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Banner Day

Johnny Dickshot Apr 10 2006 07:45 AM

What do you say we all cause a ruckus until the Mets reinstate Banner Day? With all the attention the 86ers are getting this year, and the unpleasantness related to Soupcan booing all the time, it'd be nice if the team could at oncely celebrate a bit of their past while rewarding the Ned Flanderseses out there who get on their knees and blow the team every day just like they do in St. Louis. Actually, it'd just be nice. And now that there's a second game on July 8, a perfect opportunity. I don't think they would plan a "classic" doubleheader, but rather a day-night. But that works: The Mets ought to invite all fans who wish to participate in banner day to the evening game, for say, a walkaround at 6pm. That'll draw more fans to an unscheduled game, keep those beers and hot dogs selling, etc etc. (The promo scheduled for the Day Game is "take her out to the ballgame" Day where all chixx get free cocoa butter or something). Make it an event. Have celebrity judges. Give away a cool prize. Televise it on MTV. Make a pile of money. Who's with me?

Bret Sabermetric Apr 10 2006 07:48 AM

Write to Fred.

seawolf17 Apr 10 2006 07:51 AM

I always wanted to do Banner Day as a kid, but they got rid of it before I got old enough to do it. (I have to say... that shea butter stuff they give away is outstanding. We went on Mother's Day a few years ago, and got a great tote bag -- which we still use as Peanut's travel bag -- and some of the Palmer's Shea Butter, which we swear by. It doesn't leave your hands all greasy like most lotions; I even have a bottle in my desk at work.)

Edgy DC Apr 10 2006 07:52 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Apr 10 2006 07:55 AM

Pitch it as a charity day. Make everybody carrying a banner give $15 (minimum) to the Keith Hernandez Alzheimer's Fund or something. Or better yet, a breast cancer fund, since it's Take Her Out Day. But get Keith (or some similarly-statured player/org-guy) in your corner and you're gold.

Johnny Dickshot Apr 10 2006 07:53 AM

David Wright has a new foundation in need of pub and donations. That's a great idea.

Benjamin Grimm Apr 10 2006 07:55 AM

I read that the July 8th double-header is going to be a classic, two games for the price of one, double-header. Perfect for Banner Day. It's a great idea. When was the last scheduled Banner Day? Someone wrote to me to ask this a few months ago, and I leafed through a couple of yearbooks and I seem to remember seeing one scheduled as late as 1988.

Bret Sabermetric Apr 10 2006 07:56 AM

seawolf17 wrote: It doesn't leave your hands all greasy like most lotions; I even have a bottle in my desk at work.) What are you doing at your desk that you need a bottle of lotion handy?

Iubitul Apr 10 2006 07:57 AM

Here's to hoping that this is one of the message boards that Gary was referring to the other night.... This is a great idea.

cooby Apr 10 2006 08:03 AM Re: Banner Day

Johnny Dickshot wrote: . (The promo scheduled for the Day Game is "take her out to the ballgame" Day where all chixx get free cocoa butter or something). Who's with me? Free cocoa butter, I'd be up for that. Johnny ought to be in charge of Mets marketing

KC Apr 10 2006 08:11 AM

Great idea, how would we go about creating a ruckus - there isn't much time.

Johnny Dickshot Apr 10 2006 08:15 AM

I'll start ruckusing today.

Frayed Knot Apr 10 2006 08:25 AM

Why do I get the idea that Wilpon & co will be too deathly afraid that Banner Day 2006 wouldn't exactly re-create the wholesome family fun that it evoked back in the 1970s.

