Sometimes people get fired for really stupid reasons. If you are Milton from office space, you may even be fired but not know it.

Yesterday a member of the New York Mets organization was fired... and everyone knows it.

One of the most popular members of the New York Mets franchise was released from the team after a shocking video of him surfaced.

The person in question is so popular that you might even call him "Mr. Met"... because that is indeed his name.

I think Mr. Met needs to meet Mr. Tailor to do something about those pants.

Mr. Met has been the face of the New York Mets franchise since 1964. Because the identity of the person inside Mr. Met is kept secret, it is unknown how long the current Mr. Met has held this job. One thing that is known, is that his tenure ended on Wednesday May 31, 2017.

According to witnesses, several fans were heckling poor Mr. Met all night long. The incident came to a fever pitch after one of the hecklers insulted Mr. Met's mother, Grandma Met (I assume).

Mr. Met reacted like any good son (who does not have the ability to speak) would. He visually defended his mother's honor with a combination of universal gestures which loosely translate to, "Sir, please desist. My mother is a wonderful and kind woman. I have the utmost respect for you and your delightful friends, but I would appreciate you showing a measure of decorum in this situation."

Here is the video of that masterfully delivered message...

Apparently the management of the Mets misinterpreted Mr. Met's gesture (which included the raising of one of his three fingers and moving the other hand out of the way to ensure that his other digits would not distract from his gesture) and relieved him of his duties as Mr. Met.

Due to the incredibly serious nature of the incident, the Met organization released the following official statement:

“We apologize for the inappropriate action of this employee. We do not condone this type of behavior. We are dealing with this matter internally.”

A spokesman for the Mets explains that the fan told Mr. Met, "Your mom has huge... hands. I want to play with them all night long." Mr. Met was not amused.*

The Mets are clearly more strict with members of the organization who happen to have a baseball for a head compared to those who catch, throw and hit a baseball (Cough. Cough. Jose Reyes. Cough .Cough.)

There was a new Mr. Met in the fabled uniform today.

How do I know this is a new Mr. Met? I don't. No one does. This is dumb.

This incident lead me to ponder a question...

Have you ever been fired from a job for a stupid reason?

I sure have...

In 1988, when I was 17, I got my first job. I took the job so I could earn enough money to visit a girl in Wisconsin who I had met on vacation that year. (But that is a whole other embarrassing story).

I worked in the paint department of Montgomery Ward. Apparently having me as a past employees was just far too detrimental to the chain of department stores. In 2001, all of the Montgomery Ward department stores went out of business.

Doesn't this just scream 1980s department store?

But back to the paint department. I had absolutely no qualifications for the job. I had never painted anything in my life (unless it was with my fingers). I had no interest in paint. I just wanted to get my hands on that $2.30 minimum wage... I am not kidding. That is how old I am. My first job paid $2.30 per hour.

Luckily a monkey could perform the job. Customers picked the color and finish of their paint. We grabbed a can of the base paint, looked up the color combination in a book (no computers... old remember?) and adjusted the levers on the colors. We added the correct amount (usually) secured the lid, and put the can in the "shaker".

This is a high tech paint shaker. How can I tell? Because it says "High-Tech" right there. Duh!

Ok. Pretty easy. No problem.

However, for some reason, approximately 1 out of every 10 cans had some kind of hole in it. Therefore, when a 17 year old with a mullet picked it up, white base paint spilled all over his corduroys. We had no smocks or coveralls. We were expected to dress like every other pimply faced teenager working the registers.

It got to the point where I was spending more for work pants than I could make $2.30 at a time.

Wait. I am positive I typed in "paint on pants". Ohhh these are paint-on pants.

I finally had it. I convinced a coworker that we should start wearing old sweat pants to work. We did it for several days. Each day, the pants became more and more saturated with paint. We looked incredibly gross.

Finally one day, the manager came to speak with us. I turned on my full teenager and said, "Man, I'm sick of ruining my pants. If you don't pay for my pants, I'm wearing these."

He said, "No you are not."

I'm sure I responded with something super clever like, "Oh yeah? You're not the boss of me."

Well actually... he was the boss of me so he said, "You are fired. Just finish your shift."

Ummmmmm finish my shift? I was 17... and a huge jackass!

I spent the next hour doing baseball slides up and down the aisles of the department store.

I'm old remember?

Then security asked me to leave.

I did.

But I did make $2.30 while I was sliding around. Take that Monkey Wards! (That was our nickname for the store. I told you I was clever. SMH)

So now it is your turn.

Have you ever been fired from a job for a stupid reason? What was it?

*This is actually former Met player Michael Cuddyer from several years ago. He knows nothing about the Mr. Met incident... unless he is Mr. Met!

*Sources for Mr. Met story:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/jun/01/mr-met-fired-obscene-gesture-new-york-mets

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/06/01/us/ap-bbn-mr-met-fired.html

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