Culture
New Patriots documentary reveals how bad it got between Brady, Belichick: ‘It was brutal’
In the video, Tom Brady sits with his legs crossed and looks into the camera. He’s trying to express just how bad things had gotten between him and Bill Belichick in the late 2010s, toward the end of their 20-year run together with the New England Patriots.
By now, everyone knows how that time ended — with Brady fleeing the often-miserable ship Belichick presided over for greener pastures in Tampa Bay. Belichick didn’t offer the two-year, $50 million contract Brady wanted, one that would have given the legendary quarterback the stability he sought. For years, that has been viewed as the main reason Brady didn’t return to the Patriots.
But as part of a new 10-episode documentary on the Patriots dynasty, Brady makes clear his departure had more to do with who was coaching the team than the amount of money he was offered.
“Me and coach Belichick, we did what we loved and competed for 20 years together,” Brady said. “But I wasn’t going to sign another contract (in New England) even if I wanted to play until (I was) 50. Based on how things had gone, I wasn’t going to sign up for more of it.”
On Friday, Apple TV+ is unveiling “The Dynasty,” a lengthy documentary with two episodes dropping every Friday for the next five weeks. It’s proclaimed to be a look at the Patriots between 2000 and 2020, and it covers Brady’s rise to prominence after Drew Bledsoe’s injury, how the Pats navigated three Super Bowls in four years, the controversies that followed and how a second dynasty grew before eventually tumbling amid fractured relationships. Those early episodes are worthwhile for Patriots fans who want to relive the early years of the dynasty. And the middle episodes are worthwhile for Patriots haters who want to revel in some new details about Spygate, Deflategate and the team’s other indiscretions.
The Good. The Bad…and the untold story.
The Dynasty: New England Patriots premieres February 16. pic.twitter.com/VcOAr33hrn
— Apple TV (@AppleTV) January 9, 2024
But more than anything, the documentary feels like a referendum on how bad the Brady-Belichick relationship got and why it never had a storybook ending with the two riding off together into the sunset. Even though the interviews were conducted months before the Patriots split with Belichick, the subjects in it — including Brady, Belichick, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and nearly every well-known Patriots player over the last two decades (except, notably, Jerod Mayo) — speak openly about the all-encompassing, dictatorial style with which Belichick ran the Patriots.
Players, including several still on the roster, disclose just how difficult it was playing for Belichick. “It was brutal,” Matthew Slater said. Rob Gronkowski described pulling up to 1 Patriot Place and not wanting to get out of his car to go into work. Wes Welker compared Brady to an abused dog for continually going back to work for Belichick.
ESPN made local headlines last month when a story following Belichick’s departure from the Patriots quoted someone referring to this forthcoming documentary as an “infomercial” for Kraft’s Pro Football Hall of Fame candidacy. This documentary, which The Athletic was allowed to screen for this review, is not that. It’s much more focused on the relationship between Brady and Belichick and, in totality, it’s the most comprehensive view yet of how miserable people in the building were in the final years of their dynasty. Or at least that’s the juiciest, most interesting part.
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The first few episodes touch on the start of the Patriots dynasty. It’s still interesting all these years later to hear from Bledsoe and Brady about that injury-sparked transition, even if those early episodes won’t yield many headlines. The middle episodes (specifically the fourth, sixth and seventh) focus on Spygate, Aaron Hernandez’s arrest and Deflategate, respectively. There are captivating moments in those too, including a re-enactment from Robyn Glaser (who was recently named the Patriots’ executive vice president of football business and senior advisor to the head coach) of smashing the Spygate tapes with a hammer.
Those early episodes are worthwhile for fans who want to relive the glory days, and the middle ones are interesting, even if the series slowed down and occasionally dragged a bit in those parts. The documentary, it should be noted, doesn’t get into Belichick’s departure from the team last month or Mayo’s promotion to head coach via Kraft’s little-known succession plan.
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For football fans less inclined to enjoy the shots of confetti falling on the Patriots, the documentary really picks up steam over the last four episodes when examining the splintering of Brady and Belichick’s relationship.
Brady, even while dodging a couple of the more pointed topics brought up by Emmy-winning director Matthew Hamachek — who also directed HBO’s Tiger Woods documentary in 2021 — is more blunt than usual. So is Kraft. Belichick, predictably, doesn’t say much. Perhaps his most interesting comment comes when dodging a question from Hamachek about why Malcolm Butler was benched in Super Bowl LII.
“Matt, we’ve talked about that,” Belichick says without any further explanation, implying some kind of agreement between the coach and director about avoiding that topic.
Former teammates, and occasionally Kraft too, are the ones who speak most directly about how bad the relationship between Brady and Belichick was. They describe a hostile work environment and miserable atmosphere inside the team’s headquarters.
The payoff from those final four episodes makes the overview of the Patriots from 2000 to 2015 worthwhile. The ending may not be enjoyable for Patriots fans. It leaves one with a feeling of what could’ve been had Belichick’s style been a bit different or had Brady been willing to deal with it a bit longer.
But on the whole, the documentary is gripping and a worthwhile watch, one that reveals how bad things had gotten with the Patriots before Brady’s departure.
As Kraft says, “Tom and I had a number of discussions about how Bill treated him. Tommy is very sensitive. He was always looking for Bill’s approval, almost in a father-son kind of way. And that’s not Bill’s style ever to give that.”
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(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
Tennis is back. Did you miss it? The season resumes from today, December 27, with the United Cup opening proceedings in Perth, Australia.
The Athletic’s tennis writers Matt Futterman and Charlie Eccleshare are here for the second of two mailbags, answering your questions submitted earlier this month. The first focused on tennis in 2024; this one will focus more on 2025 and the state of the sport, before a deeper look into storylines on the ATP and WTA Tours at the start of January.
