I like today – I don’t have to think of anything, I can just link to everyone else’s awesomeness. Hey, it worked for Drudge.
Anyways…as we have discussed, Greg Prince and I are like-thinkers, except what I say in two choppy sentences he says in beautiful essays.
He has a big case for The Return Of Banner Day from which I now excerpt just a small part
Watch those film clips from the not-so-sublime years covered in Mets Yearbook. Do the banners say, “The Mets suck and we don’t like the Mets, when are they going to get better and they suck and you suck and everybody sucks”? No, they do not. It is always relentlessly hopeful and ridiculously optimistic. Mets fans, it might surprise Mets management, desire and seek reasons to believe. If they can’t believe in an imminent improvement, they want to believe in themselves. They want to believe there’s a reason they tromp on out to Citi Field when the non-believers around them ask, “Mets game? Why are you going to THAT?” We know why, and we want to show it from the heart. We can buy licensed merchandise (and we will, pending pricing) and some of us can blog up a storm (and we do), but we all want to be reminded that something makes us unique — and Banner Day, a Met creation, is one of those singular sensations that belonged first, last and always to the New York Mets. To the Mets and their fans, technically, but we tend to think they’re one and the same.
via Banner Day Doubleheader 2012 « Faith and Fear in Flushing.
That’s a small part of a much longer must-read, but how can you not agree with even that paragraph.
If the Mets are concerned about “You suck” banners here is my suggestion: Make it a contest. Online. You submit your banner slogan…the Mets pick X….the top 10,000 entrants show up at the park with actual physical banners, they walk on the field, then the judges can pick the winner in x categories (kids, old ladies, funny, original design, whatever). If someone submits an inappropriate banner then don’t pick it. If someone shows up with a banner that wasn’t entered in the contest then tell them they should have read the rules.
Think about it – when you put a message on the scoreboard those are screened, right? I can’t have DiamondVision (I am not calling it BankVision) say “Go Astros! Fred Smells HA HA HA!” can I?
Someone has to approve it. Apply similar logic to the banners.
If you’re worried about bloggers saying “The Mets are afraid…” Please, you’ve met us. we’re actually nice. And so what if someone does.
Is someone on WFAN gonna do it? Yep. Get thicker skin if you’re gonna operate a ballclub in this town. So some DJ says “the Mets are afraid of You Suck signs” at 2:15 in the morning. Who cares.
Go read Faith and Fear will ya?
