Mets fans blame ‘Curse of the Mambino’ after Mamdani’s mascot hug precedes 12-game skid

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited Citi Field on April 9, posed for photos with Mr. and Mrs. Met — and the New York Mets have not won since.

The team’s 12-game losing streak, now the worst in baseball and the franchise’s longest since 2004, has given rise to a lighthearted but pointed new piece of Mets mythology: the “Curse of the Mambino.” The New York Post splashed the nickname across its front page Tuesday, a riff on the “Curse of the Bambino,” the superstition that haunted the Boston Red Sox for 86 years after they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919.

For a fanbase long accustomed to suffering, the timing of Mr. Mamdani’s warm embrace of the team mascots has proven too convenient to ignore.

“The hug is what started this curse,” conservative radio host Sid Rosenberg told the Times. “It’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.” Mr. Rosenberg said he has since switched his allegiance to the Yankees.

Fox News host Sean Hannity piled on Monday, saying on his show: “It’s kind of hard to lose 11 games in a row in baseball, but he pulled it off.” His colleague Emily Compagno added: “It’s not enough that he has to destroy our city, but he has to destroy our sports too.”

Mr. Mamdani, a self-described casual fan, took the ribbing in stride at a news conference Tuesday.

“I’ll first say that there’s a lot of baseball left to be played, and I am still keeping the faith, as I know that many Mets fans are across the city,” he said — before adding that he would “accept being addressed as Mayor Mambino for the day.”

City Hall officials did note, for the record, that the Mets’ losing streak actually began the day before the infamous mascot hug.

The Mets entered the season with sky-high expectations and a luxury tax payroll estimated at $381 million — roughly $507 million in total spending when tax penalties are included, according to the Associated Press. They opened 7-4 before the bottom fell out. No team has ever made the postseason in a year with a 12-game losing streak.

The on-field explanations are plenty real. The Mets have scored fewer than three runs in nine games during the streak, and star outfielder Juan Soto — signed to a 15-year, $765 million deal in late 2024 — has been sidelined by a calf injury. The team has been swept by the Athletics, Dodgers and Cubs.

But baseball is a sport built on superstition, and Mets fans have a particular talent for magical thinking born of decades of disappointment.

“Everyone doubted Zohran and now he’s the mayor — they should do the same thing with the Mets,” said Justin Brannan, a former city politician. “Look, anyone who thinks 11 losses in a row is the lowest point obviously hasn’t been a Mets fan for very long.”

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Red Sox fan, was philosophical about the mayor absorbing blame for the city’s sporting woes. “There’s a famous Ed Koch quote,” he said. “’If a sparrow dies in Central Park, it’s the mayor’s fault.’”

Not everyone is buying the curse narrative. “I mean, it’s the Mets,” one user wrote on social media. “I don’t think hugging Mamdani really mattered.”

Todd Shapiro, spokesman for former Mayor Eric Adams and an avid Mets fan, suggested Mr. Mamdani consider transferring the curse by hugging the Yankees. He was skeptical, though, that the mascot moment was truly to blame.

“There was the Tony Romo curse — every time Jessica Simpson would show up to a game, Tony Romo would lose,” he said, invoking the rumored hex that allegedly plagued the Dallas Cowboys quarterback nearly 20 years ago. “I’m telling you, the mayor is not Jessica Simpson.”

Large cardboard cutouts of New York Knicks players were placed in City Hall’s rotunda Monday to mark the team’s playoff run. Hours later, the Knicks lost Game 2 to the Atlanta Hawks.