Banner Day

[Benjamin Grimm]

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.

[Guest Edgy DC]

]I don't know what you're sorry about

I guess I'm sorry for my part in sucking.

[Benjamin Grimm]

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

[Benjamin Grimm]

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

[Benjamin Grimm]

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]

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.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

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

[Guest KC]

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

[Guest Edgy DC]

Night? That's crazy talk.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

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.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Not bad thinking, Doctor.

[Theoldmole]

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]

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]

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.

[Guest cooby]

"What the Heck
Happened to Schneck"

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

]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]

cooby wrote: "What the Heck Happened to Schneck"

Last I heard, he was a school teacher in Allentown, Pa.

[Guest cooby]

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]

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.

[Guest cooby]

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

[Guest KC]

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.

[Guest Edgy DC]

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]

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]

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.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

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]

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]

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!"

[Guest Hillbilly]

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

[Guest Hillbilly]

Last a lame Seaver post in all ways possible!

[seawolf17]

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.