Mets will not be holding Old-Timers' Day this season
Former New York Mets outfielder Darryl Strawberry during an Old-Timers' Day ceremony at Citi Field in 2022. Credit: AP/Adam Hunger
The Mets held their first Old-Timers’ Day since 1994 last Aug. 27. It was a rousing success, as a sellout crowd of 42,617 welcomed back 64 former Mets and watched a 2 1/2-inning Old-Timers’ game.
But the Mets are not planning to hold another Old-Timers’ Day this season and have not decided when the event will return.
Team vice president of alumni public relations Jay Horwitz explained that the club is planning to sprinkle fan-friendly alumni events throughout the summer rather than hold another Old-Timers’ Day in 2023.
“Everything went just great last year,” said Horwitz, who organized the return of Old-Timers’ Day. “To recreate that is really hard the year after. We just felt we needed a little time to breathe, for lack of a better word. What we’re doing is we’re bringing back our alumni for certain days.”
Bringing back Old-Timers’ Day was a promise kept by owner Steve Cohen. But the Mets owner never committed to doing it every year as the Yankees do, and the Mets did not include it when they released their promotional schedule for 2023.
Last year’s Mets ceremony was highlighted by the surprise retirement of Willie Mays’ uniform No. 24.
“We have such great history with the Mets,” Cohen said at the event. “It’s important to celebrate it.”
With no Old-Timers’ Day, the crown jewel of the Mets’ events to honor their history this season will be when former players Howard Johnson and Al Leiter and announcers Gary Cohen and Howie Rose are inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame on June 3.
Horwitz, the Mets’ former longtime media relations director, will receive the team’s Hall of Fame Achievement Award on June 3 as well.
The Mets’ first alumni event of this season will take place at Friday’s rescheduled home opener. Former players Mookie Wilson, Tim Teufel and Turk Wendell will interact with fans on the Citi Field concourses before the 1:10 p.m. game against Miami.
Similar events will be held throughout the season, with Bartolo Colon and R.A. Dickey among the former players scheduled to return. Colon will be at Citi Field on May 7, the seventh anniversary of his one career home run hit in San Diego.
Dickey’s June 13 return is pegged to the two consecutive one-hitters he threw during his NL Cy Young award season of 2012.
Johnson and Darryl Strawberry also are expected to appear at similar fan-friendly events later this summer, Horwitz said.
The Yankees last season held a scaled-down Old-Timers’ Day – their first since COVID-19 – with about two dozen former players and no Old-Timers’ game. The Yankees will hold their 75th Old-Timers’ Day this season on Sept. 9 and have not yet announced their plans for the event.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
