Mets Introduce New Grimace Seat at Citi Field’s Purple Area

NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park is known for having the iconic Ted Williams seat, and now Citi Field has introduced the Grimace seat.

The beloved purple character from McDonald’s made a special visit to the ballpark on Monday. The New York Mets celebrated this occasion by unveiling a purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”

Dressed in his round purple costume and wearing a baseball glove on the wrong hand, Grimace amusingly threw the first pitch — doing his best despite his fluffy fingers and short arms — just before the Mets played against the Miami Marlins on June 12. The Mets won that game, which sparked a remarkable seven-game winning streak, leading to Grimace becoming a viral sensation and a good-luck charm for the team.

Since June 12, the Mets have an impressive record of 53 wins and 31 losses, the best in Major League Baseball during that time. As they kicked off their final homestand of the season against the Washington Nationals on Monday night, they were tied with their rivals, the Atlanta Braves, for the last National League playoff spot.

The newly introduced Grimace seat is located in the second deck of right field, specifically in row 6, seat 12, symbolizing the date 6/12. During Monday afternoon’s press conference, this special seat was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room, where Grimace posed for pictures next to it and with fans who visited the room.

This seat will be available for fans to purchase for the remaining home games of the season.

“It’s been fantastic to see how our fans embraced the Grimace phenomenon after his first pitch in June and continued to celebrate it since then,” said Brenden Mallette, the Mets’ senior vice president of partnerships, in a news release. “We wanted to capture the magic of that moment and honor our new celebrity fan, so installing this commemorative seat just in time for fan appreciation weekend felt like a creative and fun way to give back to our supporters.”

Meanwhile, in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is brightly painted red, standing out among the sea of green seats in Fenway Park’s right-field stands. It marks the spot where a legendary 502-foot home run hit by the Hall of Famer landed back in June 1946.

So, could Grimace be considered alongside the legendary Ted Williams in terms of significance?

“I wouldn’t say we’re putting him on the same level,” laughed Andy Goldberg, the Mets’ executive vice president and chief marketing officer. “It’s been a fun year for us, and we’ve been playing great baseball. Since the end of May, we’ve been on a roll,” he added, which he believes contributes to the overall excitement surrounding Grimace.

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