Baseball has a rich and storied tradition that no other sport shares.
People were playing baseball before anybody even knew what a football or a basketball was.
And a cherished fast food icon just gave new hope to this struggling ball club.
New York Mets fans have given this mascot credit for revitalizing their season
This year’s Major League Baseball season has nearly reached the halfway point and some teams have failed to perform as well as they would have liked.
The New York Mets started the season off ranked towards the bottom of the league on most important stats.
Just when Mets fans thought all was lost, they received a glimmer of hope from an unlikely source.
Last Wednesday, the Mets had Grimace, the beloved purple McDonald’s mascot, throw out the first pitch.
The Mets went on to win seven games in a row, which caused New York Mets fans to embrace Grimace as a de facto mascot.
Mets fans have since created a number of entertaining videos and images showing Grimace taking the mound and sitting in the dugout.
One hilarious video posted on SNY Sports features an image of Grimace edited over a clip of their star reliever Edwin Diaz taking the mound as his walk-on music excites the crowd.
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Although this Grimace craze may seem bizarre, baseball has produced countless superstitions and hilarious traditions like this one over the years.
New York Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio would famously touch second base every time he ran out to center field.
And then there was the great Wade Boggs, who had a whole pre-game superstitious routine.
Boggs’ teammates revealed that he would eat the same meal, a plate of fried chicken, before every game.
He would then show up for night-game batting practices at the same time, 5:17 P.M.
After batting practice, Boggs would take exactly 150 grounders during pregame warmups.
As far as team-wide superstitions go, few can forget the legendary World Series droughts that the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs experienced for nearly a hundred years.
Prior to the Boston Red Sox’s 2004 World Series victory, they had not won a title since 1918 in what many baseball fans called the “curse of the great bambino.”
This curse refers to the Red Sox trading Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees prior to the 1920 season.
The Red Sox would have to wait 84 years for their next World Series title.
The Mets’ obsession with Grimace is what makes baseball so great
Unlike other sports that require immediate results, baseball takes an immense amount of patience and consistency.
After all, these teams play 162 games over a span of roughly 6 months.
Even the best players have cold streaks.
But superstitions give fans hope when an immediate fix is not possible.
Patriot Political will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
