New York (AFP) – Mr. Met’s big smiling baseball face was back in view on Thursday, but there was a new person behind the mask a day after the New York Mets mascot lost his cool.
The Major League Baseball team said the individual performing as Mr. Met on Wednesday — who was caught raising his white-gloved middle finger to a fan in a video posted on Twitter — would no longer have the role.
“We apologize for the inappropriate action of this employee,” the team said in a statement. “We do not condone this type of behavior.”
The Mets said several people share the role of Mr. Met, whose usual duties include dancing to the popular tune “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” and firing T-shirts from a cannon to fans in the stands.
It wasn’t clear what led to Wednesday’s incident, although the man who posted the brief video on Twitter insisted that contrary to some reports he did nothing to provoke Mr. Met.
The mini-scandal was at least a distraction from the Mets’ onfield woes, which continued with a 2-1 home loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday and fell 10 games behind the Washington Nationals in the National League East division.
The mascot — which Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard has called “creepy” — debuted in April of 1964 as MLB’s first “modern live-action mascot,” according to the team’s website.
It also notes that Mr. Met “can gesture in 12 different languages.”
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