Hoskins Rises in Mets Villain Ranks: Booed and Feared for His Feisty Plays and Hot Bat.
With his three-hit, four-RBI performance on Saturday that helped the Brewers defeat the Mets 7-6, Rhys Hoskins cemented his reputation as one of New York’s main active tormentors. This is due less to his lackluster overall performance against the Mets than it is to his handling of controversy surrounding them.
Hoskins needs more work before he can be considered a contemporary Mount Rushmore of Mets villains. Like Yadier Molina, Pat Burrell, and every other player from the 2007 Phillies, he’s in a secondary category.
However, he is gaining momentum swiftly.
Jeff McNeil, the second baseman, confronted Hoskins on the bases on Friday after taking offense at his forceful slide into second base. Despite the fact that the play was ruled lawful, McNeil argued that Hoskins has a history of making late slides. Hoskins made a boo-hoo gesture at the infielder, saying that he was just whining as usual.
In his Mets debut, Yohan Ramirez has won over fans with his ability to pitch behind Rhys Hoskins.
Hoskins lined a two-run double in the first inning and a two-run home run in the third on Saturday, drawing loud jeers from the more than 30,000 spectators at Citi Field. By the time Yohan Ramírez pitched behind him to earn an ejection in the seventh inning, the damage had already been done.
On Sunday, keep an eye out for Hoskins if form remains true. He had previous encounters with the Mets. He answered the day after the Mets’ last pitch of the 2019 season, Jacob Rhame, with the longest home run trot you’ve ever seen, as well as a home run off Rhame.
Few fan bases are as resentful as the one in Queens, and Hoskins will continue to draw jeers for years to come. Every time Jesse Winker visits Citi Field, the audience still boos him, and all he did was wave cynically a few times.
Is Hoskins going to climb the Mets’ current enemy list?
I will acknowledge right away that my longevity has shaped my perspective on this. Although I am aware that Willie Stargell hit an absurd 60 home runs against the Mets, I am not sure how the fan base felt about Stargell at the time. I will also limit this to opponents of the Mets, instead of talking about internal contenders for villainy.
These are the players that Mets fans detest the most. Since they are arranged alphabetically, you are free to choose how to rank them.
Roger Clemens
Resume: 11 GS, 3-6, 4.89 ERA
Pivotal moment: Game 2 of the 2000 World Series
The summer of 2000 saw Clemens give up a grand slam to Mike Piazza in June and hit the Mets catcher in the head with a fastball in July, which contributed to his lack of success in the regular season against the Mets. That was the introduction to Clemens’s first-ever game against Piazza since the beaning in Game 2 of the Subway Series.
After Piazza broke his bat breaking off a pitch from Clemens in the first inning, the right-hander threw the bat’s sharpened barrel in Piazza’s direction. The benches moved aside, and Piazza approached the mound in confusion, but nothing else appeared. Clemens went on to pitch eight scoreless innings, helping the Yankees win 6–5.
Chipper Jones
Resumé:.309/.406/.543, 245 games, 49 home runs
Crucial period: September 1999.
With six games left between the teams, the Mets were within one game of Atlanta going into the last two weeks of the 1999 regular season. Using two solo home runs in the opening game, Jones memorably drove in both runs for Atlanta in a 2-1 victory. Over the next two days, he added two more home runs in two more victories to complete the sweep.
The Mets’ seven-game losing run began with that series; they lost all hope of winning the division and dropped behind the Reds for the National League’s lone wild card. With three games remaining, Atlanta won two of three at Shea Stadium the following week, putting New York two behind Cincinnati, according to Jones. “Now, all the Mets fans can go home and put their Yankees s— on.”
After a comeback to qualify for the postseason, the Mets lost to Atlanta in an unforgettable NLCS. For the second time in four years, the Yankees prevailed against Atlanta in the World Series.
John Rocker
Resume: 19 games, 1.93 ERA
Pivotal moment: October 1999
During his breakout ’99 season, Rocker, uh, warmed up to the Queens supporters, never hiding in postgame interviews his dislike for the people who live at Shea Stadium or in New York City in general. When he returned to Shea for the 1999 NLCS, he was met by more than just jeers.
Additionally, the left-handed closer had been particularly successful while facing the Mets, blanking them in seven of his regular season appearances and his first three NLCS games. In Game 4, John Olerud hit the game-winning hit to score two inherited runners, finally piercing that armor.
In the off-season, Rocker’s animosity against New York and most people who didn’t look like him was evident in a feature published in Sports Illustrated.
Chase Utley
Resume: 194 games, 39 home runs, .281/.374/.526
Pivotal moment: Game 2 of the 2015 NLDS
With Philadelphia, Utley established his reputation as a villain of the Mets, but he solidified it as a Dodger. Utley’s forceful slide into second base in the latter half of Game 2 of the 2015 NLDS fractured shortstop Ruben Tejada’s leg and thwarted a possible double play. To make matters worse, Utley never touched second base on the play that was reviewed, even though he would go on to score the game-winning run later in the inning.
The next season, Terry Collins and umpire Tom Hallion had a now-viral conversation after Noah Syndergaard was ejected for throwing behind Utley.
