Javier Baez sliding home.

One of the most remarkable sports stories from the past few days has been New York Mets’ players (particularly Javier Báez, but also some others like Francisco Lindor) giving “thumbs-down” gestures after big hits. That led to Báez telling reporters that was in response to Mets’ fans booing them, New York tabloids responding in incredibly over-the-top and misrepresentative fashion, Mets’ president Sandy Alderson calling those thumbs-down gestures “totally unacceptable,” The Athletic for some reason deciding to interview the meme-noted thumbs-down Mets’ fan about why he thinks that gesture is fine for him and not players, and Báez and Lindor apologizing to fans ahead of Tuesday’s early game (game one of a doubleheader, a makeup of an April 11 game suspended in the first inning) against the Miami Marlins.

That game then saw further twists. Báez came up big in the bottom of the ninth, first with a RBI infield single and then by scoring from first with a great slide into home following a bobbled ball in left field on a Michael Conforto single. That capped off a Mets’ comeback from the 5-1 deficit they faced in the eighth. And SNY’s Gary Cohen delivered a great call of that latter play, including “Turn those thumbs around!”

Notably, some fans then actually did that:

Here’s Báez’s single from before that:

Amazingly, this came after Báez received further boos during his first at-bat of the game in the eighth inning (he came in as a pinch-hitter), an at-bat that ended with him being hit by a pitch (and getting applause as he walked to first):

This whole situation remains strange, but Báez certainly produced some positive results for the Mets Tuesday. And Cohen delivered a great call of that.

[SNY on Twitter]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.