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Author: Neil Keefe

Blogs • MLB

Oct 27, 2015

A Yankees Fan for Royals

My nightmare is a Red Sox-Mets World Series because someone has to win. Luckily, when that actually did happen in 1986, I wasn’t even a month old. My second possible nightmare is the Red Sox

Kansas City Royals

My nightmare is a Red Sox-Mets World Series because someone has to win. Luckily, when that actually did happen in 1986, I wasn’t even a month old. My second possible nightmare is the Red Sox or Mets being in the World Series at all. I had to go through this in 2004, 2007 and 2013 and now I have to go through it again this season.

Craig Carton of WFAN always had “Mets Fans for Yankees” when the Mets’ season would end at the end of the regular season and the Yankees would be going to the playoffs. I never believed anyone who really loves either team could root for the other team using the excuse of “it’s still New York.” (The only acceptable time for me personally to root for the Mets would be if they played the Red Sox in the World Series.) So here I am entering the 2015 World Series as a Yankees fan for Royals.

It’s incredible that as early as Saturday the Mets could be champions and it’s a scary idea because of how much would change and I’m not someone who likes change when it comes to baseball. Some things shouldn’t change, like the Cubs being perennial losers without a championship since 1908 and without a World Series appearance since 1954, or the Mets having the stink of all their losing seasons, collapses and horrible organizational decisions. The Red Sox ending their drought in 2004 and the White Sox doing the same in 2005 was enough. I don’t need the Mets erasing everything I have ever know about them.

It still doesn’t seem real that the Mets are even in this spot. I didn’t think they had a chance to be here when they showed off their dominant pitching early on with that 11-game winning streak in April (that the Yankees ended by hitting bombs off of Jacob deGrom). I didn’t think they had a chance when they were 36-37 on June 24. I didn’t think they had a chance when Clayton Kershaw nearly threw a perfect game against them at Citi Field on July 23 against a lineup that had John Mayberry Jr. hitting fourth and Eric Campbell hitting fifth. But then the Mets trade of Wilmer Flores for Carlos Gomez fell through, they traded for Yoenis Cespedes instead and Cespedes went on to be Manny Ramirez post-2008 trade deadline, and Flores, still with the Mets, continued to get big hit after big hit.

I still didn’t think they had a chance when they swept the Nationals on the weekend of the trade deadline to tie them atop the division. I didn’t think they had a chance even as their division lead grew up 6.5 games at the end of August. I didn’t think they had a chance when David Wright and Travis d’Arnaud returned and suddenly the team that would just score a run a series was suddenly one of the best offenses in baseball. I didn’t think they had a chance even as they kept on winning in September and the Nationals kept on losing. I didn’t think they had a chance when they clinched the division or when they drew Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and the Dodgers in the NLDS. I didn’t think they had a chance when Kershaw sent the series back to Los Angeles for Game 5 or when the Dodgers’ offense jumped on deGrom early in that Game 5.

But then Daniel Murphy took third when no one on the Dodgers covered it on the shift, Andre Ethier caught a foul ball he should have let fall and the series was over. Then they beat Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta, won a game on a wild pitch on a strikeout and tacked on another year to the Cubs’ historic losing streak. And now here they are in the World Series. The Mets are in the World Series. I think I could type that sentence over and over from now until Game 1 and I still wouldn’t believe it even as the series is being publicized everywhere I turn and there are a lot of perfectly clean (aka brand new) Mets hats being worn around the city.

Before the Yankee Stadium portion of the Subway Series, I wrote The Mets and Their Fans Will Always Be the Little Brother and the Yankees went on to take two out of three. After the Citi Field portion of the Subway Series, in which the Yankees also took two out of three, I wrote:

When I woke up on Monday morning, I expected the city to be different since the Mets had apparently taken it back despite losing both legs of the Subway Series and watching their franchise ace come out of a game after five innings on Sunday Night Baseball. I thought I would get an email or a phone call to let me know the Mets had taken back the city, but I got nothing. The Mets and their fans are still and always will be the little brother.

I don’t think the Mets beating the Royals and winning the World Series will erase “the little brother” tag from the Mets or that they will “take back the city” (whatever that even means) from the Yankees. But a Mets championship, their first in 29 years, would add an unneeded wrinkle to the Subway Series rivalry and that’s something I could live without.

