Only the Walls were Aqua Green

[batmagadanleadoff]

Greg Goossen and the aqua green walls of April, 1967.

[fimg=1166:12jc44sh]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8643/16846829225_76fd8116ce_o.jpg[/fimg:12jc44sh]

[Zvon]

Wow, what a shot. That is quite a find. That has to go on a card. 67 or 68 Topps?

Whats this shit about aqua green? Are you saying that cause it's St Patty's Day?

[batmagadanleadoff]

Zvon wrote: Wow, what a shot. That is quite a find. That has to go on a card. 67 or 68 Topps? Whats this shit about aqua green? Are you saying that cause it's St Patty's Day?

If that's aqua green, then I suppose those walls weren't 't aqua green. Isn't there a lighter aqua green? If not, then what would you call that color? And don't tell me white!

[G-Fafif]

Zvon wrote: Wow, what a shot. That is quite a find. That has to go on a card. 67 or 68 Topps?

And in ten years, it can go on a 77 or 78 Topps.

[dgwphotography]

Wow. That is a great find...

[batmagadanleadoff]

What color would you call these walls?

[fimg=1222:1rxlmn2h]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8722/16659455238_22fc28edc2_o.jpg[/fimg:1rxlmn2h]

[batmagadanleadoff]

Look at that scoreboard. It's a Seaver start. It's gotta be 4/20/67.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Aqua-marine green... I think it was a dull popular pool paint
back then. They probably got a deal.

[Ceetar]

d'Kong76 wrote: Aqua-marine green... I think it was a dull popular pool paint back then. They probably got a deal.

fucking broke Wilpons.

[Edgy MD]

White, with green bleeding through underneath.

[ashie62]

Forest Green faded badly.

[dgwphotography]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: What color would you call these walls? [fimg=1222]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8722/16659455238_22fc28edc2_o.jpg[/fimg]

I don't care what color the walls are. It just makes my heart ache...

[Benjamin Grimm]

It doesn't really look like it in this batch of photos, but other pictures we've seen of the wall when it was that color reminded me of toothpaste. So that's what I'd call the color: Toothpaste.

Shea looks so "quiet" in that photo with Cleon. In its later years, Shea was all gaudy and brassy and noisy. (That's not exactly a complaint, by the way.) We'll probably never see a big league park looking so pastoral again. No gaudy colors. No big TV-style scoreboards. Restraint on the placement of ads. I'd love to travel back in time and see just one game at Shea from that era. I remember the organ music, the baseball-cap bullpen buggies, and the smell of cigar smoke.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I also think of toothpaste whenever I try to describe those walls.

The earliest the Mets used the baseball cap bullpen cart would've been 1971.

Here's a photo of Dave Giusti being driven in during the Mets home opener, 1970.

[fimg=744:28twyv6k]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8632/16660168578_64ef7560cb_o.jpg[/fimg:28twyv6k]

Mets bullpen buggy, 1972:

[fimg=555:28twyv6k]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51cehlDqSFL._SY445_.jpg[/fimg:28twyv6k]

(unless the cap buggy was introduced in mid-70, I suppose. Though I doubt it, going by memory.

[dgwphotography]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Shea looks so "quiet" in that photo with Cleon. In its later years, Shea was all gaudy and brassy and noisy. (That's not exactly a complaint, by the way.) We'll probably never see a big league park looking so pastoral again. No gaudy colors. No big TV-style scoreboards. Restraint on the placement of ads. I'd love to travel back in time and see just one game at Shea from that era. I remember the organ music, the baseball-cap bullpen buggies, and the smell of cigar smoke.

I'd love to squeeze into that DeLorean with you...

[batmagadanleadoff]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Here's a photo of Dave Giusti being driven in during the Mets home opener, 1970. [fimg=444]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8632/16660168578_64ef7560cb_o.jpg[/fimg]

The rain must've thinned out the crowd. Otherwise, it'd be a pretty shabby showing for the opener of the reigning World Champion, World Sensation Amazin' Mets.

