Friday Four-Pack 4.11.25
Another test for Patriots fans. A Boston radio host mutes his audience. A positive spin on Jaylen Brown's injury. New Red Sox doc drops. Media and betting notes!
Another week, another “Do you have a working brain?” test for Patriots fans.
Last week, we ranted about the fans who are still fighting Bob Kraft’s power play to put Bill Parcells in the Patriots Hall of Fame. And I get it—team Hall of Fames are sort of silly anyway.
(Full disclosure—and not an ad—the Patriots Hall of Fame is an excellent way to kill 90 minutes with kids who love football and/or the Patriots. Factor in the drive there and back, a long lunch nearby…boom, an afternoon where the kids are not three inches away from an iPad firing through YouTube shorts of other kids playing Fortnite.
You’re welcome.)
Anyways, yeah, if you’re anti-Parcells you’re kind of a moron.
The team announced the three finalists for the 2025 Hall of Fame induction this week, and there’s an easy choice if you're casting a fan ballot.
Not only is Adam Vinatieri the best kicker in team history, but he’s also one of the best kickers in the history of the sport.
The numbers are silly. In his 24 career, Vinatieri set records for most career points scored (2,673), most consecutive field goals (44), most combined regular season and postseason points (397), most career field goals made (599), most career field goals attempted (715), most career seasons with 100-plus points (21), most career overtime field goals (11), and most field goals made in a postseason (14), which he set in 2006.
His kick in the ‘Tuck Rule’ game vs. the Raiders is the biggest kick in NFL history.
His effort (above) to track down Herschel Walker on a kickoff return is the most athletic play a kicker has ever made in NFL history.
Tack on the big kicks in the Super Bowl, the stats, and the insane longevity, and you have a clear-cut Hall of Famer. He should have been voted into Canton this past year, but he’ll get the call eventually. And he should get the call to don the Patriots ‘Red Jacket’ this summer.
If I had to guess, Vinatieri will lose the fan vote to Julian Edelman. Edelman was a career Patriot, and the fans loved him. Thanks to being teammates with Tom Brady and his ridiculous catch in the Super Bowl comeback against the Falcons, Edelman is overrated. Wes Welker > Julian Edelman. Facts only.
Remember, Gillette Stadium booed Vinatieri when he came back to town with the Colts - one of the more embarrassing moments in Boston sports history. The same people who booed a team legend after all he did for the franchise were probably the same ones who bought and wore Bailey Zappe jerseys to games.
Having him go in with Parcells would also be fitting, seeing as Tuna signed him in 1996. According to Parcells' friend Mike Francesa, Parcells apparently almost cut Vinatieri that same year.
Parcells sent out Vinatieri for a 31-yard field goal with just over 30 seconds remaining and the Patriots leading 28-0. Before doing so, according to Francesa’s account, Parcells told Vinateri he needed to either convert the field-goal attempt or find work elsewhere.
“I’ve had it with that kicker,” Parcells said, according to Francesa, via ProFootballTalk. “If he had missed it I would have cut him. And I told him, ‘You better make this kick’ before I sent him out there. And he made the kick, and he gained confidence little by little, and look who he became.”
Big kick for the franchise if you believe that story.
The team is adamant that the fans will make the final call on who gets in. From the team website:
The Patriots then give fans the opportunity to vote online to select each year's inductee. The Patriots are the only team in the NFL that allows its fans to make the final selection for enshrinement into the franchise's highest individual honor.
So yeah, this is on you, Patriots Fans.
Edelman will eventually get in. Because the team only inducts one player per year, I’m not sure about Logan Mankins. He’s a lineman, and there are other players who will go on the ballot soon. Gronk next year, then guys like Devin McCourty and Matthew Slater after that. Mankins may have to be an ownership call down the road. But with three finalists set for 2025, the fans make the call this summer.
Vote Adam Vinatieri. It should be an easy one. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, I grinded out eight hours of a documentary just for you - you’re welcome. A big-time Boston radio host is silencing fans on social media. And we have the latest on a new morning show in Boston.
All ahead in this week’s Four-Pack.
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On the new 2024 Red Sox documentary…
The above quote from Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran is the biggest headline to come from the new Netflix series The Clubhouse: A Year with the Red Sox.
Your humble newsletter author grinded out all eight hour-long episodes this week in order to provide you - the loyal MutStack reader (and hopefully by now subscriber) - a review for this Friday. Am I a hero for doing this during the week leading up to the Masters while also dealing with the last-minute filing of taxes and the surprise request to help coach one of my son’s baseball teams this spring?
