The History and Evolution of the New York Mets Logo

There was a time when New York City had not one, not two, but three major league baseball teams. In short, there were the Brooklyn Dodgers, the New York Giants, and the New York Yankees. However, following the 1957 season, both the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants headed out of New York City, thus becoming the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants.

This created a vacuum in the New York City market for major league baseball that needed to be filled up. Moreover, there were concerns about a third major league launching at the time, which was enough when combined with the previous point to convince the National League to permit a new expansion for the city. Said expansion was called the New York Metropolitan Baseball Club, which was soon shortened to create the New York Mets name that was both much catchier and much more convenient for newspaper printers.

How Has the New York Mets Logo Changed Over Time?

The New York Mets is interesting in that it is one of the baseball teams that have seen few changes to its logo. Moreover, said changes have been minimal in nature, so much so that someone who has seen the first version of the logo should have no problems recognizing the latest version of the logo and vice versa.

For starters, interested individuals will have noticed that the New York Mets makes extensive use of both blue and orange. These are not coincidental choices. Instead, the New York Mets chose these colors at the start of the baseball team’s existence with simple and straightforward intentions that would have been much more obvious to people in those times than people in the present time. In short, the blue was taken from the Brooklyn Dodgers while the orange was taken from the New York Giants, thus enabling the New York Mets to position itself as a successor to those two teams. On top of this, it should be mentioned that the blue, orange, and white are the same colors seen on the New York City flag, which in turn, came from an earlier version of the Dutch Republic flag called the Prince’s Flag. Based on this, it should be clear that the New York Mets chose its colors for the purpose of endearing itself to its potential fans as much as possible, which was a sensible move considering the circumstances of its creation.

The same sentiment can be seen in the New York Mets logo. In short, it consists of the baseball team name rendered in white-bordered orange letters upon a baseball with a bridge as well as a symbolic representation of the New York City skyline looming over it. It is interesting to note that the bridge is supposed to be a symbol of the New York Mets, which is supposed to represent not just one borough but all five of the boroughs that make up the city.

With that said, while the first version and the current version of the logo remain recognizable as variations of one another, there have been a couple of minor changes. First, the logo saw a very small change in 1993, with the result that the orange on the logo became a somewhat darker shade compared to the orange on its immediate predecessor. Second, the logo saw the removal of the small, interlocked “NY” that was once situated to the left side of the baseball team name, perhaps because it was never particularly useful in the first place. After all, the “NY” is so small on the first two versions of the logo that it tends to blend into its surroundings. Something that is further strengthened by the orange of the stitches on the baseball.

Why Do Some Baseball Teams Change Their Logos So Much More Than Others?

Summed up, the New York Mets is a baseball team that hasn’t seen much point to changing its logo. There are a number of reasons why baseball teams as well as other businesses might choose to change their logos, with examples including but not limited to refreshing their image, stirring up public interest, and changing for a better reflection of its changed circumstances. However, it seems safe to say that the New York Mets hasn’t found these reasons to be applicable in its case.