Here's to the Mets for not allowing that shameful showing in the opener to prevent them from claiming first place to themselves by series' end. Seems we were fortunate to catch Philly while Chase Utley suffered a severe case of the sucks, but if 2007 taught us anything it's that the winners can't choose how ugly the losers turn out to be.

With the uniform number roulette temporaily slowed down -- at least until they call up a guy to take Pedro Martinez's again-delayed start on Saturday (word coming in as as I write this is Brandon Knight, currently wearing No. 15 for your New Orleans Zephyrs), or Ryan Church arrives, or the trade deadline occurs... or whatever -- we have a few uni oddities to ponder.

Reader Michael sent along these here images of Jose Reyes wearing unfamilar numbers. While Reyes has occupied No. 7 for his entire Met career (except for Jackie Robinson Day this season), these are extrametular: No. 9 for his stint with the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic; and No. 28, I presume, from Binghamton prior to his callup but I'll let you experts out there tell me for sure.

The below team shot of hideously-dressed 1979 ballplayers on a tour of Japan, first published on Uni Watch this week, subsequently generated a fair amount of discussion at the Crane Pool Forum. The multistriped hats aren't 1976 pillbox throwbacks but renderings in the then-contemporary style in Japan (the 1976 lids had three stripes, not five). But what knocks me out are the contrasting styles of the numerals on the Mets jerseys worn by John Stearns and Joel Youngblood, respectively (see a larger image here). Can anyone offer an explanation of Youngblood's incorrect No. 1?

No they didn't make it to 11 straight wins but as first pointed out in the comments section below the Mets on Friday ran out an all-odd starting lineup for what we believe to be the first time in their 46-year history.

7 Reyes SS

9 Anderson LF

5 Wright 3B

15 Beltran CF

3 Easley 2B

21 Delgado 1B

17 Tatis RF

23 Schneider C

33 Maine P

They'd been toying with this accomplishment frequently this season, particularly with Alou unavailable, and were heretofore held back mainly by the presence of Endy Chavez in the starting 9 (or starts by Pelfrey or Perez).
Fittingly, this milestone -- rarer even than an extra-base hit by Brian Schneider -- was achieved only after replacing even manager Willie Randolph with an odd successor in Jerry Manuel.

And with that taken care of, we can focus on regaining first place.

After a solid half-season rehabbing his career in AAA, the Mets rewarded Tony Armas with his first big-league appearance of the year. Tonight's start in St. Louis (off to a shaky start as I write) is designed to provide a bit of rest for a stretched-out rotation, after which it is expected Armas will stay with the club filling the long-relief role previously filled by Claudio Vargas, Nelson Figueroa and Jorge Sosa. Armas appears tonight in No. 44 -- the same jersey he wore this spring that was later issued to Brady Clark when Clark when the trip north and Armas did not.

Leave it Greg Prince of Faith & Fear in Flushing to point out the last time No. 44 appeared on the back of a Mets pitcher it was the Mercury Mets and Jason Isringhausen -- who made his last appearance for the Mets wearing that jersey in July of 1999. That and a lot more.

Meantime, MBTN reader Paul C., aka King Of All Screen Capturers, delivers the above image of Isringhausen's unique Mercury Mets look -- condensed fonts don't exist in the future, doncha know.

To make room for Armas the Mets designated infielder Andy Phillips for assignment -- easy come, easy go -- and are gambling a short bench won't bite them in the butt before Moises Alou makes a return. Yes, they're counting on that again. Yes, the Met offense is collapsing under the anticipation of his return once again.

Talkin' baseball: Join me in Flushing this coming Monday, July 7, as I appear along with Greg Spira, co-editor of Meet the Mets, in a discussion about the Mets, baseball, books and anything else. We will have books for sale and/or signature (including Matt Silverman's Mets Essential and 100 Things), and afterward, I'll be happy to join you for a beer to watch the Mets-Phillies game.

Details: 6 p.m., Monday July 7 at the Queens Library -- Flushing , 41-17 Main Street, (718) 661-1200.

So the Mets made it two of three from the Diamondbacks this afternoon, winning the rubber game behind a well-timed error by the bad guys, and while wearing the black unis for the first non-Friday of the year. Howie Rose told listeners on Saturday that the Mets had planned to wear black then also, only to be foiled when the Snakes at the last minute donned their black shirts. (For the record, they wore a different look in each game of the series, including the hideous solid-red tops today, indicating how out-of-control the whole unisphere is. Many people consider the red/gold thing an improvement for the Diamnondbacks, but I'm not one of them. I mean, the teal/purple thing was awful but it at least called to mind some of that Southwest painted-desert art).