Read on for their views on players to watch this year, the state of the political machinations at the top of tennis, and more.
Will H: Seems to be a generational transition brewing in the men’s game at the moment. Young guys like Jack Draper, Arthur Fils, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard and Ben Shelton seem poised to break into the top 10 and knock some of the previous gen (Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Hubert Hurkacz) down a peg. Do you agree, who do you expect to make a real push next year, and are there other names you’d throw in?
Charlie Eccleshare: I think I agree. My only hesitation is that I don’t know if that agreement comes from a selfish perspective rather than an analytical one. That isn’t a knock on Rublev, Tsitsipas and Hurkacz; it’s just exciting to have new blood and there’s a sense with those three (and others of similar vintage) that it may never happen for them at the very top level.
Maybe the next generation, without the kind of baggage those in their mid-twenties have built up, can be a genuine threat at the sharp end of majors… But that’s what was said about Tsitsipas et al. when they were about to replace nearly men like Kei Nishikori, Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic. Dimitrov is still here and around the top 10!
All four of Draper, Fils, Mpetshi Perricard and Shelton have the weapons to be a genuine threat to the very best — they already are on their day — and they certainly have it in them to push for top-10 places next year.
Other names to look out for are the world No. 50 Shang Juncheng of China, who’s only 19 but possesses an excellent all-round game, and the exciting Brazilian Joao Fonseca (18), who looks like a star of the future. Belgian Alexander Blockx looks like one promising name of many on the Challenger Tour.
Of those slightly older, Flavio Cobolli (22 and ranked No. 32 after a breakthrough year) could make an impact, though he’s less explosive than some of his peers. World No. 25 Tomas Machac, 24, has serious weapons and could be a real threat if he can add some consistency to his game. Where does Holger Rune fit into all this I wonder? At 21, he’s younger than Draper and Shelton, but his trajectory makes it feel like he’s in the Tsitsipas category.
Matt Futterman: John Isner reached No. 8 and made the Wimbledon semifinals. He also banked $22.5million in prize money. That’s pretty good. Mpetshi Perricard may have more weapons and is smaller, so he likely moves better. I think we need to see him for another year before we figure out who he is.
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Anon: Which coaching shifts do you think will stand the test of time?
MF: I’m going to bet on Wim Fissette and Iga Swiatek, mostly on the basis of Swiatek’s talent and on Fissette being a pretty genial guy that everyone seems to get along with. Swiatek has a ton of weapons, some of which she has holstered for most of her dominance: when she first broke out, she could spin the ball as well as anyone and was volleying and hitting drop shots with aplomb.
If Fissette can help her unlock the closet where all that stuff has been stored the past couple years she should start winning Grand Slams outside of Paris and he will be a huge hit.
Christopher Z: For both tours, who had a down or absent year that you expect to make a comeback in 2025? Looking at the Australian Open entry list, some big names using their protected ranking include Pablo Carreno Busta, Nick Kyrgios, Reilly Opelka, Jenson Brooksby and Belinda Bencic.
CE: Bencic, the 2021 Olympic gold medalist in women’s singles, jumps out to me because when we spoke recently she sounded very serious about her chances of getting back to a really good level.
Belinda Bencic is hoping to return to the top of the WTA Tour after giving birth to her daughter. (Tiziana Fabi / AFP via Getty Images)
Of the others, it’s hard to imagine Kyrgios coming back from so long out and being a consistent factor on the tour, but I wouldn’t rule out him having enough to produce a magical moment or two. Of the others you mentioned, Brooksby at 24 looks like having the best shot at climbing his way back up the rankings next year.
The players to look out for might be the ones who began a comeback this year, like Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu and are looking to build on those foundations in 2025, ditto Karolina Muchova, who’s ranked No. 22 despite only returning from a nine-month absence in late June. Matteo Berrettini’s season only began in March because of injury so perhaps he’ll have a more settled 2025, though I fear at 28 he may have peaked already.
Otherwise, I’m excited by the prospect of a fit Denis Shapovalov after the long layoff he had, and how about Ons Jabeur? She hasn’t played since August because of a knee injury that wrecked her season, and surely everyone in tennis will be hoping that she can come back and be a factor next year.
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Kevin M: What’s the latest with the proposed changes to ATP/WTA scheduling?
MF: Two words: Not much. The leaders of the ATP like making their players play at least eight Masters 1000 tournaments. The WTA just secured equal pay down the road in exchange for mandatory attendance at the biggest tournaments. The only way any change happens is if players start refusing to show up at events after the U.S. Open. I don’t see a shorter season. Maybe the tours lose enough 250-level events that they gain back a week but it’s hard to see that anytime soon and it would harm tennis’ status as a global sport.
Tom J: Any news on the premium tour ideas that were floated earlier in the year? Has that just come to a temporary haunt until Indian Wells/Madrid again or is there behind-the-scenes progress?
MF: Tennis honchos keep referencing productive discussions. Players are fed up and feel like they are getting gaslit. The Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) has hired a team of lawyers and litigation of various kinds could begin in 2025. That could force change — or at least some serious talks instead of happy talk and gaslighting.
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Alex H: Do you think Jack Draper or Katie Boulter will continue to have another great year? Who is your tip for the next crop of Brits to emerge?
CE: If Draper can stay healthy then I see no reason why he can’t make the top 10. In tennis circles in Britain and outside it, the feeling is that Draper has top-five potential.
Boulter’s progress has been steady over the last few years, but the big question mark is whether she can deliver at the Grand Slams. She’s never reached the second week of a major, and last year didn’t even go beyond the second round. Improvement, or lack of it, at the biggest events will decide whether Boulter continues being a very solid top-30 player or something more.
