The Colorado Rockies beat the Miami Marlins on Sunday (Aug. 8), but it wasn't the team's win that grabbed national attention.

A video of a fan seemingly shouting a racial slur at player Lewis Brinson during the game quickly went viral on the Internet, causing the Colorado Rockies to issue the following statement:

The Colorado Rockies are disgusted at the racial slur by a fan directed at the Marlins' Lewis Brinson during the ninth inning of today's game. The Rockies have zero tolerance for any form of racism or discrimination, and any fan using derogatory language of any kind will be ejected and banned from Coors Field.

However, a Twitter user quickly pointed out that the shouting fan was actually calling for the Rockies' mascot Dinger, who was standing nearby. After a detailed investigation, the team concluded that the fan was not saying a racial slur:

After a throurough investigation, that included calls, emails and video clips from concerned fans, media and broadcast partners, the Colorado Rockies have concluded that the fan was indeed yelling for Rockies mascot Dinger in hopes of getting his attention for a photo, and there was never any racial slur that occurred.

The fan in question, who chose to remain anonymous, was understandably upset by the incident, telling 9News reporter Steve Staeger that he's "pretty devastated that people heard him the wrong way."

Get our free mobile app

Even though the situation (thankfully) turned out to be an innocent misunderstanding, hats off to the Rockies for taking their commitment to inclusion seriously.

Still, the social media world found quite a bit of humor in the kerfuffle, especially considering that Dinger is an adorable purple dinosaur (move over, Barney).

Here are some of Twitter's most memorable reactions to the controversy:


The Dinger Controversy: 22 of Twitter's Most Memorable Reactions

1. This South Park callback. 

2. The incident's Curb Your Enthusiasm potential. 

3. Kyle Clark's take. 

4. Dinger's most embarrassing moment. 

5. This The Land Before Time homage. 

6. The next dress. 

7. This fan who found some new audio. 

8. This Colorado native's idea. 

9. This Dinger fan. 

10. This reminder of Dinger's past. 

11. Another Curb Your Enthusiasm fan. 

12. This new Dinger fan. 

13. This imaginary BuzzFeed quiz. 

14. This South Park idea. 

15. This betting fan. 

16. This meme's new meaning. 

17. This new name suggestion. 

18. This mascot confusion. 

19. This good boy. 

20. This fan who's asking the real question. 

21. Gov. Polis weighed in. 

22. This hungry fan. 

Best Rockies Lineup of All-Time

 

More From 99.9 The Point