Mets Try To Honor American Indian Culture, Upset American Indians

The New York Mets, a baseball team that does not possess a cartoonish mascot named Chief Wahoo or a fanbase that likes to do the Tomahawk Chop during games, has somehow managed to piss off an American Indian nonprofit organization. And it all went down in the Metsiest way possible.

According to , the Mets had reached out to the New York-based American Indian Community House to ask for help staging a Native American Heritage Day at Citi Field. The nonprofit agreed to participate, and July 25 was set as the date of the event, which would include a variety of pregame activities and some traditional American Indian singing and dancing outside the stadium. A great time would be had by all!

But then, of course, the Mets went and fucked everything up. You see, they are set to play the Atlanta Braves on July 25, and the Mets suddenly became worried that the visiting team might see the planned festivities as an anti-Braves protest and get offended. So what did the Mets do? They went full chickenshit, cancelling the singing and dancing portions of the event out of deference to the Braves. And then, the team drove the final nail into the coffin of stupidity:

Last Wednesday, a member of the Mets’ group sales department e-mailed the A.I.C.H. in response to a series of questions from the group, which sought an explanation.

“It was brought to my attention that we need to be sensitive to the Braves being a partner MLB team and can’t put them in a situation for a potentially negative environment to be brought upon them,” the Mets official wrote. “I know this is not the plan, but sometimes people come to events under different agendas than expected. I’m not referring to [A.I.C.H.] or any of the organizations involved, but more about unknown groups that may want to change the perception of the event.”

And here we may have the lowlight of the Mets' season: Citing sensitivity when choosing to spurn a group of American Indians in favor of a baseball team that routinely offends American Indians. The A.I.C.H. has wisely pulled out of the event.

[ NYT]