Famous Mets moments from movies and television shows

There’s no escaping the New York Mets in movies and television shows. Let’s take a look at some of the most memorable appearances.

Over the years, the New York Mets have ingrained themselves in the New York baseball landscape and in the broader entertainment world of movies and television. The Mets have taken on many images over the years, such as the lovable losers of 1962, the “bad boys” of 1986, and the perennial disappointments of most other years.

No matter how they’re doing on the field, the Mets always have a place in pop culture. Many celebrity fans, such as Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Breuer, and Kevin James, have talked at length about their longstanding love for the team.

Many movies and TV shows have devoted snippets, full scenes, or even entire episodes to the Amazins. I’d like to take a look at a few prominent “Mets moments” in movies and TV shows, beginning with perhaps the most famous of all.

Seinfeld

If there’s one TV show that has unabashedly declared its love for the Mets, it’s Seinfeld. This is unsurprising since Jerry Seinfeld himself is a lifelong diehard fan who bleeds orange and blue. When Mets fans think of Seinfeld, their minds likely go to the famous two-episode arc titled “The Boyfriend,” featuring iconic first baseman-turned-broadcaster Keith Hernandez.

For those who have never seen these two episodes, they feature many iconic moments, including Keith dating Elaine and Jerry wondering whether he should help Keith move. “The Boyfriend” also features another Met from the late 1980s, Roger McDowell, in the famous “spitting incident” sequence of the episode.

Seinfeld and Hernandez have reminisced about these episodes several times over the years, including once in 2010 when Seinfeld joined the Mets TV booth for several innings during a game. Clearly, they both remember the experience very fondly. Seinfeld has also been very vocal about his admiration of Pete Alonso, and posted this tweet several months ago that caused quite a stir on the interwebs:

I was not even born when Seinfeld was originally on, but I can safely say that if this reboot ever happens, I will not miss it for the world.

Family Guy

Family Guy‘s funniest moments are often the random “cutaways” that occur several times per episode, and a few of these hilarious cutaways have referenced the Mets. One of these is a clip that I think about on Opening Day every year, where Stewie equates a disappointing Halloween to being a Mets fan. I have seen this clip resurface on social media just about every Opening Day. In 2011, an SNY employee actually played the audio from this clip after the Mets lost on Opening Day to the Marlins.

Another funny Mets moment on Family Guy was from a scene where Peter is raking leaves and grumbling about the garbage dumped on his front lawn by leaf blowers. This trash includes “the New York Post, New York Magazine, and the New York Mets.” No matter how well they’re doing in any given season, the Amazins can’t help but be a sitcom punchline once in a while.

City Slickers

The film’s star, Billy Crystal, is a well-known Yankees fan, but his character in City Slickers wore a Mets cap for nearly the entire movie. This movie may well hold the record for “most airtime given to a Mets hat in a feature film,” though I’m not sure if Guinness will officially recognize this in their next edition of World Records.

The story behind Crystal donning the Mets cap, supposedly, is that the Mets had been more accommodating to him over the years, allowing him to host a promotional event at Shea Stadium and waiving the licensing fee for him to wear the official team cap in the movie when the Yankees agreed to neither. Thus, Crystal’s character Mitch Robbins was a Mets fan.

In the sequel, City Slickers II, Crystal again wore a Mets cap for the majority of the film. The movie posters for the original movie and its sequel both featured Crystal wearing the famous orange and blue baseball hat.

Kevin Can Wait

Kevin James, creator and star of Kevin Can Wait, is a huge Mets fan, so it is not surprising that some aspect of Metsdom would show up in one of his show’s episodes. A few years ago, on a Halloween-themed episode entitled “Hallow-We-Ain’t-Home,” Noah Syndergaard guest-starred as a man dressed up as a Viking at a Halloween party. I think I speak for all Mets fans when I say, this is completely on-brand for Syndergaard. He is not playing himself, technically, but he clearly appears to be in “Thor-mode” while wearing his Viking costume.

Though he should definitely keep his day job, I happen to think he does a really good job here. Syndergaard is very natural in front of the camera and has good comic timing.

He also had the fortune to have a very brief cameo in an episode of Game of Thrones in which he appeared on screen for a few seconds throwing a spear. It’s unclear whether the spear traveled the same 99 MPH speed as Syndergaard’s fastball, however.

Whenever Syndergaard’s baseball career does come to an end, he very well might have a future doing more acting gigs.

Men In Black

Will Smith is obviously the biggest star from the Men In Black franchise, but the Mets play a small role as well in not one, but two MIB movies. The first reference comes in the original film from 1997, in which outfielder Bernard Gilkey is distracted by an alien spaceship flying over Shea Stadium and misses an easy fly ball hit right to him. Gilkey had a fine career in Flushing, but this movie appearance may have been his signature moment from his time in Queens.

The second reference came 15 years later in Men In Black 3 when the cast travels back in time to witness the 1969 Mets winning the World Series. This reference is among the more triumphant moments the Amazins have had in movies and TV, which is a welcome change.

Honorable mention for this list includes Citi Field getting destroyed in Sharknado 2 and featuring ominously in the trailer for Avengers: Endgame. What is it about the Mets and post-apocalyptic movie mentions? Clearly, even in movies and TV shows, Mets fans can never have nice things. Still, I appreciate that the Mets are even relevant enough in pop culture to be mentioned in so many movies and TV shows.

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What’s your favorite Mets appearance in a movie or television show?