You’re not going to believe this, Mets fans, but there is a significant design error on the recently erected Tom Seaver statue at Citi Field.
The notable Paul Lukas of Uni Watch, tells us that one of his readers recently spotted the error while attending a Mets game.
Apparently, the “4” on the back of the statue is the wrong font. It is missing the little stub extending off the right side of the numeral four.
Photo: Uni Watch, Getty
You can see the fatal flaw in the side by side images above, courtesy of Uni Watch.
The Mets declined to comment, but Lukas contacted the sculptor William Behrends and asked him how he could have made this error.
“You know, when I first got your email, I thought, ‘How the heck did that happen?’ So I went back and looked at my original clay model to see if the number mistake had happened in the foundry. But no — the clay model has it that way too. It’s not like me to miss something like that, but that’s what happened. It’s something I missed.”
You can read the entire transcript of the interview here.
Long story short, Behrends took full responsibility for the flub.
“I clearly was not thinking about the number — I was thinking about other things, and I just missed it. It’s embarrassing,” said Behrends.
“I’m shocked that I did that. I don’t think I’ve ever missed something that significant in any of my other sculptures.”
Behrends is well known in the baseball statuary universe and his previous sculptures includes Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman in San Diego, as well as Jackie Robinson and Pee-Wee Reese in Brooklyn.
It appears that many people and not just the sculptor dropped the ball on this. Some former Mets players as well as several front office higher-ups were all part of the review process which was very extensive.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like this flaw will be fixed, but in a twist of irony, the Tom Seaver replica statues that were given away on April 16, did have the correct font for 41.
On the positive side, most fans won’t even notice the mistake as their focus will be on the front of Tom Terrific’s statue.
Unless of course, they are a big stickler for details like Tom Seaver was… and me!
Read the whole story here.
