Mets ornament of the day: The elusive Mr. Met

It started innocently, with a Mets ornament or two mixed in with our others on the Christmas tree.

But then I started expanding, tracing Tom Seaver's career in ornaments and adding Hallmark decorations featuring baseball players.

Several years later, when we had our first house, my wife surprised me with an artificial tree for the baseball room – a special tree to fill be with baseball ornaments.

Naturally, I have rules. Space on the baseball tree is limited, so each ornament has to be special. Ordinary glass balls with a team logo don't cut it. I like ornament that can take us to a time or place, tied to a memory.

So we'll come out of November hibernation and put the post card tour on hold to spend the December taking a tour of the tree, hopefully one a day through the end of the month.

Most of these are store-bought, found here and there. But some of the favorites were discovered at art shows and craft fairs – or created by my kids.

So let's start with Mr. Met, on of several created by Forever Collectibles, which produces work of varying quality.

I like this one. And I have to confess that I've never met Mr. Met. The best mascot ever just wasn't around in the 1970s and 1980s when I was living in New York and Connecticut and getting to games regularly.

I had hoped for an encounter when visiting Shea in 2008's farewell season and the following year at Citi Field. Alas, we only were able to view Mr. Met from afar.

So, until we can make it back to see the Mets at home, Mr. Met on the tree remains as close as we can get.