Citi Field 'tribute' to the NY Giants (finally)

[mandrake]

I read in the local paper this morning that the Mets have begun to install dark forest green seats in their new stadium, as a tribute of some sort to the NY Giants. Maybe Wilpon feels guilty about ignoring their Giants roots since he is recreating Ebbets Field. Now, if he puts a statue of Mel Ott out beyond RF, I might be happy.

[whoisonit]

I think they should retrieve the Eddie Grant plaque and find a fitting place to mount it. It's a piece of American, NY & baseball history.

[mandrake]

I think they should retrieve the Eddie Grant plaque and find a fitting place to mount it. It's a piece of American, NY & baseball history.

That is a great idea ! Now if a group of us can go and dismantle those stairs near Coogan's Bluff (with that plaque) and deliver them to Flushing, I will quit barking.

[whoisonit]

The plaque is owned and held by an organisation in SoCal call the Baseball Religuary.
The group also owns such gems as Eddie Cadell's game used jock, Dock Ellis's curlers & a hot dog partialy eaten by the Babe himself.

The Wilpons would have to purchase it. I wish they would.

[Gary Dunaier]

The group also owns such gems as Eddie Cadell's game used jock, Dock Ellis's curlers & a hot dog partialy eaten by the Babe himself.

He's not kidding, you know...

Eddie Gaedel Athletic Supporter

Dock Ellis Curlers

Babe Ruth Partially Eaten Hot Dog

:disbelief:

[Bazookadale]

The group also owns such gems as Eddie Cadell's game used jock, Dock Ellis's curlers & a hot dog partialy eaten by the Babe himself.

I wouldn't gripe if they threw the last one away!

[whoisonit]

He's not kidding, you know...

Eddie Gaedel Athletic Supporter

Dock Ellis Curlers

Babe Ruth Partially Eaten Hot Dog

:disbelief:

Gary, I would never joke about some things. lol

[whoisonit]

btw - here's the Eddie Grant plaque I would love to see at Citi:

http://www.baseballreliquary.org/EddieGrantPlaque.htm

[MSUlaxer27]

Yup can't wait for the first game in the Gi-odgers new stadium. So glad the franchise chose to live in the past instead of honoring their own history! I still fondly remember the number retirement ceremonies for Mays and Snider. I'm so glad the franchise is going to find another way to honor players who have nothing to do with their franchise! Sure the Gi-odgers have been in 4 world series and won two, but those wins really aren't as important as the ONE the REAL Dodgers won while they were here or the championships the Giants won back in the 1900's and teens and early 20's. I mean c'mon, game six of the the 1986 world series had nothing on the '05 Giants win over the A's. I mean who can forget Mathewson's 6 hitter in game 5 to clinch that series. It really sucks that we've had to "put up with" the Gi-odgers instead of the REAL New York baseball teams that abandoned us all those years ago. Maybe next year the Gi-oders could alternate throw back uniforms for home games between Dodgers and Giants uniforms. This way we can pretend they never left us!

[mandrake]

Yup can't wait for the first game in the Gi-odgers new stadium. So glad the franchise chose to live in the past instead of honoring their own history! I still fondly remember the number retirement ceremonies for Mays and Snider. I'm so glad the franchise is going to find another way to honor players who have nothing to do with their franchise! Sure the Gi-odgers have been in 4 world series and won two, but those wins really aren't as important as the ONE the REAL Dodgers won while they were here or the championships the Giants won back in the 1900's and teens and early 20's. I mean c'mon, game six of the the 1986 world series had nothing on the '05 Giants win over the A's. I mean who can forget Mathewson's 6 hitter in game 5 to clinch that series. It really sucks that we've had to "put up with" the Gi-odgers instead of the REAL New York baseball teams that abandoned us all those years ago. Maybe next year the Gi-oders could alternate throw back uniforms for home games between Dodgers and Giants uniforms. This way we can pretend they never left us!

As I type this, I am looking over at my framed game six ticket from the 1986 World Series. And maybe when I am sitting in the new Ebbets Field with those forest green seats from the Polo Grounds, there will be more moments like that special October night in '86. Hopefully, as I exit the Jackie Robinson rotunda I will be able to pass the staue of Mel Ott that I forsee being built.

