The New York Mets issued an apology on Wednesday after Mr. Met flipped off fans following a 7-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.
Twitter user Tony T said he was “reaching over for a high five” when the iconic mascot responded not with five fingers... but one:
Mr. Met doesn’t have five fingers. He has four, so technically he cannot flip the middle one. But given the panache with which he delivered the gesture, he was certainly not inviting fans to step right up and greet the Mets.
The team quickly apologized:
Mr. Met may have just been expressing some frustration for a team that entered the season with high hopes then dropped to 23-28. The Mets have had to contend with a series of injuries as well as an incident in which star pitcher Matt Harvey was suspended for not showing up for a game earlier in May. (Harvey had been out late the night before and played golf in the morning.)
The gesture went viral online and landed the mascot on the back page of the New York Daily News:
The team said the person involved in the incident won’t be appearing as Mr. Met again, The Associated Press reported. On Twitter, fans were largely united behind the mascot:
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