Last week, the Washington Post sports reporter Chelsea Janes noticed a curious development in the Mets’ locker room. First baseman Pete Alonso had carried in a miniature pumpkin and placed it on the top shelf of his locker.
“I have never seen this before,” Ms. Janes wrote on X.
It would not be the last that Mets fans would hear of the pumpkin — the latest in a string of gleefully nonsensical lucky charms that have been embraced by the team amid its raucous run into the playoffs.
This season, Mets iconography has expanded to include Grimace, the purple McDonald’s mascot who now regularly graces the big screen at Citi Field, and “OMG,” a Latin pop anthem recorded by second baseman Jose Iglesias.