The Mets overcame the Wilpons cheapness and scumminess, Terry Collins’ incompetence, Matt Harvey’s attitude and innings limit, another lengthy David Wright injury, the near disaster trade for Carlos Gomez, Kershaw, Greinke, Lester and Arrieta to get to this point. They have more then earned their right to be in the Fall Classic despite playing 57 regular-season games against the 71-91 Marlins, 67-95 Braves and 63-99 Phillies. They have a likable team with a dominant young starting rotation, an unlikely offensive hero and a veteran captain and face of the franchise playing in his first World Series and chasing the elusive championship. If the Mets were any other team, I would easily be rooting for them. But they’re not. They’re the Mets. And for the next four to seven games, I’m the biggest Royals fan there is.

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Blogs • Monday Mentions

Oct 26, 2015

Monday Mentions: The Deal with Daniel Murphy

The Mets are headed to the World Series. There’s a sentence I hoped I would never have to write, or at least not write without saying they would be headed to the World Series to play the Yankees.

Daniel Murphy

The Mets are headed to the World Series. There’s a sentence I hoped I would never have to write, or at least not write without saying they would be headed to the World Series to play the Yankees. But after beating up on the worst division in baseball, getting past the best 1-2 starting pitching punch in the games and the 97-win Cubs, the Mets are four wins away from a championship and it’s up to the Royals to stop them.

Here is another installment of “Monday Mentions” focused on a mix of questions and comments from Twitter about the Giants, the Yankees and the Mets being in the World Series.

Yes, yes he does. It’s actually remarkable how often Eli takes an intentional grounding penalty. If it’s not once a game then it’s at least every other game. I watch a lot of football and at least part of every game every week. (Yes, I know that’s disgusting, but at least I know I’m not alone.) And in all of these other games, I rarely ever see an intentional grounding penalty, so I wonder what non-Giants fans think when they watch Eli take one seemingly every game.

But that’s not the only thing the Giants do that other teams don’t. No one takes delay of game penalties like the Giants and no one gets to the line slower following a close play that will likely be challenged by the opposing team like the Giants. All of these things are what make the Giants the Giants and what makes them the most frustrating and best good/bad team in professional sports. It’s who they are and they’re never going to change.

In Slap Shot, the following exchange takes place between Tim McCracken and Ned Braden after Reggie Dunlop puts a bounty on McCracken’s head.

Tim McCracken: Hundred bucks says you’re gonna crack my skull.

Ned Braden: I wouldn’t crack your knuckle for a hundred bucks.

Tim McCracken: So, he’s bluffing.

Ned Braden: Someboy’s gonna kill you, ya dumb son of a bitch, but it’s not gonna be me.

That last Braden line is how I feel about Daniel Murphy and hope it’s true when it comes to Brian Cashman and the Yankees. “Someone is going to overpay for Murphy, but it’s not going be the Yankees you dumb son of a bitch.”

Daniel Murphy is nowhere near the player he was offensively, defensively and on the bases in the NLDS and NLCS. It’s almost as if he were suddenly using Alex Mack-like powers to become Babe Ruth in the playoffs. It’s going to be bad when Murphy gets $85 million to hit 10-14 home runs and play bad defense and prove himself to be nothing more than a light-hitting designated hitter.

I will never get over this. Like, the Yankees not completing the trade for Cliff Lee in July 2010 or going incredibly over the top to sign him in December 2010 or Joe Torre letting Jeff Weaver lose Game 4 of the 2003 World Series with Mariano Rivera in the bullpen or the Rangers blowing two-goal leads in Games 1 and 2 and losing all three overtime games in the 2013-14 Stanley Cup Final, I will never get over Pete Carroll’s decision to throw the ball on the goal line of the Super Bowl. Thank you for ruining my day by bringing this up.

https://twitter.com/JSC2100/status/657204247755366400

Brian Cashman has his work cut out for him this offseason. The roster is pretty much locked right now outside of maybe one or two bullpen decisions and one bench player spot. The Yankees weren’t good enough to get to the ALDS this season, so the same roster one year older in 2016 certainly isn’t going to get them there unless the pitching stays completely healthy, which isn’t likely given the injury histories of the rotation.

