Hey, did you hear? Baseball is back, which means the New York Mets will be playing games that count at Citi Field in just about a month from now. And according to Tim Healey of Newsday, the organization will be doing more than just playing baseball in April.
Due to the labor negotiations, Opening Day has been moved back from March 31st to April 7th. That also meant the Mets’ home opener would be pushed back to April 15th, which just so happens to be Jackie Robinson Day. Healey reported earlier on Friday that New York is planning to unveil Tom Seaver‘s statue on that day, as well.
Healey mentioned that letting the world see this long-overdue project was already planned for the Mets’ home opener, but the lockout dragging on nearly 100 days foiled the original date. In a follow-up tweet, Healey said New York’s game on April 15th has been moved to a 1 pm start time. In addition to that, we won’t have to lose much sleep for the first series of the year, as Saturday and Sunday are also 1 pm start times.
Back in 2019, the organization changed the address of Citi Field to 41 Seaver Way to honor the greatest pitcher in franchise history. Shortly after, we heard he’d also be honored with a statue. It was supposed to be unveiled during the 2021 season but got delayed until this year, and of course, it got delayed one more time before — hopefully! — finally getting revealed next month.
Owner Steve Cohen said he wanted to honor team history more. He’s followed through on that promise with bringing back Old Timers’ Day, and now we’ll also see Seaver’s statue finally happen under his watch. Of course, plans for this structure weren’t announced during his time as majority owner, but he’s the one in charge at the competition of a project that seemed to take too long to get going in the first place, and that says something.
