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The Apple is Coming!

Valadius Feb 12 2008 06:09 PM

]Home run apple will follow New York Mets to new ballpark By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer February 12, 2008 NEW YORK (AP) -- The huge fiberglass apple that pops up when the New York Mets hit home runs will follow them to their new ballpark when it opens next year. "The big home run apple is coming," the team's chief operating officer, Jeff Wilpon, said Tuesday during a media tour of Citi Field, the new stadium. An apple is coming, at any rate. Mets officials said they did not know whether it would be the same fiberglass apple that has popped up like a champagne cork following Mets homers since 1980. But a well to house the apple was visible beyond center field at the new stadium, which Wilpon said is on schedule and on budget -- about $800 million. Some 85 percent of Citi Field's structural steel is now complete, and the tiered concrete that will support the seats and stairways is in place. The Mets broke ground on the stadium in 2006 and announced a naming deal with Citigroup, which will pay $20 million annually, or about $400 million over a 20-year contract. Fans will enter Citi Field through the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, honoring the Brooklyn Dodgers great who integrated baseball. Other references to the long-departed Dodgers will include an Ebbets Club Lounge and a section of Ebbets seats. The new stadium will have a capacity of 45,000 including standing room, compared with 57,333 at Shea Stadium, the team's home since 1964. It's being built next to the old stadium. Wilpon, son of team owner Fred Wilpon, said he won't miss Shea. "I was at Shea Stadium groundbreaking in my mother's belly," he said. "To be here for opening day should be pretty exciting."

themetfairy Feb 12 2008 06:14 PM

I know it's a silly thing. But that makes me very happy.

soupcan Feb 12 2008 07:10 PM

Ugh.

SteveJRogers Feb 12 2008 07:11 PM

Not really news since the very first renderings of what was to be Citi Field back in 2006 there was always going to be an Home Run Apple in center. The news will be when they decide if it will be a new one or the old one (and if new, what is to become of the old one). Case of a slow news day and trying to make something out of a nothing story. Doesn't even have the "We are going over budget to make this feel like a 5 star hotel" nugget that the Yankees had the other day.

Methead Feb 12 2008 07:48 PM

I wonder if the people who like the home run apple also like the orange dot on top of the cap. For the record, I like 'em both. The apple is cool, and it's about the one thing left that's decidedly un-corporate. Of course it will probably end up with a giant Apple logo on it.

themetfairy Feb 12 2008 07:59 PM

Love the Apple, Hate the Dot

seawolf17 Feb 12 2008 08:01 PM

Apple-haters suck.

KC Feb 12 2008 08:14 PM

I forget if I'm pro-apple or pro-dot or con.

soupcan Feb 12 2008 08:36 PM

I'm anti-Apple, anti-black and pro-dot. Know this though - I'm so anti-black that I would gladly go anti-dot, pro-Apple if it would help obliterate the black. And boy am I anti-Apple. seawolf17 wrote: Apple-haters suck. Eat me. The only reason you like it is because you don't ever remember it not being there. It's a fucking relic from an old, stupid ad campaign that makes no sense anymore. It's a top hat with an apple coming out of it! WTF is that? Haven't you heard? These are the New Mets. The 'magic' needs to go back to 1980.

AG/DC Feb 12 2008 08:52 PM

I think it was a great campaign. i didn't think so at the time. But now I see that was the first salvo in a fight by Doublepon not only to change the direction of the franchise, but to go beyond that in cancelling old debt by dealing for Seaver, Staub, and Kingman. Those three deals probably meant little to nothing in win totals, as the players couldn't bring back the years lost by the team, but signaled that Doubleday and Wilpon were fans who understood and needed to deal with the sense of betrayal that Grant left behind. I remember it not being there. Is it politicians, ugly buildings, and whores that gain respectability with age? I like it better than politicians and ugly buildings. Whores also, I guess.

metsguyinmichigan Feb 12 2008 09:24 PM

I love the apple! As for the dot, it doesn't bother me.

Willets Point Feb 12 2008 10:08 PM

Love the apple. Indifferent to the dot.

G-Fafif Feb 13 2008 12:08 AM

Love everything after a while. Except for Fran Healy. Never liked him.

Gwreck Feb 13 2008 12:20 AM

Or Dallas Green. I thought the "Save the Apple" campaign was a contrived bunch of bullshit. Am totally indifferent as to the Apple.

Benjamin Grimm Feb 13 2008 05:44 AM

Willets Point wrote: Love the apple. Indifferent to the dot. Me too.

Benjamin Grimm Feb 13 2008 05:46 AM

soupcan wrote: (It) makes no sense anymore. It's a top hat with an apple coming out of it! WTF is that? And that's exactly why I like it. It's a quirky anachronism.

sharpie Feb 13 2008 07:11 AM

I didn't mind the apple at Shea but I think it should've stayed there. Anti-black (uniforms) Anti-dot

RealityChuck Feb 13 2008 07:12 AM

Don't care about the apple either way. It wasn't a part of the Mets when I started following the team. I suppose it's good they'll continue the tradition, though.

seawolf17 Feb 13 2008 07:28 AM

Or, they could leave the apple where it is, as part of the parking lot. Then people could take pictures with it, but the new ballpark can move forward. Perhaps that appeases everyone?