KC Apr 10 2006 08:26 AM

They probably have some kind of insurance related excuse at the ready, but good luck.

soupcan Apr 10 2006 08:32 AM

My banner (Thanks to CF)

Edgy DC Apr 10 2006 08:43 AM

Does Beltran typically drive through that section of Mount Vernon at dawn in January?

cooby Apr 10 2006 08:45 AM

He might if he had a chance to see soupcan in a black toupee

MFS62 Apr 10 2006 08:51 AM

Frayed Knot wrote: Why do I get the idea that Wilpon & co will be too deathly afraid that Banner Day 2006 wouldn't exactly re-create the wholesome family fun that it evoked back in the 1970s. It couldn't get any worse than a pre-banner day banner than hung from the upper deck of the Polo Grounds in 1962. It said: FUCK O'MALLEY. The camera was panning the banners, with one of the Met announcers commenting on how clever they were. When the camera got to that one, the director quickly cut to a commercial. Later

soupcan Apr 10 2006 08:52 AM

Edgy DC wrote: Does Beltran typically drive through that section of Mount Vernon at dawn in January? Yes.

cooby Apr 10 2006 08:55 AM

BTW, I thought you said in your spring training thread that you thought it was gone? (that picture's very funny)

soupcan Apr 10 2006 08:58 AM

I did think it was gone. I was standing about 30 feet from him and didn't see it. Sadly, I was mistaken.

Johnny Dickshot Apr 10 2006 01:19 PM

Mets PR intern sez: * Games scheduled as old-skool DH July 8. * Promotion schedule set ahead of time. * Banner Day was discussed but decided against this year. * Will note my call when discussing next year's promo skedule. * Please fax Jay Horwitz with further suggestions. At this point I suppose we go talk to DWright or Cliff or Tom Glavine or Keith Hernandez' favorite charity. Then fax JH. No?

Edgy DC Apr 10 2006 02:38 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Apr 10 2006 03:02 PM

Keef supports Jacqueline Hernandez Adult Day Health Center Address: 380 Henry Street (Cobble Hill, near Long Island College Hospital) Brooklyn, NY 11201 Model: Medical Telephone: (718) 855-2050 Contact: Barbara Williams or Program Director. A little over a dickshot's distance from Dickshot's house, I guess. David Wright Foundation. Among other things, Tom Glavine supports the Rally Foundation. Big League Chew is committed to wiping out childhood cancer? OK.

Elster88 Apr 10 2006 02:57 PM

Might be better to go with an active player. Does Keef still have a lot of pull with the team? LENNY DYKSTRA, BABY!!!!

KC Apr 10 2006 03:31 PM

We should probably set our sights on 2007 since they got their plans in place for 2006. This will require them actually scheduling an old fashioned double header day - something that seems to be a very unpopular thing these days with baseball teams - and that's a big monetary hurdle to get a team to accept for some reason (I mean I know the reasons) before they even con- sider to slide banner day in that slot.

Johnny Dickshot Apr 10 2006 03:46 PM

Well, I don't see where they can't do a Banner Day immediately following a Day game, or whatever... But yer right, '07 is a more likely goal.

Edgy DC Apr 10 2006 03:46 PM

Well, they've scheduled in things like Pakastani Day after the promotional calendar was printed.* Maybe setting sights on this year is the best way to get it for next year. Sort of like shooting for the stars being the best way to reach the moon. We can also start a parallel internet viral campaign --- promoting that date as a de facto Banner Day, telling everybody to show up with banners whether the Mets like it or not. _________ *They might have just plugged that one in Paki communities, but kept it off the general schedule for fear of hate crimes.

KC Apr 10 2006 03:51 PM

I don't mean to be a wet blanket, but we can't even get everyone together for a tail-gate party before a game much less a de facto Banner Day.

Edgy DC Apr 10 2006 03:53 PM

Well, I'm sorry to hear that. What I mean to say is everyone in the Mets universe. Write to all the bloggers and get them to plug it.

Willets Point Apr 10 2006 03:53 PM

If it rains on banner day we'll all have wet blankets, or at least wet sheets.

KC Apr 10 2006 04:27 PM

E: >>>Well, I'm sorry to hear that.<<< I don't know what you're sorry about, but as a group we don't exactly have a good track record of getting everyone on the same page for things at the same time. I realize there are a lot of variables and good reasons, but get- ting people to commit to stuff is a rough road. I agree that perhaps an internet blitz by all sites, forums, and blogs is pro- bably a good starting point.

