Mets GM: Digs at Tebow from rival Low-A club were 'very minor league'

New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson is none too impressed with the Charleston RiverDogs, the New York Yankees' affiliate in the Low-A South Atlantic League, who took numerous digs at Tim Tebow when his Columbia Fireflies came to town over the weekend.

"I guess my comment would be that it was all very minor league," Alderson told Newsday's Marc Carig.

Throughout the three-game series at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Ballpark, the game ops crew played the infamous video of the former Heisman Trophy winner crying after Florida's loss in the 2009 SEC title game, while the RiverDogs mascot sported eye black adorned with "John 3:16" - Tebow did the same at Florida - and was seen "Tebowing" whenever the 29-year-old came to the plate.

"We had some of that even before he arrived in the Sally League in spring training," Alderson said. "I was a little surprised that halfway through the season that somebody decided to be cute and pursue that. But he's bigger than that."

Following a rash of negative feedback, Dave Echols, president and general manager of the RiverDogs, said in a statement that the promotion was intended to poke fun at Tebow's celebrity, and apologized to those who were offended.

"While we believe that our promotions were poking fun at Mr. Tebow's celebrity status rather than his religion or baseball career, our intent was not to offend anyone, and for the fact that we did offend, we are sorry," Echols wrote in a statement to The Post and Courier.