The Mets built their current team through the draft and trades and it took them nine years to get back to the playoffs. I don’t think they’re a team of destiny. They got a Dodgers team with no offense and no bullpen in the NLDS and an inexperienced and young Cubs team in the NLCS and without Daniel Murphy turning into a player he has never been in his career for both series, the Mets might not have played more than four playoff games. They won’t beat the Royals.

https://twitter.com/boredstupid12/status/658444224564719617

I was very, very, very obnoxious to the Red Sox fans I know. My friend Brendan is a huge Red Sox fan and so is his whole family. We spent a lot of our childhood mimicking the Yankees and Red Sox hitters and pitchers of the 90s while playing Wiffle ball and watched nearly every big Yankees-Red Sox game together, including the 1999 ALCS, while playing series in MLB 99 on Playstation along with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. I can remember watching Pedro Martinez shut down the Yankees while Roger Clemens got embarrassed in Game 3 of the series, but it was the Yankees and I who got the last laugh with a 4-1 series win. It was Brendan, who I called minutes after Aaron Boone’s 2003 ALCS Game 7 home run only to have him hang up on me. And it was Brendan, who took the bus down from the University of Vermont to watch the 2004 ALCS in my dorm in Boston. For as obnoxious as I was following the 1999 and 2003 ALCS, he matched it after the 2004 ALCS.

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MLB • Podcasts

Oct 26, 2015

Podcast: The Clem Report

The Barstool Sports New York blogger joined me to talk about the Mets in the World Series.

New York Mets

The Mets are in the World Series. It’s more than surprising and depressing, but it’s happening and the only thing to do now is root for the Royals and hope the Mets don’t become champions.

The Clem Report of Barstool Sports New York joined me to talk about the Mets’ run to the World Series, what will happen to the New York baseball landscape if the Mets win, why he rooted for the Yankees in the 2009 World Series and how Mets fans have changed their tune when it comes to Daniel Murphy, Curtis Granderson and Terry Collins. We also talked some Giants football since it’s something we agree on.

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Blogs • Giants

Oct 26, 2015

Dwayne Harris Saves Giants from Setback

I should have realized the Giants would never make anything easy after they won Super Bowl XLII and then got off to an 11-1 start in 2008 only to win the 1-seed in the NFC

Dwayne Harris

I should have realized the Giants would never make anything easy after they won Super Bowl XLII and then got off to an 11-1 start in 2008 only to win the 1-seed in the NFC and lose in the divisional round at home to the Eagles. I should have realized they would never make anything easy after they won Super Bowl XLVI and then got off to a 6-2 start in 2012 only to finish the season 2-4 and miss the playoffs. And I should have realized it in all the other years when they suffered second-half collapses. But I finally realized it for good after Monday night’s loss to the Eagles.

The Giants should have never been in a game against a Cowboys team without Tony Romo and Dez Bryant and with Matt Cassel. They should have never been in a game in which Cassel threw three interceptions. They should have never needed Dwayne Harris to return a kickoff 100 yards to take the lead for good and they should have never needed Cole Beasley to muff a punt to prevent the Cowboys from potentially tying the game. But that’s who the Giants are and nothing about Sunday’s 27-20 win surprised me.

Since I’m officially done thinking the Giants can easily win a game (or cover a spread) against a banged-up or bad team or create separation in a division that includes the Tony Romo- and Dez Bryant-less Cowboys, the Sam Bradford Eagles and the Kirk Cousins Redskins, I expected the Giants to have a hard time beating Matt Cassel on Sunday. I went into the game knowing that the Cowboys were going to use the running game to eat up the clock and keep the Giants off the field and limit the amount of times Cassel had to go to the air, though apparently, the Giants weren’t ready for this strategy. Darren McFadden rushed for 152 yards, the fourth-highest total of his career and the most since Sept. 25, 2011 and the Cowboys ran for 233 yards as a team.

Eli Manning didn’t do much (13-of-24, 170 yards) and outside of the deep throw to Rueben Randle, which Randle made an Odell Beckham-like one-handed catch on, it was a pretty poor performance from Eli as he was bailed out by his defense. It was the second straight less-than-stellar performance from Eli at a time when he needs to carry this team if they don’t want to miss the postseason for the fourth straight season.

When I saw the Giants’ post-49ers schedule with the Eagles, Cowboys, Saints, Buccaneers and Patriots before their Week 11 bye, I envisioned a 7-2 record entering the Patriots game. The loss to the Eagles made that impossible, but the win over the Cowboys has them at 4-3. The problem is that 7-2 was based off the idea that the Saints were finished and wouldn’t give them their usual Superdome game, but now the 0-3 Saints are suddenly 3-4 and still alive.

I was foolish to think the Giants would make things easy in another down year for the NFC East and run away and hide with the division rather than set up a Week 17 game against the Eagles for a playoff berth. Now the Giants have to take care of business on the road in New Orleans in Tampa Bay before they play the should-be undefeated Patriots in Week 10. It’s not the situation I envisioned, but it’s the one I should have.

