C'mon, Mets, it's time to give Bronx Giraffe a chance to win your 5-borough mascot race

It is time for someone to stick their neck out and take a stand against the ungulate injustice being perpetrated at Citi Field this spring and summer.

Yo, Mets: Stop dissing the Bronx Giraffe. Cut the cud. Enough is enough.

I was there, sitting in the front row, on the day in March when the Mets introduced five new mascots representing the city boroughs and said they would race during each home game.

It was a time of New York unity, when one could think of a slice of pizza (Brooklyn), a tall building (Manhattan), a ferry (Staten Island), a subway car (Queens) and a giraffe as equals, part of a mosaic of city symbols poised for fair competition on the warning track of life.

Then the season began, and by mid-May, Newsday reported something was amiss: The Bronx Giraffe was winless. He remains so, defying the laws of averages and of the jungle.

At the time, the Mets gave a statement to Newsday that read, in part, “All the 5-borough mascots have put in the training and hard work to prepare for these races and like any competition, you never know what is going to happen or who will come out victorious.

“It’s a long season with a lot of races left, so we’ll see what happens."

We have seen what has happened.

The giraffe regularly has built impressive leads only to have all manner of misfortune befall him. (The Mets generally refer to the giraffe as “him.” It is not clear how one would confirm its gender, but let’s go with that.)

He found himself in the lead on Tuesday night before being attacked by a man with a golf club just before the finish line. (Coincidentally, Long Island's own Chris McDonald — who played Shooter McGavin in the 1996 comedy "Happy Gilmore" and is reprising his role in the upcoming sequel — threw out the first pitch at Citi Field.)

On Monday night, he was off to a promising start when professional wrestler Tiffany Stratton took him down with a chair to the gut, then another blow to the back.

Earlier this season, the mascot was knocked over with a bat by a young child whose swag he had stolen, by “security” officials who chased him after he had interrupted a dance team performance and by the subway car from Queens.

He once was beaten up after a race by professional wrestlers Matt and Jeff Hardy.

Bronx borough president Vanessa Gibson told Newsday in a statement in May, “The Bronx knows a thing or two about comebacks. Our giraffe may be off to a slow start, but just like our Yankees, we don’t panic early — we deliver when it counts.

“The other boroughs can enjoy their wins for now, but the Bronx always shows up in the big moments. Don’t be surprised when our mascot crosses that finish line and reminds everyone why champions are made in the Bronx.”

It’s time for that to happen, for a simple and obvious reason: There are many thousands of Mets fans who live in the Bronx.

The Mets ought to schedule a Bronx Night at Citi Field, where residents of that borough can buy discounted tickets, enjoy an evening on the other side of the Triborough Bridge and watch the giraffe win a race in the middle of the third inning.

There is precedent for a mascot breaking a long losing streak. In 2012, Teddy Roosevelt won his first Presidents race in Washington after losing 533 in a row.

What’s not to like about giraffes, anyway? Or the Bronx Zoo, which is the inspiration for the mascot choice?

C’mon. If there were a mascot dressed as the Phillie Phanatic, or Chase Utley, then fine. Let it lose every race. Makes perfect sense.

But the Bronx is a diverse home to about 1.4 million people of various backgrounds and sports allegiances. Making generalizations is wrong on many levels.

Heck, Bobby Bonilla is from the Bronx. The guy was such a great Met that the team still pays him $1.19 million every July 1 to show its gratitude and loyalty.

Maybe the giraffe needs a makeover. Its mien is forever cranky and aggrieved. Put a smile on his face, get some Bronxites to Citi Field and let the giraffe for once beat the subway car.

By a neck, of course.