An attempt at a catchy tweet turned into an error for the New York Mets.
Pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka -- first name pronounced "Dice-K" -- struck out three batters in the first inning of their exhibition game against the St. Louis Cardinals, and the team's official Twitter account tweeted about the inning.
"Dice-KKK off to a quick start. He strikes out the side in the 1st inning. #NYMvsSTL,” they tweeted, playing on Matsuzaka’s first name and “K” being the symbol for strikeout.
However, their seemingly clever post backfired when they realized the racial connotation in their wording. The tweet was deleted, and an apology followed:
That was unintended. We're glad he struck out the side. #DiceK — New York Mets (@Mets) March 24, 2014
The apology tweet received over 100 retweets, but Twitter still had a field day with the Mets' mistake.
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The Mets deleted their tweet, which, as you know, means it is no longer on the Internet and never happened anyway. pic.twitter.com/BIr6x8cXO3 — Jesse Spector (@jessespector) March 24, 2014
@AmazinAvenue @Mets Happens to the best of us pic.twitter.com/88thl6a1Cu — robcast (@_robcast) March 24, 2014
You can count on the Mets to Met the hell out of it year in and year out: http://t.co/F5ItgJvM8i pic.twitter.com/7RmTFMD9f1 — Tim Ryan (@TheSportsHernia) March 24, 2014