The Giants are a .500 team that needs to play just a little bit better than that to reach the postseason this season. They weren’t able to finish a 6-2 start in 2012. They weren’t able to save their season against the Cowboys in 2013. They weren’t able to build off their 3-2 start in 2014. In 2015, they will most likely need to win just nine games to win the NFC East and return to the playoffs. It sounds easy, but nothing with the Giants is ever easy.

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Blogs • Giants

Oct 22, 2015

NFL Week 7 Picks

The last few weeks have been about staying afloat and treading water and that’s no way to go with the potential of Black Sunday looming in any week. It’s time to make that huge cushion and create real separation from the .500 mark.

Eli Manning

I thought last week might be Black Sunday when it comes to the picks. There seems to be that one week every season that goes horribly wrong and can ruin a picks season for good and my confidence level wasn’t great with last week’s lines and the way the day was going at one point. Even after losses on Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football the week finished at 7-7. But the last few weeks have just been about staying afloat and treading water and that’s no way to go with the potential of Black Sunday looming in any week. It’s time to make that huge cushion and create enough separation from the .500 mark that it won’t be relinquished.

(Home team in caps)

Seattle -6.5 over SAN FRANCISCO
There’s just no way the Seahawks are bad as they have played. There’s no way the team the won the Super Bowl two years ago and the team that was on the 1-yard line with a chance to win the Super Bowl last year should be 2-4 and playing for their season now with the Cardinals emerging as a possible NFC West favorite. The Seahawks are still good and are still one of the elite teams in the NFC. The Seahawks aren’t like the 49ers, who are really the team that has fallen from grace over the last two years since their run of Super Bowl and NFC Championship Game appearances. It’s about time the Seahawks act like the two-time defending NFC champions.

JACKSONVILLE +4 over Buffalo
I hate the games in London. Not because the NFL is taking the sport out of the country and having it played in Europe and depriving teams of home games here, but because the games are always horrible matchups. Jaguars and Bills? Really? It’s almost like the Football Gods are punishing the NFL for having games in London by making sure Tyrod Taylor (not that he’s anything special) and Sammy Watkins don’t play and that EJ Manuel does. How again are the Bills giving 4 in this game? These aren’t the Jaguars of recent years.

ST. LOUIS -6.5 over Cleveland
Outside of their 21-point Week 1 loss to the Jets, the 2-3 Browns have been in all of their games. They beat the Titans by 14, lost to the Raiders by seven, lost to the Chargers by three, beat the Ravens in overtime by three and lost to the Broncos in overtime by three. The Browns are pesky and hard to put away and I have trouble picking against them every week even though they are depriving me of the Johnny Football era.

The Rams, meanwhile, are the hardest team in the NFL not named the Giants to figure out. They beat the Seahawks in overtime, lost to the Redskins by 14, lost to the Steelers by six, beat the Cardinals by two and lost to the Packers by 14. The win over the Seahawks in Week 1 and in Arizona were both impressive, but losing to the Redskins and the mostly-without Big Ben Steelers aren’t. (I give them a pass for losing in Lambeau since every team does.) Coming off a bye and at home, I have a good feeling about the Rams and mainly their defense winning this game.

Pittsburgh +3 over KANSAS CITY
If the Chiefs can’t win this game, they might lose out and finish the season 1-15 after winning in Houston in Week 1.

Houston +5 over MIAMI
The Dolphins were the most hyped team in the NFL this season, and when they just got past the Redskins with a 17-10 win in Week 1, it was written off as the first game of the season. Then they lost to the Jaguars (23-20). Then they were embarrassed by the Bills (41-14). Then they were somewhat embarrassed by the Jets in London (27-14). Then they fired Joe Philbin, had their bye week and routed the Titans 38-10 last week. Now after one good game this season, the Dolphins are suddenly back as a 5-point favorite?

New York Jets +7.5 over NEW ENGLAND
This is the hardest game of the week to pick. I thought the Patriots really cared about going to Indianapolis and sending a message and running the Colts out of their own building for everything that has happened since January, but the Patriots could have cared less about anything other than getting out of there with a win, no matter how close the score was. Now the 5-0 Patriots return home to face the 4-1 Jets with first place in the AFC East on the line for the biggest regular-season game between the two since December 2010 when they were both 9-2 and playing for first place on Monday Night Football.