Britain’s No. 2 Raducanu has had a very different career, winning a shock Grand Slam at 18 but struggling for the kind of consistency that’s been Boulter’s hallmark since. That’s what she’s striving for now, and with Maria Sharapova’s former trainer Yutaka Nakamura joining her team Raducanu is hopeful that she can stay fit and get back towards the top of the sport. A word also for Sonay Kartal, 23, who won her first title and cracked the world’s top 100 in 2024, having ended 2023 ranked world No. 235.
From the next generation, there is a lot of excitement about the British women coming through. The huge-serving Mika Stojsavljevic (16) won the U.S. Open juniors in September and came agonizingly close to a first tour-level win at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. She is arguably the pick of the bunch. There’s also Hannah Klugman (15), who won last year’s international under-18s tournament, the Orange Bowl, and came within a match of qualifying for this year’s Wimbledon. Keep an eye out also for Mimi Xu, a 17-year-old with excellent technique, if not the easy power of Stojsavljevic.
Mika Stojsavljevic will hope to build on her success in 2025. (Luke Hales / Getty Images)
The boys are not at quite the same level, though Henry Searle, 18, became the first Brit in 61 years to win the Wimbledon boys’ singles title in 2023. Charlie Robertson, also 18, has had a promising year and is mentored by Andy Murray, but standing at a possibly generous 5ft 8in he’ll likely need to do some growing to make it on the ATP Tour. Oliver Bonding (18) and Viktor Frydrych (17) both went out early in the Orange Bowl last week, but are considered decent prospects.
Julian G: How do you see the popularity of tennis in the United States evolving over the next few years? It feels like other sports are making breakthroughs (F1 “Drive to Survive”, Golf with the popularity of YouTube), while tennis is at a standstill with the flop of Netflix’s “Break Point”.
MF: If USTA numbers are to be believed, tennis participation continues to rise, though outside New York City and some other urban centers where courts are scarce, I do see a lot of empty courts. As for television ratings, if the stars can keep making finals and breaking through with the help of their sponsors, that can help make up for the failure of Break Point. Plus, we’ll all be watching Zendaya and her boys on “Challengers” streams for a long time. Sequel? Please?
James Hansen: This theme is connected to the below questions, so I’ll put them in before answering more widely…
Anon: As always, my question is about the effect of tennis’ subpar broadcasting on the sport. The hideous light tan or pink court surrounds making the ball impossible to see as it bounces; the still too-high camera angle leaves calling slices or topspin up to the announcers; hardly showing the final handshake while loving ‘the box”, while sometimes not ID’ing who they are.
Sarah Bordeaux: What’s the latest and/or future of tennis broadcasting in the US? Tennis Channel (Plus) is now a standalone product, are there any potential suitors coming for Grand Slams or other broadcast rights, including for the Challengers/NCAA tournaments/etc, and what exactly is behind the Tennis Channel deal?
Sinclair has been very open about its desire to explore ‘strategic alternatives’ for the Tennis Channel, whether selling a stake or the whole property. Its move to direct-to-consumer suggests a willingness to try and keep up with a changing media landscape tennis is yet to really get to grips with.
ESPN will pay $2.04billion (more than £1.5bn) to air the U.S. Open through 2037 in a deal signed this year, while Wimbledon’s broadcast deal with ABC and ESPN networks comes in at $52.5million (£40.3m) per year as of 2024, according to SP Global. Broadcast rights remain gold dust, even as cable TV revenues decline and direct-to-consumer alternatives can, to date, only vainly attempt to make up the shortfall. Those broadcast rights — which are converted into the broadcasting that many fans, like Anon above, feel is often subpar — are important to Grand Slams because their value is tied to in-person attendance. If you are a huge tennis fan who can watch a tournament for free where you live, you are less often going to pay for a ticket to be there in person.
To keep that balance, the broadcast rights are very restrictive. Any footage cut up and put on YouTube or social networks like X, Bluesky and TikTok will get copyright-striked and taken down in short order, whether it is posted by a player who wants to reach their own fans or a fan just having some fun as part of the online tennis community.
This is where popularity comes in. A sport cannot grow if it cannot be discovered. A fan in the U.S. who sees a Coco Gauff TikTok or a meme about “Challengers” and wants to learn more about the world currently can’t watch highlights except on official channels and can’t watch much tennis at all without several subscriptions. A player who wants to engage people by documenting their life on tour can’t post highlights of their own matches. And in sanctioned media properties — whether documentaries produced by stars, or something like Break Point — tennis has largely failed to show fans why they should care about anyone outside the biggest stars where Formula One and golf have turned players further down their rankings into compelling personalities. Then, if they do make it, they already have an audience invested in their journey.
As cable in the U.S. gets less and less profitable, these lucrative media rights are, eventually, going to get less lucrative. If tennis doesn’t change its relationship with discoverability, it is going to get a big and bad shock when they do. Expect much more coverage of this here in 2025.
(Top photo of Jack Draper: Getty Images; top photo of Karolina Muchova: Associated Press)
Ashton Jeanty was into basketball more than football as a kid. So before he grew up to be a 5-foot-9 battering ram in cleats, his favorite athlete was LeBron James. Jeanty, who bounced around the globe as the son of a Naval officer, spent a chunk of his childhood in Florida when James was on the Miami Heat.
“Seeing (LeBron) beat all the odds,” said Jeanty, “I feel like I’ve been doing that same thing in my career.”
It’s why the Boise State running back will forever be the answer to that same question — Who’s your favorite athlete? — for a generation of Broncos fans.
Jeanty didn’t win the Heisman Trophy, finishing second to Colorado’s Travis Hunter. But he did collect the most points by a Heisman runner-up and forced the narrowest margin of defeat since 2009. He also took home the Maxwell Award (player of the year), Doak Walker Award (best running back) and unanimous All-American honors. And Jeanty has another major milestone in his sights.
