St Lucie Mets Flirt with new name, settle on new logo

They could have been the St. Lucie Squid, Sand Sharks, or even Salamanders but in the end the St. Lucie Mets (New York Mets Single-A, Florida State League) decided to stick with the Mets and simply upgrade the team logos and uniforms.

In a move to get more in-line with the parent club’s recent changes, St. Lucie dropped black from their colour scheme to put more of an emphasis on the orange and blue.

“We thought it was a good time with our 25th anniversary coming up in 2013. We wanted to stay with what the big club was doing and also add our own touches to it” – Paul Taglieri, NY Mets Director of Florida Operations to MiLB.com

The new logo continues on the theme that this is a Florida-based club, but does it give a much needed update. A tilted wooden sign with a silhouetted palm tree in front of a setting sun gives the viewer a much greater sense that this team is going with a beach-like brand than the previous logo which featured not much more than a baseball/sun streaking over a green blob of a palm tree.

Comparing the old and new St. Lucie Mets primary logos

Other changes include giving Mr. Met the old retired New Yorker treatment by dressing him up in sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt. He’ll be on the sleeves of each of the new uniforms.

“I love the orange. We moved the black away from the uniform, and it really has a Florida look to it. And I love Florida Mr. Met — it gives us our own identity as our own team.” – Taglieri

Despite the use of Mr. Florida Met on their new uniforms the team says they have no plans to introduce him as their new mascot, although a new team mascot may be announced in January to replace their previous mascot “Slider”.

The Mr. Mets! His New York look on the left, and his new Florida gear on the right

Speaking of the uniforms, there’s three of them – a home, road, and alternate. Two caps for in-game use, 1 home and 1 for the road/alternate jersey; a batting practice cap was also unveiled.

While the uniforms share some elements of the big-league Mets the pinstripes are missing from the home uniform, and we’re also thankful that the St Lucie Mets are the only Mets team to wear a white vest with an orange undershirt and orange piping… this is a look that should not be called up from the Minors no matter how much help the club may need come September.

St Lucie Mets new uniforms for 2013, (L-R) home, road, and alternate

The previously mentioned caps are fairly straight-forward, they all have the “StL” logo (also on the front of the alternate jersey) in orange. The home cap with a blue crown and orange brim, while on the road it’s an all-blue cap with that same orange “StL” logo. The BP cap is a straight reversed colour version of the road/alt cap, what was orange is now blue and vise-versa.

St. Lucie Mets new caps for 2013

“I like the orange, I like the palm tree with the sun — it really gives it a Florida effect. And being a New York Mets fan for years, Mr. Met has always been my favorite. Having a St. Lucie Mr. Met is good. If you’re a huge Met fan, Mr. Met has always been the main mascot. It should be good.” – St Lucie Mets Fan Club president Jim Fertitta to the TC Palm

St. Lucie’s 2013 schedule gets underway at home on April 4th against the Jupiter Hammerheads.