Yes, and so the Mets improved to 4-1 in black this year. I meant to keep a running tally, and may still do so if I can reconstruct the season. Unless someone else already has and would like to share...

Anyway, I was visiting relataives in the Philly TV market and wound up seeing most of today's Phillies-Giants game. You've probably been told the Giants suck this year, which is true to an extent, but they can pitch. Like the Diamondbacks this weekend, they probably played a little better overall but lost 2 of 3. The West has excellent pitching; we're about to see more in LA.

Just like the Mets to have a solid game against the league's best team on the same day that stories suggesting the org whack the manager (New York Sun) and pitching coach (Daily News) appear. But that's the Mets.

Part of it could be a lift from the return of Moises Alou to the lineup, though I'd argue that the drag of anticipating his return was every bit as bad. They activated Alou by the way, by demoting Gustavo Molina while Brian Schneider showed up in an emergency mode.

And don't get me wrong -- it's great to see Jose Reyes driving the ball again, and I want to see a cycle as much as the next guy, maybe more, but Sandy Alomar Sr. is a horse's ass for sending Reyes after the inside-the-parker with no outs. Not only was he out by a mile but he could have gotten hurt. And he certainly would have scored given the three bats in the lineup to follow him. Alomar got away with the same kinda boneheaded calls all last year and was never held accountable.

Worth noticing in the game was the fact they were in their black jerseys again... a get-up that to this point has been worn on each Friday of the season and only on Friday. A friend pointed out these jerseys do not include the Shea Stadium patch as their white ones do. Not sure offhand is that is peculiar only to the black jerseys or to black road jerseys. Do you know? Let us know.

Got the following email recently from reader Steve:

I bought a Rawlings authentic jersey on eBay a few weeks ago. The seller listed it as a Jose Reyes jersey but I knew it couldn't have been because: 1) it's a Rawlings and 2) it just had the "7", with no player name, on the back. So, upon seeing it, I immediately thought it was a '99 Todd Pratt jersey (I was excited someone liked Pratt as much as I did, that they'd actually get a Pratt jersey). That all changed, however, when I got it in the mail.

For starters, the authentic tag is on the inside of the jersey, not the outside, which is where it is when players get them. It also has the "flag tag" hanging from it, indicating size "42", the Rawlings jerseys had tags in the collars with the size. Third, it has the MLB logo sewn on the back of the neck, which wasn't done until 2000. So, all these things made me very confused. So, I got to thinking that maybe this was a minor league issued jersey (maybe the B-Mets) but I just don't know. I was hoping there might be some way you could help. Was there someone on the B-Mets who was small enough to wear a "42" sometime after 2000 and before they started using Majestic?

As I explained to Steve, I'm not an expert at all when it comes to jersey make/models but as he did, I suspect he must have purchased a B-Mets jersey. But I don't know for sure, and I hope you might. To sum up, Steve is looking at a "game-worn" jersey that:

1) No. 7, no name on the back

2) Size 42

3) MLB logo on the back

4) Rawlings make

If you have some ideas as to the origin of this jersey, please share them in the comments section below.

***

Thanks to all who showed up at last night's event at Word Books, where I discussed Mets by the Numbers and Spike Vrusho told tales from his book on baseball brawls, flawlessly brought to life by Caryn of MetsGrrl (who I know must be saddened today by the passing of E- Streeter Danny Federici). The event was a lot of fun, and though we'd missed most of last night's regularly-scheduled Mets game to do the event, the Mets were kind enough to give us plenty of time for drinks and triumphant game-watching afterward at Red Star.

I was at Shea last night for the first time this year thanks to my co-writer, and now co-star in a potential future episode of Mets Weekly. We were joined by two other swell guys, and we had a great time, the Mets looked resplendent, especially with the blue hats, matching 42 jerseys (anyone other than me remember Chuck Taylor?) and no names on the back. Sweet.

Worth noting was that the scoreboard identified the players by their assigned numbers but the Shea PA announcer introduced them all as No. 42. I'll address how to integrate this event into the database when I've had some time to think about it.

I missed the announcement pre-game so I was delighted to see Duaner Sanchez trot in from the bullpen for the the 9th inning. The quietly effective Carlos Muniz was shipped back to the minors to make room. Just an all-around terrific night.

6 p.m. Tonight, we're opening for Gary Carter at Bookends in Ridewood, N.J. Thursday at 7:30, I'll discuss the Mets and baseball with Metsgrrl and Spike Vrusho (author of Benchclearing) at Word Books in Greenpoint (beer and snacks to be served)!