He enters the College Football Playoff at 2,497 rushing yards this season, just 131 yards shy of college football’s official single-season record, set by Oklahoma State’s Barry Sanders in 1988. Considering Jeanty has averaged 192.1 rushing yards per game this season, there’s at least a decent chance he rewrites that record in the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff against Penn State on Dec. 31.
But Jeanty is more than just a Heisman runner-up and future first-round NFL running back who is on the verge of a record-breaking statistical accomplishment. At a Boise State program with a reputation for giant slaying and a rich history of running backs, he has managed to stand above the rest.
“Ashton Jeanty is phenomenal for college football, and he’s going to be phenomenal for the NFL,” said Boise State coach Spencer Danielson. “Not only from his play on the field but also the culture he brings with him.”
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There is some nuance to Sanders’ record. He rushed for 2,628 yards in only 11 games on his way to the Heisman in 1988; Jeanty has already played 13 games. And Sanders’ unofficial record is 2,850 yards if you add in the 222 yards he racked up in the Holiday Bowl, before bowl game stats were officially counted.
There will be those who discount Jeanty’s record if he does set it, but Sanders won’t be among them, sending a tweet ahead of Boise’s victory in the Mountain West championship wishing Jeanty luck.
“My fans can gripe, but records are made to be broken & I am rooting for you,” Sanders wrote.
Hey @AshtonJeanty2 – Wishing you luck tonight.
My fans can gripe, but records are made to be broken & I am rooting for you. I love seeing all these @NFL and @NCAA #RBs showing the value of the position. #RunTheRock pic.twitter.com/bk0NtPbAL0— Barry Sanders (@BarrySanders) December 6, 2024
Asked about Sanders’ mark, Jeanty said it would be “like the cherry on top, to break a record that’s been around for decades,” especially after he came up just short in the Heisman race. But as Boise State enters the inaugural 12-team Playoff as a No. 3-seed from the Group of 5, the record — attained or not, contested or not — doesn’t change what Jeanty has achieved.
The stats are staggering, like if Paul Bunyan played high school football. Nearly 2,500 rushing yards, an FBS-leading 30 total touchdowns, 7.3 yards per carry and six games with 200-plus rushing yards. His season low was 127 yards against Portland State, and he got pulled at halftime. Jeanty outrushed 115 FBS teams this season all by himself. The next closest player to him in terms of rushing yards is North Carolina running back Omarion Hampton with 1,660. That’s less than the 1,889 yards Jeanty has gained after contact. He’s the first back to eclipse 2,000 yards rushing since 2019.
“I love watching Ashton play — the mix of physicality, speed and control,” said Alexander Mattison, a former Boise State running back now in the NFL with the Las Vegas Raiders. “But I’ve been able to get to know him, not just as a football player but a genuine person. It’s fun to see him get everything that he deserves. He loves the game, and if you love the game, it will love you back.”
There is an impressive pedigree of running backs at Boise State, with Jeanty set to become next in a long line of Broncos bell cows who have gone on to play in the NFL. Jeanty surpassed Cedric Minter as the program’s all-time leading rusher this season and broke a number of other records Minter has held since at least 1980. But the string of modern-day tailbacks stretches to Ian Johnson, who famously won the 2007 Fiesta Bowl on the Statue of Liberty handoff, followed by Jeremy Avery, Doug Martin, D.J Harper, Jay Ajayi (the former single-season record holder), Jeremy McNichols, Mattison and George Holani.
It’s quite a list, and that’s just the running backs. Former quarterback Kellen Moore is the winningest QB in FBS history (50) and the program’s only other Heisman finalist (he finished fourth in 2010). He remains a Boise State icon. Yet after this season, no one compares to what Jeanty has produced on the field or what he embodies off it.
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“He’s a unanimous captain, part of our leadership council,” said Danielson, who added that he meets one-on-one with Jeanty each week after those council meetings.
“Every single time we have those meetings, it is nothing about Ashton. He’s asking about the team, a player, asking how he can help lead better, have more of an impact,” said Danielson. “That is uncommon. He’s different in all facets.”
Jeanty does care about the awards and accolades. He hasn’t shied from that, whether rattling off the individual goals he had for himself this season or lamenting his Heisman finish by stating: “I really felt like I should’ve walked away with the award.” It’s part of why he returned to Boise State this season, believing he could achieve everything he wanted right where he was.
But Jeanty also cares about the legacy he will leave behind. It’s why he embraced being a team captain and leader and de facto spokesperson. It’s why he spurned more lucrative name, image and likeness (NIL) offers to transfer elsewhere last offseason. It’s why he established the Ashton Jeanty Endowed Scholarship for Football — in October, even before he broke all the records and became a Heisman finalist and carried the Broncos to a Mountain West title and first-round bye in the CFP. The scholarship has raised more than $180,000 toward its $200,000 goal, which will support future Boise State athletes.
“He’s like a movie star here,” said athletic director Jeramiah Dickey. “We had to finally get him security so we could cut off the autograph and photo lines. It was our responsibility to help him because he’s such a good kid, he didn’t want to say no to anyone.”
Jeanty is already the most decorated player in program history and has put Boise State in position to compete for a top-flight national championship for the first time. He has a chance to set a single-season rushing record that could stand for decades.
And none of it will outlast what he has meant to Boise State football and the community that surrounds it.
“Culture is about the people who are here — just bringing back what Boise State’s been, having a positive influence over everybody,” said Jeanty. “People won’t remember the stats, they’re not going to remember the games. But they’re going to remember how I treated people, how I carried myself throughout my time here and the impact that had.”