That’s not for me to say. Others might say that, but not me.
Admittedly, it was painful at times. The Clubhouse has some very slow episodes. But since I put in the hours, here are 8+ takeaways from the series.
Jarren Duran is the star. The courage he shows in opening up to the Netflix team about his 2022 suicide attempt has garnered all the headlines, and I get it. I agree with Alex Cora and others who have suggested that his willingness to speak out about his own issues with anxiety and depression will help other young people in the future.
The Netflix series captures some powerful images of a young player who was emotionally rattled as he struggled early in his baseball career. There’s one shot of Cora talking to him in the dugout (I think it was from 2021) where he looks like he might start crying on the spot. There’s some excellent stuff with Duran and his dad - how tough he was on him when he was younger. I think the fathers of young athletes will really be into those episodes early on in the series.
But you also see Duran emerge as one of the better players in all of baseball - and the work he put in to get there. It’s easy to see why Netflix gravitated towards him - and why Cora has been his biggest supporter the last few years. Credit to the series for including the brutal moment where Duran calls a fan by a derogatory gay slur. Hopefully, that’s a low moment that he’s learned from.
The best moments are the baseball moments. I don’t want to give too many spoilers here, but there are some intense baseball moments that are worth seeing. In Episode 5, Brayan Bello and Connor Wong are clearly not on the same page during a game, and Bello is not shy about showing it. And Bello responds when he’s paired with a different catcher later in the series. You have the coaches talking to Bello between innings, which you don’t usually get to see. You have the Red Sox massacring the Yankees with stolen bases and the planning that went into it. We get to watch the players try and rally for the win so that their teammates don’t get traded at the deadline. Good stuff.
The worst moments are also the baseball moments. Netflix draggggsss ooouutttt many of the games where the outcome doesn’t feel like a big deal. Too much game footage for an 81-81 team. And that’s one of the biggest issues with the series—the 2024 Red Sox don’t win anything, so the games don’t feel that important. If I could do it over, I might fast-forward through much of the game replay stuff. Maybe they did that to show the grind of the season?
The funniest moment happens in Portland, ME. TREMENDOUS docuseries work here by Netflix. Within the backdrop of this family-friendly minor league game, you have Portland manager Chad Epperson unleashing a tirade of F-bombs on the umpire on his way to being ejected. It’s in Episode 6, and I watched it twice. Do they give Emmy awards for Netflix documentaries? If so, someone should send the committee this scene. Well-done.
The weirdest moment involves Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy. What? The? F? I’m not sure how the Boston Globe review of this series failed to mention this, but in Episode 8, we go to Shaughnessy’s home in Groton, MA. Apparently, every Friday for like 20 years, there's been a meeting of this club called the “Groton/Yalta” Club. Shaughnessy, Bob Ryan, Leigh Montville, Ben Volin!!! and Bill ‘Spaceman’ Lee are among the members. In the episode, they’re sitting around talking baseball and drinking. Lee is telling a story, and Shaughnessy looks like he’d rather be anywhere else but there. Bizzarre stuff that you have to see to believe. I might watch eight episodes on just that group of lunatics.
Netflix had at least one major miss. The series gives us nothing on the negotiation of Cora’s contract extension, which was signed in July while this was being filmed. Early on, the players allude to the fact that this is his final season. You even have an ESPN clip saying he’ll be a sought-after free agent. Then we get nothing on the extension or the negotiation. How is that possible? Bad, bad miss.
There’s one moment of the Duran Episode I also didn’t like. You should watch the episode - it’s about Duran and his suicide attempt. It’s a powerful story that I felt Netflix tried to over-dramatize with this one scene. You have Duran holding his head, looking down in emotion somewhere in the clubhouse. The camera zooms in on him while you have these ‘sports talk show voices’ saying how bad Duran is and how he’s not a major league player. I know they’re trying to capture the moment, but the voices and the talk show sound super fake (I’m guessing they were), and it was clearly a staged zoom-in. They didn’t need to fake that scene in order to show what Duran was going through - it was unnecessary. At least, that’s how this viewer saw the scene.
Triston Casas is polarizing. Throughout the series, he’s both funny and annoying. He seems like…a lot.
