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Baseball returned on Saturday after a 10-month pause, but America's Pastime looks a whole lot different.
Allowed to restart without fans under New York City's Phase 4, players kept their distance, and some wore face coverings. But the weirdest thing wasn't even on the field: cardboard cutouts of Mets fans sat with frozen expressions in the stands as fake crowd noise was pumped out of the PA system.
#Mets against Yankees with cardboard cutouts of fans in the crowd. This is 2020. pic.twitter.com/4HLbrpadJL
— Jason Solomon (@solomonster) July 18, 2020
The cutouts are part of The Mets program called "Take a Seat," where fans can purchase a $86 cardboard cutout of themselves so they can "show up" for the team. The proceeds go to the Mets Foundation COVID-19 Relief Fund.
Each fan must be wearing Mets gear in the portraits they submit, among other requirements.
Of course, fans took to social media to poke fun at how strange it was to see the cutouts behind home plate.
The #METS were so bad this weekend, even the cutouts are being tested for the virus this morning. pic.twitter.com/p7b8WjjE3Q
— The Masked Goof™ 😷👍 / #Biden2020! (@MetsFanInPhilly) July 20, 2020
According to the New York Post, the players found it a little odd, too.
"The little cardboard cutouts were weird," Yankees pitcher Mike King told the Post. "When I first walked out to the mound, I thought, 'Jeez.' But once you’re out there facing hitters, you block it all out. You get in the zone with you and the catcher and you’re working. You don’t notice it after that."
Yankees pitcher Zack Britton said the game felt normal and the cutouts and crowd noise were actually a "cool idea."
"It breaks up just looking at seats back there," he told the Post. "The pumped in crowd noise, you can’t duplicate a real crowd, but it breaks up the silence and makes it easier to go out there and get some adrenaline."
Had I known about this, I too would have spent $86 to have a cardboard cutout of my cat in Citi Field pic.twitter.com/4khWsWLaL8
— Kate Hinds (@katehinds) July 18, 2020
Unfortunately for the Mets, the fake fans weren't enough to spur on a win. The Yankees won 9-3.
#Mets lose, 9-3 pic.twitter.com/zZwrDPwrGW
— David Lennon (@DPLennon) July 19, 2020
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