It took just five days after officially opening their spring training facility, for the New York Mets to become embroiled in their first controversy of the new season.
What started out as a fun team-building outing spearheaded by new manager Mickey Callaway on Friday night, quickly spiraled out of control after minor league third baseman Phil Evans posted a photo memorializing the fishing outing on Instagram.
The photo showed a couple of dead sharks surrounded by Mickey Callaway, Matt Harvey, Kevin Plawecki, and… Donald Trump Jr. Needless to say, the backlash was immediate and Evans quickly deleted the photo after seeing the adverse reaction, but it was too late as it had already gone viral.
“I didn’t intend it to be any political manner at all,” Evans later explained. “I just thought it was another guy jumping in a photo.”
But of course it really wasn’t some other guy, it was the son of the president of the United States, arguably the most polarizing figure in the country right now. It invoked a visceral reaction throughout social media, with some people voicing their displeasure while the great majority had their knives out and had blood in their eyes.
Poor Evans swore up and down that it wasn’t intended to be a political statement and he just thought it was fun to meet a celebrity fishing on the same beach they were and he did what anyone else would do and snapped a picture.
He told reporters that he knows nothing when it comes to politics and he doesn’t even watch the news. And you know what? I believe him because I know plenty of kids his age who couldn’t even tell you who Michael Pence or Paul Ryan are.
The problem for the Mets became a little murkier once the conspiracy theories and threats started rolling in. “I bet Matt Harvey was behind this.” “Mickey Callaway needs to get fired.” “If a Mets pitching arm is the sacrifice necessary for Don Jr to get eaten by a shark, I feel like that’s fair.”
Trying to throw some water on the raging inferno that was unfolding on Twitter, the new Mets manager explained that it was an innocent coincidence.
“He just happened to be on the beach fishing. It would be the same if we walked into a restaurant and somebody is in there eating, don’t think we can control that,” Callaway said. “I guess I could call the Secret Service and get his schedule and schedule around it.”
However that did little to diffuse the situation as more and more outraged fans pointed to Matt Harvey, who got himself in some hot water after he thanked Donald Trump Sr. on Twitter for the use of one of his golf courses.
Kristie Ackert of the Daily News reported today, that while most in the Mets clubhouse Saturday laughed off what they saw as a celebrity sighting, there were a few players and staff who said they would not have been comfortable with that situation, but didn’t want to add to a “controversy” by speaking publicly.
You may remember that the very outspoken Adrian Gonzalez, a proud Mexican-American ballplayer, refused to stay with his team when the Dodgers travelled to Chicago for a series with the Cubs and were staying in a hotel owned by then candidate Donald Trump.
Officially, the Mets haven’t said anything, but unofficially they have been telling anyone who asks that it’s a “Non-issue.” It’s always a scary proposition whenever the Mets throw around the words “Non-issue.”
Where this goes from here nobody knows, but in the last two years whenever the worlds of politics and sports collide, it hasn’t been very pretty. Just ask the NFL and the NBA.
Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and this will all be forgotten by Monday when the Mets will hold their first full squad workout.