— The Athletic’s Vic Tafur contributed reporting
(Photo: Loren Orr / Getty Images)
Culture
MLB’s Strange But True 2024: The team, game, inning and homer of the year — plus The Ohtani Game
I swear this all happened in the Strange But True baseball year of 2024:
A man played for both teams in the same game. … Another guy made an out on his own intentional walk. … And history was made at Coors Field, all because a pitcher did not throw a pitch.
I mention all that because it’s time once again for the end-of-year extravaganza you’ve been waiting for — and we have enough material for three parts. Happy Strange But True Feats of the Year column to all who celebrate!
Clonehead of the Year — Danny Jansen
Danny Jansen takes the field with the Red Sox on Aug. 26 after starting the game — on June 26 — as a member of the Blue Jays. (Paul Rutherford / Getty Images)
Cloning technology isn’t roaring along at the same furious rate as, say, TikTok video technology. But in baseball, we have the next best thing to cloning — the suspended-game rule.
And how great is that rule — baseball’s special little world of suspended animation? So great that it gifted us with one of my favorite Strange But True Games of all time.
Presenting … The Danny Jansen Game.
Do we need to refresh your memory of what The Danny Jansen Game was? Let’s do that. On Aug. 26, the Red Sox and Blue Jays resumed a June 26 game at Fenway Park that had been suspended by many, many raindrops in the second inning.
What made that The Strange But True Game of the Year was this: When it was halted in June, Jansen was batting for the Blue Jays. And when it resumed (one awesome Sox-Jays trade-deadline extravaganza later), Jansen was catching for the Red Sox.
So what’s so Strange But True about that? Oh, only about a billion things like this:
Wanna play catch? It makes no logical sense that a player could get taken out of a game, and then, at the same exact moment, get subbed into that game for the other team — allowing him to start an actual big-league at-bat as the hitter and then finish it as the catcher. But hey, the suspended-game rule is inventive like that.
So who else has ever batted and caught in the same at-bat in a big-league game? Nobody. Obviously. But also …
The guy who was on first base when Jansen came to bat for the Blue Jays (Davis Schneider) then stole second base … on Danny Jansen the catcher!
All in the same at-bat, Jansen swung at a pitch as a Blue Jay and caught a pitch for the Red Sox!
As the brilliant multitasker he is, Jansen managed to come to bat for both teams in the top and bottom of the same inning (the second). If you’re wondering who else in history has done that, you should know that answer would also be: Nobody!
And don’t check the video, because while we have plenty of video evidence that Jansen set foot in the batter’s box for the Blue Jays in this game … and was stuck there for the next seven weeks (not literally!) … he did not get credit for a plate appearance for the Blue Jays. What do you mean, you saw it with your own eyes? Who cares? It’s baseball!
And don’t do the math, because that’s also a problem. Jansen got credited with a game played for Toronto that day. He also got credited with a game played for Boston. But he did not get credited with two games played in the same game. Because that’s not possible. So when does one plus one equal one? Only in … baseball!
And because the baseball gods are awesome, the last batter of this game could only have been one man: Danny Jansen, who caught the first pitch of the game for one team and then made the last out of the same game for the other team.
Well, there you go. All of that happened. In real life. We saw it. Danny Jansen lived it. It was real, and it was sensational.
So how, I asked him, would he explain to his grandkids someday that it was possible to play for both teams in the same game … in the major leagues?
“Baseball is incredible,” he said. “It’s always incredible. You can’t expect that anything in baseball can’t happen. Anything’s possible.
“This game,” said Jansen, “is nuts.”
Strangest But Truest Inning of the Year
Jazz Chisholm Jr. can’t handle Anthony Volpe’s throw as Kiké Hernández is safe at third in a nightmare fifth inning for New York. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Speaking of nuts, what do you say we relive the fifth inning of Game 5 of the World Series. (All you Yankees fans out there … you’re not eligible to reply to that question!) Of course, we need to relive it. It’s in the running for the Strangest But Truest postseason inning ever.
To refresh your memory …
• When that inning began, the Yankees were leading the Dodgers in this game, 5-0 …
• And their starting pitcher, a literally unhittable dude named Gerrit Cole, was out there launching Formula 1 speedballs clocked at 99 mph …
• And the Dodgers had used many more pitchers (four) than they had hits (none) …
Whereupon … stuff began happening … by which I mean stuff like this, which involved the Yankees making baseball look so much harder than we’d like to think it is …
• There was Aaron Judge clanking a routine fly ball in center field. That was one error — by a guy who has committed zero errors on any of the other 538 fly balls hit to him in the center-field portion of his career.
Judge is not able to make the grab on that one, and the Dodgers have 2 on with nobody out!
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/S8c5QGQljm
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 31, 2024
• There was the shortstop, Gold Glove finalist Anthony Volpe, making an unfortunate throw to third on an attempted forceout. That was two errors.
Not making an excuse for Volpe on this play. But not enough credit given to Kike Hernandez for shrinking the throwing lane. You can see his margin for error diminishing as the play develops. Perfect example of pressuring the defense, forcing them to make plays to beat you. pic.twitter.com/QOg4tDaK9y
— Gary Patchett (@gpickit25) October 31, 2024
• And then, with Cole one pitch away from escaping a bases-loaded, no-out disaster, he forgot one slight detail after Mookie Betts bounced a spinning five-hopper to Anthony Rizzo at first — the detail that involves a pitcher’s brain reminding him he’s supposed to cover first base on balls like that.
UNBELIEVABLE:
With two outs and the bases loaded, Mookie Betts drives in a run on an infield single after Gerrit Cole fails to cover first base.
Anthony Rizzo fielded the ball, but had no one to throw it to! A cautionary tale for pitchers. pic.twitter.com/fpbxnvbUHE
— Not Gaetti (@notgaetti) October 31, 2024
Technically, there was no “error” charged to Cole for that gaffe. But the magic word there is “technically,” because a zero-run inning became a five-run inning after Cole neglected to cover first.
