Mets apologise after mascot gives the finger to a fan

Mets mascot Mr Met pulls the finger at a fan. Photo / Twitter @tonyt3535

In a moment that reportedly ended up costing a person portraying Mr Met their job - but effectively summed up the team's disappointing start - the Mets' mascot gave the finger to some fans at Citi Field on Wednesday.

It was caught on video and quickly went viral, resulting in an apology from the 23-28 team.

"We apologise for the inappropriate action of this employee," the Mets said. "We do not condone this type of behaviour. We are dealing with this matter internally."

The inappropriate gesture happened during a 7-1 home loss the Brewers, the latest setback for an injury-plagued team that began the season with World Series aspirations. A fan named Anthony De Lucia filmed the moment and uploaded it to his Twitter account.

De Lucia said that he and his friends "didn't even say a word" and were "just reaching over for a high five" from Mr Met. The mascot's image was introduced during the team's inaugural season in 1962, and in 1964, became the first in MLB to take live-action form.

According to the team's website, Mr Met "leads all active Major League mascots in high fours," referring to the number of digits on each cartoonishly oversized hand. That led some online to note that, technically, Mr Met isn't capable of giving someone the middle-finger salute.

Loopholes aside, the mascot's behaviour is the latest embarrassment for the Mets, who have had to deal with numerous off-field issues this season, in addition to injuries to core players such as Yoenis Cespedes, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz and Jeurys Familia.

Matt Harvey was suspended three games for failing to show up at Citi Field after going on a bender the night before, reportedly because he was distraught over photos of his presumed girlfriend, model Adriana Lima, out on the town with a former flame, Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman.

Before that, the Mets had to delete a tweet they sent that showed a sex toy in the locker of a player, and Familia began the season with a 15-game suspension for a violation of the league's domestic violence policy. Suffice to say, the team cannot promote Tim Tebow to the big leagues soon enough.

Elsewhere on the Mets' website, they say that although Mr Met long since lost his voice "root, root, rooting for the home team", he "can gesture in 12 different languages".

Apparently, the team was unwilling to pardon his gestural French.