Great Mets villain turns face with compliments for the team and Francisco Lindor

On the Mount Rushmore of New York Mets villains, no one may have more fake mustaches sprayed on the carving than Chipper Jones. Larry was unstoppable. A career .309/.406/.543 hitter against the Mets with 49 home runs and 159 RBI, he was a rusted thorn (how does that happen?) in the paw of Mets fans for nearly 20 years.

He is the ultimate Mets troll, naming one of his children Shea after Shea Stadium where he enjoyed plenty of success in building up those eye-popping numbers. Jones is the greatest Mets villain a whole generation knows. And yet he had some kind things to say about the Mets and Francisco Lindor.

You know this Mets team is likable when Chipper Jones can’t resist complimenting them

Jones didn’t break any new grounds with his tweet or say something that hasn’t already been said a million times before. It’s because of who he is and what he represents that gives this meaning.

We can only ever assume we know these players as well as we do. Lindor, publicly, does come off as a man of grace and class. Maybe this wasn’t always the case. Mets fans have gotten over year one when his thumb did more than his bat. It was only in May of 2023 when former teammate Jason Kipnis criticized Lindor’s leadership skills.

Lindor has grown up a ton since joining the Mets. Adversity can do that to a person. He was 27 in 2021. I don’t care how big his paycheck was. A 27-year-old thinks they know everything and never does. Somewhere along the journey, a gut-check wakeup call occurred. Someone said something, something clicked, and the boy officially became the man. Let’s give some credit to his wife, Katia, who became Mrs. Lindor at the end of 2021. Beside every good man is a great woman.

Jones ripped the hearts out of Mets fans plenty in his career. Not today. Not right now. Not while Francisco Lindor is doing things no other shortstop has before.