Albert Almora Jr. had a hand in making the Chicago Cubs’ visit to the White House a memorable one on Wednesday.
Images circulated of the Cubs outfielder appearing to flip off President Donald Trump with an upside down middle finger out of his pocket, outlets reported.
See the potentially offending digit here:
But Almora, backed by a teammate, issued a denial as reporters gathered around him when the Cubs played the host Washington Nationals later in the day.
One player yelled at the media gathering, “There was two fingers! Look closely, there was two fingers!” according to CSN Chicago.
“Guys were giving me a hard time about it,” Almora said, “but I pointed out the second finger. We’re all good.”
Almora called the incident “unfortunate.” “I would never do that to the president of the United States,” he said, per the Chicago Sun-Times. “I respect everybody. It is what it is. We laugh about it now, but there’s definitely two fingers out there.”
Since winning the World Series last season, the Cubs also visited the White House in January as former President Barack Obama was preparing to leave office.