Mr. Met: A Life in Pictures

[Ceetar]

G-Fafif wrote: The Mets will be LOL'd at by the usual suspects no matter what they do. Once they accept that, strive for better angels and win some goodwill. Those ads for "family packs" or whatever (to use an example that leaps to mind) could be made by an unimaginative high school junior.

They basically are. (well, maybe an unimaginative college freshman) Interns!

[Fman99]

Mr. Met is the best. And I can tell you why, specifically.

Two years ago Fboy and I made the long drive down to Citi Field for a late April Mets/Dodgers matinee. The day was made memorable mostly because of the awful late April weather (high winds, cheap seats, winter coats and hats, etc.) and because I got to meet Kong and share a beer with him in the upper deck. And the fact that Fboy was wearing a fully immersive Spiderman winter hat and got a nice reaction out of several older Mets fan patrons at the park that day.

It turns out, when you show up in NYC dressed as Spiderman, the locals feel safer and they let you know this. Fboy thought this was the greatest thing.

Well, the second greatest thing.

What made the day most memorable for Fboy and I was Mr. Met. We arrived fairly early, giving ourselves a chance to take in the new Mets HOF/museum, and were leisurely making our way up the escalators in the Jackie Gleason/Chiles Rotunda. The stadium was heavily underpopulated at that moment, maybe 12:15 on a cold windy weekday.

As we are being carried up the escalator, we hear a distinct banging noise against the glass in the walkway above us. And we look up, in tandem, and there he is, in all his ball-headed glory.

Mr. Met. Hamming it up and waving to get our attention. Fboy and I lit right up.

Mr. Met could have kept walking on his way to some luxury box, or a smoke break or whatever Mr. Met does when no one's looking. The fact that he stopped to get our attention to give us a wave and a thumbs up made us feel like kin. That's a big league mascot move, right there.

[Zvon]

dinosaur jesus wrote: Zvon wrote: That book is full of lies. See, this, the true story of the real Mr Met (Willard Metz) is not common knowledge. This is his secret history. You can consider DJ and I whistleblowers. *books a flight to Hong Kong see crazy coloring book in my last post^ "Full of lies" is a bit strong. Reilly is telling the truth, just not the whole truth. It's actually a Tony Clifton kind of thing, with Reilly as Bob Zmuda. At the beginning, Reilly would step in occasionally when Mr. Met was overbooked or under the weather. Both of those things came to happen more and more often, and after a while Reilly was doing at least half of Mr. Met's gigs. He was good at it, too; even people in the know could never be sure which one it was.

Thats just like what Barris did with the Batmobile!

[Zvon]

I came across this Mr Met coloring book. I've seen pages of this online. I was never sure if it was for real or a joke by someone. Because if this is real it might be the worst coloring book ever. This is the entire thing: .... This is one horrendous wacky coloring book. This complete book is on Flickr and I believe it is an actual thing from the past (I didn't doctor any of these images). How did this ever see the light of day? I checked out the set on Flickr and the Flickr set is incomplete. I know because I own a copy of that coloring book. It exists. The coloring book is refreshingly innocent and wonderful in that it also depicts an ownership group that can laugh at the Mets' struggles on the field. My favorite page (not included in Flickr) is an illustration of Mr. Met upside down standing on his big baseball head and reading the standings. The caption reads "First place, Mets style".

Some pages are cute but some are out there~~~. Mr Met throwin' bottles at fans in the stands strikes me as insane. Its mostly the captions that are just wack. I'm gonna look for that one with the standings and see if there are more.
I'm not trying to debate this. Im just sayin thats one crazy coloring book.

[Zvon]

[Guest themetfairy]

[batmagadanleadoff]

Zvon wrote: Some pages are cute but some are out there~~~. Mr Met throwin' bottles at fans in the stands strikes me as insane. Its mostly the captions that are just wack. I'm gonna look for that one with the standings and see if there are more. I'm not trying to debate this. Im just sayin thats one crazy coloring book.

It's out there, I agree. But that was from a time when it was perfectly acceptable for cartoon characters to shoot each other in the face with semi-automatic pistols, or drop anvils on each other from 100 feet above. BTW, my second favorite cartoon from that coloring book, also not included in the Flickr set, has Mr. Met at a peace rally just outside the stadium, yelling into a megaphone "Hey, Hey, LBJ. How many times have you been to Shea"?

[Edgy MD]

Fman99 wrote: That's a big league mascot move, right there.

Great story.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

G-Fafif wrote: Also, only tangentially related, every promotional spot this team produces is amateurish. In 1999, USA Today Baseball Weekly ranked every teams' commercials and slotted the Mets last. The ads haven't improved (or changed) an iota since. If it was done with a smile and a wink, it would come off as homespun. Instead it just looks cheap.

This whole series was fun, and clearly done with the smile and wink that everyone seems to be so fond of.

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[Edgy MD]

Shea.

[G-Fafif]

Swan Swan H wrote: G-Fafif wrote: Also, only tangentially related, every promotional spot this team produces is amateurish. In 1999, USA Today Baseball Weekly ranked every teams' commercials and slotted the Mets last. The ads haven't improved (or changed) an iota since. If it was done with a smile and a wink, it would come off as homespun. Instead it just looks cheap. This whole series was fun, and clearly done with the smile and wink that everyone seems to be so fond of.

Those were beautiful. The pair they did in 2001 with Piazza being accosted by free advice on his swing as he walked down the street and Shinjo "translating" the criticism of a hibachi chef for Agbayani were hilarious. There have been exceptions in this century for sure.

But boy, not lately.

[Lefty Specialist]

"Dude, I can see like 80% of your head."