So an inning that started with a Gerrit Cole no-hitter watch turned into an almost incomprehensible five-run inning for that team he was no-hitting. And not just any five-run inning. A five-run inning in which all five runs were unearned.
Which meant the Dodgers would go on to win the World Series … by winning a game in which they trailed by five runs. And just so we’re clear, that’s a sentence that has never before been typed in the history of the World Series. But that’s not all, because …
How many other teams have ever had a game in which they …
• Blew a five-run lead (or larger)?
• Coughed up at least five unearned runs?
• Stuffed three errors into the box score?
• And included both a balk and catcher’s interference in those festivities?
How many teams have ever done that, you ask? According to our friends from STATS Perform, exactly one team has ever done that … at least since earned (and unearned) runs became an official stat in both leagues in 1913. And that team was …
The 2024 Yankees … in the game that ended this World Series.
But you should also know that … we’re not just talking about postseason games. The Yankees are the first team ever to do that in any game — postseason or regular season — in the past 112 seasons.
In other words, before that fateful evening on Oct. 30, you could have told us it was impossible to lose a World Series in a game like that, and who could have disputed it? But now … uh, never mind!
GO DEEPER
Inside the Yankees’ grisly fifth inning that proved one of the most costly in World Series history
Special Game 5 bonus note
What’s it like to be me, the unofficial curator of Baseball Strange But Trueness, after a World Series game like that? Hey, it’s awesome, because Strange But True Max Chaos had just busted out. But also … it can take a little time to sort out just how Strange But True something actually was.
It takes so much time, in fact, that I didn’t send in my column on that game until 7:05 the next morning!
But that’s because it literally took all night for me — plus the great Sam Hovland and my friends from STATS — to research all that wackiness. There were so many wild research projects going on, it wasn’t until the next day — when my brain fog lifted — that I remembered something.
I forgot to include one of STATS’ best notes of the whole night! But thanks to the Strange But True Feats of the Year column, we can present that tidbit now. Here it comes.
It turns out that it’s not just hard for a team to lose a World Series game in which it took a no-hitter and a five-run lead (or larger) into the fifth inning. It’s hard to do that in any kind of game. It’s so hard, in fact, that the Yankees hadn’t even lost a regular-season game like that since …
Oct. 1, 1988!
A Tommy John no-hit bid went up in smoke that day. And that was nearly 6,000 games ago!
It was so long ago that 177 different pitchers have started a game for the Yankees since then … so long ago that 441 different Yankees have grabbed a bat and headed for the batter’s box since then … and so long ago that Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada alone combined to bat almost 30,000 times in between — and then spent another decade in retirement.
In other words, a loss like that never happened to Jeter, Posada or Bernie in any October baseball game, or any other kind of baseball game. But it somehow happened to the Yankees, in the last game of this World Series, because, as John Sterling would tell you — Susan, that’s …
Baseball!
GO DEEPER
Why Dodgers’ Game 5 win over Yankees was the craziest World Series clincher ever
Sneaky Pete’s Strangest But Truest Homer of the Year
Did you know that thanks to that Game 5 Yankees meltdown, this October set the all-time record for most lead changes in one postseason (with 30 of them)? My friend Katie Sharp of Baseball Reference went to way too much trouble to calculate that little nugget. So thanks, Katie!
That tidbit tells us there were far too many epic Strange But True October comebacks to fit into this column. But if I had to pick the Strangest But Truest of them all, I’m going with this one.
Oh my God. Pete Alonso just hit a go-ahead, three-run homer in the ninth inning off Devin Williams.
Pete Alonso has his Mets moment. Wow. Just wow. pic.twitter.com/WfVyxktAL4
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) October 4, 2024
So what made that stunning swing of the bat by Pete Alonso so Strange But True? Thanks for asking!
Did that really happen? As the Mets came to bat in the ninth inning that night, in a winner-take-all Game 3 of their Wild Card Series in Milwaukee …
• They were trailing that game, 2-0, and were three outs from making tee-time reservations.
• None of their previous 17 hitters had gotten a hit! (They were 0-for-16, with one hit batter!)
• No Met but Francisco Lindor had gotten a hit since the seventh inning of Game 2! (His teammates were 0 for their last 29!)
• 105 Mets hitters had dug into the batter’s box in this series. They’d combined to hit zero home runs!
• Pete Alonso, who was about to bash that life-changing home run, was 5 for his past 41 (a .122 average) … and hadn’t had an extra-base hit since Sept. 19!
• The man on the mound, normally untouchable Brewers closer Devin Williams, hadn’t allowed a home run, to anyone, in 57 days — spanning 78 consecutive hitters. So since that last home run, the unfortunate humans who had to face him were batting .097, and “slugging” .153. And 36 of those 78 (46.2 percent) had struck out!
And then that closer served up a homer to that hitter in the ninth inning of that game, a winner-take-all October special? Whoa. But wait. It was even more improbable than that. Let’s talk more about …
The Devin Williams Factor — October is quite a month, isn’t it? You watch baseball, day after day, month after month, from April to September. You start to think you have a rough idea of what to expect. But if you’d spent any time watching Devin Williams, you would never have expected that.
• How many runs did the Brewers closer allow all season? That would be three, in 22 appearances. How many runs did he allow in the ninth inning of this game? That would be four. Granted, he was hurt for the first four months. But think about it. He gave up more runs in that inning than he’d given up all season? How Strange But True is that?
• This was the 116th time Williams had thrown a pitch in the ninth inning of any game, regular season or postseason, in his career. Want to guess how many times he’d allowed a lead-flipping (i.e., leading to trailing) home run in the ninth of any of those other 115 games? If you guessed “none,” you’re thinking right along with us here.