Benjamin Grimm Apr 10 2006 04:59 PM

I think I recall that the last Banner Day or two were not scheduled to coincide with doubleheaders. Sort of as a pre-game event. I'll have to look at old yearbooks to see if I can confirm that.

Edgy DC Apr 10 2006 05:04 PM

]I don't know what you're sorry about I guess I'm sorry for my part in sucking.

Benjamin Grimm Apr 10 2006 05:54 PM

Sunday, August 6, 1989: Banner Day scheduled prior to a 3:05 p.m. single game against Montreal.

Benjamin Grimm Apr 10 2006 05:55 PM

Sunday, August 4, 1991: a 3:10 p.m. single game against the Cubs.

Benjamin Grimm Apr 10 2006 06:00 PM

Sunday, August 29, 1993, a 3:10 p.m. game against Colorado. I can't find my 1994 yearbook. No Banner Day was scheduled for 1995, but there were a few dates on the calendar labled simply, "Promotion." I guess that since the strike lasted through the winter they probably had a hard time getting everything scheduled in time for the yearbooks to go to press.

Benjamin Grimm Apr 10 2006 06:05 PM

On August 4, 1996, it was no longer called "Banner Day." It became, instead, the "Tropicana Pre-Game Banner Parade and Contest." The game that day was a 1:40 p.m. start against St. Louis. It seems they were allocating less time for the festivities. I'm surprised that there was still a Banner Day as late as 1996. I would have guessed it had ended long before then. Maybe the interest was diminishing. Traditions don't always get cut off abruptly; sometimes they fade away. There was no Banner Day scheduled in 1997. Instead, in August we saw the debut of the International Week celebrations.

ScarletKnight41 Apr 10 2006 06:07 PM

August 21, 1994 - Banner Night Pre-Game Parade and Contest.

KC Apr 10 2006 06:22 PM

I'm surprised as well that they went well into the 90's.

Edgy DC Apr 10 2006 06:31 PM

Night? That's crazy talk.

Rockin' Doc Apr 10 2006 08:36 PM

Yancey - "I read that the July 8th double-header is going to be a classic, two games for the price of one, double-header." I suddenly have a great idea for a road trip. I have to see how it fits into the kids' schedule of summer activities. If I'm lucky, maybe I can convince my wife that two games would double her fun at the ballpark. Last season several of us gathered in Washington, D.C. for a CPF 4th of July weekend. Possibly, we could organize a similar event for the Saturday, July 8th doubleheader against the the Marlins.

Edgy DC Apr 10 2006 08:39 PM

Not bad thinking, Doctor.

TheOldMole Apr 11 2006 12:45 AM

We did Banner Day once. My brother did this incredible painting, on a sheet, a pastiche of the Trumbull painting of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, with members of the 69 Mets, captioned "The Founding Fathers of the American Revolution." We lost. The winning banner was a crudely lettered "LBJ Loves the Mets" with the LBJ spelled out in smaller letters as Larry, Bob and Joe.

G-Fafif Apr 11 2006 12:26 PM

ScarletKnight41 wrote: August 21, 1994 - Banner Night Pre-Game Parade and Contest. This one was struck out by labor pains, unless some diehards picked the locks in their desire to parade and contest. Went to the '93 pre-gamer. I was shocked that so many Mets fans could be motivated to display affection for a team that was 45-84 going in and 45-85 coming out. So it's not out of the question the bedsheets flew during the strike of '94 even if nobody was around to see them.

