The Apple

[Elster88]

Nice article about the apple. I am young enough where the apple is part of my childhood so I love the apple.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2015/story/_/id/13992952/why-beloved-quirky-home-run-apple-perfect-symbol-newyork-mets

Most of the stuff is common knowledge but I didn't know this: Former Mets slugger Darryl Strawberry, a hero of the 1986 title team, said he always liked seeing the apple rise because, "It made me feel like I'd done something good." Stadium staffers, perhaps knowing that, paid Strawberry homage by raising the apple halfway when he returned to Shea with the 1998 Yankees and hit a home run.

I figured it must've been a Subway Series game that I had forgotten but I found it on YouTube. It was when the Yankees borrowed Shea. (Can you see the YouTube i embedded? I screwed that up in a post once.)
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I'm trying to find the CPF apple-related thread

[Elster88]

The Yank announcers didn't seem to quite understand that whoever was controlling the apple seemed to know exactly what he was doing but they don't really take away from the moment. I still don't like seeing him in that uniform of course but it looks like a nice moment. And they do say some nice things about Straw. They show the apple going to half mast twice in that clip.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Guest

[Zvon]

That works fine.

I remember this. I'm an old fan from the pre-apple days, but who doesn't love the apple? Everyone loves the apple!

Strawmans swing. Boy, I miss seeing that. Seeing both him and Doc as Yanks was tough. I didn't feel that way about Cone. Only those two. Oh, and Swoboda. Those three.

[Elster88]

I thought everyone loved the apple too and the poll mentioned in that article indicated the same, but I thought the CPF thread that I can't find had some mixed feelings about the apple. I might be misremembering.

[Edgy MD]

Apple-unlove is out there, much as I disagree with it.

The pushing the "Big Apple" name back to prominence was of a piece with the "I HEART NY" campaign and the later-blooming re-vitalization of the Mets, the former two designed to restore dignity and celebration to a city and state in New York during the late Beame administration, but hitting full flower (along with the Mets) as the Koch administration became synonymous with the city and its revitalization. It was a good thing for the Mets to grab on to.

My Dad was working at the Regency Hotel circa 1981, and he was giving a guest a pep talk, telling the woman how, yes, the city is dangerous, but here's the way to stay safe, and here's a bunch of wonderful things to see and do while you're here, and I'm hoping you have the visit of a lifetime. He gave this pitch at the request of a fellow lobby employee having excused himself from keep-an-eye-on-the-mayor duty, as Mayor Koch was in the lobby after addressing a trade group in one of the ballrooms. Dad had turned that post over to his deputy as he made this pitch to the guest. But the mayor had overheard him, walked over, greeted the guest, and reached into his pocket to pull out a pin, pinning it on my Dad's lapel. It was an apple, not unlike the one that was starting to pop out of top hats at Shea. Koch declared my father an "Official Apple Polisher" � a diplomat for the city. Vive la Pomme!

Check out Ron Hodges around the halfway point, taunting the piss out of Tito Landrum after Mookie's walkoff.

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

Edgy MD wrote: Apple-unlove is out there, much as I disagree with it. The pushing the "Big Apple" name back to prominence was of a piece with the "I HEART NY" campaign and the later-blooming re-vitalization of the Mets, the former two designed to restore dignity and celebration to a city and state in New York during the late Beame administration, but hitting full flower (along with the Mets) as the Koch administration became synonymous with the city and its revitalization. It was a good thing for the Mets to grab on to. My Dad was working at the Regency Hotel circa 1981, and he was giving a guest a pep talk, telling the woman how, yes, the city is dangerous, but here's the way to stay safe, and here's a bunch of wonderful things to see and do while you're here, and I'm hoping you have the visit of a lifetime. He gave this pitch at the request of a fellow lobby employee having excused himself from keep-an-eye-on-the-mayor duty, as Mayor Koch was in the lobby after addressing a trade group in one of the ballrooms. Dad had turned that post over to his deputy as he made this pitch to the guest. But the mayor had overheard him, walked over, greeted the guest, and reached into his pocket to pull out a pin, pinning it on my Dad's lapel. It was an apple, not unlike the one that was starting to pop out of top hats at Shea. Koch declared my father an "Official Apple Polisher" � a diplomat for the city. Vive la Pomme! Check out Ron Hodges around the halfway point, taunting the piss out of Tito Landrum after Mookie's walkoff.

That's a great story!

And I'm an apple-lover!

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Anyone recall what happened to the Apple during Jets games? When I was a kid we usually sat in the temporary end zone seating in front of the scoreboard. I guess the Apple was just tucked under the stands out of view.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yeah I just looked at some high school yearbook photos of when our marching band played a Jets halftime in '83. There is "nothing" where the apple should be, and temporary bleachers in CF-RCF. So It may have been covered up or moved.

[Edgy MD]

For the Jets games, there was a gap in the bleachers behind the centerfield wall where the ambulance was parked.

Probably for the best to get that bad boy out of the winter weather. The years were certainly tough enough on it as it was.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I'd venture to say that any apple unlove that's out there is exclusively the province of Met fans older than, say, 50.

I literally don't know a soul firsthand who dislikes it.

[batmagadanleadoff]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I'd venture to say that any apple unlove that's out there is exclusively the province of Met fans older than, say, 50. I literally don't know a soul firsthand who dislikes it.

Hah! I don't say that I unlove the apple, but it did take a few years for it to grow on me. Your demographics are spot on.

[nymr83]

It is unAmerican to not like the Apple.

I remembered the Strawberry HR as a Yankee after the beam fell down at Yankee Stadium, cool moment.

[Benjamin Grimm]

52 years old and totally on Team Apple.

[Edgy MD]

I've long believed the falling beam was Steinbrennerian sabotage, ordered by the boss to improve his bargaining position with the city to milk the taxpayers for a new stadium.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: 52 years old and totally on Team Apple.

From day one?

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't recall ever being opposed to it.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I don't know that I was opposed to it either, but I do remember going to Shea that first year of the apple and mocking it with my friends.