Mets announce Lady Gaga finger promotion

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NEW YORK, June 21 (UPI) -- The New York Mets will offer a promotion inspired by pop star and Yankees fan Lady Gaga's one-fingered salute to Mets backers, the team said Monday.

The performer was photographed this month raising her middle digit to hostile Mets fans from a luxury box during a game at Citi Field. Team officials say they will mock that incident and link it to an effort to gather All-Star Game votes for third baseman David Wright, the New York Daily News reported Monday.

The newspaper said the team will award the first 20,000 fans at Wednesday's Mets-Tigers game with a blue over-sized foam finger -- index, not middle -- with the slogan "Make Wright #1."

The promotion announcement came one day after Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman refuted reports that Lady Gaga had been permanently banned from her favorite team's clubhouse, although she and a large entourage crashed the Yankees' sanctum -- reportedly without permission -- following a loss to the Mets Friday.

"There is a time for things like that and that wasn't it," Cashman said. "After a loss is the wrong time."

But she isn't banned, he said.

"She did nothing wrong," he told the Daily News. "The problem is internal and it's been handled."