I have no idea which version of either team will show up. You would think this game would be about the Patriots’ offense vs. the Jets’ defense, but after watching the Colts pick apart the Patriots’ defense and the Jets’ offense explode recently behind Brandon Marshall and Chris Ivory, this game might be about the Jets’ offense. vs. the Patriots’ defense. Either way, 7.5 points is too many. These aren’t the Rex Ryan Jets.

MINNESOTA -1.5 over Detroit
I didn’t think it was possible for Jim Caldwell to surprise me with a decision, but he did that last week in Chicago. With 5:09 left in the fourth quarter and the Lions trailing 31-24 with a fourth-and-4 on the Bears’ 13, Caldwell called for a field goal. The Lions were trailing by a SEVEN POINTS with five minutes left in the game and Caldwell elected for THREE POINTS meaning the Lions would still have to stop the Bears, get the ball back and then score a touchdown anyway since three plus three doesn’t equal seven. It was an incredible decision to watch be made, but Caldwell was bailed out as the Lions did kick the field goal and then get the ball back and score a touchdown (before the Bears went down the field to kick the game-tying field goal to send the game to overtime). It was like watching someone with a huge bet on the table (because Caldwell’s job must certainly be on the line with the way this Lions season has gone) stay with a 15 against the dealer showing a 7 and then having it pay off and thinking they’re a genius. No, you just got lucky, and Jim Caldwell got very, very, very, very, very, very, very lucky.

Atlanta -6 over TENNESSEE
Marcus Mariota is out. Zach Mettenberger is in. The same Zach Mettenberger that is 0-6 as a starter in the NFL.

WASHINGTON -3.5 over Tampa Bay
Somewhere someone who isn’t a Redskins fan or a Buccaneers fan is going to bet on this game and watch it in its entirety. Thank about that.

INDIANAPOLIS -5.5 over New Orleans
The Saints screwed me on Thursday Night Football last week. The Colts screwed me on Sunday Night Football last week. I’m probably going to get screwed again this week, but if it’s going to happen, it will need to be the Outside the Superdome Saints screwing me.

SAN DIEGO -3.5 over OAKLAND
It’s been a long tradition of mine to take the Raiders to cover against the Chargers, but when I see the Chargers schedule and see that they’re 2-4, I see a team about to go on a run. Since the end of the Chargers’ run as the AFC West power, which coincided with Peyton Manning going to the Broncos, the Chargers have been pretty much a .500 team that ends up making a run to either finish 8-8 or 9-7 and either barely make the playoffs or barely miss them. When you see those end-of-the-season clinching possibilities, it’s always the Chargers in the mix either needing three other teams to lose (or tie, which never happens). They don’t make things easy for themselves and losing a home game to the Michael Vick Steelers has put them in a bad position once again. But when you need something to go your way, a home game against the Raiders is a good spot to be in.

NEW YORK GIANTS -3 over Dallas
When the Giants went up 7-0 on the Eagles on the opening drive on Monday Night Football, and Jon Gruden was talking about how much the Giants’ offense has evolved with Ben McAdoo and how it looked exactly like the Packers’ offense with Aaron Rodgers, I started to think maybe just maybe the Giants would finally realize their potential. I thought this could be it. This could be what Eli Manning and the offense has needed to put them in position to win each week and make them a contender each season. They didn’t score again for the rest of the game, Eli threw two horrible interceptions and the Giants lost 27-7. Instead of being 4-2 and having a 1 1/2-game lead in the NFC East, they’re now 3-3 along with the Eagles, who have the tiebreaker over the Giants thanks to that head-to-head result.

The Giants never make it easy. Never. And they never will. I need to actually fully accept the fact and stop trying to talk myself into thinking they will ever be anything more than the most frustrating team in professional sports. But even knowing they could win or lose each week by 21, if they can’t beat the Cowboys at MetLife with Matt Cassel starting at quarterback, I shouldn’t waste anymore time watching this team.

CAROLINA -3 over Philadelphia
I have doubted Carolina all season, didn’t take them seriously as a true undefeated team and thought they would finally be exposed in Seattle. Well, the Panthers are for real. Any team that can go to Seattle and win, and not only win, but put together three touchdown drives of 80 yards or more is a real threat. Don’t let up now, Panthers. The Giants need you this week. I need you this week.

ARIZONA -9 over Baltimore
The fall of the Ravens has been fun to watch, but I feel like I haven’t appreciated it enough. This Monday I will make sure to soak it all in as I watch the Cardinals rout the Ravens, send them to 1-5 and destroy any glimmer of hope they had to going on some sort of run and making the playoffs.

Last week: 7-7-0
Season: 48-40-3

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