This year’s season for the New York Mets included a new ritual. Starting in June, after every Mets home run, the slugger crossed the plate and snapped a photo with the “OMG” sign.

It’s an homage to a song of the same name released by Mets player and Latin pop sensation Jose Iglesias. 

The 34-year-old Mets utility middle infielder performs his music under the name Candelita. The song and the sign emerged as the Mets were getting hot in June, not long after Grimace threw out the first pitch. 

What You Need To Know

  • The “OMG” sign is an homage to a song of the same name released by Mets player and Latin pop sensation Jose Iglesias

  • Jerome McCroy is the artist who made the sign, a lifelong Mets fan who makes custom woodwork, much of it inspired by pop culture and sports

  • He brought the sign to the ballpark in late June and, after bumping into Mets co-owner Alex Cohen, he asked her to give it to the team

After a dismal start, the season turned around. And the sign brought success to more than just the players on the field.

“I just wanted to make it as a gift for the team,” Jerome McCroy, the artist who made the sign, told NY1. “And it just has completely changed my life. Like, I literally got a tattoo of it on my arm because these last three months have been such a whirlwind.” 

McCroy is a lifelong Mets fan who makes custom woodwork, much of it inspired by pop culture and sports. He brought the sign to the ballpark in late June and, after bumping into Mets co-owner Alex Cohen, he asked her to give it to the team.

Little did either of them know the team would turn it into their home-run celebration that night, during a game that ended with an on-field performance by Iglesias. They’ve been posing with it ever since.

“With the three home runs that happened that night, it’s on the back cover of Newsday. Wake up to about 500 Twitter messages and Instagram messages, and the traction of my account is just through the roof and everybody wants an OMG sign and I wasn’t planning on selling any,” McCroy said.

McCroy had figured the sign would stay in the clubhouse. When the Mets took it on the road, it took a beating, and in July, the “O” popped off. He made a new, sturdier one coated in resin, and hand-delivered it to Iglesias at a game in Pittsburgh. In the crowd, there were fans with cardboard replicas.

“I literally cried on the way home because, like, to me, its like — I’m like right now welling up. It’s emotional to have your work in someone’s home to begin with. But, but then to, to have fans throughout the country reaching out saying, ‘Hey, how do I get a piece like that?’” he said, adding that fans asked if it was OK if they made their own, too. “This movement is for all of us. This is for all Mets fans. It’s not just for me to profit off.”

McCroy has always been an artist, but it didn’t always pay the bills. He spent most of his adult life working in retail and other nine to five jobs. He got back into drawing when his son was born and they were temporarily separated for a few years when McCroy took a job on the west coast — it was a way for them to connect.

And in 2020, he began focusing on his art full time after a Yankees-themed piece he made a friend went viral.

But it was still a grind to make a living. A few weeks before the “OMG” sign, he had sent out some job applications for part-time work.

“And then OMG happened, and I haven’t looked back at an application,” he said.

And the Mets haven’t looked back, either. They clinched their spot in the post-season Monday, with help from Candelita himself — Iglesias, who has been a clutch hitter all year, drove in a crucial run.