NEW YORK – Two days after Puerto Rican Javier Báez pushed the New York market to the brink, saying the thumbs-down gesture the Mets players were making was in response to the boos of the public, as much Báez as also the boricua Francisco Lindor apologized.
“Thumb down means the adversity we’ve had to go through all this time, the negative things and how we’ve overcome them,” Lindor commented Tuesday. “However, it was wrong. I apologize to anyone who has been offended. It was not my intention. I cannot be against the fans.”
Báez added: “I didn’t want to offend anyone. If I did, I apologize.”
Lindor and Báez were part of a Mets group that began using the thumbs down gesture earlier this month to celebrate major hits. After Sunday’s win over the Nationals, Báez responded to a question about the gesture by saying it was the way the team’s players “screamed” back at the fans, who have shown their displeasure at the rapid fall of the your team at the standings.
Two days later, Báez and Lindor corrected by saying that this gesture was not directly to the fans, but to their own cave.
“Maybe I said something wrong like; ‘I was shouting at the fans,'” Baez said. “What I meant was, ‘Abuchéame now’ – and not to the fans, but to our cave. I didn’t say the fans were bad. I want the fans. I just felt like we were alone.”
Boos at Citi Field began to rise in the first weeks of August, when the Mets fell 12.5 games in the standings in 27 days.