Quote:
Originally Posted by ooo-ribay
I'd love to hear Mark's, Greg's, Jason's, Kyle's, etc. thoughts on why Giants and Dodgers pennants are not all that similar, given the teams' geographical proximity.  |
I'll take a stab at this ... when I think about the late 1950s, early 60s, Trench pretty much dominated the MLB pennant market. That was somewhat true too in the 1940s and early 50s; but, there were still a handful of smaller pennant makers producing limited runs for certain teams within their local market/region. Consequently, there's way more variation in Brooklyn pennants than Los Angeles ones, and I assume that to be true for the NY/SF Giants, too.
Looking strictly at early LA vs. early SF pennants produced by Trench, I'm not sure I've noticed too many differences. Nearly all of the Dodger pennants from that era are stadium pennants, featuring either the Coliseum or Dodger Stadium. Sure, some have a photo incorporated in them; some also have a sash. But Trench
basically offered the same for the Giants ... with some discrepancies....
(1) The '62 NL champions photo pennant for the Giants
doesn't feature a sash like the '62 (phantom) one Trench made for the Dodgers; or the '63 NL/world champions pennant Trench made the following year. That's probably because Trench anticipated the Dodgers winning the pennant that year; and there wasn't sufficient time to make a Giant version using this style, which would take extra time to produce. (2) Trench also created a logo of sorts just for Giant pennants that they didn't do for the Dodgers: it featured a batter in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, occasionally positioned before a baseball backdrop. Los Angeles doesn't have a landmark like the bridge, so it makes sense that Dodger pennants instead focused on the two arguably more venerable ballparks they occupied. (3) The same Trench artist responsible for the majority of their stadium pennants never produced a stadium pennant for Seals Stadium--not like the one that was produced for the Coliseum and Dodger Stadium. It's a one-color rendering with an empty stadium. It's like nothing Trench made. (Perhaps they borrowed it from a Seals program?)
Honestly, I don't think these discrepancies had anything to do with geography; rather, the concessionaire had more to do with these differences than anything. I'm sure Trench came to them, offered some samples of what they could produce, and each concessionaire made their selections. The Dodgers (Danny Goodman) and Giants (Harry M. Stevens, Inc.) each used different concessionaires during this era, so that to me explains why their merch looked different.
My two cents....