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20-398: The Home Run Apple was originally installed at Shea Stadium in 1980 as a way to improve the atmosphere at New York Mets games, and an apple was chosen as a play on New York City's nickname of the " Big Apple ". When it was first constructed, it was made of fiberboard and came out of a top hat with the slogan "Mets Magic" (this was replaced a few years later with the words "Home Run"). However,

40-503: A claim that the term derived from a woman named Eve who ran a brothel in the city. This was subsequently exposed as a hoax. The earliest known usage of "big apple" appears in the book The Wayfarer in New York (1909), in which Edward Sandford Martin writes: Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city ... It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap. William Safire considered this

60-434: A large green leaf decal, resembling a strawberry . The Mets logo was also replaced by a pinstriped "18" patch in honor of Darryl Strawberry , whose number was retired that day. 40°45′28″N 73°50′45″W  /  40.7577°N 73.8457°W  / 40.7577; -73.8457 Big Apple " The Big Apple " is a nickname for New York City . It was first popularized in the 1920s by John J. Fitz Gerald ,

80-766: A metal screen with a wood frame inside". In 2007, the Mets announced that the Home Run Apple would be retired. In response, Mets fans started a petition website called [savetheapple.com] in order to preserve the Apple. Due to popular demand, including 89% of surveyed fans stating they wanted it moved over from Shea Stadium, the New York Mets announced that they would construct a new Home Run Apple to be installed in Citi Field. The old Home Run Apple from Shea Stadium

100-568: A plaque which was installed in 1996, according to Popik, but it was removed during renovations to the building and was lost. Evidence can also be found in the Chicago Defender , an African-American newspaper that had a national circulation. Writing for the Defender on September 16, 1922, "Ragtime" Billy Tucker used the name "big apple" to refer to New York in a non-horse-racing context: I trust your trip to 'the big apple' (New York)

120-611: A sportswriter for the New York Morning Telegraph . Its popularity since the 1970s is due in part to a promotional campaign by the New York tourist authorities. Although the history of "Big Apple" was once thought a mystery, a clearer picture of the term's history has emerged due to the work of historian Barry Popik , and Gerald Cohen of the Missouri University of Science and Technology . A number of false theories had previously existed, including

140-462: Is still susceptible to failure. In 2009 (Citi Field's first year), when Fernando Tatís hit a home run for the Mets, the Apple did not rise. The fans booed and chanted "We Want Apple!" for two and a half minutes until it was eventually raised. It happened again in 2017, when Travis d'Arnaud hit a home run, and the apple failed to rise, making the Citi Field chant "We Want Apple!" again, just like in 2009. The Apple did rise two batters after d'Arnaud hit

160-547: The Apple was partially raised for him, stopping before the Mets insignia was exposed. In 2015, after Travis d'Arnaud hit a home run that struck the Home Run Apple in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series , a bandage was placed on the apple the next day in the place the ball had hit it. On June 1, 2024, the Home Run Apple was given a temporary makeover by adding green seed decals and

180-658: The L. T. Bauer string, is scheduled to start for "the big apple" to-morrow after a most prosperous Spring campaign at Bowie and Havre de Grace. Fitz Gerald referred to the "big apple" frequently thereafter. He explained his use in a column dated February 18, 1924, under the headline "Around the Big Apple": The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There's only one Big Apple. That's New York. Fitz Gerald reportedly first heard "The Big Apple" used to describe New York's racetracks by two African American stable hands at

200-401: The Mets won only 67 games during the 1980 season and the Home Run Apple became known as "Harazin's folly". Often the Apple would get stuck, which necessitated an electrician to be sent to repair it. Over time the Apple became misshapen (due to periodic harsh weather conditions) and was hard to maintain, with a Mets executive stating, "It was just totally fabricated out of plaster layered on top of

220-525: The New Orleans Fair Grounds. Using racing records, Popik traced that conversation to January 1920. In recognition of Fitz Gerald's role in promulgating "The Big Apple" as a nickname for New York City, in 1997 Mayor Rudy Giuliani signed legislation designating as "Big Apple Corner" the southwest corner of West 54th Street and Broadway, the corner on which John J. Fitz Gerald lived from 1934 to 1963. The Hotel Ameritania also once had

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240-508: The coinage, but because the phrase is not quoted in the text, it is likely that it was used as a metaphor, and not as a nickname for the city. "The Big Apple" was popularized as a name for New York City by John J. Fitz Gerald in a number of horse-racing articles for the New York Morning Telegraph in the 1920s. The earliest of these was a casual reference on 3 May 1921: J. P. Smith, with Tippity Witchet and others of

260-476: The home run. During Major League Baseball games, the Home Run Apple is raised only for New York Mets home runs. An exception to this happened in 1998 when the Mets' Subway Series rivals, the New York Yankees , were forced to play one of their home games at Shea Stadium because of a building code violation at Yankee Stadium . During the game, former Mets player Darryl Strawberry hit a home run and

280-443: The late 1950s, if it was known at all, it had come to be considered an outdated nickname for New York. In the early 1970s, however, during the city's fiscal crisis , "People were looking around desperately and some of them seized that old phrase the Big Apple to remind people of when New York had been a strong and powerful city and might become that again," according to the official Manhattan Borough Historian, Dr. Robert Snyder. It

300-594: The name is used exclusively to refer to New York City, and is used with regularity by journalists and news headline writers across the English-speaking world. Edward Sandford Martin Edward Sandford Martin (2 January 1856 – 13 June 1939) was an American journalist and editor. Edward S. Martin was born in 1856 on his grand-uncle Enos T. Throop 's estate "Willowbrook" near Auburn, New York . His mother, Cornelia Williams Martin ,

320-531: Was a huge success and only wish that I had been able to make it with you. Tucker had also earlier used "big apple" as a reference to Los Angeles . It is possible that he simply used "big apple" as a nickname for any large city: Dear Pal, Tony: No, Ragtime Billy Tucker hasn't dropped completely out of existence, but is still in the 'Big Apple', Los Angeles. By the late 1920s, New York writers other than Fitz Gerald were starting to use "Big Apple", and were using it in contexts other than horse racing. "The Big Apple"

340-413: Was a popular song and dance in the 1930s. Jazz musicians in the 1930s also contributed to the use of the phrase to refer to New York City, specifically to the city and Harlem as the jazz capital of the world. Beside the song and the dance, two nightclubs in the city used "Big Apple" in their names. Walter Winchell and other writers continued to use the term in the 1940s and early 1950s, but by

360-544: Was a prominent social activist in Auburn. The youngest son in his parents' large and socially prominent family, Edward S. Martin completed his secondary education in 1872 at Phillips Academy and in 1877 graduated with a bachelor's degree from Harvard University , where in 1876 he was one of the founders of the Harvard Lampoon . In 1883 he became the first literary editor of Life Magazine ; from 1887 to 1933 he

380-400: Was installed outside Citi Field near the home plate entrance. The Home Run Apple at Shea Stadium was operated using a motor and pulley-operated elevator mechanism, while the Home Run Apple at Citi Field is powered by hydraulics and is operated from the control room, which requires a key to be turned and button to be pressed to activate it. Despite the improved engineering on the new Apple, it

400-553: Was then that the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau – now NYC & Company , New York City's official marketing and tourism organization – with the help of the Ogilvy & Mather advertising firm, began to promote the city's "Big Apple" nickname to tourists, under the leadership of its president, Charles Gillett. The campaign was a success, and the nickname has remained popular since then. Today,

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