baseball's past through color.

And then it hit me:

The colors selected for the Mets also represented the product of combining the Dodgers and the Giants. If the Dodgers and Giants were to marry and give birth, the result of that unholy union would be the Mets!

(****shiver*****)

Suddenly, my many issues with the Mets make perfect sense.

So with that knowledge I am off to determine which colors that Topps used the most with Mets cards.

I fully expect it to be blue and orange. But now I'm a little bit obsessed with whether blue or orange will be the top color. Are the Mets more blue or more orange? Are they more Dodger or Giant? This could very well determine whether I can continue to root for them periodically.

If they are more Giant, I don't think that is possible.

So, here it is -- for the years in which Topps chose certain colors based on the team that was featured, here are the colors used with Mets cards:

1964: orange and light blue
1965: light green and yellow
1966: purple and yellow
1967: pink
1968: purple and yellow
1969: purple and yellow
1971: orange and light blue
1972: red, orange and yellow
1974: orange and blue
1976: light blue and gold
1977: light blue and orange
1978: yellow and light blue
1979: brown and yellow
1980: yellow, red and light blue
1981: blue and orange
1982: blue and pink
1983: red and light blue
1984: blue and green
1985: orange and purple
1986: orange
1987: orange
1988: orange, blue and light blue
1989: blue, red and orange
1991: blue, light blue and orange
1992: blue and orange
1993: orange and blue
1994: blue and orange
1998: blue and red
2000: blue
2002: blue and orange
2003: orange and black
2004: blue and orange
2005: blue and orange
2006: blue and orange
2007: blue and orange
2008: blue and orange
2009: orange
2010: orange
2011: blue and orange
2012: orange

Mets team colors: blue and orange

What Topps says are the Mets team colors: blue and orange

But that's not the question here.

Which one was featured the most?

Here are the totals for both:

Orange - 26
Blue - 20

OK, that's disappointing.

However, I had to break the blue color up into "blue" and "light blue," since Topps used light blue a lot with Mets colors, often in conjunction with plain, old blue. So when I add the light blue to the blue, here are the new totals.

Blue - 27
Orange - 26

And there you are. The Mets are more Dodger than they are Giant.

Still not going to root for them a whole lot. But at least they don't smell like Giant.

(The tally: Orange-26, Blue-20, Light Blue-7, Yellow-6, Red-5, Purple-3, Pink-2, Light Green-1, Gold-1, Brown-1, Green-1, Black-1)