Needless to say that over the past few days, I scrolled through the obits printed in LI Newsday and Newsday.com once or twice.
Newsday is a tremendous newspaper and was my first 'real' employer after short career stints running lemonade stands, block party game booths and an attempt to be a professional poker player with the buy-in of 50 pennies. Newsday has serviced Long Islanders with a terrific combination of local, NYC, national and international news. The Newsday sports section is among the best each year, according to the APSE, the association for sports editors.
Newsday covers Long Island high school sports with ample space and terrific reporting.
On the national sports level, Newsday has covered the NBA with team beat reporters and columnists assigned to every major event. I will jot out some of the names from the years I worked at the NBA - Bryan Burwell, Bob Rubin, Jan Hubbard, Barbara Barker, Greg Logan, Neil Best, John Jeansonne, Joe Gergen, and Ken Berger. Shawn Powell and Jeanette Howard are among the best columnists in the nation.
The coverage of the local teams, the NY Islanders and the NY Mets, is excellent, as you would expect. Newsday has covered St. John's basketball as a 'beat' sport for as long as I can remember.
Anyway, back to the sad item that I started by scrolling through the obits.
On February 10th, Newsday ran this:
Newsday.com
Longtime Mets sign man Karl Ehrhardt dies
BY MICHAEL AMON
michael.amon@newsday.com
February 10, 2008
Before the heavy-metal intros for relief pitchers, before the JumboTron and even the electronic scoreboard, there was Karl Ehrhardt and his signs at Shea Stadium.
Dubbed the "Sign Man of Shea," Ehrhardt captured the moods of Mets fans in the 1960s and '70s with thousands of handmade placards. For players who made errors, one read: "BUM." After a clutch Mets hit: "WUNNERFUL." And upon the last out of the 1969 World Series, which the Mets won: "THERE ARE NO WORDS."
Ehrhardt died from natural causes in his Glen Oaks, Queens, home on Monday, his family said. He was 83.
A commercial artist, Ehrhardt crafted the signs on the floor of his children's bedroom and stayed up late poring over the thesaurus, said his daughter, Bonnie Troester.
To the delight of fans, and sometimes the consternation of Mets management and players, Ehrhardt cheered, mocked and cajoled via 20-by-26-inch black paper signs with white block lettering from 1964 to 1981. His placards stood out from those of other Mets fans, whom the team encouraged to bring signs in the early 1960s, said Steve Jacobson, a former Newsday sports columnist.
"There were a lot of amateurish signs, but Ehrhardt's were very clever, very readable," Jacobson said. "He always had something appropriate for the moment."
The Sign Man could be harsh. Frequent strikeouts by Jose Cardenal prompted this response: "JOSE, CAN YOU SEE?" When Frank Taveras made an error, it was: "LOOK MA, NO HANDS." Ehrhardt's special target was slow, unathletic first baseman Ed Kranepool, whose at-bats were noted with signs that read: "STIFF."
But Ehrhardt's signs cheered when the Mets did well, capturing the spirit of the Mets unlikely World Series appearances with signs like "DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?" in 1969 and the team's catchphrase "YOU GOTTA BELIEVE!" in 1973. The team flew him to Oakland for luck in the last two games of the 1973 World Series, though the Mets lost.
Ehrhardt first gained notoriety at Shea Stadium in 1964 - the year the ballpark opened - when he and a friend hung a banner poking fun at the Mets' losing record and stuffy team chairman Donald Grant: "WELCOME TO GRANT'S TOMB."
The team ordered the banner down, and Ehrhardt complained to the press. To his surprise, outrage poured in, and soon Ehrhardt was back, this time with box seats behind the third-base dugout and a portfolio of about 60 smaller signs.
Fans caught on fast.
"People would ask him for his autograph. They were thrilled to be near him," said Troester, of Maine, who accompanied her father to many games.
Ehrhardt made new signs every year and at one point had about 1,200. But he destroyed all but a handful after a falling out with Mets management when Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon purchased the team in 1981. The Mets brought back Ehrhardt and his placards to Shea in 2002 for the team's 40th anniversary.
"He was a valuable part of our history," said Mets spokesman Jay Horwitz. "He energized the fans."
In his later years, Ehrhardt still followed the Mets but mostly to root against them because he was still bitter, Troester said.
In addition to his daughter, Ehrhardt is survived by a son, Richard Ehrhardt, of Queens, and two grandchildren. His wife of 49 years, Lucille, died in 1997. A private memorial service will be held on April 5.
Copyright © 2008, Newsday Inc.
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