‘MITZVAH’ MET SIDE HUSTLE
$600/hr. parties, etc.
Major League Baseball may be in a lockout but Mr. Met isn’t exactly riding the pine.
The massive-headed mascot is leaving it all on the field — and banquet-hall dance floors — as he attends weddings, birthday parties and other events.
Mr. Mensch even does bar mitzvahs.
And while he’s not making freeagent-level money, he is pulling down $600 an hour — which is three times President’s Biden’s rate. The oversized cranium with the outsized personality — Mr. Met, not Biden — has more than a dozen events booked on his December schedule, including five weddings.
Die-hard Metropolitans fans Estefany Carmona, 32, and Patrick Buckley, 33, tied the knot Dec. 2 and had their reception at the Stonebridge Country Club in Smithtown, LI. Mr. Met was among the 126 invited guests, but he didn’t have to bring a gift. It was the Buckleys who brought the envelope for him.
But he did bring the fun. While Mr. Met doesn’t speak, he spent over an hour at the reception, posing for photos, high-fiving, hugging guests and dancing up a storm to LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem,” DMX’s “Party Up (Up in Here)” and “tons of Colombian salsa.” Mrs. Buckley said Mr. Met more than earned his pay, much of which goes to the Amazin’ Mets Foundation, the favorite charity of team owners Steve and Alexandra Cohen.
The bride said the big horsehide head didn’t even eat, despite a delectable menu of burrata salad, chianti-braised short rib, porcinicrusted chicken, ginger teriyaki glazed salmon and vanilla cake with cannoli and Nutella filling.
“This was a gift to my husband,” explained Estefany, who grew up in Sunnyside “riding the 7 train.”
“Patrick jumped up for joy” when the mascot made his entrance, she said.
Estefany, a high-school counselor, and Patrick, a police offer, now live in Brooklyn, but when it comes to baseball, their hearts reside in Queens.
The groom, a police officer, said when he saw his favorite bobble head in person “I was given a ray of joy as if I was a kid again sitting in Shea Stadium . . . Mr. Met came as a mascot and left as family.”
As for the wages the guy (or girl) in the Mr. Met costume actually takes home, a team spokesman said, “to protect the integrity of the Mr. Met character, we’ve never spoken about the monetary breakdown of the person who is in the costume or how many different people might wear it.”