Just call him Doctor Met
FRANK CECCHIN may be modest about his place among the best doctors in New York, but he used to have the biggest head in the city.
That’s because Cecchin — the Director of Pediatric and Congenital Electrophysiology at NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan — once held an even higher profile position than the one he has now: He was Mr. Met during part of the 1977 season.
It started when Cecchin was 16 and a junior at Floral Park Memorial High School on Long Island. A friend of his whose mother was a ticket manager at Shea Stadium told him the person who had been Mr. Met wasn’t coming back. She thought Cecchin, who stands six feet tall, would be a perfect fit for the job.
“That was my main qualification,” Cecchin said, laughing. “I fit the costume.”
The friend who recommended him for the job had a related position — literally: She was Mrs. Met. Cecchin only had to be Mr. Met for a few games that season since the team was in the process of phasing out the popular mascot who is now a mainstay at Mets games.
He worked Opening Day, Ball Day and Old Timers’ Day, as well as a few other standout games, escorting the Mets marching band around Shea.
“It was bizarre,” Cecchin said. “People came up to you and wanted you to sign things and I didn’t know if I was gonna sign my own name or ‘Mr. Met.’ ”
Cecchin had only a few minutes to get acclimated with the topheavy costume going into Opening Day that year. The Mets played the Cardinals that afternoon and Mr. Met was responsible for working the visitors’ side of the field.
“It wasn’t sold out, but there were still a lot of people there. I was waving and I started walking away and one of the Cardinals — Lou Brock — came up behind me and hit me with his mitt,” Cecchin recalled. “I started stumbling and was about to fall over and got cheers from the crowd, thinking it was part of my performance. But I really almost fell over.”
Cecchin — who now implants pacemakers and defibrillators and treats various complicated heart conditions — made $74 a game that summer and still has one of his pay stubs from the Mets.
After moving back to New York from Boston Children’s Hospital in 2013, Cecchin took over and expanded the electrophysiology department at NYU Langone. He doesn’t root for a particular team now since he’s too busy to pay much attention to baseball.
In fact, the last time he saw a Mets game in person was the last time he wore the Mr. Met uniform.
“It was a wonderful experience,” Cecchin said of his time as Mr. Met. “It was something that was very personal to me. It was a real coming-of-age type of experience. I learned how to think on my feet and stand in front of an audience and do a job.”