The New York Mets have surprised many in 2024 and in typical baseball superstition form, they are paying thanks to a fast food establishment mascot.

Washington Nationals v New York Mets Washington Nationals v New York Mets / Adam Hunger/GettyImages

Ask any Major League Baseball fan what the biggest surprise of the 2024 season has been thus far. The New York Mets being a playoff contender is a likely response. Entering Monday, the Mets were tied with their NL East rivals, the Atlanta Braves for the last NL Wild Card spot.

The Mets have really emerged in the second half of the season. Since the All-Star break, the Mets have an impressive 32-22 record and have continued to prove themselves against quality opponents.

Now here we are with two weeks left in the regular season and the Mets are still right in the thick of a postseason bid. The superstitious world we call baseball believes a certain mascot is to thank and has earned a special honor from the Citi Field.

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Mets add Grimace seat at Citi Field

Welcome to 2024. Where a MLB organization has installed a commemorative seat to their stadium in honor of a fast food restaurant’s mascot. Don’t worry, we will give you more context.

The date was June 12. Grimace, the mascot of Mcdonald’s took the mound at Citi Field in Queens, New York to throw out the first pitch. The rest is history.

The Mets won the game that night against the Miami Marlins by a final score of 10-4. They would go on to win their next seven games while playing their best baseball frankly in two seasons. This stretch would officially become known as “The Grimace Era.”

With a long 162 game regular season sometimes ball clubs need to find something, anything that will provide some motivation and give their team a spark. For the Mets, it turned out to be Grimace.

Once people started connecting the dots, realizing that June 12th was perhaps the biggest turning point in the New York Mets season, they began to recognize Grimace as their mascot in a sense. The organization embraced this superstition and ran with it. Now, Citi Field has found a way to honor Grimace for his magic.

Section 302, row 6, seat 12 at Citi Field is now painted purple with “grimace” engraved into the back rest. This seat will be avaliable for purchase for the remainder of the season. So if you are ticket searching and see sky high prices for section 302, this is likely the reason.

With Fransico Lindor suffering an impactful injury, perhaps the Grimace seat can provide Mets fans with just enough mojo to complete the postseason run they are pursuing.