Month: October 2015

Things to Look Out for After Game 1

Posted on by DylanHornik

Series previews are boring. Every writer and telecaster put out every single detail of the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals before last night’s Game 1, ensuring that every casual fan can hold their weight in a conversation before the first pitch is thrown.

The test of a true fan is knowing what to look for after the first game of the World Series is played. With last nights 14-inning heart attack behind us, we can now see more clearly the kinds of things that will make or break this World Series for both sides.

Mets: Starting Pitching Efficiency- This has been a strength of the team all postseason long, and it actually helped them out last night as well. Matt Harvey went 6 innings on 80 pitches, leading to the Reed-Clippard-Familia bridge, but probably could’ve gone longer if manager Terry Collins needed him to. In a series as evenly matched as this and after a 14-inning Game 1, saving the bullpen is going to be key from here on out. Jacob deGrom gets the ball in Game 2, and he’s been lights out so far this October, and if he is tonight, the bullpen will thank him a ton.

Royals: Middle-of-the-order Production- While they were able to squeak out a win on an Eric Hosmer sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 14th, the Royals should’ve had more chances if their deep lineup lived up to its expectations in the opener. The 3-4-5 part of the order was a combined 3-20 (.150 average) against six Mets pitchers. It doesn’t figure to get any easier for the likes of Hosmer, Lorenzo Cain, and Kendrys Morales with the souped-up pitching rotation of New York, but they need to turn it around if they want to reverse their fortunes from last year’s Fall Classic.

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Alex Gordon flips his bat after striking out in the 11th inning of Game 1 (Photo: John Sleezer).

Mets: Hitting Approach- This is a variety of problems all wrapped up in one. They’ve struck out 109 times in 10 postseason games so far and currently sport a .232 batting average and a .295 on-base percentage. The team looks to inflate pitch counts the first time around the order, which is fine, but they need to get back to what they were doing in mid-August and attack the first pitch strike. They’re taking too many strikes, which is forcing them to swing at pitches out of the zone later in the at-bat. It seems like every time they’re at the plate, their trying to hit one 400 feet, which is not how they’re going to win this series. The Mets need to work on putting good, level swings on strikes to string together rallies and score runs in bunches, a la the first inning of Game 4 on the NLCS against the Cubs.

Royals: Run More- Every series preview had the Travis d’Arnaud- KC Baserunners matchup as one of the most intriguing storylines to watch. It proved to be pretty important last night, as the only Royals stolen base led to a run to tie the game at three in the 6th. On the other hand, they only had one stolen base, very rare for the team that can take advantage of their speed the most in the American League. They can create chances for the middle of their order if they take advantage of the young Mets rotation’s inability to hold runners on (Noah Syndergaard has admitted to being anxious with runners on base, while most of the “Fearsome Foursome” rarely throws over to first).

Both: Don’t Make Mistakes in the Field- This came back to bite both teams last night. The Royals and the Mets have made so few mistakes this postseason that it was disappointing to see Michael Conforto and Yoenis Cespedes miscommunicate in the first inning and allow an inside-the-park homer to Alcides Escobar and Eric Hosmer let a grounder past him to give the Mets a 4-3 lead in the 8th. It’s going to be a series that will be decided by whoever makes the fewest mistakes physically, not mentally, because both teams have good enough athletes to overcome mental errors.

I have a feeling that this is going to be a World Series for the ages, and based on Game 1, we’re in for a treat. If both teams play to their strengths and keep these keys in mind, every game might go to extras.

The Mets Fans’ Guide to Watching the Postseason

Posted on by DylanHornik

It’s been a while since we’ve been here, right?

Nine whole years have come and gone since the Mets last played in the postseason. For reference, the first iPhone came out the next year, Twitter was only 7 months old, and I was 9 years old playing my first year of little league. A lot has changed since then, and many fans may have thrown out their playoff cheering etiquette. After all, the last taste of postseason baseball that we have is a called strike on a 3 on a curveball from a rookie closer on a team that won 83 games. Yuck.

