Cooler heads prevail: Mr. Met back in action
NEW YORK — Posing for pictures, shooting T-shirts into the seats and high-fiving fans young and old, the ever-smiling Mr. Met mascot is back in the lineup at Citi Field. Cooler heads prevailed, apparently.
A day after the person inside the funny-looking costume was caught on video making an obscene gesture to a fan, the team said someone else was doing Mr. Met duty at Thursday’s game against Milwaukee.
No one seemed too upset, either.
“I love you, Mr. Met!” a couple of kids called out as the popular mascot bounded to his pregame perch beyond the distant outfield seats. He got more cheers in the sixth inning, when he launched souvenirs along the first base side.
Mr. Met has been around for more than five decades, long popular with New York fans for his oversized baseball head.
“I thought he was trying to mimic Bryce Harper and get himself suspended,” kidded Tim Rothman, moments after his 4-year-old son met the mascot.
“Mr. Met was just upset, he got mad. It was a New York thing,” Rothman said.
Harper was suspended this week by Major League Baseball for getting into a fist fight with Giants reliever Hunter Strickland after being hit by a pitch.
MLB didn’t seem inclined to suspend a mascot, rather letting this be handled as a club matter.
Video of the mascot flipping his middle finger during a 7-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night went viral.
The Mets apologized after the incident, saying the offending employee won’t work in the costume again. The team didn’t identify the person — a couple people usually fill the role during the season.
For the record, whoever is inside the outfit never comments.
Mets reliever Jerry Blevins said he’d seen a lot during his long career, but never any mascot mayhem like this. “Not on social media,” he said. Blevins didn’t want to say much more — “I’ve been around a long time, I know when to tread lightly,” he said.
But he mentioned he had joined fellow pitcher Josh Smoke rand the Mr. Met mascot for an appearance on Wednesday morning at a school in Long Island for those with severe physical disabilities.
“He couldn’t have done a better job,” Blevins said. “He did great.”
A security guard laughed when noting that Mr. Met couldn’t have flipped his middle finger because the costume only has four fingers.