NEW YORK \u2014 Forget Juan Soto\u2019s calf injury.<\/p>\n
Never mind the offensive struggles or a few blow-up outings by the starting pitchers.<\/p>\n
No, some Republican lawmakers have tried to blame Mayor Mamdani for the Mets\u2019 prolonged losing streak, linking his Citi Field visit on April 9 to the team\u2019s historic rut.<\/p>\n
Mamdani laughed off those digs Tuesday morning while voicing his support for his favorite MLB team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of baseball left to be played,\u201d Mamdani said at an unrelated press conference. \u201cAnd I am still keeping the faith, as I know that many Mets fans are across the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mets entered Tuesday on an 11-game losing streak and the worst record (7-15) in the National League. They totaled only 19 runs over those 11 games.<\/p>\n
The second of those losses occurred on the day Mamdani, a former assemblyman who represented Astoria, stopped by Citi Field and posed for photos with Mr. and Mrs. Met.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will keep my fingers crossed, as every Mets fan does,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cAnd I think that this [suggestion of a curse] is part and parcel of what it means to be the mayor. You take it in stride.\u201d<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time a Mets streak has coincided with a notable Citi Field visit. In June of 2024, the McDonald\u2019s mascot Grimace threw out the ceremonial first pitch before a game in Queens.<\/p>\n
The Mets then rattled off seven consecutive victories, kicking off a dramatic season turnaround that resulted in a trip to the NLCS. Grimace thus became an unlikely rally symbol for those Mets and even returned to the stadium during that playoff run.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, this is the second time in recent days that Mamdani, 34, has crossed into the sports stratosphere.<\/p>\n
Last week, when he was asked about the high ticket prices for the Knicks\u2019 first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks, Mamdani jokingly pointed to a notorious New York sports villain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say that I blame Trae Young,\u201d Mamdani said, referring to the former Hawks star who tormented the Knicks during the teams\u2019 previous playoff meeting in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think it\u2019s always important to blame Trae Young.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young, now of the Washington Wizards, caught wind of Mamdani\u2019s jab and wrote on social media, \u201cRemember what happened the last time the mayor of that city had my name in his mouth during a time like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young, whom then-mayor Bill de Blasio had accused of foul-baiting during that 2021 first-round series, included in last week\u2019s post, \u201c#DontBlameMeWhenItHappensAgain.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n
With Josephine Stratman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Forget Juan Soto\u2019s calf injury. Never mind the offensive struggles or a few blow-up outings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1262,2031,20390,10663,49188,36610,2032,9,56,63,65,64,53809,14713,1105],"class_list":["post-205232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-citi-field","tag-juan-soto","tag-knicks","tag-losing-streak","tag-mayor-mamdani","tag-mets","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-the-mets","tag-trae-young","tag-washington-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}