Now it’s 2015. The Mets won 90 games and beat out the Los Angeles Dodgers, or as I like to call them, “The Phillies of the West” (I’m looking at you, Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins). That series may have been confusing due to the odd combination of great pitching, takeout slides, non-retaliation, lifeless offense, and, dare I say, smart Daniel Murphy baserunning.

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Daniel “Rickey Henderson” Murphy looked like a genius and a god in Game 5 (AP Photo/Alex Gallardo).

We’re heading into a series with a more poised opponent, the Chicago Cubs, as the home team. This means that Mets fans will have to be on their “A” game cheering from the stands, the bars, and the couches. That being said, here’s how to handle the biggest series for the Mets in nearly a decade.

If the team happens to lose a game, please do not freak out. It’s a best-of-7 series, not a winner-take-all scenario, in case you forgot how deep rounds of the postseason like this worked. One game will not make or break the series, and you can be assured that the team knows that they need to win to have a chance to advance. If the Mets happen to lose and you’re at the game, this is not grounds for crying, moaning, or whining (although slight complaining is allowed) until they’ve lost 3 games and are facing elimination. Then all of the blubbering and heartbreak that your body will allow can commence.

Conversely, a Mets win, while it brings us closer, does not guarantee us a World Series berth. Elation and joy will naturally come as a part of the unseen territory that we a re currently in, but with that may come delusions of grandeur of a World Series win and a ticker-tape parade. I know this is relatively new to Mets fans, but the NLCS needs to be taken one game at a time, for our own sanity.

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The 7 Line Army, the epitome of die-hards who have suffered through the worst Mets seasons and are now feeling playoff baseball for the first time.

Every home run and run scored is big. However, jumping up and down at the sight of a sacrifice fly or RBI ground out is unsavory and a major breach of playoff watching etiquette. Larger celebrations of this nature are approved only in the 7th inning or later and the run gives the Mets the lead. Take, for example, Daniel Murphy. When he scored on Travis d’Arnaud’s sacrifice fly in the 4th inning of Game 5 against the Los Angeles Wimps- uh, I mean Dodgers- a simple applause of approval is all that was necessary. His 7th inning go-ahead homer off of Noah Syndergaard-hair-wanna be Zack Greinke elicited jumps and screams of mass hysteria from my dorm room, and rightfully so.

Of course, there will always be storylines surrounding each player from each team. Proper playoff fandom requires a fanatic to pick a single player from the opposing team to absolutely hate. When I say hate, I mean despise, I mean Chase Utley despise. It’s a fun, but maybe not the most mentally sound, way to let off some steam from some things that have angered you in the series (no, really, I hate Chase Utley). This deep into October may seem like a strange wonderland of pumpkin spice and camaraderie, but let’s not forget about the players that hurt the Mets at the plate and at second base on a takeout slide. Sorry, I mean players that can potentially swing the series in favor of the opposition.

Don’t be like Dodgers fans. That’s an important lesson that we learned from the NLDS after dispatching them in 5 games. After Murphy’s dinger put the Amazin’s up by one (only one!) the crowd was gone, sent back into the lifeless abyss of an impending first-round exit. They didn’t try to lift their team’s spirits at all; instead they deflated with each 100 MPH fastball. That is not how to cheer for your team in the biggest game of their season; the phrase “Loyal ’til the last out” should mean something.

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No caption needed.

Lastly, and most importantly, Mets fans should act like we’ve been in this situation before. Although we’re the scrawny freshman invited to his first frat party, let’s try to pretend that we can hang with the big boys in terms of cheering, booing, and watching. This requires watching every inning of every game possible to ensure that you don’t miss a second of potentially life altering baseball. Be cool about it, don’t geek out over Wilmer Flores hitting an opposite field bloop single in the bottom of the second of Game 1. Go crazy when he rips an inside fastball from Jake Arrieta over the ivy in left field in the 8th inning of a crucial Game 5. Know when to cheer and when to jeer, but deep down inside love every minute of it.