• Then there was that pitch. Until that wave of Alonso’s bat, Williams had thrown 190 of his killer changeups this season, according to Statcast. So how many of those 190 changeups had landed on the other side of the fence? Once again, “none” would be a great guess.
• And finally, there’s this: Think about how many pitchers have gone to the mound at least 150 times in the live-ball era. You know which of those pitchers had allowed the lowest slugging percentage in their whole career, when pitching with a lead? I think you do.
The answer, according to Baseball Reference/Stathead, was Devin Williams! Opposing hitters who found themselves in the position the Mets were in had “slugged” .254 against him. And then that happened.
With the odds stacked against him, Pete Alonso powered the Mets to a series-clinching win. (John Fisher / Getty Images)
Hey, but one more thing. Before we move on, you need to contemplate …
Where this fits on the list of iconic October moments – In Tim Britton’s sensational piece on this game in The Athletic, this Pete Alonso passage jumped out at me:
Did he understand Thursday night the magnitude of what he’d just achieved?
“Not right now,” he said with a smile, before a pause. “I don’t think I ever will.”
Or maybe he’ll stumble upon this edition of the Strange But True Feats of the Year column. What was the magnitude of this moment? Let’s fill him in on just how magnitudinous it really was.
A lead-flipping home run in the ninth inning of a winner-take-all game? OK, Pete. Take this in. The complete list of men who have ever hit one of those consists of … just you!
Yes, you read that right. No one in history had ever hit a home run, in the ninth inning of a winner-take-all postseason game, that turned a series loss into a series win until …
Pete Alonso hit That Homer off That Closer to leave Mets fans — and Strange But True fans — everywhere That Moment to remember him by. Amazin’.
GO DEEPER
Pete Alonso’s amazin’, improbable October home run and a Mets comeback for the ages
Strangest But Truest Team of the Year — the White Sox
Andrew Vaughn holds his head as the White Sox finish the final week of a brutal season. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
They lost more games than Choo Choo Coleman’s fabled 1962 Mets. Their fans tried to avoid recognition by hiding their faces under paper bags.
Their manager, Pedro Grifol, made it to 100 games under .500 (in less than two years), then got fired. They went nearly four weeks without winning a game. And when they finally won one, their stadium ran out of beer to wash it down with.
These were just the “highlights” of the Strange But True season of those 2024 Chicago White Sox. I promise I didn’t root for them to do any of this stuff. But I must admit that because they did, this portion of the column practically wrote itself.
How can there not be a major motion picture about this team? Out of the Money-ball. I’d watch it! Now here’s just some of what you’d see.
They knocked Casey Stengel out of the history books! Who said a team couldn’t lose more games than Stengel’s illustrious ’62 Mets (40-120), the longtime gold standard for futility? These White Sox proved it was totally possible. They even won five of their last six and still went 41-121.
How nuts was that? The Phillies won their 41st game on May 31. The White Sox won their 41st on the last day of the season … 121 days later!
They finished 41 games out of next-to-last place! Was 41 the ultimate White Sox magic number? The next-closest team in the AL Central (the Twins) finished 41 games ahead of them. And there was never a day all season when the White Sox were ahead of any team in their division.
The ’62 Mets only finished 18 games out of next-to-last place. The 119-loss 2003 Tigers only finished 20 games out of next-to-last. The worst team in the history of the planet, the 134-loss 1899 Cleveland Spiders, only finished 35 games out of next-to-last place. No team in the modern era had ever even finished 40 games out of next-to-last. But the White Sox were already 38 out of next-to-last before they even made it to September.
You didn’t need a web browser to find them in the standings. You needed a submarine.
They fell to 84 under .500! If you looked at the standings on Sept. 22, with a week to go in the season, I hope you wore your eclipse glasses — because the White Sox were an eyeball-shocking 84 games under .500 (36-120).
So how many other teams since 1900 have ever been 84 under at any point? None would be a good guess.
Only three other teams in the history of this sport reached 84 under — and it’s been a while: Those 1899 Spiders finished 114 under (20-134). … Kirtley Baker’s 1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys finished 90 under (23-113). … And Toad Ramsey’s 1889 Louisville Colonels finished at exactly 84 under (27-111). Always great to walk with legends like those outfits.
They even caught Jeff Stone’s illustrious ’88 Orioles! What group of legendary losers didn’t the White Sox bring back to life this year? They even ran down the team with the longest losing streak in American League history, Jumpin’ Jeff Stone’s 1988 Orioles.
Those Orioles lost their first 21 games of the season, then spent the next three and a half decades in an orbit of their own. But here came the 2024 White Sox, to dredge up their own brand of 21-game losing-streak fun from July 10 to Aug. 5.
• You know how hard it is to go that long without winning? It’s so hard that 197 different pitchers won a game for the other 29 teams in that time when the White Sox were winning zero games. Yep, 197!
• It also takes a while to lose that many games. It took the White Sox so long that they used 38 different players during the streak. Yep, 38!
• One of those 38 was a rookie infielder named Brooks Baldwin. The really cool news was, he made his big-league debut for the White Sox on July 19. The not quite that cool news was, of the first 16 games he played in, his team lost all 16 of them.
• Oh, and one more thing: According to the Baseball Reference transactions page, since the trade deadline was going on during this run of ineptitude, an incredible 171 players got traded — all in that stretch when the White Sox never won a single freaking baseball game.
In other news, they also did all this!
• Would you believe the White Sox started the season by going 0-14 on games played on a Monday? Of course, they were 66 games under .500 on the other six days of the week, too.
• Would you believe they had a streak in the second half in which they went 1-27 at home? The Phillies only lost 26 games in Philadelphia the whole darned season. The White Sox lost 27 in their town in eight weeks.
