The Minnesota Twins’ AAA affiliate is standing agency on its choice to call its dwell pig mascot “OzemPig” … this after a lot of followers squealed in opposition.

The St. Paul Saints — identified for his or her tomfoolery on gamedays — historically make use of younger pigs to assist out with delivering sport balls to umpires … and host an annual contest to give you a foolish moniker for every animal (previous winners embody Ham Solo, Infamous P.I.G., and so forth.).

This 12 months’s winner beat out candidates like Porky Blinders and Sloppenheimer … however as soon as the identify was introduced, some people felt it flirted with fat-shaming, contemplating it is a nod to the favored weight reduction drug.

To additional piss off the haters, the group made a fictional backstory about how the swine was ashamed of its determine and vowed to “exhibit his abs and outlined hocks” all through its time period as ball pig.

Saints VP Sean Aronson addressed the un-porcine-ate reactions this week … claiming he understands what the naysayers (if solely this was a narrative a couple of ball horse) are saying, however “there was no ill-intent, there was no maliciousness, there was by no means even a dialogue within the room after we have been going over the identify that hey, this will offend some folks.”

Regardless of the criticism, Aronson mentioned OzemPig is right here to remain … because the group is aware of deep down the true intent behind the identify.

Mockingly, the group swaps out ball pigs a couple of months into the season because the younger ones develop in measurement … so here is hoping nobody’s upset in regards to the subsequent oinker’s identify.