Is Racism A Problem in Sports?

Posted on by DylanHornik

Recently, a USA Today article explained that most fights in baseball were between players of different ethnicities. Jason Whitlock, an ESPN employee who was tapped to run The Undefeated, a website that examines the crossroads of race and sports, was fired because the controversial reporter was deemed unfit to run the website.

These two events beg some questions: Are sports trying to run from racism? Is race a problem in sports today? Or are people making a big deal out of coincidences?

Take this. In a 2013 review, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, or TIDES, gave the NFL, MLB, and NBA grades of A, A, and A+, respectively, for their diversity amongst employees. The report points to an increase in diversity among management/front office positions and a diverse player base, but it still sings the same song that we’ve been hearing for years: no one hires minority coaches. In the 2013 season, there were just 3 black NFL head coaches, 4 managers of color in the MLB, and only 6 African-American general managers in the NBA. Many point to this as an obvious sign of racism in a sector that has been dominated by white men for so long.

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Doc Rivers, who has been an NBA coach since 1999.

There’s also the issue of racism in the athletes who play the game. Whether it’s smack talk on the field or a poorly timed comment picked up by an unsuspecting microphone, the accidental racist remark by an athlete is almost not news anymore; fans see it so often that it is almost ignored (for a list of the 20 most racist sports statements, click here). Some wonder if racism can ever be cleaned out of sports, or if, since it’s so encompassing, we will never hear the end of controversial snippets from athletes.

Others point to exactly that: Sports include so many types of people that racism in that realm doesn’t exist. In that same report, TIDES shows a solid improvement in diversity among the three sports mentioned. More than two-thirds of football players are minorities, 81 percent of basketball players are “people of color”, and more than a quarter of MLB players are Latino alone.

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Jason Varitek, left, literally gets in the face of Alex Rodriguez during a Yankees-Red Sox game.

That USA Today article displayed a graphic showing that 87 percent of baseball fights are between players of different ethnicities. That could simply be happenstance; since the baseball workplace is so diverse, it’s inevitable that most fights will include at least one minority. The NFL, MLB, and NBA are all consciously trying to bring their brand to the international level as well, which will of course bring in more diversity. To say that sports are racist just doesn’t make sense.

That doesn’t mean that there is no problem, that a melting pot workplace solves all of the racism issues in sports. Just because the employer tries to maintain equal-opportunity rights doesn’t mean the employees adhere to the same standards. It’s been an elephant in the room for decades, since the integration of most major sports; some athletes that play the games we love are racist.

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Riley Cooper, who was caught or screaming the “N” word at a country concert. The NFL did not punish Cooper.

There’s nothing that the major sports can do about it, either. As long as someone can hide their disdain of other cultures from the spotlight long enough to establish residence in a league, current company thoughts don’t punish racist acts. In the NFL, the penalty for screaming the “N” word at an opposing player is the same for certain pass interference cases on the field, and only frequent offenses merit off-field discipline. Former MLB pitcher John Rocker was quoted multiple times disparaging multiple races and was suspended for a total of 14 games with pay.

I wish I could say that racism will leave sports within 20 years. I’m just not sure right now, especially with today’s youth being exposed to what happened in Ferguson and Baltimore in recent memory. The way that some minorities were painted by the media will stick in their mind forever, and those thoughts will either go away or mature into more negative sentiments as these children age. The only way to stop racism in sports, and in the world really, is through pure education. Teach these young athletes that it’s okay to be white, brown, black, yellow, red, pink, magenta, of whatever color and ethnicity, because a human is a human, and an athlete is an athlete. Major sports companies need to do a better job of creating tougher policies to try to eliminate blatant racism by its employees.