The New York Mets have had such an absurd year that it can be hard to immediately recall the big and embarrassing moments. There have just been so many.
And while I would hesitate to call the “rat and raccoon fight” the most embarrassing of all, it is certainly in the conversation. If you don’t remember – hey, I don’t blame you! – it involved Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil getting into some kind of clubhouse altercation back in May, and then claiming afterwards that it was simply an argument about whether they’d seen a rat or a raccoon in the clubhouse.
It was absurd, but kinda funny, so everyone left it at that.
But kudos to the Post for the scoop many months later on the REAL subject of the fight, and just how physical it got:
Francisco Lindor grabbed Jeff McNeil by throat during Mets’ ‘rat-raccoon’ altercation https://t.co/08mjIeaiX0 pic.twitter.com/zxvs719edX
— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) November 3, 2021
YIKES. So Lindor apparently got so frustrated with McNeil’s unwillingness to shift correctly – or care about it – that it caused a big argument, which then got physical enough that Lindor grabbed McNeil by the throat and pushed him against the wall.
It’s not clear that they ever really patched things up fully – circumstances wound up dictating that the two didn’t spend much time together after that as double-play partners – and now I wonder whether the Mets will quietly try to move on from McNeil this offseason.