The Mets had hoped to keep their intentions quiet for now about whether they would transfer the apple from Shea to their new stadium or commission a new one. But they inadvertently upstaged their own announcement. An official with ties to the team revealed on a late-night airing of a special about Citi Field on SNY that it will, in fact, be a new apple celebrating longballs.
The apple is a nine-foot mass of fiberboard slathered in red paint that, whenever a Met blasts a homer, pops out of a 10-foot, upside-down black top hat made of plywood. The Mets logo on the apple lights up and blinks. The phrase "home run," which replaced the original "Mets Magic," an offshoot of the Mets' old "The Magic is Back" campaign, is visible on the top hat. The apple, all 582 pounds of it, appeared behind the fence, to the right of the 410-foot mark in center field, during the 1980 season.
We are pretty upset, even though we've felt that this was going to be
the outcome for some time. So now it's time to turn our attention
towards what to do with the Apple.
Last summer a blog
mentioned their solution was not to Save the Apple but to leave it
EXACTLY where it is. Well, the Apple's not moving, so we'd like to
throw our support behind this idea. Mets officials, if you come here,
please PLEASE just leave the Apple where it is. It's right next to the
fan walk, it's a great location, 8900 fans have signed the petition
begging to keep the Apple, give us something...
I love the idea. Citi Field-goers of the future would be able to say,"Meet me at the Apple" or "I parked by the Apple," or (sadly) "If you can't wait until we're inside, just go behind the Apple."
Seriously, it would be a classy move. And the old Apple would serve as an unofficial tribute to the many thousands of partial season ticket holders who almost made it into Citi Field but were instead left behind.
I heard (from a poster on Baseball-Fever.com who has visited the construction site and has access to blueprints, etc) that the Mets are actually considering leaving the apple where it is and rebuilding the Citi Field walkway plaza around it, so you might be in luck with that one.
I heard (from a poster on Baseball-Fever.com who has visited the construction site and has access to blueprints, etc) that the Mets are actually considering leaving the apple where it is and rebuilding the Citi Field walkway plaza around it, so you might be in luck with that one.