Baseball’s First Costumed Mascot
The Original, the Icon, the Baseball Head
Flushing, NY (Citi Field) · Baseball
★Mascot Hall of Fame — Class of 2007
| Team / Organization | New York Mets |
|---|---|
| Location | Flushing, NY (Citi Field) |
| League / Division | MLB |
| First Debuted | 1963 (cartoon); April 14, 1964 (live costumed mascot at Shea Stadium) — MLB’s first live humanoid mascot |
| Species / Type | Humanoid with baseball for a head |
| Best Known For | MLB’s first costumed mascot; Forbes #1 mascot in all of sports (2012); first MLB mascot to perform overseas (Tokyo, 2000) |
| Year Inducted | 2007 |
Profile
Mr. Met holds one of the most significant titles in mascot history: the first costumed mascot in Major League Baseball. His large, baseball-headed silhouette has been synonymous with the Mets since 1964 — surviving mid-1970s retirement, a triumphant 1994 comeback, and multiple Mets collapses. Forbes named him the #1 mascot in all of sports in 2012.
Fun Facts
- Mr. Met appeared first as a cartoon drawing in Mets programs in 1963 — designed in part by comic book artist Al Avison, who also drew Captain America comics for Timely Comics in the 1940s.
- He was phased out in the mid-1970s just as the mascot boom was starting (thanks to the Famous Chicken and the Phillie Phanatic), but fans lobbied hard for his return, and he came back in 1994 in a Nickelodeon promotional tie-in.
- In 2000, Mr. Met became the first MLB mascot to perform overseas, appearing during the Mets’ regular season games at Tokyo Dome — making him an international mascot pioneer as well as a domestic one.
