BBTF's Newsblog Discussion :: N.Y. Times: Karl Ehrhardt, 83, Sign Man and Shea Stadium Fixture Is Dead (RR)

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Friday, February 08, 2008

N.Y. Times: Karl Ehrhardt, 83, Sign Man and Shea Stadium Fixture Is Dead (RR)

Even Wild Bill Hagy would bOw…

Karl Ehrhardt, who through championship seasons and woeful ones and grand slams and botched plays let the Mets know what he thought of them by raising block-lettered signs from his box seat behind third base at Shea Stadium, died Tuesday at his home in Glen Oaks, Queens. He was 83.

His death was confirmed by his grandson, Brian Troester.

Known as the Sign Man of Shea, Mr. Ehrhardt brought his big bag of 20-by-26-inch placards to dozens of games each year, from 1964 through 1981. Like Hilda Chester, the cowbell clanger who roamed the aisles of Ebbets Field in the heyday of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1950s, Mr. Ehrhardt became a stadium fixture. Cameras zeroed in and fans hooted when he unfolded his signs.

Repoz Posted: February 08, 2008 at 11:37 PM | 15 comment(s)
Related News: General, NY Mets, Obituaries

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1. winnipegwhip Posted: February 08, 2008 at 11:54 PM (#2686962)

Freddy Sez:

2 BAD 4 HIM

2. shoewizard Posted: February 09, 2008 at 12:22 AM (#2686975)

What happened after 1981? He stop going to games because of the strike or something?

3. rdfc Posted: February 09, 2008 at 03:03 AM (#2687031)

shoewizard - The Mets' new ownership were, at the time, trying to give the Mets a new image and saw Ehrhardt as part of the team's past. As a result, Ehrhardt stopped being invited to team functions and the like. As Ehrhardt later explained, "The front office was now run by new ownership, and they didn't like me criticizing the team. They turned their backs on me, so I just packed up my signs and went home."

Ehrhardt was invited back to celebrate the team's 40th anniversary in 2002 at a Dodgers-Mets game and held up a sign that said "The Sign Man Lives."

Au Revoir, Sign Man

4. HOPE: Madison Obamagarner (Flynn) Posted: February 09, 2008 at 03:58 AM (#2687037)

The sign man was 83?! I thought he was a boomer or something.

5. Repoz

Posted: February 09, 2008 at 04:56 AM (#2687042)

A friend of mine bought me a copy of the Paul Zimmerman/Dick Schaap penned "The Year the Mets Lost Last Place" because it had a neat picture of Ehrhardt in it. He told me that the memory of "The Sign Man" would last longer than the fluky '69 Mets.

Guess not.

6. schuey Posted: February 09, 2008 at 08:57 AM (#2687069)

So essentially the M. Donald Grant/Lorinda de Roulet ownership tolerated criticism better than Nelson Doubleday/Fred Wilpon?

7. shoewizard Posted: February 09, 2008 at 09:31 AM (#2687083)

He seems like he would have been a great blogger, or at least message board poster, had he been born in our generation.

8. AndrewJ Posted: February 09, 2008 at 09:53 AM (#2687090)

There are no words.

9. Gonfalon Bubble Posted: February 09, 2008 at 10:36 AM (#2687111)

Welcome to Karl's Tomb.

I mentioned the guy only yesterday, on the Billy Joel Shea Stadium thread. From now on, I vow to use this awful superpower only for the betterment of society.

10. Howie Menckel Posted: February 09, 2008 at 10:54 AM (#2687120)

Good example of a guy remembered by everyone who is old enough (like me) to remember those days. But no one else probably knows who he is, unless they saw him on those 1969 Mets replay games.
He was a fun, and seemingly unscripted, addition to games.

Nowadays he'd have to go through all sorts of market testing first. Sigh.

11. shoewizard Posted: February 09, 2008 at 11:06 AM (#2687122)

Nowadays he wouldn't even get into the stadium with all those placards

12. Howie Menckel Posted: February 09, 2008 at 11:15 AM (#2687128)

well played, post 8.

13. hankscorpio Posted: February 09, 2008 at 02:41 PM (#2687266)

At least we still have cowbell-man.

14. Benji Posted: February 09, 2008 at 07:49 PM (#2687395)

We loved him. Of course, we never sat by him or we may have considered him a pain in the ass.

I never knew if this was legend or true, but supposedly M. Donald Grant noticed him at a game during the dark days of the late 70's and asked "Why don't you come out more often?" when the guy was always there. It sounds so much like that stuffed shirt cheap bastard that it was easy to believe.

But anyway, RIP Karl and thank you.

15. walt williams bobblehead Posted: February 09, 2008 at 08:00 PM (#2687399)

I mentioned the guy only yesterday, on the Billy Joel Shea Stadium thread. From now on, I vow to use this awful superpower only for the betterment of society.

Mentioning Billy Joel is an excellent way to start.

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Friday, February 08, 2008

N.Y. Times: Karl Ehrhardt, 83, Sign Man and Shea Stadium Fixture Is Dead (RR)

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