[Edgy MD]

Other Info Umpires: HP - Al Barlick, 1B - Ed Vargo, 2B - Paul Pryor, 3B - Dick Stello. Time of Game: 2:47. Attendance: 41,679. Field Condition: Wet. Start Time Weather: 49� F, Cloudy, Showers.

Forty-nine and wet and rainy on April 14 at Shea probably felt about 25 degrees colder.

[Zvon]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: What color would you call these walls? [fimg=1222]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8722/16659455238_22fc28edc2_o.jpg[/fimg]

Another amazin' photograph. That wall's primer white, forevermore to be known as toothpaste. Boyer at 3rd! Tommy Davis in left? Ernie Banks at SS! Room for 3 in that DeLorean?

batmagadanleadoff wrote: [fimg=444]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8632/16660168578_64ef7560cb_o.jpg[/fimg]

People are laughing at Gusti. Or at the golf cart. I would think that would be pretty early in the history of bullpens to have a player driven in. I wonder when that started. Could that have started at Shea, using a vehicle to bring the pitcher in from the pen?

I remember when I first saw the METcapCar in the early 70's. I thought it was as kool as the '66 Batmobile. That's high praise coming from me.

[batmagadanleadoff]

[fimg=555:2b4v0z2y]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2133/1590869165_8e0872dca8.jpg?v=0[/fimg:2b4v0z2y]

During the celebrations right after the Mets clinch the NL East in September, 1986, a Mets fan carjacks the Mets bullpen cart and takes it for a spin all over the field. The cart eventually stalls.

[Zvon]

I never saw it without the NY, or not blue. I thought that was painted right on the hat-top. Was the blue part with the NY a covering? Or is that just all dirty and faded. Looks like it was in a fire.

So were the different hats they used on the visitors cart pulled over the hat shaped top, like a cloth covering? Or painted on? I kinda thought there were a bunch of giant plastic hats out somewhere by the visitors bullpen & they'd switch the entire top piece.

[batmagadanleadoff]

The "caps" were cloth fabric that stretched over the plastic helmet mold that was the roof of the cart.

[Zvon]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: The "caps" were cloth fabric that stretched over the plastic helmet mold that was the roof of the cart.

Wow. I did not know that. Amazin'.

I really thought there was a giant hat collection in the bowls of Shea.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Zvon wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: The "caps" were cloth fabric that stretched over the plastic helmet mold that was the roof of the cart. Wow. I did not know that. Amazin'. I really thought there was a giant hat collection in the bowls of Shea.

Actually, they had separate carts --- one for each team. And they had all the AL teams, too, just in case the Mets won the pennant.

[fimg=755]https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7597/16228622624_84f2e13363_o.jpg[/fimg]

[batmagadanleadoff]

And underneath the visiting bullpen, they kept separate bullpen carts for each NFL team, for the Jets relievers. And the Jets opponents. [fimg=666:h0ojjrgg]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8588/16851006745_e7a7003916_o.jpg[/fimg:h0ojjrgg]

[batmagadanleadoff]

I was only kidding.

[Ceetar]

So, did every MLB team ride on those carts in 1975?

[Edgy MD]

What's with all the lumps in Cal Koonce's back pocket.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Greg Goossen and the aqua green walls of April, 1967. [fimg=800]https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8643/16846829225_76fd8116ce_o.jpg[/fimg]

[MFS62]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: And underneath the visiting bullpen, they kept separate bullpen carts ... for the Jets relievers.

Y'mean Al Woodall had his own cart?

Later

[Zvon]

Edgy MD wrote: What's with all the lumps in Cal Koonce's back pocket.

I assume those are his balls.

[ashie62]

Those pictures are ripe for the 1967 Topps set which featured bright collors.

I saw Goosen play many moons ago and it seems he was a highly thought of prospect.