Shea Stadium

[WillMissShea]

Yeah, I never did find out why the little orange NY was removed from the logo. Kind of ominous.

And it's not "please disperse" but "please disburse"

I don't post much but I have the answer to this. This came up here once before a couple of years ago. I posted this back then as well. I saw it on "Ultimate Mets Database".

From www.villagevoice.com:

"Amid all the hoopla recently generated by the possibility of a Subway Series, nobody's noticed that the Mets appear to have conceded a small aspect of the battle for New York. The team's interlocking 'NY' insignia, which appears on the club's caps and had also appeared on the left side of the Amazins' skyline logo design since the franchise's 1962 inception, was quietly removed from the logo at the beginning of this season.

"Are the Mets, who've always drawn a hefty percentage of their fans from Long Island, trying to downplay their urban identity? Not according to Mark Bingham, the team's senior vice president of marketing, who says, 'Of course we're proud to be from New York.' So why alter the logo? 'The 'NY' on the logo never matched the one on the caps,' Bingham explains. 'The one on the logo was more primitive-looking, sort of a stick-figure "NY." At the end of last year we wanted to dress it up and have it match the "NY" on the caps, but then we said to ourselves, "Why do we need it on the logo anyway?"'

"Interestingly, many media outlets either unmindful of or indifferent to the subtle change have continued to use the old 'NY'-inclusive logo design. Does this bug Bingham and his staff? 'Nah. The truth is, the old logo is probably still featured on a lot of the signs here at the stadium,' he says. 'We try not to go crazy about it.'" ("Jockbeat: Uni Watch: Mets Concede," Paul Lukas, Village Voice, October 13 - 19, 1999)

[dstoffa]

I still have not purchased the Citi Field model but it is interesting to note the juxtaposition of my Polo and Shea models.

Do you have a vintage Shea, too?

[sheagoodbye1010]

This is my vintage Shea replica. it was a Mets promotional item about 5 or 6 years

[Paul W]

back to photos...

opening day '64, bottom of the 4th ss amado samuel has just started a double to left (ball just below the pitcher) scoring 2.
pirates catcher jim pagliaroni had just been run for arguing a hit by pitch.
no padding on brick walls or low wall at the foul pole corners.
on the scoreboard, no mets logo, longines sign under clock an no ad on right side.
this shows how much of a rush job the final get ready push was.

[Paul W]

this could be the 1st pitch at shea.
that's dick schofield hitting and could be jack fisher pitching and since they are both in sun it's likley that this is the 1st inning.

it's a good look at the original backdrop, nylon stretched over frame. can see why the hitters complained, there seems to be a lot of sun glare off the material.

[Paul W]

from '64 all star game, checking out the swag.

the direction sign at the back of field level lasted only a few years.

[Paul W]

summer 1970, somebody thinks ken boswell's swell...

[Paul W]

6/19-20/68 dick selma, koosman, grote, ryan and seaver befor a game w/astros...

nolie is so young

[Gary Dunaier]

opening day '64, bottom of the 4th ss amado samuel has just started a double to left (ball just below the pitcher) scoring 2 . . . . .
on the scoreboard, no mets logo, longines sign under clock an no ad on right side.

I've been disappointed that the mass-produced photo of Opening Day - the one from the top of the upper deck, behind the plate - has so much shadow on the field, but I'm surprised to see the shadows are already over the plate by the 4th inning.

Wish this photo was taken a few sections closer to the plate, so we could see the entire scoreboard as it appeared on Opening Day. (Such a view would reveal there to be no ad on the left side of the Rheingold sign as well.)

[Paul W]

gary & mary ellen,
wadda u think about the 1st pitch pix?

[Paul W]

walt alston and al lopez with more swag.

looks like the screen was vertical only, not run back to the loge facing...

[Paul W]

after looking at archives, the overhang screen wasn't added until 1971.
'64 opening day, '70 kids climbing the screen and '71.
may not seem like much, unless you were sitting under it...

[majorleads]

Was there ever a HR hit in the right field upper deck? I bet Strawberry's HR that hit the roof in Montreal would have landed in the upper deck if the game was played at Shea. That ball was crushed and had a lot of loft on it, just don't remember if it was hit directly down the line. I think it was but not sure.

I really was not a fan of Shea, but I'd give anything to be able to go back in time to sit there once again when big Shea was rocking during the 86 season. I'd even shed a tear and wouldn't care one bit as the idiot fans casually stroll the walkway in front of my seats while the game is going on.

[Paul W]

no rf upper deck ever documented, although you'd think that strawberry would be the one.
he did hit one into a portal in the upper deck of oys in an exhibition game.
his tendency was to hit his long shots to right center.

the april '88 moon shot he hit in montreal was the first game after the roof was installed. there was some talk that the updraft from the ventelation system and warm
temperature in the building may have helped the loft.
would have been much more difficult to do the same at shea because of the cross winds.

the ball hit the technical ring and fell back to right centerfield. the "X" in the photos show roughly where the ball hit and approximate place it would have hit it's apex at shea.
not knowing the exact heights of the buildings it becomes a rough guess. the two newspaper images came from the montreal gazette. this issue is not in the google archive, so i'll read the game stories and add more tomorrow.

