Here’s a site Loge13 readers can relate to: SaveTheApple.com
Their mission: to save Shea’s Home Run Apple and transfer it to Citi Field. From their site:
The Apple must stay. When the Mets move into Citi Field in 2009, the Apple must move with them. We don't want to see a new Apple, an updated Apple, or a modernized Apple.
We don't want to see a replica Apple.
We don't even want to see a cleaned up and repaired Apple. We want to see the same lumpy, grimy, dented, beat up Apple that's been sitting behind the center field wall in Shea Stadium for 27 years.
It may be ugly 80's relic, but it's our ugly 80's relic, and we want it to stay.
We can admire that.If we denizens of Loge13 can’t have our season ticket plan transferred to Citi Field, then at least move the Apple. Better that than stray Shea cats.
Clearly Loge13 is not alone in its feelings about Shea’s demise…and especially the Mets transitions plans to date. You don’t have to live or work in the Iron Triangle to feel adrift.
There is an online petition that you can sign. Here is the text of the petition:
To: Sterling Mets and Fred Wilpon
We, the Undersigned, as fans of the New York Mets and Shea Stadium implore Sterling Mets and Fred Wilpon to Save the Home Run Apple which currently resides in Shea Stadium from being auctioned or sold. We ask that the Home Run Apple be moved to Citi Field after the end of the 2008 Season so that on Opening Day 2009, the same Home Run Apple that has been with the Mets since 1980 remains with the Mets in their new home. We ask that only the normal amount of maintenance be given to the Apple and a fresh coat of paint would also be fine, but the Apple should remain as it has since it's installation.
We have come to countless games at Shea Stadium, we all have different memories, but one things remains the same for all Mets fans, and that is the thrill of seeing the Home Run Apple rise out of its top hat slowly after a Mets home run. A new apple will not be the same. What makes the Apple special is that it reminds Mets fans of their youth, of their past and the Mets' past, of coming out to the ballpark and watching a game of baseball. We don't need any crazy gimmicks, shiny apples, bright lights, just a large red Apple coming out of a top hat. The same Apple that has come out of the same top hat for generations of Mets fans.
We beg of you to Save the Apple and hope that you will take us seriously.
Comments
I'm neutral on the issue of the Apple, but it's not too early to start thinking about other artifacts of Shea. Has there been anything written about what will happen to the seats, for example? I know other teams have sold off the seats of their demolished stadiums. The current Shea seats aren't the originals - those were made of wood and were replaced at least once. How about the outfield fence? The scoreboard? (You'd need a BIG U-Haul to take that away!) Now, if you're REALLY a Shea fanatic, you can do what some Reds fans did when they reconstructed Crosley Field, and rebuild Shea somewhere else in Queens!