The Mets’ good-luck clubhouse chicken was sent down to the farm yesterday after the Amazin’s lost to the Yanks Saturday — but the move didn’t help last night.
The brassy bird — dubbed “Little Jerry Seinfeld” — was handed over at Citi Field yesterday to a rep from an upstate animal sanctuary by zany Mets reliever Tim Byrdak, who bought the fowl as a prank Saturday.
“Little Jerry found himself a new home,” the left-hander said before the bird was given to the Farm Sanctuary of Watkins Glen. “He avoids the fryer and the oven and everything else you can cook a chicken with.”
Byrdak then exclaimed, “He just pooped on me!” as he carried the bandana-wearing bird past a media throng outside the clubhouse before the Mets’ 6-5 loss to the Bombers last.
Byrdak noted that the Mets seem to have brought the chicken more luck then the bird brought the team, which lost to the Yanks twice after Jerry arrived at Citi Field.
“Just think, you could have ended up on someone’s dinner table,” Byrdak told Jerry.
He then cried, “Easy, Jerry!” when the camera-shy fowl got frisky and did some wing-flapping.
Byrdak had a pal buy the $8 chicken from a poultry shop in Chinatown as a good-luck prank after his bullpen mate Frank Francisco called the Yankees “chickens” on the eve of the weekend’s Subway Series.
“Put it on the front page: Not bad for a bunch of chickens,” Yankee outfielder Nick Swisher said after last night’s Bomber victory.
“It’s karma — you just don’t do that [call us chickens]. Not to a team like us,” he said.
Jerry had enjoyed a roost in the Mets’ clubhouse, dining on oatmeal, berries and water.
An unlucky kitchen staffer even got to clean up after Jerry had an accident on the carpet.
Byrdak admitted Jerry eventually had to leave “The Show” because, like crying, there are no chickens in baseball.
“It’s because we really didn’t think the whole process through of actually having a live chicken and what we were going to do afterwards. So we decided we needed to find a home for this thing real quick,” he said.
He got the idea to give the chicken to the Farm Sanctuary from a Mets fan on Twitter.
“The power of social media saved a bird’s life today,” Byrdak said before handing Jerry off to the farm’s reps.
“All right, buddy, you take care,” he said in parting.
Francisco, for one, said he was “very upset” to see Jerry go.
“I was planning to make some chicken-noodle soup,” he said.
“Now it’s not going to be possible.”
Additional reporting by Antonio Antenucci