After the dog woke me up way too early this morning, I laid in bed thinking about what to post. (I’m crazy). My mind went to the TV booth and how they were raving about the blue uniforms. And the fans like the blue. And Howie likes the blue. And everyone on twitter likes the blue.
Then I started thinking about Banner Day. The other day I posted that the Red Sox are having Banner Day and I didn’t get much of a reaction.
This morning it hit me. It’s the same as the blue uniforms.
There is a generation of Mets fans who were raised on no-traditions and black uniforms. They don’t know what they are missing. A black and white photo of people from the 60’s means nothing to them.
The Mets gave away the brand.
Here’s what happened since 1996. The Yankees are pride and tradition and winning. Ignore the reality of George Steinbrenner, he was a saint. David Wells? True Yankee. Johnny Damon from Boston? True Yankee. You know the drill.
Meanwhile in Queens: is there anything positive to say since the 2000 NLCS? I think even 2006 has been tarnished now. Here too you know the drill, it’s words like Wilpon and Omar and clown and collapse.
So…. Banner Day. The kids don’t know what they’ve lost.
Here’s what I imagine happening.
It’s 2012 and somehow some way the Mets hold Banner Day and guess what – everyone loves it. In your mind can’t you hear GKR talking about what a great event it was and how great it was to see the kids walking around the field? Search your feelings you know it to be true.
Folks just don’t know what they are missing. Mets Baseball is supposed to be fun! It’s The People’s team! We are working class folks. We weren’t born into skyboxes and seats behind moats. We’re the sons of bartenders and train conductors. Give us some cheap seats and we’ll bring a sign. (Oh, Mr. Met I am calling you out, how about taking an escalator to the 500’s once in a while?)
Howie, Kranepool and Faith & Fear remember. Everyone else is just too young to remember. That’s not their fault, it’s the fault of the stewards of the legacy. A legacy they haven’t maintained. 15 years of Nickelodeon theme parks, the Greg Maddux of Japan, some questionable marketing in the middle of last decade and everything that has gone on in the new building. Out with the old and in with the new trendy thing.
What exactly is “Mets Baseball” here in the fall of 2011? I bet you won’t say something good.
1962+50 = 2012. We can fix this. It’s about the fans.
Fans, fans, fans, fans, fans.
Translation: customers, customers, customers, sales, money.
Mets, tell the story you want to tell, not the version in the Post.
Casey, Gil, Seaver, Ya Gotta Believe, 1977, Mookie, 1986, 2000, Piazza, Alfonzo, Reyes & Wright, Banner Day, Mr. Met, Let’s Go Mets, Blue and Orange.
Tell that story, warts and all, and be proud of it. Or, chase the elusive magic elixir and wind up with the story of Madoff, Satoru Komiyama and Bobby Bonilla’s annuity. Your choice. I survived 1977 so I can put up with anything.
Get back to where you once belonged.
2012 with the 50th Anniversary of the team is the PERFECT time to bring back Banner Day. Since the organization is bringing back the original uni’s how about some other great Mets traditions. No singers for the National Anthem, every home game play Jane Jarvis’ version of the Star Spangled Banner on her World Famous Thomas Organ. Popcorn in the Mr. Met meg a phone. Sell the blue and orange vuvuzela’s that were a staple at Shea in the 60’s and 70’s going to a Mets game was all about making noise and cheering for our Amazin’s not sitting in a glass enclosed restaurant trying to figure out which is the salad fork and which is for an entree ‘
Helmet Day, Senior Citizens & Ladies Day when a 50 cent service charge got those folks into Shea bring it all back next year go all retro with all the things that make us proud to be Mets fans, what are the Mets afraid of, people showing up and having a great time?
I too wish everything was like it was in 1973, but it’s not realistic. The blue and orange squares…helmet day…the sign man all gone, never to return. We need some new traditions too. Jane Jarvis is no longer here, let’s get a new organist and start new traditions…Ralph still contributes, but the days of Kiner, Murphy and Nelson are gone forever. While they definitely should try Banner Day, don’t be surprised if there is a big yawn…continuity is gone.
At this point, we need a mix of old and new.
YES! As a 40 year old, I remember banner day well. While it is not my thing anymore (my kids, both girls, refuse to come with me to games) I know it will be a hit with lots of kids and old timers.
Despite the record, the Mets really have something good going on to build upon for next year, and a banner day would be a great way to embrace the past as part of the year of 50.