So this is turning out to be a better week than it looked like it might be back on Tuesday, what with an impressive debut starts from Mike Pelfrey and Nelson Figueroa; the first Metly appearance and contribution from Raul Casanova; and a continued MVP bid from Angel Pagan. There's something satisfying knowing that all these guys are one-time products of the maligned Mets farm system.

Figueroa's victory last night marked the first appearance of the dreaded black unis all season (not to mention the first call for a tailor to get Figueroa's jersey to fit right. Looked like a size 44 wearing a 52). Correct me if I'm wrong, but we've yet to see pinstripes and/or the gorgeous all-blue Mets cap yet. Speaking as a neighbor of hundreds of young hipsters, the latter is becoming the new trucker cap around here: I'll try and gather photographic evidence and show you in a future post.

Nice to see the Mets honor Shea (that's my wife's maiden name, doncha know?) but leave it to the incomparable Paul Lukas to point out they did so while introducing unnecessary black dropshadows to the logo and accompanying retired numbers.

* Thanks to Eric Simon of Amazin' Avenue (and his readers) for the enthusiastic book review he published recently. See also a nice note from author, reviewer and Yankee fanatic Harvey Frommer. And Mark Lelinwalla of the NY Daily News did a short peice on the book's creation in The Score column last week.

* I'll be at two great independent bookstores next week to sign and discuss the book: On Wednesday, Bookends in Ridgewood, N.J.; and Thursday at Word Books in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Thanks as usual to a great readership we destroyed the Kingman Kontroversy in a matter of hours and moved on to still more mystery.

First up, on the right is a 1981 program showing a spring training photo of Dave Kingman (wearing No. 5, obscured by his bat) along with Rusty Staub. Both TommieCleon and SJR provided me with this image -- apparently published at least twice that season (once pre-strike, once post-strike).

On the left is a weird All-Star insert card provided by TommieCleon, also showing Kong with the partially obscured No. 5.

As detailed in the comments in the post below this, this controversy reminded me of another "false positive" Kingman spring. This one was 1975. Tonight I cracked open the '75 yearbook to find the below photo, showing the newly acquired Kingman in a St. Petersburg batting cage wearing No. 4 but with a roster, dated March 27, noting Kingman would wear 26 once the season began. Adding to this confusion were photos of Rusty Staub also wearing 4 -- but they dated to 1974. Staub that spring was wearing 10 for the first time -- he'd ditched 4 after Duffy Dyer was traded that winter.

Now things get really weird. When that 1975 season finally began, it was April 8, a Tuesday day game against the Phillies -- 33 years ago today. I was at Shea with my Dad, and Kingman hit a home run. We won 2-1 that day as Seaver outdueled Carlton.

Tonight I learned that today's disappointing home opener against the Phillies was attended by Dave Kingman.

I don't know what it means either. 

 * Before today's game, Matt Wise was placed on the disabled list with a stiff forearm. The surprise recallee, Carlos Muniz, pitched this after noon wearing No. 32. Muniz wore 38 last year before Wise arrived this winter.

MBTN reader Gordon passed the below photo along today along with this note:

I came across a picture at a flea market this weekend. It was labeled to be Dave Kingman (it looks like him). He's wearing uniform #5.

For whatever reason, this photo looks vaguely familiar to me but I can't place it. If indeed it's Kingman, and I agree on the blurry resemblance, the intersection of uniform style, Kong's tenure with the Mets, and availability of No. 5 places this picture as being taken sometime in 1981, obviously in a road game, and before September 11, when Mike Howard was issued No. 5.

My guess is, as often the case, it dates from spring training -- where photos exist of Kingman wearing No. 10 from his first tenure. But if you have a guess or happen to know something, please share in the comments section below.

* Thanks to my friends new and old who showed up at the MBTN book launch Sunday at Stout NYC and shared beer, wings, pretzels, burgers and the pain of realizing Luis Castillo is only in the 5th day of a four-year contract. The SNY crew didn't make it after all, but looks like we'll have an audience with them soon. Thanks also to the folks who made our appearance at Barnes & Noble Bayside a fun time on Saturday, especially Ashley who set it all up, and Mike, Mike and Lou. We left behind a short stack of autographed copies there -- get them while they last.

* We have a few more events on the calendar for next week, including an appearance at Bookends in New Jersey April 16 and a baseball writers event at Word Books in Brooklyn April 17 hosted by Caryn Rose of Metsgrrl and also featuring Spike Vrusho, author of Benchclearing: Baseball's Greatest Fights and Riots. No way can you miss that.