Rescheduled concerts, nonrefundable trips and a missed wedding: The scramble behind an unexpected MLB playoff run
-
Jesse Rogers, ESPN Staff Writer
When a team makes an unexpected MLB playoff run, there are all the things we see: players getting their chance to shine under the bright lights of the postseason, sold-out stadiums and a city coming alive as its team becomes baseball’s version of a Cinderella story. But when even the members of the team upsetting its way through the postseason didn’t see it coming, there is a behind-the-scenes scramble to rearrange plans made before the realization that division series and league championship series dates would rule their October calendars.
In the case of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who just might be the most surprising LCS participant in MLB history, that has meant everything from telling a legendary rock band to find another date to play their home ballpark to nonrefundable vacation plans gone awry and wedding RSVPs changed from “will attend” to “regretfully declined.”
First, it was the venue the Diamondbacks play in that had to adjust — not uncommon when facilities are used for multiple purposes. A Guns N’ Roses concert scheduled at Chase Field during the divisional series was moved, while an event scheduled for this Saturday — a Hispanic Family Fiesta — might not be held either, if the D-backs can force a Game 5 against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Diamondbacks weren’t even assured a postseason berth until the second-to-last day of the regular season. Then came their stunning sweeps of the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers in the first two rounds of the playoffs, leaving many within the organization hurrying to adjust their plans.
“I have a pending rotator cuff procedure that I’ve put off twice this month,” front office special assistant Jason McLeod said. “Now it’s in mid-November. First date was Oct. 7 and then the 19th. I’m OK with it.”
Some plans can’t be changed, though.
Catcher Gabriel Moreno and his wife timed having a baby for near the end of the regular season. Gabby Jr. arrived on time, meaning that Dad would not be home for up to the first month of his son’s life. The Morenos decided that was too long to be apart, so their newborn baby got on a plane to Philadelphia for Games 1 and 2.
“He’s at the hotel,” Moreno said through an interpreter. “But in another room.”
Reliever Ryan Thompson is in seminary school and planned a larger course load for this month when he assumed one way or another his baseball season would long be over.
“What’s interesting for me is two months ago I was rotting in Triple-A with Tampa, so the thought of October baseball seemed unlikely,” Thompson said. “So I took an extra course. Now, I’m kind of regretting it.”
All this winning means advance scout Jeff Gardner has to watch the games this week on TV as his daughter gets married in California, while outfielder Corbin Carroll doesn’t have that luxury. He’s missing family time to help keep his team’s season going.
“I had a couple flights booked to Seattle for my sister’s senior night, so not making that,” Carroll said with a smile. “I’m sure she’ll understand.”
Should the Diamondbacks add another chapter to their surprising story by rallying from a 2-0 National League Championship Series deficit to defeat the Phillies for a spot in the World Series, another round of plans will be interrupted.
“I have a wedding on the 26th,” reliever Kevin Ginkel said. “It’s my college roommate. I got a suit for it and everything. If we’re still playing, I’ll have to postpone that. I’m not complaining. I would like to miss it.”
Even a veteran like Evan Longoria, who has played in 42 postseason games with three different teams in his 16-year major league career, did not necessarily expect to still be playing in late October — and he might have to eat a sizable chunk of money as a result.
“My wife booked this cruise with the kids at the end of the month,” Longoria said. “It’s nonrefundable. I mean, we talked about the playoffs but we figured better to book it and cancel. It means we’re deep into the postseason. [Laughing] She thought a playoff share would offset it anyway.”
Now that the Diamondbacks plan to become October mainstays, maybe the players in the clubhouse will learn a lesson from their general manager. Last October, Mike Hazen planned a fishing trip to Montana with his kids in October. But that was when his team was on its way to losing 88 games. He had more faith this time around — despite a nine-game losing streak after the All-Star break.
“This year I said no chance,” Hazen said defiantly. “I was hopeful.”
His faith paid off as the Diamondbacks went from 110 losses in 2021 to 84 wins this season. Then came five more in the wild-card and divisional rounds. While a surprise postseason run might be the only time loved ones are cool with being blown off, the Diamondbacks can take a look across the field to see how a team rich with playoff experience approaches October.
