Oh My God! Mets Infielder Jose Iglesias Performs His Song After Victory

NEW YORK (AP) — Baha Men, step aside and Timmy Trumpet, let us lead the way. This is Candelita, New York Mets infielder Jose Iglesias.

The tradition of musicians appearing at Mets games and performing songs associated with the team took a unique turn Friday night when Iglesias sang his song “OMG” following a game. 7-2 victory against the Houston Astros in front of 32,465 fans at Citi Field.

“New York City!” Iglesias shouted as he headed to shortstop, a position he played 1,016 times in a 12-year major league career. “Let’s keep the party going!”

Iglesias was accompanied by dancers for more than a minute before his teammates — many wearing “OMG” shirts — spilled onto the infield and surrounded him, raising their arms to the “Oh my God!” chorus. Sean Manaea held up an “OMG” sign while Harrison Bader, Starling Marte and Mark Vientos captured the performance on their cell phones.

“It’s hard to say how I feel,” Iglesias said afterward in the locker room, where Jeff McNeil and Francisco Lindor were still singing the song. “It was a big deal. Singing in front of big fans and seeing my teammates running out there is just a dream come true.

Iglesias is a longtime music fan who wrote “OMG” — which he described to SNY earlier this week as trying to “… maximize the possibility of enjoyment” — and used it as his welcome-home song after being recalled from Triple-A Syracuse on May 31.

His new teammates immediately took a liking to Iglesias, 34, and his song, which is played after every Mets homer at Citi Field and after every win. New York is 17-6 since he joined the team and was above .500 on Friday for the first time since May 2.

“It’s amazing, I think it’s going to be huge for him,” Mets starting pitcher José Quintana said. “It’s really cool to be a part of this. »

“And the way we continue to play, I’ll expect to hear this song at least once or twice every game.”

The song was released on all streaming platforms on Friday, a week earlier than expected.

“I think it’s a special occasion,” said Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, who wore an “OMG” T-shirt during his pregame news conference. “You have an active player who also releases a song that becomes very popular. »

The Mets are now hoping that Iglesias and the rest of his teammates will have better luck after the concert.

The Baha Men performed “Who Let The Dogs Out?” — the anthem of the NL champion Mets — before Game 4 of the 2000 World Series, but Derek Jeter homered on Bobby Jones’ first pitch minutes later and the Yankees won the next two games to clinch their third straight title.

On August 31, 2022, saxophonist Timmy Trumpet played “Narco,” the opening song for stopper Edwin Díaz, as the latter ran in an attempt to save the day against the Los Angeles Dodgers. While Díaz pitched a perfect ninth inning to close out a 2–1 win, the Mets squandered a three-game NL East lead in September, lost the division title to the Atlanta Braves and were eliminated during a wild card series.

Iglesias, who is hitting .389 in 36 at-bats, said he would not have performed the song Friday if the Mets had lost.

“How many emotions were there?” A lot,” Iglesias said. “The way my teammates reacted, the fans and everything that’s going on, it’s just a perfect storm and I’m just happy to be there.”

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