Benjamin Grimm Apr 12 2006 12:41 PM

From the Picnic Thread. Yancy Street Gang wrote: As I've been thinking about it while looking at those old schedules in the yearbooks, I think Banner Day is a concept whose time has passed. I suspect that if it was revived it would flop. Some things may be better left in the past. ="Edgy DC"]You may be right. I'd like to see that argument spelled out, though. Well, here's why I get that sense: When I was first aware of Banner Day, it was a big deal. They even televised the parade between the games of the doubleheader, with Lindsey, Ralph, and Bob doing commentary. It was appointment TV for Mets fans. It continued as a doubleheader tradition well into the 80's, but it got less and less attention from the media. Whether the lack of media attention was a reaction to declining fan interest, or the cause of it, I can't say. But the coverage did slacken, and I think the general interest did too. As I saw in the yearbooks, and posted in that other thread, by 1989, with the demise of scheduled doubleheaders, the Banner Day festivities ended up preceding a singleheader. Well into the 1990's, the start time for these games was around 3 p.m. That meant that the Mets were effectively delaying the start of the game for two hours to accomodate the parade. In 1996, however, the Banner Day game started at 1:40. Why did the Mets allow less time for the festivities? My guess is that after a few years they finally realized that there wasn't the level of participation that there used to be. In 1997 they didn't bother scheduling it at all. And I don't recall anybody noticing. I don't recall myself noticing. And weren't we all surprised to see that there was still a Banner Day on the books as late as 1996? When a tradition fades away with little notice, I suspect that any revival would be a disappointment.

cooby Apr 12 2006 12:54 PM

"What the Heck Happened to Schneck"

Johnny Dickshot Apr 12 2006 12:59 PM

]When a tradition fades away with little notice, I suspect that any revival would be a disappointment. When a tradition fades away, it's probably because it wasn't marketed properly, and reviving it could be a matter of simply marketing it better. I think we all agree the Mets have been astonishingly bad at reminding their fans of the team's own history, as embarrassing as some of it has been, a lot of it -- like fans who were so jazzed they tried to outdo one another with witty slogans on signs -- is truly unique and ought to be celebrated.

Benjamin Grimm Apr 12 2006 01:00 PM

cooby wrote: "What the Heck Happened to Schneck" Last I heard, he was a school teacher in Allentown, Pa.

cooby Apr 12 2006 01:01 PM

His name was a natural for a banner, that's probably why I remember that one, fifty years later. I will always think of him as I drive by Allentown henceforth

Benjamin Grimm Apr 12 2006 01:03 PM

Johnny Dickshot wrote: ...a lot of it -- like fans who were so jazzed they tried to outdo one another with witty slogans on signs -- is truly unique and ought to be celebrated. I do agree with that. But my sense is that a revival would fizzle. And maybe a big part of the reason that I think that is because I don't expect the Mets to handle it properly.

cooby Apr 12 2006 01:03 PM

Ha! Someone in your UMDB link remembers it too...

KC Apr 12 2006 01:08 PM

The revival could never match the original - that's the nature of revivals. With the announcement of the new stadium and non-Sheaness of it all I think it's important to try and make people more aware of Mets history and tradition. One problem with being in the same town as a team that flaunts it's tradition to a point of "obnoxiousness" is that fans forget that the Mets have owned this city too at various points in it's history and there are important childhood traditions that people my age share with the Mets. The tradition may not be 27 rings, fifty retired numbers, and thousands of souls sold to the devil but they're traditions worth honoring nonetheless and this is a good fun start.

Edgy DC Apr 12 2006 01:11 PM Edited 3 time(s), most recently on Apr 12 2006 10:31 PM

I'm thinking the fadeout was just a post-good-Met-years letdown. And crying over those damn placards was just too much a luxury we couldn't afford in hard times. Sort of like hanging onto the tiles on the stadium's exterior. For years, being a didfferent type of supporter defined being a Met fan. For almost a decade, starting in 1984, cheering for a very good-to-excellent-team defined being a Met fan. The subtraction (a grevious turn of events) of scheduled doubleheaders negatively impacted the pride of place of banner day. But the treat was taken away --- dialed back --- too subtlely to notice, by given less and less respect in the schedule. By the time it was killed, Met fans had lost their juggernaut, lost the innoncence of Gooden, lost Davey Johnson, and bore the crosses of rape cases, firecrackers and bleach, The Worst Team Money Could Buy, the players' strike cancelling the season, and the uncuddly Dallas Green. It a low on the list of complaints not because it was insignificant, but because that list was packed. I was in DC at this point, living with a Philie Phan trying to convince me that Dallas Green was da bomb and replacing him with Valentine was wack. I occasionally got a game from WOR via cable. So, no, I didn't notice Banner Day was gone, but I still headed out to Shea every time I went home to see my family. New era now, recalling an old era, with a new station and a new stadium to come? Why not try and revive something uniquely Mets, as we bear the accusations of loving a team that's a poor-man's Yankees. Worst that can happen is a modest failure spun as a success and then consigned back to history. Although I bet the Mets would see the worst that can happen is that the slogans in the parade would bear not the hopes of children and children at heart, but the cranky complaints of the older entitled fan.

