With Opening Day just around the corner for Major League Baseball, it’s time for New York Mets fans to dust off their hats and show some team pride—and get free museum admission.
The team has officially declared Saturday, March 25, to be the first annual Amazin’ Day, a citywide celebration of the team fondly known as the Amazin’ Mets since their unlikely first World Series victory in 1969. The day includes a number of events and activities, but lovers of both art and baseball will be happy to know that donning their favorite Mets gear will get them free entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Art—both the Fifth Avenue and Cloisters locations—all day.
The first 500 people clad in Mets orange and blue can also get the same perk at the Brooklyn Museum (sans entrance to the special Thierry Mugler exhibition).
Normally, general admission to the Brooklyn Museum is $16. The Met raised its adult ticket price from $25 to $30 in July, but allows New York State residents and students from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to pay what they wish.
The Mets Hat. Photo courtesy of Gabi Manga.
No word on whether fans have to be wearing official MLB merchandise, or if the beloved “The Mets Hat”—a delightful mashup of the logos of the team and the similarly named museum—will be enough to score you complimentary entrance to either institution. (The hat’s creator, Gabi Manga, has been rumored to be in touch with the Mets about making the cap—which he sells to benefit charity—available at Citi Field, the team’s stadium in Flushing, Queens.)
The Mets are coming off their second-best regular season in franchise history, with 101 wins—shy only of the 1986 World Series-winning team. The 2022 squad failed to clinch the division in the final days of the season, however, and lost in the first round of the playoffs, leaving fans hungry for another chance at postseason glory.
Mets owner Steve Cohen, a major art collector, had a busy offseason, picking up pricey player contracts—acquiring Justin Verlander, new deals for Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil, and Edwin Díaz—as if they were blue-chip trophy artworks. The team’s payroll leads the league at $336 million, leaving crosstown rivals the New York Yankees a distant second at just $268 million.
With star closer Díaz already suffering a season-ending injury during the recent World Baseball Classic, it remains to be seen if this year’s Mets will have what it takes to end a 37-year championship drought. But for true Mets fans, hope springs eternal—especially now that there’s Amazin’ Day to celebrate.
