The Lexington Legends took an L last night, but the biggest L was taken in the 6th inning by Legends mascot Big L. In a heartbreaking turn of events, the Legends were forced to put down their beloved mascot after a three-year-old boy fell into the bullpen where Big L was being held against his will strictly for the entertainment of humans.

The grounds crew had to act fast, and had no choice but to fire upon and exterminate Big L using a t-shirt cannon, the same t-shirt cannon Big L had joyfully fired into the stands a mere three innings before.

It’s still unclear what led to the toddler’s tumble, but witnesses say the boy reached the bullpen on a throwing error by his father.

“Yeah that kid’s dad had one heck of an arm,” said Legends lone season ticket holder Gerry Pope. “He was trying to toss the little guy to his wife and the kid ended up sailing over her head.”

“Honestly I feel like the mom probably should have made the catch,” argued Gerry’s wife Marcia. “If anything it should have been charged as a fielding error on her part.”

The Popes, who have no children of their own, both agreed the incident could have been prevented with better parenting.

Once the boy had fallen, Big L began to drag him away. This was deemed as a hostile action by the Legends’ grounds crew, but others say Big L was only protecting the child from seeing minor league baseball.

Backlash quickly spread across social media. Several keyboard warriors were of the opinion that, while sad, putting Big L down was the only logical option. Others shifted blame to the parents, and argued there were other ways to resolve the situation. Many Big L supporters wondered why the mascot couldn’t just be put to sleep with a tranquilizer dart, but experts tell us if he hadn’t yet been incapacitated by six innings of baseball, then a tranquilizer dart would have had virtually no effect.

The boy’s parents have remained silent about the incident, and not many people have come to their defense.

“I think it was just plain negligence on the part of those parents,” said Eric Armstrong, a Greensboro Grasshoppers fan who for some reason enjoys traveling to minor league away games. “The dad was pounding Kentucky Ale the whole game and the mom wasn’t paying attention at all. I think she was only there because kids eat free on Mondays.”