[margatemanor]

Logo was added after they decieded the monitor would not work the way they expected it to...

[Gary Dunaier]

gary & mary ellen,
wadda u think about the 1st pitch pix?

From an aesthetic point of view, not much. It's too tightly cropped for my tastes. I'd have preferred a wider view.

[DN4L]

6/19-20/68 dick selma, koosman, grote, ryan and seaver befor a game w/astros...

nolie is so young

I noticed in this late 1960's photo that the American League out of town scores were on right side of the scoreboard, and the National League out of town scores were on the left side of the scoreboard.
I wonder what year they switched them?

[Paul W]

I noticed in this late 1960's photo that the American League out of town scores were on right side of the scoreboard, and the National League out of town scores were on the left side of the scoreboard.
I wonder what year they switched them?

the '69 expansion

[oldnymetsfan]

I noticed in this late 1960's photo that the American League out of town scores were on right side of the scoreboard, and the National League out of town scores were on the left side of the scoreboard.
I wonder what year they switched them?

the '69 expansion

Actually, if you look closely at the pics of the scoreboard in post #12321 (both when the Yankees were in town) you'll notice "AMERICAN" on the right side in one picture while "NATIONAL" is on the right in the other.

During this period of time, due to the configuration of the light panels in the scoreboard, only 5 out of town games fit on the right side of the scoreboard. The section at the bottom of the right side was configured for messages, such as "no throwing objects". The left side of the scoreboard was configured for 6 games.

After the Yankees had played a few games at Shea and experienced the problem of having 6 out of town NL games with only room for 5 on the right side, they began to switch the captions between Yankees & Mets homestands.

[DN4L]

Actually, if you look closely at the pics of the scoreboard in post #12321 (both when the Yankees were in town) you'll notice "AMERICAN" on the right side in one picture while "NATIONAL" is on the right in the other.

During this period of time, due to the configuration of the light panels in the scoreboard, only 5 out of town games fit on the right side of the scoreboard. The section at the bottom of the right side was configured for messages, such as "no throwing objects". The left side of the scoreboard was configured for 6 games.

After the Yankees had played a few games at Shea and experienced the problem of having 6 out of town NL games with only room for 5 on the right side, they began to switch the captions between Yankees & Mets homestands.

Thanks for the info..

[AJbaseball00024]

Here is my Replica of Shea Stadium:

[Gary Dunaier]

This is my vintage Shea replica. it was a Mets promotional item about 5 or 6 years

These were given away in 2004 as a souvenir of Shea's 40th aniiversary. A similar model, showing current Shea, was given out in 2008 and since both were made by the same company it's interesting to do a side-by-side comparison between the two.

[Paul W]

Actually, if you look closely at the pics of the scoreboard in post #12321 (both when the Yankees were in town) you'll notice "AMERICAN" on the right side in one picture while "NATIONAL" is on the right in the other.

During this period of time, due to the configuration of the light panels in the scoreboard, only 5 out of town games fit on the right side of the scoreboard. The section at the bottom of the right side was configured for messages, such as "no throwing objects". The left side of the scoreboard was configured for 6 games.

After the Yankees had played a few games at Shea and experienced the problem of having 6 out of town NL games with only room for 5 on the right side, they began to switch the captions between Yankees & Mets homestands.

you're right, this goes along with an unusual sound i heard there in either '74 or '75 after a nyy game.
lingering in the seats because we had to wait for a family friend (who was a royals coach) i heard what sounded like a large metal commercial garage door slamming closed.
looking up, the mets logo appeared in the frame - the surface it was painted on was rolled down covering the nyy logo which was a banner.
must have been the end of a home-stand. guess that a maintenance guy had to climb the structure to roll up or down the door and change the the headers.
no remote for this part of the board, so it had to be done manually.

if american indicator had used matrix letter forms instead of the back-lit lettering changing the headers and game progress info ("at bat"etc.) would have been less work.
the boards at dodgers stadium were matrix only (set up for baseball in rf) and the same with the astrodome.

[Paul W]

here's the board under construction up to opening day...

the 3rd pix is from the dedication day and 4th is opening day, pix taken 24 hours apart.
not sure if the white screen was the roll-down door or the projection screen.
note the dark edges on both sides of the top of the shell. these lasted a few weeks and were later painted white.

[Paul W]

more pix from early '64.
the frame was painted white then, this was changed later in '64.
top pix show reds catcher johnny edwards on the screen and two employees atop the board (rare). arrows show the direction they would have to climb to get up there. the dark edges are still visible.
middle pix is of the standard mid 60's layout, from the 23 inn. game.
in the bottom image the rear projection screen is blank.