• Would you believe that, in a related development, on Aug. 28-29, the Rangers won more games at Guaranteed Rate Field in 24 hours (three) than the White Sox had won in the previous 61 days and 13,660 hours (two)?
• Would you believe this team piled up so many losses, it was eliminated from any kind of playoff race on Aug. 17? That was Game 124, but who’s counting?
• Would you believe the White Sox were so good at losing, they lost more games before the end of August (106) than Michael Jordan’s Bulls lost in their six championship seasons combined (104)?
• And, finally, would you believe these White Sox went more than four months — from May 11 to Sept. 15 — without winning a series against a team from their own league? But what the heck? They only got to play 23 of those series in between!
These were your 2024 Chicago White Sox, chasing history — kind of in the way that “Daddy Day Camp” (Rotten Tomatoes score: 1) chased cinematic history.
GO DEEPER
An owner who ‘thinks he knows everything’ led the White Sox to historic disaster
The man from the Planet Ohtanus
Shohei Ohtani had 17 total bases on his historic night in Miami. (Chris Arjoon / Getty Images)
I got to spend a few weeks this October watching Shohei Ohtani play. Here was the best part about doing that: I learned something about this guy.
There are many things in life — and also in baseball — that we’ve always described as “impossible.” But the man from Planet Ohtanus has no idea why the rest of us even use that word.
The stuff we think of as impossible is stuff he looks at and thinks: Hey, maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow and try to do that.
So that brings us to a performance we’ll dare to call The Ohtani Game. It might go down as the greatest game any baseball player has ever had. It’s also the game that most defied our ability to imagine what a human, a member of our species, could do over nine innings.
This was Sept. 19 in Miami — when Ohtani laid out this unfathomable Mission (Not) Impossible:
6-for-6
3 home runs
5 extra-base hits
2 stolen bases
10 RBIs …
And this box-score line never before witnessed in a major-league game:
6-4-6-10
Oh, yeah. And one more thing: It was in this game that he dropped all those feats on the day he became the first man ever to join the 50-Homer, 50-Steal Club.
Seriously!
A rare curtain call for an opposing player, as loanDepot Park celebrates Shohei Ohtani and his historic achievement tonight. pic.twitter.com/93RGG6XfQo
— Marlins on FanDuel Sports Network (@FDSN_Marlins) September 19, 2024
So what are we to make of this performance of the Greatest Shoh on Earth? I’ve been thinking about that for three months. Here’s what:
Three homers, 10 RBIs and two stolen bases! Steven Kwan led off for the AL in the All-Star Game — and he never had a calendar month this year with three homers, 10 RBIs and two stolen bases. Neither did Bo Bichette. Neither did Javy Báez. But that was one day in the life of Shohei Ohtani. Unreal.
Six hits in one game. Does that seem like a lot? Let’s go with yes. Here are just some of the guys who never had a six-hit game: Ted Williams … Stan Musial … Derek Jeter … and the hit king, Pete Rose, who never did that once along the road to 4,256 hits.
Five extra-base hits in one game. Did you know that Babe Freaking Ruth never got five extra-base hits in one game? Neither did Albert Pujols. How ’bout Barry Bonds? Nope. Not him, either. And remember the artist formerly known as José Abreu? He didn’t even get five extra-base hits all season. But the amazing Shohei got five in three hours, because why the heck not?
Three homers in one game. I know it seems like lots of random dudes are running around hitting three bombs in a game these days. But just for perspective, you want to hear the names of a few guys who never had a three-homer game? Well, David Ortiz for one. And Fred McGriff. Not to mention Vladimir Guerrero — both of them.
10 RBIs in one game. I could go on for hours spitting out the names of guys who never drove in 10 runs in one game. But here are a few you may be familiar with: Willie Mays. Mickey Mantle. Henry Aaron. Ted Williams. And Miguel Cabrera.
10 RBIs and two stolen bases in one game. So … do you think anybody else ever had a game with that many RBIs and that many steals? Get a grip. Before Ohtani, only 15 players had ever had a game with just the 10-RBI part of that daily double. You know how many stolen bases those 15 men combined for in those games? That would be exactly … zero!
10 RBIs from the leadoff hitter? Richie Ashburn was a Hall of Fame leadoff man for the Phillies. In 1959, he got to the plate 427 times in the leadoff hole – and drove in a total of eight runs. Sixty-five years later, along came this superhero from Planet Ohtanus — and drove in 10 out of the leadoff hole in six trips to the plate? Yeah, he did. So how many other leadoff hitters have ever had a 10-RBI game in the 105 seasons since RBIs became an official stat? Once again, that answer would be … zero!
Yeah, but he did all of that! Let’s sum it all up. As my friends from STATS reminded us, in those same 105 seasons, only one player has had, during his entire career …
• A game with 10+ RBIs
• A game with 6+ hits
• A game with 5+ extra-base hits
• A game with 3+ home runs
• A game with 2+ stolen bases
(That’s not necessarily in the same game. That’s in any combination of games.)
That one player? Shohei Ohtani.
Who did all of it in The Ohtani Game.
Welcome to one afternoon in the life of Shohei Ohtani, who ohbytheway also once started the All-Star Game as a pitcher and was the closer in the championship game of the World Baseball Classic. But as I was saying, nothing is impossible on Planet Ohtanus.
The Year in Strange But True
GO DEEPER
MLB’s most mind-blowing hitting, pitching feats of the year — plus the 5 most ridiculous games
GO DEEPER
MLB’s weirdest injuries of 2024: Beware of water bottles, heating pads and walls
(Top photo of Shohei Ohtani hitting his 50th home run of the season: Megan Briggs / Getty Images)
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