Dan Reilly, who made mascot history when he bravely donned an unventilated, oversize papier-mâché head, with simulated stitches, to become the New York Mets’ first Mr. Met, died on Dec. 30 in Manhattan. He was 83.
His son, Matt MacCartney, his only immediate survivor, said the cause was a heart attack while he was rehabilitating from pneumonia.
Mr. Reilly was working in the Mets’ ticket office when two team executives asked him to breathe corporeal life into Mr. Met, who had existed until then only as a cartoonish image used on promotional material.
On May 31, 1964, Mr.