Lukas: Saying it with flowers: baseball’s floral tributes

From SABR member Paul Lukas at Uni-Watch on April 12, 2018:

Back on Opening Day, Mets manager Mickey Callaway was presented with a horseshoe-shaped wreath of flowers — a gesture of good luck for the coming season (as shown at right; click to enlarge). This was the latest installment of a long-running Mets Opening Day tradition dating back to the opening of Shea Stadium in 1964. When that stadium’s namesake, William Shea, was still alive, he would present the flowers to the manager. In the years following his 1991 death, the presentation has been made by members of the Shea family.

I was discussing all of this with the Tugboat Captain, because she grew up next door to William Shea’s weekend bungalow (she even got candy from him on Halloween one year!). We decided to look up a few photos from previous Opening Days — and that sent me down a new rabbit hole that has resulted in some very interesting revelations.

Read the full article here: https://uni-watch.com/2018/04/12/uni-watch-research-project-saying-it-with-flowers/



Originally published: April 12, 2018. Last Updated: April 12, 2018.