Why mets fans hate chipper jones

The Mets returned the favor the next day by pounding Maddux and the Braves, , and even sent game three into extras on a dramatic homer from Edgardo Alfonzo.

But they were undone in the 11th when Brian Jordan another thorn in the Mets' side all season hit a ball to right that Shawon Dunston misplayed into a triple. Jordan scored on a sac fly, and the Mets went quietly in their half. The loss not only put the division completely out of the Mets' reach.

It also dropped them two back in the wild card race with three to play, meaning it would take a miracle to get into the playoffs. It appeared the Braves had once again engineered a Mets collapse, and this time they were not shy about sharing their glee over this state of affairs.

Several players bid the Mets good riddance after the game via comments to the beat writers. But it was Chipper who had the most incendiary message for Mets fans :. This is the next best thing to a World Series win Now, all the Mets fans can go home and put their Yankees ' stuff on.

You know they're all going to convert. It's amazing how fast you hear Yankee talk around the dugout, yet, they're wearing Mets stuff. In the span of a week, Chipper transformed himself from just one of many Braves who punished the Mets to Snidely Whiplash. He finished the regular season with a. And what his bat started, his mouth finished.

Other Braves had harsh words to share John Rocker groused, "How many times you got to beat a team before the fans finally shut up? Chipper had launched the verbal equivalent of a nuclear strike. Chipper admitted the abuse heaped on him from the Shea seats was the primary motivation behind his tirade.

Mets fans were already stung by what looked like another collapse and the continued dominance of their crosstown rivals. Chipper's crack jabbed a sore spot in their collective psyche. It was an echo of the unanswerable query often lobbed by the clueless: Why don't you just be a Yankees fan? Chipper hadn't just asked this of Mets fans; he'd suggested that Mets fans actually did it.

Chipper made his remarks assuming he would not see the Mets again until As fate would have it, the Mets fought their way into a play-in game against the Reds and won it, then went on to defeat the Diamondbacks in a four-game division series to set up an NLCS against the Braves. To a man, the Mets took Chipper's words personally. During a postgame Mets Extra segment with Ed Coleman at the conclusion of the division series, Orel Hershiser shared this tantalizing piece of information : Chipper hated to be addressed by his given name, Larry.

Mike Piazza had already taken to calling him "Larry" during their encounters at home plate, saying he refused to call a grown man "Chipper. They took the suggestion. Confronted by the ghost of a team he'd declared dead, Chipper tried to play dead himself.

Prior to game one, NBC reported that Chipper--normally a media magnet--refused all interview requests. Throughout the series, he kept his comments to the press to an absolute bare minimum. If the idea was to lower his profile, it didn't help.

To drive the point home even further, Shea's stands were filled with signs featuring a certain Stooge who shared his name. Anything Chipper touched was now unclean in Queens. What is amazing to contemplate now is that this tactic seemed to work.

The player whose bat and mouth taunted the Mets a few weeks earlier, who was said to thrive on the hatred of others, now looked uneasy, even unnerved. And keep in mind that the Braves were up in the series at the time. If you didn't know any better, based on the crowd and Chipper's demeanor, you'd think the situation was reversed.

This video also serves as a healthy reminder of just how insanely loud Shea could get for games like this. Though the Mets and Braves played an amazing six-game series, including two epic extra inning classics, Chipper was a virtual nonfactor, as he drove in just one run, hit no homers, and managed just five hits in 29 plate appearances, three of which were singles.

I won't blame Mets fans for looking this up, because even I can scarcely believe it myself. The stats tell us that Chipper never again damaged the Mets on the level achieved in , mostly because the historic beating he administered that year would have been impossible for anyone to duplicate. After , Chipper's numbers against the Mets stabilized and fell in lockstep with his overall marks.

I started wandering out of my hotel room and walking down the street, interacting with fans of both fan bases. Contact The Author Name required. Email required. Comment required. January 25, am. Share This Article. He sits there at his locker and he thinks about how to make people laugh by being gross. And oh, by the way, the best pitcher of our era. Still won games. A: The best center fielder that I personally have ever seen. Made the game look easy.

Ten straight Gold Gloves and plus homers, too. Would love to see him get into the Hall of Fame. A: Happily so. There was nobody more dependable than Mariano, he was the best to ever do it at his position. Just all the respect in the world for how he goes about his business, I think first and foremost. A: Big-game Jack. A: Pops was my first hitting instructor in minor league baseball. He was just a jovial teddy bear. A: Don Baylor got in my rear end the only spring training that he came over in I was a guy who people feared left-handed, but turned around to the right side late in games.

A: John was a good teammate. Look, he came out of the bullpen ready to do his job each and every time he was called upon. The one problem that I and my teammates had was once the Sports Illustrated article came out, John stopped talking.

And that left us to field all the questions from the media that should have been pointed at John. A: The King! A: Laugh B. He bullied me every single day of my childhood.

But he made me tougher, and he made me stronger, and he made me a better player. He was two years older than me, he was better than me at everything, and he taught me how to play to a different level.

A: I got seven kids, 22 all the way down to 2. I want to be known as a winner, a guy that went out and did his job, was one-ninth of the equation to help us win every single day. I want to be a good husband, a good father, a good son. Contact The Author Name required. Email required. Comment required.

July 21, pm. Q: Could you have survived without sunflower seeds? Q: What are your thoughts on Pete Alonso? Q: Does Aaron Judge rival any imposing hitters from your day? Q: What are your thoughts on Jeff McNeil? Q: Do you think he or someone can hit. Q: Did you get to know George Steinbrenner at all?

Q: What do you think of a possible name change for the Braves? Q: Describe your on-field mentality. Q: Why did Mets fans hate the young Chipper Jones? Q: Did you think the Braves would be a championship dynasty? Q: Describe Smoltz. Q: Maddux. Q: Glavine.