Comedy gold. I still laugh every time I see it.

[G-Fafif]

On big league mascot moves, I saw the difference several, now many years ago between Sandy in Coney Island, who broke my blog partner's son's heart (well, his mother's) by brushing him off, and Mr. Met, when the big guy gave the kid all the time in the world and the mom all the time to fish out her camera to record it.

Much is wrong with the Mets. Mr. Met is not a part of that.

[dinosaur jesus]

This is from the tour of Japan after the 1974 season. Torre had been traded to the Mets just after the season ended, and the tour was a preview of 1975. Like many previews, it turned out to be much more exciting than the movie. Torre hit .437 in Japan, but a career-worst .247 the next year.



In addition to sharing an onsen with the new Mets third baseman, Mr. Met also filled in for him in the field! After Torre took a line drive to the cup in a game against the Yomiuri Giants, Yogi, his bench empty, sent in Mr. Met to play the last two innings. Mr. Met dropped an easy pop fly in the ninth (he always had trouble getting his arms above his head), but made up for it by fielding a hot smash by the next batter and making a perfect peg to Felix Millan to start a game-ending 5-4-3 double play. At the plate, he beat out an infield single when shortstop Kazumasa Kono underestimated his speed and was late with the throw. Never underestimate Mr. Met's speed. "I just try to help this team any way I can," Mr. Met told Japanese reporters after the game. "Tomorrow they'll probably want me to go back to clowning around in the stands, and that's fine with me."

I couldn't find a picture from that game, but here's a fake one of him taking fielding practice. Keep your eye on the ball, Mr. Met!

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: It's out there, I agree. But that was from a time when it was perfectly acceptable for cartoon characters to shoot each other in the face with semi-automatic pistols, or drop anvils on each other from 100 feet above.

This reminds me of my trip to Camden Yards in 1997 for the first interleague game between the Mets and Orioles. In between innings the PA speaker played Sinatra's version of "New York, New York" and Mr. Met came out and danced along the base side. It was a weird song choice since the Mets don't usually use that song and weirder still for Mr. Met to be dancing at a visitor's ballpark. The Orioles fans rained down boos on poor Mr. Met. Then it switched to "Surfing Bird" and The Oriole Bird came out and danced to cheers and applause. They switched back to "New York, New York" so that Mr. Met could be booed some more. Then back to the Bird. And so on. Until finally the Bird got a baseball bat and whacked Mr. Met on his big noggin' several times to even more cheers from the Baltimore faithful. It struck me as unusually violent for a mascot skit and very sad for poor ol' Mister to be asked to participate in ritual humiliation (unless for some reason the Orioles keep copies of opposing teams' mascot costumes for such occasions).

[Guest d'Kong76]

It wasn't a pick! It was a scratch!!

dinosaur jesus wrote:

[Zvon]

dinosaur jesus wrote:

I love the glove.

[Zvon]

Lets take a leap backwards in the life of Willard Metz. The mid sixites were an exciting time in Mets history.
There was the team with a legion of fans who loved them win or lose (mostly lose).
There was the brand new and magnificient Shea Stadium

And there was Mr Met (played by Willard Metz) and Lady Met (unknown).

Contrary to popular belief Lady Met actually never was officially a "Mrs.". She was the teams female mascot and the fans took to calling her "Mrs. Met".
Mr Met and Lady Met never married. Stories of them having children together out of wedlock have surfaced but that's a tale for another post.


And long before the days of Mettle The Mule the Mets used part time animal mascots to help shoulder Mr Mets burden.

Animal mascots were very popular in America for many years, with the more human mascots like Mr Met being exceptions who ushered in a new breed of sports mascots.

In 1967, during the annual mascot convention in Chicago, Willard met and fell in love with Elsie the Cow, the Queen mascot of glue. She was the most popular female mascot of her time. They were soon married in an elegant celebration at Shea Stadium. Mets manager Wes Westrum, who opposed mascot human and mascot animal marriage, quit the team and left town during the ceremony leaving Salty Parker in charge.



The marriage was short lived, as Metz found out he was suffering from a genetic form of hypolactasia during the honeymoon.
They amicably divorced the following weekend. Westrum never returned and Salty held down the fort until Gil Hodges took over in 1968.


If Willard Metz had not married Elsie the Cow and driven Westrum out of town it safe to say that Gil Hodges never becomes the Mets manager and the miracle of '69 may have never happened. After building the 69' team from the ground up Mets President Bing Devine said : "If Westrum stayed on there is no way Johnny Murphy would have traded for Hodges. They would have already had a manager if Willard Metz didn't fall in love and marry a cow."

Edited June 24, 2013 by Guest

[Zvon]

From wiki:

In the 1960s, he occasionally appeared in print with a female companion, Lady Met (sometimes known as "Mrs. Met"), and less frequently with a group of three "little Mets" children; the smallest was a baby in Lady Met's arms.

Does anyone have an image of these "little Mets"? I was looking all over for the above post and could not find even one image. Anyone here have one by any chance?

Dinosaur Jesus: Have you ever visited or registered at Deviant Art? You should. I don't think Ive ever posted there but its a great place to see the art of others. Both there and at Tumblr, you can get lost looking at all the wonderful art work people share.
http://www.deviantart.com/

[Zvon]

In the early 70's Metz made the bold move of attempting
to sit in with the team for the yearbook team picture.

He was very hurt when Yogi and Al made fun of him and
told him he would never ever ever be included in a team picture.


This began Willard Metzs' decent into oblivion. A few years
later the Met franchise dissolved the Mr. Met mascot, and he remained absent for almost 20 years.