Beloved New York Mets viral superfan Seymour Weiner died Tuesday, the team and his family confirmed.
He was 98.
“We are saddened to learn of the passing of Seymour Weiner,” the Mets wrote on social media Wednesday, sharing a photo of the World War II veteran and lifelong Brooklyn resident attending a game.
Weiner skyrocketed to fame when he was honored as Veteran of the Game at the Mets’ opening game in 2024.
He had entered the Army in 1945 and, at the time, was “desperately trying to get into the military because he was a Jewish 18-year-old and wanted to fight Hitler,” Beth Weiner, his daughter, told NBC News on Wednesday.
But he faced a hurdle in trying to serve his country: his high blood pressure. Weiner ended up going to the recruitment center at Grand Central Station, where a nurse advised him to drink lots of water and lie down to lower his blood pressure.
“He laid there for hours and hours until they finally took his blood pressure and they said, ‘OK, we can put you in,’” Beth Weiner recalled.
But by the time he got in, the war had ended, and he served in the army of occupation in Italy doing work on communications equipment.
“Had they not dropped the atomic bomb, he was actually going to be going to the Far East, but instead they sent him to Italy,” Beth Weiner explained. He was honorably discharged in 1947.
At the opening day game in March, Weiner was presented a flag by Mookie Wilson and John Franco — two all-time Mets greats. As he made his way through the tunnel, Weiner met Keith Hernandez, a former Mets player and broadcaster, and Howie Rose, one of the teams’ great announcers.
“He was so excited and delighted,” Beth Weiner said of the special day.
That day also catapulted Weiner into online stardom with social media users cracking jokes about his name.
"There were a lot of adult men making juvenile boy jokes about 'see more weiner,'" his daughter said. "All of a sudden, my dad's name was everywhere!"
The Athletic covered the frenzy about Weiner's viral fame last year.
The Mets last April held a $1 hot dog night promotion using a photo of Weiner in its advertising that said: “A Seymour Weiner approved message” and “Everyone loves a Weiner.”
“They put his head on the rapper Lil Yachty's body dancing with a hot dog and my father was loving it. People would say he must hate being made fun of. My dad said, 'Doesn’t bother me at all! I love the attention!'” Beth Weiner said.
Weiner wasn't well enough to attend the game himself, but his family received tickets to enter the field.
"People were chanting his name the way they chant players names. Every open opportunity, they would chant his name, and at the end of the game, they said we sold a record number of hot dogs," she recalled.
Beth Weiner said that when she informed the Mets that her father had died, “I got the loveliest email back and they said were going to do a tribute to your dad.”
“He had this kind of lifelong connection. He was watching games while he was really in the last days of his life, he was listening on his phone,” Beth Weiner said.
“The day that before he passed, was the day that they scored 19 to 1 runs and I said, ‘They’re doing it for my dad,’" she said.
Beth Weiner described her father as a “lifelong social activist," passionate about true patriotism, inclusivity and diversity.
"He lived those ideals to the very end," she said.
"My father would be so tickled, because he grew up as a child in poverty and during the Great Depression, his family had nothing. He had immigrant parents. He had what we would now probably call learning disabilities, and some low self-esteem because of it. He was just so tickled to become a little superstar," she said.
Weiner's wife preceded him in death. He is survived by Beth Weiner and her children, Juliette Wilder and Jonathan Wilder.
Tributes poured in online for Weiner.
"RIP Seymour. From defeating Nazis to being there for the Mets crazy 2024 season is a hell of a life I gotta say," one user wrote on Reddit.
"2024 Mets magic season started with him, RIP," one user wrote, as another added, "Seymour Weiner, the Mets’ glizzy king, WWII vet, and proud face of Dollar Dog Night. The man lived a hell of a life and still had the sense of humor to become a viral sensation for having the name of the season."