Frayed Knot Feb 13 2008 07:32 AM

seawolf17 wrote: Or, they could leave the apple where it is, as part of the parking lot. Then people could take pictures with it, but the new ballpark can move forward. Perhaps that appeases everyone? That would be cool. Fence off the current one where it is and put a newer (and hopefully better looking) version in the new joint. Problem is, Jeff will probably think that it'll cost them 5 parking spots @ $10/per x 81 home games = .... Sorry, no can do.

soupcan Feb 13 2008 07:48 AM

AG/DC wrote: I think it was a great campaign. i didn't think so at the time. But now I see that was the first salvo in a fight by Doublepon not only to change the direction of the franchise, but to go beyond that in cancelling old debt by dealing for Seaver, Staub, and Kingman. Those three deals probably meant little to nothing in win totals, as the players couldn't bring back the years lost by the team, but signaled that Doubleday and Wilpon were fans who understood and needed to deal with the sense of betrayal that Grant left behind. I remember it not being there. Is it politicians, ugly buildings, and whores that gain respectability with age? I like it better than politicians and ugly buildings. Whores also, I guess. You make it sound so noble. They simply wanted to sell tickets. If 'cancelling fan debt' or addressing betrayal was a perception that the ads gave them so be it, but believe me it wasn't their motivation. I remember liking the campaign at the time because I was 15 years old and for the first time I saw 'METS' on the sides of buses and in the IRT stations, but I also remember thinking 'Jackie Robinson?' The campaign sucked off of a legacy that wasn't theirs with those posters of Robinson leading off third base. He was in a Dodger uniform circa 1947. How was he relative to the Mets? Oh right, exciting, 'magical' National League baseball. C'mon. You guys like the apple - that's fine. To me it has no relation to the the Mets as a team. Again its an ad campaign prop that nobody ever bothered to disassemble. AND it's cheesy. And don't dismiss old, ugly whores out of hand like that.

AG/DC Feb 13 2008 08:26 AM

Nothing wrong with selling tickets. My point was that they were aware enough to know where things went wrong. I think cancelling debt was a motivation in the trades --- why get Seaver and not Blyleven or Fergie Jenkins? I think acknowledging the legacy that they intended to reclaim was the purpose of the ads. I associate the campaign not with Jackie Robinson, but with Lee Mazzilli, Steven Henderson, Doug Flynn, Alex Treviño, and Frank Taveras. If it made you feel good to see the Mets promoting themselves, that's good.

SteveJRogers Feb 13 2008 05:06 PM

Now I've never been to Shea or watched a Met game without seeing the apple, and yes it has been added to IGT Kabooms to signify Met homers and I'm kind of indifferent to it in general, but if you asked me point blank, I don't want it at Citi Field. Unlike certain things that are Metly in nature like the pennant banners and the retired number signs, and keeping Murphy's and Kiner's names on their respective booths, there really shouldn't be that many carry overs from the old ballpark. Oh if there is to be a Met museum or something then find a way to incorporate it (the actual one or part of a Met history montage mural or whatever) but the new ballpark deserves new traditions, not hanging onto something that is just, well, there.

metsmarathon Feb 13 2008 05:31 PM

i love the damned apple. i just hope we get a new one, and not the same, dented up one.

Valadius Feb 13 2008 05:44 PM

I love the apple. Hell, I have a Mets apple clock sitting on my desk. I want to keep it.

SteveJRogers Feb 13 2008 07:41 PM

The neon players are going to be 20 years old this year, should the Mets bring them over to Citi Field? Should the new video scoreboard in CF keep the "DiamondVision" name? I vote no BTW, again they are a Shea specific thing, not a Metly thing.

soupcan Feb 13 2008 08:06 PM

="Valadius"]I love the apple. Hell, I have a Mets apple clock sitting on my desk. I want to keep it. This I guess I can understand. For fans like Val who are 35 and under its like the damn thing has always been there. If you guys simply consider it part of the Mets that has always been there well then.... I don't dig it at all and view it as a bad gimmick whose time is long past. After reading everybody's opinions though it seems I'm in the minority and I can accept that.

Rockin' Doc Feb 13 2008 10:10 PM

Soup, I think you should consider building a replica of the apple in your yard just to piss off your neighbors. You could have it pop up every time the Mets win a game.

Benjamin Grimm Feb 14 2008 07:21 AM

="SteveJRogers"]The neon players are going to be 20 years old this year, should the Mets bring them over to Citi Field? No, but if I was designing Citi Field it would have big corrugated metal tiles. It wouldn't be a tribute to Ebbets Field, it would be a tribute to the Shea Stadium of the 60's and 70's. Our individual senses of nostalgia are influenced, obviously, by when we lived our formative years. My memories of Shea predate the apple by about a decade but I like the apple nonetheless. Saying that it's a "Shea tradition" and not a "Mets tradition" is silly. What's the difference? Other than those two years at the Polo Grounds, the history of the Mets is completely entwined with the history of Shea Stadium. Bringing some of Shea Stadium into Citi Field isn't honoring a defunct building, it's honoring the team's past.

soupcan Feb 14 2008 07:21 AM

Rockin' Doc wrote: Soup, I think you should consider building a replica of the apple in your yard just to piss off your neighbors. You could have it pop up every time the Mets win a game. That's NOT a bad idea.

Willets Point Feb 14 2008 09:05 AM

SAT style analogy: soupcan : Met's apple :: Willet's Point : The Eagles