‘Statue’ of Limitations: New York Mets Mean Well, But Make Error

There is a large faction of New York Mets' fans who credit Tom Seaver with saving baseball in Queens.

In 1967, a 22-year old Seaver made his MLB debut for the Mets. The team finished 61-101 that season, and had yet to have a winning season in their first six years in existence.

Two years later, at age 24, Seaver won 25 games by himself, the Mets won 100 regular season games, and won the 1969 World Series in five games. Attendance was up by more than 600,000 from his rookie season, and the Mets were officially established in New York.

Finally, after decades of petitioning, the Mets announced that they would be building a statue to honor "The Franchise" outside Citi Field in Queens. And, in true Mets' fashion, there's something wrong with it.

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Error Discovered in New York Mets' Tom Seaver Statue

As first reported by Paul Lukas on his website, Uni Watch, the uniform number font on the jersey portion of Tom Seaver's statue outside Citi Field, is wrong. The issue lies in the "4" portion of the "41" that adorns the back of Seaver's statue, and that he wore his entire career.

As pointed out in the article, the Mets' "4" has a small protrusion on the right side of the number where the lines intersect, while the number on the back of the statue has no such protrusion. It's a small error, one that most casual fans would have never knew existed. That said, when honoring arguably the most important figure in your franchise's history, you usually want to make sure your t's are crossed, and your i's are dotted.

Not only that, but you also want to make sure your "4's" are accurate, too.

Lukas got in touch with the sculptor, William Behrends, who had the following to say about the error in the sculpture:

"...those numbers were probably built and rebuilt five or six times in the process. And in the later part of the process, I clearly was not thinking about the number — I was thinking about other things, and I just missed it. It’s embarrassing." - William Behrends to Paul Lukas of Uni Watch

It appears to be an honest mistake, but frankly, this isn't completely on Behrends. This is on the many Mets' employees who undoubtedly saw the statue before it was unveiled, and didn't pick up on it.

As a Mets' fan, I'd be upset. As a non-Mets fan, I am amused. It all works out.