“I think you’ve got to earn it, and at the same time you’ve got to expect it,” said Phillies shortstop Trea Turner, who is making his sixth playoff appearance. “If you want to get here, you have to have confidence in yourself. Yeah, I haven’t made plans in October for a long time, and hopefully that’s never the case.”
For the upstart Diamondbacks, changing vacation plans, putting off family matters and even telling Axl Rose to come back another time was all part of becoming MLB’s darlings for one unexpected month. Perhaps next year their October commitments will be free and clear — just not this time around.
-
Ryan McGee
ATLANTA — The 2025 edition of the College Football Playoff National Championship game was not about vengeance. It wasn’t about proving people wrong. Nor was it about wadding up a scarlet and gray rag and stuffing it directly into the mouths of the chorale of outside noise.
Bless their hearts, that’s what the Ohio State football team and coaching staff kept telling us. That beating Notre Dame on Monday night and winning the school’s first national title in a decade wasn’t about any of that stuff.
But yeah, it totally was.
“We worked really hard to tune out the outside noise, truly,” confessed Ohio State quarterback Will Howard, words spoken on the field moments after having a national champions T-shirt pulled over his shoulders and punctuated by slaps to those shoulders from his current teammates as well as Buckeyes of days gone by. “But outside noise can also be a great way to bring a team together. You close the doors to the locker room to lock all that out, bunker down together and go to work. That’s what it did for us. I think anyone on this team will tell you that.”
Well, now they will. Finally.
The “it’s not about that” mantra was what the Buckeyes kept repeating, in unison, beginning way back in the summer weeks leading into a campaign when they were voted No. 2 in the nation in both preseason polls. Those expectations were earned in no small part because of a much-hyped offseason, powered by an NIL shopping spree worth $20 million, according to athletic director Ross Bjork, to lure transfers from around the nation.
We were told that, no, it wasn’t about those players justifying their decisions to change teams. Like Howard, who came to Ohio State from Kansas State, and running back Quinshon Judkins, who became a Buckeye after carrying the football at Ole Miss. Both are still viewed as traitors by many at the places they departed. But no, it was never about sending a message that they were right to pack up and move to Columbus.
Yeah, right.
“When people asked me why I left Ole Miss to come here, my answer was always the same: To go somewhere that I could win a national championship,” said Judkins, who scored three of Ohio State’s four touchdowns against the Fighting Irish. He grew up one state over from the site of the CFP title game, 270 miles away in Montgomery, Alabama. “Now, that championship has happened. And I’m not going to lie: To do it back here in the South, in Atlanta, in front of so many people who have known about me all the way back to high school, that makes it even more special.”
We were told that, no, it wasn’t about the all-star coaching staff, including offensive coordinator Chip Kelly, who once served as head coach with the Oregon Ducks, Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers and left the same gig at UCLA to take a demotion at Ohio State. In no way was this winter about proving that Kelly hadn’t lost the edge that once had him hailed as a mastermind of modern football offenses.
Um, OK.
“For me, it feels good to have fun again,” said Kelly, 61, flashing a face-splitter grin rarely seen during his NFL and UCLA tenures. Buckeyes coach Ryan Day, 45, is a Kelly protégé, having been coached by Kelly as a New Hampshire player. Kelly’s playcalling that has been a CFP bulldozer scored touchdowns on Ohio State’s first four drives. “I never forgot how to coach. But maybe I forgot how to have fun at the job.”
“I know this,” Kelly added, laughing. “It’s a lot more fun when you’re moving the football and winning.”
And, man, we were told so many times that in no way was this season or postseason about hitting a reset button on the perception of Day, in his sixth season as the leader of an Ohio State football program that is second to none when it comes to pride but also exceeded by none when it comes to pressure. Day dipped deep from that “Guys, it’s not about me” well on the evening of Nov. 30, after his fourth straight regular-season defeat at the hands of arch nemesis Michigan. When the Buckeyes were awarded an at-large berth in the newly expanded 12-team CFP, he once again implored to anyone who would listen that the narrative of his team’s postseason should be about its destiny rather than the future of the coach.
