For the 2010 updated version of this post, click HERE.
Part of the mission of this blog is to document Twins Americana. We tried it with commercials and songs, but it didn't work out so well. Today, we'll take a hard look at those happy squares of cloth, the Homer Hanky.
Everyone knows the two famous Homer Hankies, the ones that directly contributed to the World Series Championships of 1987 and 1991.
These are the classic Homer Hankies. The font and simple slogans were great. They were perfect for their time and place - they just fit right in there.
The next Homer Hanky came in 1997:
As you can tell, these Homer Hankies really aren't technically Homer Hankies, as I believe the Star Tribune owns the rights to that name. But that didn't stop the Twins marketing machine from marketing them as Homer Hankies and giving them away to fans during the 10th Anniversary celebration of the '87 championship.
The next "Homer Hanky" came in, you guessed it, 2001.
This atrocity is more like a golf towel than a hanky, but whatever. This was given away at the 10th anniversary celebration of the '91 championship.
Then the Twins came back, and started making the playoffs again. The return of the genuine Homer Hanky was a much anticipated event in the Twin Cities.
This Homer Hanky is just OK. It has the classic look of the red baseball, but it's block lettering is ugly. And the slogan "PROUD AND LOUD" is just plain stupid. This is not football.
The 2003 Homer Hanky strayed from it's roots noticeably, but it's not so bad. The blue is actually kinda badass.
The 2004 Homer Hanky is actually pretty cool. I'm not sure if they got the dimensions correct of the field at the Dome, but it's an original idea and still incorporates the old school feel, what with the vertical red lines and everything. The block lettering is still ugly though, almost as ugly as Jason Kubel's at-bat against Mariano Rivera in Yankee stadium that October.
Somehow, the Twins made it back into the playoffs again in 2006. A classy, circular design was incorporated. I dig it.
The Twins and the Star Tribune pulled out all the stops as they commemorated the 20th anniversary of the '87 championship. The bi-colored, fancy logo and return to that cool lettering make this Hanky really stand out. It was given away to the first 40,000 fans on Saturday, August 18th.
This is the 2008 Homer Hanky, which was never available to the public because the Twins lost to the White Sox in the AL Central Tie-Breaker game. They simply reused the already printed hankies for the 2009 Homer Hanky. Genius!
This is the ugly 2010 Target Field opener souvenir Homer Hanky. They just took the inaugural TF logo, slapped come non-congruent banners near it and added more corporate logos. This barely counts as a Homer Hanky.
The super obscure Homer Hankies are only legends, really.
Just look at that thing. It boggles the mind. Apparently, it was printed at the beginning of the 1988 season. The slogan is pretty damn funny, but it turned out to be ironically prophetic. The Twins were better in '88 than '87, winning 91 games, but they failed to make the playoffs. Fuck you, Oakland.
And there is a rumor that the Twins printed a Homer Hanky at the beginning of the '92 season, but I can't find a picture of that one. If you have one, let me know. I can only imagine what the slogan was.
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Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Kinda Obscure Homer Hankies I Think You'd Like
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7 comments:
One of my favorite childhood memories, was taking one of my dads (new) hankerchiefs and making my own Homer Hanky. It's still hanging up in my parents basement.
I believe the stripes on the '04 hanky are horizontal, not vertical.
I also agree completely about the towel being an atrocity. Almost as bad as pink logo caps. And I don't ever recall seeing the '88 version. How very strange.
Even the worst of these is better than the rally monkey or those annoying inflatable thunder sticks (or whatever they're callled).
Nice post.
If you need a towel for hanky purposes, you've got some serious issues.
02' was the best of the new (02-06) Hankies. I would say that 06' was the best but it was so freaking hard to get ahold of one that I cant even qualify it. At the two games last year vs. Oakland it felt like only a handful of people had them.
In game 1 of the 02' ALCS vs. the Angels I was sitting in the upper deck above the baggy in right field and when Eddie came out in the 9th to close the game all I could see when I looked to my right or left was a sea of white, not even peoples faces, just a white out. It was awesome.
I think in all my years as a Twins fan that was my favorite moment at the Dome because when I walked out into the streets of MPLS that night the entire city seemed to be going crazy with Twins fevor, people had Rally Monkeys strung up by the noose, and I realized the Twins were 3 wins away from the World Series.
and then we lost the next four. oh, to be a twins fan.
oh, to be a minnesota sports fan in general.
this is totally awesome coverage/research.
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