[foresthawk]

Wouldn't want to see the Brush Memorial stairs dismantled and moved.
Where they are its at least a little remaining link to the New York Giants and the Polo Grounds. Its remarkable this still remains. I only hope I can make it there to visit in person. The pictures on this site of that area have been great.

[StanTheMan]

Green Seats.... is this really an homage to the Polo Grounds? Weren't green seats relatively common back in the day?

PG Green on the outfield walls, or a facade or something would be a better tribute, would it not? Completely the wrong color for a Mets color scheme, but oh well.

I'm not getting the seat thing.... too many other green seated parks.

[mandrake]

Green Seats.... is this really an homage to the Polo Grounds? Weren't green seats relatively common back in the day?

PG Green on the outfield walls, or a facade or something would be a better tribute, would it not? Completely the wrong color for a Mets color scheme, but oh well.

I'm not getting the seat thing.... too many other green seated parks.

I do not think it is enough of a tribute, but here is the excerpt of the story from my local paper, The Times Herald Record:

Mets' new stadium shaping up: The Mets' new stadium is starting to look like a ballpark. Rows of seats, forest green in tribute to the New York Giants' Polo Grounds, have been installed in the right field upper deck at Citi Field. While the playing field was still a busy construction zone yesterday, with the home-plate area boxed by orange netting, steel trusses for the two enormous high definition video boards, one 70-by-40 feet, were in place beyond center and right-center fields. And distance markers dotted walls that ring what will be the outfield, jutting in and out, rising and dropping in height, to create the nooks and niches popular with the new stadiums.

Chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon said the outfield of the $800 million ballpark, scheduled to open next year, was "somewhat evocative of the Polo Grounds."

These are not my words ! I still want the Mel Ott statue. The Atlanta Braves had a statue of Ty Cobb outside their park. He did not play in Atlanta, period.

[whoisonit]

I'm not getting the seat thing.... too many other green seated parks.

Me too. In fact I've been wondering why nobody has mentioned this. Having green seats is hardly a tribute to the Polo Grounds. Take a look around at any stadium built in the last dozen years, ML, Minor League, the Independent Leagues. Almost every single one has green seats.

It comes across as most disingenuous for the Wilpon's to say this is a tribute to the Giants and/or the Polo Grounds. It seems more like grasping at staws in an attempt to deflect critisism regarding the overwhelming Ebbets Field/Dodgerness of the new park.

I'm not buying it. Go get the Eddie Grant plaque. That would be a neat tribute. Not only does it have historical signifigance that transends baseball, it was actually a part of the Polo Grounds.

I too would like to see the outfield wall green but as a tribute to Shea whose walls were originally and for many years green. They also need to find a place to incorporate the iconic Shea orange & blue panels somewhere prominant.

[MSUlaxer27]

I do not think it is enough of a tribute, but here is the excerpt of the story from my local paper, The Times Herald Record:

Mets' new stadium shaping up: The Mets' new stadium is starting to look like a ballpark. Rows of seats, forest green in tribute to the New York Giants' Polo Grounds, have been installed in the right field upper deck at Citi Field. While the playing field was still a busy construction zone yesterday, with the home-plate area boxed by orange netting, steel trusses for the two enormous high definition video boards, one 70-by-40 feet, were in place beyond center and right-center fields. And distance markers dotted walls that ring what will be the outfield, jutting in and out, rising and dropping in height, to create the nooks and niches popular with the new stadiums.

Chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon said the outfield of the $800 million ballpark, scheduled to open next year, was "somewhat evocative of the Polo Grounds."

These are not my words ! I still want the Mel Ott statue. The Atlanta Braves had a statue of Ty Cobb outside their park. He did not play in Atlanta, period.

Atlanta (and Georgia) has a well documented inferiority complex...did you know that Georgia now includes "the empire state of the south" as a nickname? (this is kind of like saying, I'm the tallest midget or the valedictorian of the special ed class). Do we really need to emulate what was until recently (and hopefully will be returning to) a doormat franchise.

Be the Mets! Not the Giants, Dodgers or any other franchise. Just the Mets!