For a month of CFP games and days, all the way up until Monday’s kickoff, Day reminded us all that none of this was about him. Even though a security detail was assigned to his home in Columbus ever since the Michigan game. Even as the internet was aflame with posts about his job security and memes questioning his choice of beard dyes. Even as, in the days leading into the title game, his wife opened up to a Columbus TV station about the family’s dealings with death threats.
And even as, during the championship game itself, Ohio State’s seemingly insurmountable lead shrank from 31-7 midway through the third quarter to a scant eight points in the closing minutes.
But as the clock finally hit zeroes and the scoreboard read “Ohio State 34, Notre Dame 23” with OSU-colored confetti raining down over the Buckeyes’ heads, the story — as told by the team itself — was indeed suddenly about Day, and his staff, and his players, and their shared personification of the T-shirts and flags worn by so many of their supporters among the 77,660 in attendance: “OHIO AGAINST THE WORLD.”
Even if, for them, sometimes Ohio’s flagship football team found itself up against a not-insignificant percentage of Ohio itself, including the folks who refused to attend the CFP opener in Columbus because they were still mad about the Michigan defeat and no doubt will still consider this natty as having an asterisk because of that same loss.
Because for all of Day & Co.’s talk of this not being about revenge, the truth was revealed on their postgame faces. Their shared expressions of restraint, the ones we’d seen all fall, were instantly replaced by a collective look of relief. Their frowns washed away by Gatorade dumps, revealing the smiles of men who had indeed just sent a message and were finally willing to admit that had been their motivation all along.
You only had to ask. Because, finally, they would answer.
“I feel like, from the start of this thing, we were knocking on the door. But you have to find a way to break through and make it to where we are right now,” said Day, no longer stiff-arming the question but definitely still working to stifle his emotion. “In this day and age, there’s so much noise. Social media. People have to write articles. But when you sign up for this job, when you agree to coach at Ohio State, that’s part of the job.
“I’m a grown-up. I can take it. But the hard part is your family having to live with it. The players you bring in, them having to live with it. Their families. In the end, that’s how you build a football family. Take the stuff that people want to use to tear you apart and try to turn that into something that makes you closer.”
For 3 hours and 20 minutes, the Buckeyes pushed back on Notre Dame with both hands. They also pushed back on those would-be team destroyers and head coach firers. When it was over, they extended one finger in the direction of those same haters. It wasn’t a middle finger, but it was close. It was the finger that soon will be fitted for a national championship ring.
“Ohio State might not be for everybody,” Day added, smiling once again. “But it’s certainly for these guys.”
-
Max Olson
Ohio State transfer quarterback Devin Brown has signed with Cal, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
After winning a national championship with the Buckeyes on Monday night, Ohio State’s No. 2 quarterback is seeking an opportunity to start and will move on to join the Golden Bears. Brown has two more seasons of eligibility.
Brown entered the NCAA transfer portal on Dec. 9 but remained with the team during their College Football Playoff run.
The redshirt sophomore was the No. 81 overall recruit in the ESPN 300 for 2022 and lost a competition with Kyle McCord for Ohio State’s starting job entering the 2023 season. This season, Brown appeared in nine games while backing up Will Howard.
Brown threw for 331 yards with three touchdowns and one interception on 56% passing and rushed for 37 yards and one score over three seasons at Ohio State. He earned one start in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic at the end of the 2023 season but exited with an ankle injury in a 14-3 loss to Missouri.
After losing to the Tigers, Ohio State coach Ryan Day brought in Howard, a Kansas State transfer who guided the program to its first College Football Playoff national championship since 2014. Howard earned offensive MVP honors in the Buckeyes’ 34-23 title game victory over Notre Dame after competing 17-of-21 passes for 231 yards and two touchdowns.
The Buckeyes are losing Howard, Brown and freshman backup Air Noland, who transferred to South Carolina, as they begin preparations to defend their national title in 2025. Julian Sayin, a former five-star recruit, is expected to be the frontrunner in the Buckeyes’ quarterback competition entering his redshirt freshman season.
Brown is joining a Cal team coming off a 6-7 run through its first year in the ACC that must replace starter Fernando Mendoza, who transferred to Indiana. Brown will compete with touted incoming freshman Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who joined the program after a brief stint at Oregon.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports10 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway