Royals Win, and A Long Winter Ahead for Collins and Harvey

First and foremost, congratulations to the Kansas City Royals for their four games to one World Series victory over the New York Mets.  They were clearly the better team, and they earned that Championship, and they did it in convincing and dramatic fashion.  So, good for them!

But let's talk about what everyone else outside of Kansas City will be talking about after that Game Five win - the decision by Mets manager Terry Collins to allow Matt Harvey, whose valiant efforts through the eight innings of that game cannot be overstated, to pitch the ninth inning, despite having reached what was most likely a prohibitive pitch count, despite having his closer ready to go in the ninth, despite this being a game that the Mets absolutely, positively HAD to win in order to extend the Series.  Actually, that was not Collins' initial decision.  He wanted to pull Harvey and go with his closer to start the ninth, but we all know what happened:  Harvey balked at being told he was through for the night, and talked his manager into letting him start the ninth, wherein he gave up a walk and a double, was removed from the game, a game which the Royals tied in the ninth and won in the twelfth.

Collins will no doubt be lambasted for sending Harvey back out there to pitch the ninth, but I put a big heaping helping of blame on Harvey himself for refusing to be pulled and insisting that he stay in the game.  On one hand you can say he was being a tough, determined, and gritty competitor, and on the other hand you can say that he was being an ego driven, selfish, me-first modern day ballplayer who was putting his own desires ahead of what was best for the team.  With the team's very existence in the World Series at stake, I come down in the latter camp.

Of course, Collins let himself be talked into sending Harvey back out there to pitch.  He is the Boss, nominally, and in the most critical decision of the season, he allowed the inmate to run the asylum.  That never usually works out well, and it killed the Mets.  And Collins compounded his mistake when, after Harvey walked the lead off batter, at which point Harvey should have been yanked, he let him pitch to still one more batter, Eric Hosmer, who promptly doubled and cut the Mets lead to 2-1.  As soon as that happened, I said to Marilyn, "The Mets are done, KayCee is going to win this game."  And that is what happened.

When I occlude writing this post, I am going to peruse the Internet to see what the New York writers have had to say about the bizarre maneuverings in the ninth inning.  I am guessing that it won't be pretty.  Collins will deserve whatever brickbats rain down upon him, but I hope that Matt Harvey gets roasted a bit, too.  He deserves it.

********

A four games to one World Series victory would make it appear that it was lopsided and dull Series, but that was not the case.  Three of the Royals victories took place after the Royals were trailing the Mets, in the eighth inning in Game Four and the ninth inning in Games One and Five, and those Game One and Five wins came in extra innings.  They never ceased putting pressure on the Mets, and once they grabbed the Mets by the throats, they never let go.  They were absolutely relentless in the way they went about their business in the World Series, and they are a most worthy Champion.

********

Okay, now for the "Hey, you kids, get off my lawn" segment of the post.  The Royals victories in Games One, Four, and Five were remarkable contests.  Thrilling and dramatic in ways that only baseball on the major league level can offer.  Game One ended after 1:00 AM in the east, and Game Five, the final game, ended after Midnight.  

So, how many people actually saw these marvelous baseball games?  Relatively few.  I did, and I only saw them because I'm retired.  If I had to get up to go to work in the morning, there is no way that I would have seen these games, and what a shame that is.  For sure, no school age kids saw them.  (Perhaps the fact that the "retiree demographic" was the only one watching these games explains the bewildering number of pharmacological products that were sponsors of the telecasts, but I digress.)

Anyway, this is an old and tired argument that has been taking place ever since MLB agreed to night World Series games, and we all know why - Television Money.  It's not going to change.  Too bad for everyone.

Sunday Morning Sporting Thoughts.....

The big news in Pittsburgh sports today will be the return of this guy to the playing field:

(Photo courtesy of the Pittsburgh Steelers)

The Steelers managed to go 2-2 in Ben Roethlisberger's absence, which is better than many of us had hoped, to be perfectly honest.  Here's hoping that Ben won't be too rusty today as the the Steelers take on the 6-0 Cincy Bengals today in a key AFC North match-up.  Let's face it, based on that defensive performance against the Chiefs last week, the team is going to need Roethlisberger at the top of his game from here on out.

The other thing the Steelers have going for them is that today's opponent is the Cincy Bengals.  Yeah, I know that they are undefeated, but there is always the possibility that they will revert being the, well, the Cincy Bengals.

********

That was a tough loss that Pitt suffered at the hands of North Carolina this past Thursday night.  North Carolina was clearly a better team than Pitt, so that 26-19 result was probably a just one.  Still, one can look at how Pitt made adjustments and played a better second half.  The coaches seem to know what to do to make in-game adjustments, and the players are clearly buying into it.  That's a good sign.  Also, one wonders what might have been had two UNC fumbles been recovered by Pitt when they occurred, but they weren't, so it's time to move on.

Pitt now faces two straight games where they figure to be underdogs, home with Notre Dame and at Duke, before finishing up with home games with Louisville and Miami.  would be nice to see the Panthers split those remaining games and end up at 8-4 (and what Pitt fan would not have signed on for that at the beginning of the year?), but it's not going to be easy.  Still, I wouldn't discount what this team might be able to do in these remaining four games.

********

Speaking of college football, let me highly recommend this book to you:

Check out the subtitle: "A Journey Through the Big Money Culture of College Football."  There's nothing in here that any serious fan didn't know or at least suspect, but Gilbert Gaul, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, has put together a well researched and well written book about this topic. Delving into this topic oft-times makes you want to take a shower, but as I have stated before, I buy the tickets, and I watch the games on TV, so I am a part of the problem, too.

********

So, Steven Matz did his job last night, as did Michael Conforto, and the New York Mets were five outs away from evening the World Series at two game apiece.  What followed is what makes baseball such a great game: two Tyler Clippard walks, a Daniel Murphy error, and a seeing-eye single by Salvador Perez, and BOOM!, the Royals are now firmly in control of this Series after a 5-3 win has given them a three games to one advantage over the Mets.  You can't take a knee in baseball.  You've got to get all twenty-seven outs.

Too bad for the Mets, but good for the Royals, who are clearly the better team insofar as the everyday eight man lineup is concerned.  Still, the Mets send Matt Harvey to the mound and momentum is the next game's stating pitcher blah blah blah, so we'll see.  Other teams have overcome being down 3-1, but the Mets are clearly rolling that rock uphill right now.

And by the way, while most of the country was probably watching the Notre Dame-Temple football game last night, they really missed a pretty darn good baseball game, even if you had to listen to Harold Reynolds in the broadcast booth.  Man, he's bad.  And on the subject of the announcers, I was pre-disposed to not like Alex Rodriguez as an analyst, but in the in-game spots that he has done, he has been pretty good.  He is well prepared and at times he seems to want to force every factoid that he has into his comments, but, all in all, I've enjoyed what he's had to say.

World Series Prediction, Short and Sweet

I am calling for a World Series victory for the these guys....

The reason is simple, and not very original....pitching.  The Royals probably have a better eight man lineup than the Mets, but I think that the combined talents of deGrom, Harvey, Syndegaard, Matz and the bullpen will prevail.  But really, how great would it be if this goes to seventh game, the Mets starter needs to come out early, and all 42 years and 300 pounds of Bartolo Colon comes out of the bullpen in long relief and heroically pitches the Mets to a Game Seven victory?  Right out of Hollywood, right?  Not that I am predicting that, but it would be fun.

So, here it is: Mets in six games.  And just for an added proposition bet - Lucas Duda for Series MVP.

As always, watch, but don't bet.