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Mets COO Jeff Wilpon was a guest during 
WFAN’s morning show today, hosted by Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton, and had the following to say when asked about the Home-Run Apple at Shea Stadium…
“The apple, as it sits right now, is in not great repair. So we’re probably going to send it out somewhere to get repaired. We’re going to see how much of it we can fix, or we’re going to make a new one.”
…so, this sounds like, maybe, they’ll try to fix it and move it to Citi Field…or, this is a way to frame the apple as beyond fixing, so when if they opt to leave it behind the excuse has already been set in motion…
To listen to Wilpon’s interview, click here.
I liked the idea (whosever it was) to leave the apple where it is in what will eventually be the parking lot, as a piece of history.
I hate the apple. Many people consider the Mets a joke of a franchise, and that relic only reinforces that image. It looks incredibly amateurish, like something high-schoolers would make out of papier-mache.
Even if it looked nice, the concept is really dated. Come up with something altogether new. It is the ballpark-amusement equivalent of a Cosby sweater. It doesn’t need to be an eyesore (and the subject of ridicule) in the new park.
Burn it down, Jeff.
That’s awesome! While we’re throwing away tradition, we should get new uniforms too! No need for blue and orange to honor the Dodgers and Giants anymore. Blue and Orange were common colors in Cosby sweaters and lord knows we don’t want that . . .
Tradition? Look, I hate all the different uniforms and wish they’d stick to the pinstipes … but come on, putting that beat up apple and tradition in the same sentence is a little strong. A shiny new one to go with the shiny new stadium would be fine, and it isn’t tossing “tradition”.
I agree. Lets put in a conference room and a martini bar and we can call ourselves the New NEW York Yankees…
They have redefined the definition of tossing away anything resembling heritage and tradtion with that $1.3 Bil debacle….
There’s a difference between tradition and a marketing gimmick, which is what the apple was.
If they want to keep the apple, fine. Many ballparks have some sort of gimmick every time the home team hits a homerun. As far as those things go, the Apple isn’t so bad. I just don’t see why it needs to be THE apple. That thing is a piece of junk.
I have a totally unrelated question (which I guess might be good rather than talking about an apple). Is Santana the type of pitcher who has a “tough guy” attitude? For example if an opposing pitcher hits one of our players is he inclined to fire back at the opposing team?
Yes, he is a bulldog on the mound and will do whatever is necessary.
I don’t know, I like the apple. It’s one of the few unique things about Shea that set it apart from every other park built in the 60’s. The one thing I’ve always hated though is how every video game gets it completely wrong. Older games just had the apple out all the time, which actually didn’t bother me that much, but the last few years, they’ve had the apple hidden, and then when you hit a homerun the apple goes WAY UP like it’s climbing a flagpole, so that it’s even with the top of the scoreboard. Every time I’d hit a homer at Shea it would totally take me out of the game.
The funny thing is, out of all the modern baseball games, The Bigs gets the apple right. So, all of the realistic baseball sims screw up the apple, but this ultra-arcade, every hitter on steroids game, gets it right. Unreal.
yea i hate that too i dont know which game it was with the mystery flag pole climbing apple but i used to hate it too. i feel stupid talking about it but i completely agree it used to piss me off everytime.
every park is so up to date, but none get our apple right… there is one game that has the apple magically rise up like 20 feet in air as if it floats..
(mlb the show 07 -had it on flag pole)
all this apple talk is stupid. If we get a new one, use the same one, none at all, something different, it doesn’t matter. Is this going to impact anyone’s enjoyment of the new stadium either way? I sure hope it doesn’t.
It may not impact the enjoyment of adult fans, but I remeber loving the apple when I was 5-7 years old. It is one of the biggest reasons I wanted to go to Shea and in a way helped me become a life long Mets fan. I’ve taken my 5 yearold nephew to several games and he loves it too. I think in the discussions we have about the apple, many of us forget that most children love it and that should be enough for them to keep it at the new stadium.
I don’t think it’s stupid, it’s part of Shea and the Mets. It’s def not the biggest deal in the world, but yeah, it’d be fun to take my kid by the old apple and say “see that awesome stadium? well it wasn’t always like that…”
It will be just another punchline (in a long list of punchlines) used to rip on this franchise.
When this organization starts taking itself and its marketing seriously, the perception will change. But making songs like “Our Team, Our Time” or appropriating “Sweet Caroline” just reinforce the notion that this is an often corny, often unoriginal franchise that simply can’t get out of its own way.
“Stick your head out the window and yell, ‘Let’s Go Mets.’ ” Ugh.
agree with sweet caroline etc, but the apple is one of the few original bits in met history. cheesy? most def, but unique.
and outside citifield.
I’m still in favor of getting a brand new apple in Citi Field to use as the Home Run Apple.
As for the old one, definitely make it available for viewing somewhere. Either in the parking lot location it is currently in, or just inside the new park somewhere, the Shea Musuem as some people have referred.
I want a new apple. If they use the old one it’ll stick out like a sore thumb. It’s old and worn out. The apple is part of mets history and homage should be paid to it in the new stadium by building a new one.
Get … rid … of … that … piece of **** apple!!!!!!!!! I want an apple, but not that ugly decrepit piece of garbage. Give us a shiny new apple, please.
