Mets star Mookie Wilson, other past players taking to NYC locales with gifts for Amazins’ fans
It’s an Amazin’ offer.
New York baseball fans will get their chance to step right up and greet the Mets live and in person Saturday, with a half-dozen stars from years gone by taking to the city streets with free gifts for anyone spotted wearing a team hat or other gear.
The heroes of Flushing will visit six locations in Manhattan and Queens bearing free team merch or complimentary tickets for the 2023 games at CitiField — all courtesy of the one-time ballplayers.
The grand prize for one fortunate fan: The chance to throw out the first pitch and mingle with the current Mets at a home game this season.
“I don’t have a problem being recognized,” said Mookie Wilson, the hero of the Mets’ 1986 World Championship. “It’s amazing and people are very considerate. Except Red Sox fans — they still tell me I ruined their lives.”
Wilson will be joined by ‘86 teammates Howard Johnson, Roger McDowell and Tim Teufel in visiting locations in Manhattan and Queens for the debut of what the team hopes will become an annual event.
The giveaway also includes a pair of pitchers from days of Flushing past: One-time Mets left-hander Glendon Rusch and fan favorite Turk Wendell, perhaps best recalled for wearing a necklace made from the claws and teeth of various animals.
The superstitious Wendell famously chewed black licorice on the mound and brushed his teeth in the dugout.
Rusch, who pitched in the 2000 Subway Series between the Mets and the Yankees, was looking forward to the unique experience.
“I think it’s really cool,” said Rusch, who logged nearly 100 starts with the Mets between 1999-2001. “Everyone loves to meet former players, and now you can find us out in the wild. It’s easy for us to approach a fan, talk some baseball ... We’ll kind of search them out and give them an opportunity to win some prizes.”
The Manhattan locations to find the retired Mets are the MLB store at W. 51st St. and Sixth Ave., the Wollman Rink and Union Square. In Queens, the ballplayers will keep an eye out for fans at the Central Library in Jamaica, Astoria Park and Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Wilson and Teufel will kick things off with a 9 a.m. appearance at the Queens library.
Fortunate fans will also be eligible to win tickets to two non-sporting venues: the Gotham Comedy Club and the Metropolitan Opera.
Wilson, an official team ambassador, said the plan was for him to bounce between multiple locations. And 37 years after the Mets’ last World Series victory, fans still bring up his Game Six bouncer that slipped through the legs of Boston’s Bill Buckner to set up the team’s title-winning Game 7.
“They mostly say ‘I know who you are — Mookie, 1986,’” he said with a chuckle. “I do have a last name, but that’s how they say it.”
