ATLANTA — After scoring a triple-bogey on his assessment of the Mets’ postgame celebration Sunday, NBC’s Bob Costas called a team official yesterday to say he meant no harm by the comments.
During the network’s U.S. Open coverage, Costas provided a baseball update and lambasted the Mets for celebrating Kirk Nieuwenhuis’ game-ending homer against the Cubs at Citi Field.
“The Mets with four in the bottom of the ninth to win it 4-3, and a team 14 games under .500 celebrates as if it just won the seventh game of the World Series,” Costas reported. “Another indication of the ongoing decline of Western civilization.”
Mets players and staff voiced their disagreement on Twitter with Costas’ remarks.
Yesterday, manager Terry Collins shrugged off Costas’ comments.
“Show me a team that has a walk-off home run that they don’t celebrate,” Collins said. “Show me one. I’ve seen the Yankees do it. I’ve seen the Cardinals do it. I’ve seen the Los Angeles Dodgers do it, everybody is excited. And especially when you have a young guy like Kirk come up and do it in that situation.
“We’re down three runs, it seemed like we hadn’t won a game in a week. All right, civilization is over. We’ll have to rebuild it. We’re starting today.”
Mets PR chief Jay Horwitz indicated Costas called him yesterday in an attempt to smooth over the situation.