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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Saturday, February 09, 2008
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 09, 2008 at 05:37 AM | 15 comment(s)
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1. winnipegwhip Posted: February 09, 2008 at 05:54 AM (#2686962)2 BAD 4 HIM
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
Guess not.
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.
He was a fun, and seemingly unscripted, addition to games.
Nowadays he'd have to go through all sorts of market testing first. Sigh.
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.
Mentioning Billy Joel is an excellent way to start.
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