America’s game is nearing the big dance, but America’s pastime is swinging right around the corner. To usher in the coming season — and to hopefully entice pessimistic fans — the New York Mets have announced the list of 19 giveaways for the 2024 season, including two artist partnerships with Joel Mesler and Rashid Johnson.
Both artists have had their hands in a number of recent collaborative projects, including a record cover Johnson created for a LACMA exhibition in 2022 and a capsule collection Mesler released with Hong Kong-based label izzue, a year prior.
Starting on Saturday, May 25 against the San Francisco Giants, the Mesler-designed bucket hat will be available — presumably similar to the aforementioned izzue collaboration with added callouts to the Mets ball club. Several months later, on July 13, Johnson’s own bucket hat iteration will be given out to the first 15,000 fans who enter Citi Field.
The Mets had a lackluster season last year, finishing fourth in the AL East and missing the postseason. The upcoming MLB season will commence, first with Spring Training on February 24 against the St. Louis Cardinals, and officially on March 28 during its home opener versus the Milwaukee Brewers.
