Where do you even start on something like this? I mean, it threw me for a loop writing my own headline.
OK, so in the Mets-Diamondbacks game Friday night, some kind of commotion broke out in the Mets clubhouse tunnel. You couldn’t see it, but the SNY cameras did catch Mets teammates seeing something, and running down into the tunnel:
Lindor and McNeil going at it in the tunnel? 👀 pic.twitter.com/VnAcOWIXBY
— Master flip (@Masterflip_) May 8, 2021
The rumors immediately had it that infielders Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil had gotten into it in the tunnel after coming off the field, and their teammates were running down to break it up. Quickly, order was restored – all out of sight – and then there was no meaningful explanation on what had happened.
In fact, after the game, Lindor and McNeil claimed they were debating whether they’d seen a rat or a raccoon in the clubhouse … seriously, that was their explanation:
“We were going back and forth debating if it was a rat or a racoon”
SOUND UP to hear about what happened in the tunnel between Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil from Francisco himself 🤣 pic.twitter.com/REn66S6nf3
— SNY (@SNYtv) May 8, 2021
“I was mad on the field because I didn’t make the play…and Jeff [McNeil], obviously because I was going against him whether it was a rat or a racoon, of course he’s going to be mad” – Francisco Lindor pic.twitter.com/uOyS9YsM1a
— SNY (@SNYtv) May 8, 2021
Jeff McNeil gives his side of the rat-raccoon story:
“Rats in New York are a thing, I saw what I saw and that’s the way it is”
On if he cares if people believe the story: “They can believe whatever they want” pic.twitter.com/jMqLznw5yE
— SNY (@SNYtv) May 8, 2021
OK. Hey, I say fine – you don’t want to share what was really going on, you might as well come up with some kind of crazy story to keep things light. Not sure confusing a rat with a raccoon is all that realistic, though.
Meanwhile, the New York media is, uh, not going to buy it:
On our Mets Postgame show, @Todd_Zeile gives his take on Francisco Lindor’s explanation for what happened in the tunnel:
“It just seems to insult your intelligence to have the story about the raccoon and the rat” pic.twitter.com/WSGU4twmrF
— SNY (@SNYtv) May 8, 2021