Rebecca Jozwiak | staff writer|

The power of friendship goes far: thanks to a first pitch thrown out by McDonald’s mascot Grimace, the New York Mets have danced their way to MLB’s National League Championship Series.

The Mets’ past few seasons haven’t gone great: After a 101-win season in 2022 that ended in infamous fashion, the Mets found themselves lost throughout the 2023 season. Despite spending a record-breaking $420 million in payroll over the course of the season, the team finished fourth in their division with a 75-87 record. In addition to on-field woes, the team experienced off-the-field snafus. Team manager Buck Showalter was relieved of his managerial duties at the conclusion of the season and former general manager Billy Eppler resigned from his post after MLB placed him under investigation for misuse of injured players.

There were also incidents stemming from harmless team news that only Mets fans would care about. In 2022, star shortstop Francisco Lindor promised to buy second baseman Jeff McNeil a car if he won the NL batting title. McNeil won, but Lindor didn’t gift the car he promised until after 2023’s conclusion. Naturally, Mets fans referred to this story all season in attempts to explain McNeil’s underachievement and rumored locker room issues. It’s this kind of perfect storm between the New York media and Mets fans’ neurotic mindsets that explains how Grimace became the team’s hero.

The Mets enjoyed a stable April to begin 2024, going 15-11. May brought upon a massive brick wall: the Mets went a brutal 9-19, giving them a 24-33 record and fourth-place standing in the NL East heading into June.

Fortune seemed to change on June 12, when the Mets played an otherwise unremarkable game against the Marlins at Citi Field. The honor of the ceremonial first pitch was given to Grimace as part of a McDonald’s sponsorship. It seems as if the pitch changed the trajectory of the season. The Mets won 10-4 to begin a seven-game winning streak, would go 12-4 for the rest of June and finished from that date with a 61-36 record, the best in baseball over that timespan.

The media and fans behind the Grimace hype train arguably helped the Mets transform into a playoff-caliber team. As their continuous winning proved not to be a fluke, fan interest rebounded from the dismal 2022 ending and 2023 season. Now that fans had some culture to invest in, they were able to create an upbeat environment for their team.

It seems as if side plots are what keep the Mets running. After signing a minor league contract with the Mets, veteran infielder Jose Iglesias found himself back in the big leagues at the beginning of June. Since then, he has not looked back. He finished the season with a 22-game hitting streak, netting a .337 batting average throughout his 85 games with the team.

While he supplied offense for the Mets, Iglesias also provided the team with this year’s fight song: “OMG.” Released under the alias “Candelita,” Iglesias’ song soared to the top of the Latin Billboard charts.

The release of “OMG” could not have happened at a better time; the double life of the shortstop highlighted the uniqueness behind the culture of not only the fans, but the players themselves. Once players began to tap into and embrace their quirks, the team as a whole began to take off. Iglesias performed his hit single at the 2024 All-Star Game festivities in Texas.

This is, somehow, not new territory for the Mets. In July of 1986, the team’s stranglehold on the NL East made them cocky enough to record a song, “Let’s Go Mets,” which became their official song for the rest of the season. In 2000, the team’s theme song was the Baha Men’s smash hit “Who Let the Dogs Out” which was eventually remixed into a version of the song that name-dropped players; the Baha Men performed the remix before Game 4 of the World Series at Shea Stadium. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn’t. The Mets would lose both that 2000 Game 4 and Series to the Yankees, while 1986 was the last year they won the championship.

When athletes begin to embrace off-and-on the field hijinx, the team chemistry improves; when fans see a team playing cohesively, the more invested they become. The bizarness of Grimace’s pitch and Iglesias’s burgeoning pop career seemsto be plenty to handle in one season – but fans continue to embrace these values.

The reception to Iglesias’s song has been nothing short of positivity from fans: Iglesias even performed “OMG” after the Mets beat the Astros at home on June 29. It has now become the team home run song; players hold up an “OMG” sign in the dugout for pictures after homers.

Overall, the New York Mets have experienced plenty of unorthodox side quests throughout their storied history: From unfulfilled car promises, a Latin superstar and a McDonald’s icon, the Mets continue to embrace the oddities within their culture while looking to chase further history.