Farmer Ted Apr 12 2006 01:11 PM

I went to Banner Day in '84 and the Mets got swept by the Cubs. I sat in the LF mezz and couldn't see crap even with the state-of-the-art DiamondVision. Fans down below enjoyed it, though. Best part was fans would parade their banners through the stadium during game 2.

Willets Point Apr 12 2006 02:19 PM

If I recall correctly, the banner tradition (if not Banner Day itself) started at the Polo Grounds and survived a move to Shea so it should be able to move to the new ballpark too.

Bret Sabermetric Apr 12 2006 02:36 PM

They should offer a virtual banner day. You make up a webpage with your message on it, e-mail a link to Shea (or Prep-H or whatev stadium), they get to screen it (for hidden obscenities, or derogatory Met-Hating "Grant's Tomb"-type messages), they assign you a number, you show up two hours early, and they've printed it out on a sheet of 5' x 5' oak tag, which you pick up by the assigned number, and you go parade it through the Park. No schlepping, no size or visibility problems, no "wrong" messages, everyone's happy, the nostalgists, the anti-nostalgists, everyone. The could even skip the parade part and just show them on the Diamondvision thing in about two and a half minutes, cuttng down on the whole consumption of time problem. Not that they've got the brains to do this or anything, but this would be the way to go.

G-Fafif Apr 12 2006 10:28 PM

While Banner Day was being phased out, Dynamets Dashes were coming in. I believe the first ones were in '94 (part of management's effort to be fan-friendly after the debacle of '93). They caught on and became THE chance for kids to step on the sacred soil of Shea Stadium. It never loses its novelty because there are always new kids who want to do it and it doesn't take any paint, linen or creativity. Parents get a kick out of it because while they don't get to run the bases, they do walk the track. Couldn't believe the line that formed last July when friends of ours attempted to take their sons to the centerfield gate (and gave up because it was hot and, quite frankly, nobody in their family was a huge fan). I'm not sure there's a link between Banner Day going "bye" and Dynamets Dash being entrenched, but I don't think it's a total coincidence.

Willets Point Apr 13 2006 12:21 AM

This is good fodder for a Grumpy Old Man rant: "In my day, you had to get paint, a bedsheet and come up with a creative idea to walk on the field at Shea. Now these whippersnappers just line up to run on the field!"

Hillbilly Apr 13 2006 10:04 AM

Which one of you mugs just called the fan to lobby for Banner Day?

Hillbilly Apr 13 2006 10:04 AM

Last a lame Seaver post in all ways possible!

seawolf17 Apr 13 2006 10:08 AM

Bret Sabermetric wrote: They should offer a virtual banner day. You make up a webpage with your message on it, e-mail a link to Shea (or Prep-H or whatev stadium), they get to screen it (for hidden obscenities, or derogatory Met-Hating "Grant's Tomb"-type messages), they assign you a number, you show up two hours early, and they've printed it out on a sheet of 5' x 5' oak tag, which you pick up by the assigned number, and you go parade it through the Park. No schlepping, no size or visibility problems, no "wrong" messages, everyone's happy, the nostalgists, the anti-nostalgists, everyone. The could even skip the parade part and just show them on the Diamondvision thing in about two and a half minutes, cuttng down on the whole consumption of time problem. Not that they've got the brains to do this or anything, but this would be the way to go. It's too sanitary for my tastes, but I think this is a really neat idea. There's no way they absorb the cost of printing those banners, though.