NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.
The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”
Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.
That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets' good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.
New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.
The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.
The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.
“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way."
Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.
So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?
“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.
“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”
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FILE - McDonald's character Grimace throws out a ceremonial first pitch before a baseball game between the Miami Marlins and the New York Mets, June 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz, File)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The National Institutes of Health decided to relocate nearly two dozen retired research chimpanzees from a facility in New Mexico to a sanctuary in Louisiana, a move celebrated Friday by animal advocates who have been fighting for years to get the animals moved.
NIH representatives confirmed in an email that the transfer of the 23 chimps from the Alamogordo Primate Facility at Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico will happen in the coming months.
Staffing issues, namely the planned retirement of the chimps' caretakers, prompted the decision to move the chimps, the agency stated. The animals have not been used as test subjects since 2015, when the NIH retired chimpanzees — humans’ closest relatives — from invasive research.
More than 200 were previously moved to the federally supported sanctuary, but the NIH said it was decided in 2019 that some were too frail to be relocated due to their health conditions. They remained at the base under the care of contracted veterinarians and caregivers.
The contractor informed the NIH that a significant number of staff were expected to retire by July 2025.
“Recruitment and training of new staff has proven difficult due to the specialized nature of the work and APF’s remote location," the NIH statement said. "Given this uncertainty, NIH has determined that the best course of action for the welfare of all these chimpanzees is to relocate them to the federal sanctuary at Chimp Haven.”
Agency spokesperson Amanda Fine said relocating chimpanzees is a complex, time-consuming process and that Chimp Haven will work with the NIH and the facility in Alamogordo to ensure the health and safety of each animal during the move.
The Humane Society of the United States is among the groups that have been sending letters to and petitioning the NIH over the years to relocate the last of the Alamogordo chimps.
The Humane Society of the United States, Animal Protection New Mexico, Humane Society Legislative Fund and three individual plaintiffs sued the NIH in 2021. A federal judge issued a ruling the next year, finding that the NIH could not legally refuse sanctuary retirement for the chimpanzees because of their chronic health conditions.
“We believe that the extraordinary amount of pressure that has been put on NIH to move them to Chimp Haven -- including the engagement of thousands of our supporters who demanded that the chimps be moved and our winning lawsuit — played a major role in the decision to finally move them to sanctuary,” the group said.
The chimps — which range in age from 34 to 62 years old — could have years ahead of them to enjoy life at the sanctuary, advocates said. The sanctuary has cared for hundreds of chimps since the first two animals arrived there in 2005. That includes 214 that were sent there from NIH-supported facilities following the agency's 2015 decision.
Chimp Haven President and CEO Rana Smith said in a statement issued Friday that the sanctuary is prepared to welcome the first arrivals from New Mexico in early 2025. With Chimp Haven close to capacity, Smith said it will have to build additional living spaces to accommodate the group.
The expansion is expected to cost at least $4 million, which will have to be raised from private supporters.
“There are many details to be determined in the weeks to come, but for now, we celebrate this wonderful news for the APF chimps,” Smith said. “They are on their way to a well-deserved retirement at sanctuary, and we cannot wait to welcome them home.”
In this image taken from a video provided by the National Institutes of Health, a retired research chimpanzee is given a snack on Oct. 2019, at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in southern N.M. (National Institutes of Health via AP)
This Aug. 29, 2024 image provided by Chimp Haven, shows chimpanzees TJ and Nicole hanging out at a sanctuary near Keithville, La. The two were among a group of chimps previously relocated from the Alamogordo Private Facility at Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico. (Chimp Haven via AP)
In this image taken from a video provided by the National Institutes of Health, a retired research chimpanzee sits in an enclosure, Oct. 2019, at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in southern N.M. (National Institutes of Health via AP)
In this image taken from a video provided by the National Institutes of Health, a retired research chimpanzee hangs in an enclosure, Oct. 2019, at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in southern N.M. (National Institutes of Health via AP)
In this image taken from a video provided by the National Institutes of Health, a retired research chimpanzee eats, Oct. 2019, at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in southern N.M. (National Institutes of Health via AP)
FILE - The administrative building of the National Institutes of Health is shown in Bethesda, Md., Aug. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)