More comical for Mets: Bobby V or Bartolo?

NEW YORK -- Perhaps it’s no surprise that the Mets, who suffered through seven losing seasons before ever putting together a winning year, have had more than their share of colorful characters and comical moments. For those seeking a few laughs, here are six of the funniest:

1. Incognito Bob
June 9, 1999
When Mike Piazza was penalized for catcher’s interference in the 12th inning of a game against the Blue Jays, manager Bobby Valentine argued his case animatedly enough to earn an ejection from home-plate umpire Randy Marsh, and that was the end of that. Until it wasn’t. Not long after, television cameras spotted Valentine in the dugout tunnel wearing a different cap, plus sunglasses and a fake mustache.

Although the costume was enough to send play-by-play man Howie Rose into peals of laughter on the air, National League officials didn’t find it so funny, suspending Valentine two games and fining him $5,000. Valentine contended that he never actually stepped back into the dugout as the Mets secured a 4-3 win, standing instead on the steps leading up to it. Either way, a legend was born.

2. Do the moonwalk
June 23, 1963
When quirky Mets outfielder Jim Piersall hit his 100th career home run in a 5-0 win over the Phillies, he knew he wanted to make the celebration memorable. So Piersall took the unconventional step of rounding the bases backward -- not running third to second to first, mind you, but actually running backward. The move generated plenty of publicity for Piersall, though he later said that manager Casey Stengel was so angry, Stengel cut Piersall because of the stunt. Indeed, less than a month later, the Mets released Piersall, though it may have also had something to do with his .216 average and .540 OPS.

3. Bart goes boom
May 7, 2016
For years, Bartolo Colon frequented a Friday night softball game in Bonao, a Dominican Republic city about an hour from his home. There, Colon regularly hit homers.

So perhaps it should have come as no surprise when Colon blasted the first of his Major League career at age 42, taking James Shields deep in a 6-3 win over the Padres at Petco Park. As his teammates burst into laughter in the dugout, whooping and hollering, Colon trotted around the bases in a cool 30.6 seconds. When he arrived back in the dugout, the Mets gave him a brief silent treatment before jumping up and down while laughing and screaming some more. Years later, Colon’s former Mets teammates still joke about the night Bart went deep.

4. Whoops times two
June 17, 1962
Well-known for his frequent bloopers, “Marvelous” Marv Throneberry committed his most infamous gaffe three months into the Mets’ inaugural season. Atoning for an error in the top of the first inning, Throneberry appeared to triple home two runs in the bottom half. The Cubs appealed, arguing that Throneberry had failed to touch one of the bases. The details of the episode have grown hazy over the years, but all accounts agree on this: As Stengel stormed out of the dugout in protest, an umpire told him not to bother because Throneberry had missed the other base, too. The Mets lost, 8-7.

5. Out of this world
July 27, 1999
As part of Major League Baseball’s “Turn Ahead the Clock” promotion in 1999, teams created futuristic uniforms to spoof the throwback threads that had become popular around the game. The Mets took the promotion a step further, creating a storyline that by the year 2021, they had relocated to the planet Mercury. In addition to the team’s black, silver and silky “Mercury Mets” uniforms, many in the ballpark vividly remember the scoreboard graphics the Mets created to go along with the story: player photos featuring tentacles, horns, tufts of green hair and other alien accessories.

Players noticed, too. As leadoff man Rickey Henderson stepped into the batter’s box for his first at-bat, he saw his mocked-up photograph featuring green skin, three eyes and pointy ears. Henderson stepped out of the box, staring at the scoreboard in disbelief before finally coming to the plate. The morning after New York’s 5-1 loss to the Pirates, the Daily News’ back page blared a single word in oversized print: “UGLY.”

6. Uh … can I have that back?
Aug. 12, 2000
With runners on second and third base in the fourth inning of a game against the Giants, Bobby Estalella hit what would have been a routine sacrifice fly -- that is, had outfielder Benny Agbayani not handed the ball to a young boy in the stands, thinking there were three outs. As Agbayani reversed course to grab the ball back from the fan -- sorry, kid -- both runners scored to give the Giants a 2-1 lead.

There are, at least, two happy endings to this story. Agbayani’s goof didn’t wind up hurting the Mets, who came back to win, 3-2. An inning later, Agbayani also made sure the fan received another ball as he was warming up in left field. For all parties involved, it’s probably a good bit funnier now than it was at the time.