Mets fan thinks Padres should stop wearing camouflage jerseys because it makes the players nearly impossible to see

When I saw this blog post on Yahoo!'s Contributor Network titled San Diego Padres Should Stop Wearing Camouflage Jerseys: A Fan’s View, I thought for sure it was was written by another peace activist, but I was wrong.

The author, Eric who incidentally is a Mets fan, doesn't have any problem with the Padres honoring the military.  He just thinks that the new camouflage jerseys work so well that they hide the players from the fans' view. 

With all due respect to our military, the uniforms are so realistic that it makes Padres games troublesome to watch both on television and in person at Petco Park.

He goes on to describe how camouflage is meant to hide people in their surroundings.  Which is true, but in this case the desert camouflage would really only hide them in a desert, not on the green grass of the outfield and the dark clay of the infield.  Not to mention that all the players wear bright white pants.

Now I would agree if his complaint was that it's hard to read the names and numbers on the players' jerseys.  The numbers after all are written in a darker shade of tan that blend with the rest of the jersey.  The names on the back are written in bright white that reflect the sun and are difficult to read even on television.

But he's saying that it's pointless to even watch a Sunday home game because you can't see the players clearly.

Thinking about taking the wife and kids to a Sunday day game at Petco Park? Don't even think about it, as the players will be nearly impossible to follow from the upper deck.

The jerseys blend in with grass, sand and dirt, which makes nearly all the players on the field tough to see unless you're up close.

I suspect he's purposely being a little over dramatic to emphasize his point because I've never heard any other complaint about fans not being able to see the players.  I mean it's not like they are wearing Japanese invisible fabric.

I was talking to Dex about this article and we were both wondering if he was being serious.  Dex asked if I thought he was color blind, but that can't be it.

At one time the U.S. Army found that color blind people could spot "camouflage" colors that fooled those with normal color vision

Eric then suggest that a better alternative for the Padres would be to wear a commemorative patch or host military personnel at the ballpark like the Mets do at CitiField. 

Perhaps the Padres should take a page out of the Mets' book by honoring the military in a similar fashion.

This suggestion made me wonder if Eric has ever actually witnessed a Sunday game in San Diego, because the Padres, who are the Team of the Military, have been hosting Marines and Marine recruits every Sunday for well over a decade. They even pay tribute to them by playing the Marine Corps Hymn between innings while the Marines stand at attention and fans cheer them.  If anything the Mets have already taken a page out of the Padres' book and it's probably only a matter of time before they start to wear realistic camouflage jerseys too.

[UPDATE]