Mets give fan Phillies truck

ByDarren Rovell ESPN logo
Thursday, August 7, 2014

Mere seconds after New York Mets fan Steven Mitzmacher walked through the gate and got his truck Sunday, he realized the promotional giveaway had the logo of the team's hated division rival, the Philadelphia Phillies.

"I looked down, and I said to my brother-in-law, 'What's this?'" Mitzmacher said.

The truck, which was given away at the game against the San Francisco Giants, also featured the logo of W.B. Mason, the office supplies company that sponsors both the Mets and the Phillies.

"At first I thought that maybe the trucks had different logos on them, but when I looked around, everyone else had a Mets logo on the door of the truck," said Mitzmacher, 28, who works in online marketing. "So I posted the picture on Twitter and Reddit to see how far it could go."

News of the gaffe traveled slowly for days but gained steam Tuesday as more and more outlets picked it up. A Mets spokesperson said the trucks were made by a vendor, Hit Promotional Products.

"Unfortunately, this turned out to be a case of human error during the packaging stage of production, and we apologize that a few manufactured units of the incorrectly branded truck were placed in the wrong team packaging," the company said in a statement to ESPN.com. "We believe this is a very isolated issue that hadn't occurred in the past but will address to make sure mistakes like this don't occur in the future."

W.B. Mason has to be more careful than other companies. They not only sponsor the rival Mets and Phillies -- they also sponsor both the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

Mitzmacher said he is going to keep the truck, but he's going to have to tell his soon-to-be born child why he can't take it out of the box in three years.

Said Mitzmacher: "When I'm 70, maybe I'll take it to the Antiques Roadshow."