It is probably too much to ask for a doubleheader on the schedule, but just do it before a 4:10 Saturday start in the summer, and make it a kids club day and a dynamets dash, and it will be a fun day all around…
Here’s a great WOR broadcast of the 1984 Banner Day Parade at Shea – – – One of the last ones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR0iG4eldOQ
A lot of great suggestions but the biggest thorn in my side is the JRR. Yes, he was one of the most players of all time but Jackie had absolutely nothing to do with the Mets and he and Casey did not get a long. And my family was Giants fans, not Dodgers. The Banner Day parade could also be after an afternoon game so the field wouldn’t get disturbed before a game.
And let’s see some more signs at Citi! Although “The Wilpons Must Go” might not fly.
“The Wilpons Must Go” might not fly — Unless someone hired a sky-writing company or, better yet, a banner-towing plane — that would be great over the banner parade —
It would fit Banner Day tradition for someone to at least try to get one in. I remember the first year’s parade being described in one of the post-’69 team histories (Durso’s or Allen’s, I forget which), and the author mentioned that a WELCOME TO GRANT’S TOMB entry was censored.
I agree with Shannon, right now the Mets have no tradition. They’re just another so so MLB franchise. It’s magnified here with the Yankees and Red Sox and the gobs of history and tradition they have. I guess the Mets decided at some point “we can’t compete with them there, let’s do the hip,new, trendy, now thing”. All that leaves you with is the east coast version of the Padres. It’s time to embrace Mets history and tradition.
if you think of the mets as an extension of the prev ny nl teams, and the orig mets of the 19th century, it can get more intersting.
You’re right that the Mets need to re-build their brand.
But I don’t think that they can just repeat all of the stuff that they used to do in the 70s & 80s and expect it to work. Banner Day might be fun, or it might completely fail to catch on. Originally, it offered fans a chance for expression that they didn’t have anywhere else. Now? I’m not sure if it fits a real need.
I also don’t think that organ music is something that anyone under 40 really cares about.
We need some new traditions to go along with the old, and we need the team to stop making itself a punchline for jokes if any attempt at branding is going to work.
I for one didn’t see the point to banner day. However, what ever happened to the guy that dressed like the Lone Ranger that they’d show on the Diamond Vision. During rallies and stuff. Guy used to sit first base side near the dugout. Guy was awesome.
OMG Tom I totally forgot about him. That guy was EPIC!!! The Mets Police need to launch an investigation as to his whereabouts.
the mets have always had some problems. not only are they losers, not only does the fan base sound like losers, but they don’t even play in a real neighborhood. they are like the white sox, to the yankees’ cubs. all through the 60s and 70s, the yanks never fled the south bronx. the mets are a suburban team, and there is nothing less cool than a suburb; it isn’t country, it isn’t city, it’s lilly liver.
the yankee bleachers have become a bunch of self- important jerks over the years, since the rcent dynasty started in the 90s, but the environment has always been conducive to great laughs and sharing a game with strangers, on the cheap. field level, no seat backs, low gradient, fans can easily mingle with players and each other for around $10. sometimes fights break out, and some people take the opportunity to become jerks, but usually it is new york at its finest, a crowd having fun in reach of the baseball players. they used to have a guy playing cowbell in the 80s who had such a great touch, everybody was dancing.
the mets, by comparison, are anemic. cheap areas are upstairs only, where the gradinet and seat backs only isolate the people from each other, to say nothing of the distance from the players. the mets clearly are losers at running a team, and their only retort is “we are not the yankees”. no, surely not. the cowbellman plays with all the charm of frankenstein, and their are no smiles on the peoples’ faces. the chants aren’t witty. granted, it’s a nicer stadium, but they bungled it with the faceless, pandering naming rights, and they bungled it by not moving to brooklyn. they are primarily representing the old dodgers’ fanbase, right? here in bay ridge, everyone wears a mets hat. read this: two goddamn hours on the subway, with kids. it looks like ebbet, but it might as well be in camden. and mind you, airplanes are cool, but flying by just to blocks away, isn’ that just a tad dangerous?
the mets are fully capableof wearing their dysfnction on heir sleeves as has been well documented here. a f’n mess, with the black, the elongated M, the overbright blue, the pandering of a sales and marketing dept whose wheel have come off.
ownrship.
Can I get an ALLELUJAH!? Can I get an AMEN!? Just how shocked you guys think the organization is that the “Los” Mets blue was a hit? Could it be that it was, say a Mets’ color? Pure idiocy. I am trying to have faith in Alderson and stuff on the field, but I have ZERO trust in the ownership & Dave Howard off of it. They are clueless. Go ahead gentlemen, prove me wrong.
the organization is as apt to interpret this as popularity for the ‘los mets’