NO NEW APPLE WE NEED TO PRESERVE THAT APPLE
Preserve it in a dumpster. :)
Lets be honest with ourselves here, the freaking home run apple, although Mets Tradition, was something that was put up as a gimick in the 70’s and im pretty sure it was built with plywood they found thrown out back from one of the chop shops. I love this team and this stadium but we do have some of the corniest things going on in the stadium that we dont need. This isnt KC or Pittsburgh where you need a hot dog toss to drag people to the stadium, people in NY love baseball for baseball and if you show up to see Jose and the Pepsi party patrol only then stop showing up. Yes there should be an apple but please dont treat this current apple like its monument park or the green monster, build a new one and put it in citi field. Even the sox put in a new left field scoreboard.
I was thinking the same thing. Would we see a home run apple in Yankee Stadium? No. Though I loathe them, they take the branding and marketing of their franchise seriously. They don’t trot out hacky, ill-conceived campaigns that expose them to ridicule. (Well, except their pursuit of starting pitching in recent years.)
Who calls NYC the Big Apple, anyway? Old people and tourists?
Just retire the whole apple-in-a-top-hat marketing concept. It’s embarrassing. In a city built on advertising, we can’t develop some new ideas?
yes lets be like the boring coporate yankees. hell lets go even further lets just change our uniforms to suits like the little league team at the end of “My Blue Heaven”.
Didn’t a group of people put together an online petition to keep the apple? Why don’t we put one together to get rid of it?
where do i sign?
I think Matt is living in the apple, that’s why he’s so gun ho to keep it =)
What kind of nut hates the apple?
The old one is looking pretty decrepit. I have no problem with them buidign a new one. Send the old one to Keyspan Park, or incorporate it into the Mets Museum that they’re hopefully building somewhere on the site.
seriously, with all the talks of gimmicks that Cerrone does, and how much he hates them, this was and is one the biggest. That’s all it was back in the day, and it’s really all it is now. If you don’t want the other gimmicks, then why this? It’s a crappy old apple, why do we want to keep it? History lies within the game and the field its played upon, not some gimmick from the 70’s that’s old and outdated.
P.s. while were at it I call for the quiet resignation of Cow Bell Man, I dont know you personally and I understand that you are a huge fan and we all appreciate it, but if any gimmick needs to be stopped it is you. It is an obvious rip off from Freddy the Frying Pan man (who actually does the frying pan act at Manhattan Basketball Games). We all as Met fans have spent our entire lives trying to get outof the shadow of the Yankees and this just gives them more fodder for their argument that we are not fans of a real team and we are all unoriginal. Your idea is just as bad as if the mets started playing New York New York at the end of games or the grounds crew did the macarena or something to copy the YMCA from Yankee Stadium grounds crew. I say Cow Bell Man stops along with Shea.
I’ll even write the mets to have a Cow Bell Man retirement day or maybe a patch put on the uniform for the season.
The apple was cheesy when it started and it deserves to stay at Shea when the wrecking ball hits. While we’re at it, let’s also leave behind Shea’s so-called DJ (can’t we just tone down the music and maybe have a few moments of silence during the game?). Hey, wouldn’t it be great to open Citi with the organ stylings of Jane Jarvis???
It can go into the hall of fame right next to the Torborg era uni’s and the White Hats.
I think they should have a new apple but anyone that cries over the fact that the old one should be preserved or that they might not have a home run apple should have their head checked.
Well, as for having an apple at all, it’s a moot point, GIVEN THE LARGE ROUND HOLE IN THE CONCRETE IN CF AT CITI FIELD FOR AN APPLE!!!!!
Sheesh. New or old, there will be one. I vote for a shiny new apple for Citi Field and put the old one in the Mets museum.
cowbell man sucks
i want a new cowbell man
Please give us a shiny new apple or I’ll have on ticked off 8yr old on my hands.
Which is why there should be an apple. It’s for the kids, the kids love it. Who cares what the “grown-ups” think. For the kids, baseball is still a game, a game thats suppose to be fun. The apple to them is fun. Dont you think they’ve taken enough of the game away from them? World Series, playoff, and All-Star games starting so late at night that they cant watch. Put a new one in the new stadium and keep the old one where kids can go up and see it, even touch it. Let’s keep their awe and wonder of going to a big league ballpark. Just like when you went as a kid.
gipper913 took the words right out of my mouth, before all of this are we bringing the apple or not talk i knew it all along given that even in the earliest renderings of Citi Field even when it was called Mets ballpark you could clearly see an apple in CF. That being said at the construction site there is a concrete cylinder where you know… the apple will go. What do you expect them to put there.
Either if the apple is going to be repaired or if were getting a new one I think its common sense that the Mets aren’t going to bring that old apple that is in disrepair.
Whether you like the apple or not, gimmick or whatever you want to call it. The apple has become part of the Mets, Citi field would be incomplete without it. At this point the only thing that bothers me about Citi Field is the lack of seats, 45,000 seats isnt gonna cut it for a New York team. I don’t see the Mets getting worse over the next 5-8 years not with Omar or Wilpon because like em or not they have made us a contender and will be willing to spend big bucks when needed if Santana isnt an indication enough. 48 to 50,000 would have been better for Citi Field.
Anyway I’ll enjoy my last year at mezz. 18 hopefully with Kowalski there again in 08′
I WANT NEW APPLE
i love the apple. i dont care either way if they bring it, but people who have said they hate the apple hate freedom and hate america.
Well, I have room in my backyard for it if no one else wants it. :-)