Other random thoughts…I thought there would be more Jason Varitek…No Lou Merloni on camera was a surprise…A lot of run for Jared Carrabis and the Section 10 Crew…Much more 98.5 The Sports Hub audio/video than WEEI…Have not seen Will Flemming in a while; he has gained some weight...I’m glad they gave Joe Castigleone some run in Episode 8…There was way too much Sam Kennedy…Glad the owners stayed away since they won’t talk to the media…Tyler O’Neil seems very likable and has a sick home batting cage…Netflix should offer PG versions of things like this and shows like Last Dance and edit the swears so kids can watch /dadrant.
Should you watch it? If you’re a die-hard Red Sox fan or baseball fan, yes. If you’re a casual, it’s hard to tell you to watch eight hours about a team that finished 81-81: they’re just not that compelling. If you do watch it, or maybe you already have, leave a comment, as I’m curious if people enjoyed it.
Final Grade: B-. Maybe a B if you fast-forward through some of the game footage.
On the Jaylen Brown injury being a good thing…
Just hear me out.
The Celtics’ second-best player is dealing with an injury, which led to a few “HOW CONCERNED ARE YOU????” segments on Boston radio this week.
My response - from my car talking to the radio like a complete moron - was “Not really concerned.”
We know he’s hurt, but he’s been able to play through it now for a while. All indicators are it’s a knee injury that will require surgery in the offseason, but he can play through the pain now without doing further damage. And when you watch him play, you can tell he’s not himself.
“It is what it is. It sucks,” Brown said this week. “I wish I could share more details, but whatever my team needs, whatever I can do, whatever I got, Imma give. I’m looking forward to just taking it one day at a time, and I’m hopeful that some things will improve over the course of these next two weeks or so.”
Obviously, you’d rather have him 100% for the team’s NBA Title defense. But managing this pain and playing through it now allows him to figure out how to best manage it during he playoffs. He’ll catch a break there, too, with all the added rest the NBA builds in in the form of off days.
It also allows the team to work out the rotation and prepare potentially different roles for a playoff run in which Brown is not the focus. Jayson Tatum will bear a lot of the burden of being the All-NBA level player he’s shown all season: it’s not bad to raise the expectations for your best player in the biggest games. Brown did most of the heavy lifting in the last postseason, and this sets up Tatum for his turn.
The return of a healthy Kristaps Porzingis somewhat alleviates the impact of Brown’s injury. The team is 17-2 in the last 19 games Porzingis has played, and he’s playing at a high level, making the offense almost impossible to guard out at the three-point line. I’d probably have a different take on the Brown injury if Porzingis didn’t look so good.
The team and Brown did a smart thing ruling him out of Friday’s game against Charlotte. Locked into the two-seed, the game is meaningless from a team standpoint. But if Brown played, he’d maintain his eligibility for All-NBA honors. There had been a narrative brewing that Brown had come back from the knee injury early just to keep that eligibility. Even Porzingis wondered this week when Brown would rest for the playoff push.
“He always preaches his warrior mindset and he lives by it, but to what extent do we need that right now?” Porzingis said.
By sitting Friday, whether it was his call or the team's call, that award is now out of play.
Maybe the injury catches up to the team in an NBA Finals matchup. But I’d still take the not-quite-100% Celtics in a seven-game series in the Eastern Conference, where it's them and Cleveland. C’s to win the East is still available at -130 on DraftKings if you’re so inclined.
The most concerning Celtics-related thing this week was head coach Joe Mazzulla’s appearance on 98.5 The Sports Hub. Asked about his favorite shows ever on HBO, his Top 3 were Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage, and White Lotus, “In no particular order.” 👀👀👀
No Sopranos. No The Wire. No Succession. No Deadwood. No Game of Thrones. It’s hard to trust a coach who puts Entourage ahead of all those.
On Tony Mazz blocking X.com replies…
There are a couple of things here.
To Tony’s credit, he’s become Boston radio's most prominent Red Sox voice. Full credit to 98.5 The Sports Hub for reportedly buying some promo time on NESN for The Baseball Hour with Tony Mazz. That show is Boston’s baseball radio show.
The Sports Hub has the radio rights to the Patriots, Celtics & Bruins and has now become the Boston baseball talk station...all without the games! So again, credit there.
BUT…
This is a terrible take. People used to call into WEEI and suggest the Red Sox move Kevin Youkilis to the outfield, like it was fantasy baseball or something, and he could just play anywhere. THOSE people had a better take than this one. Roman Anthony is a Top 5 prospect in all of baseball. A quick check of this Baseball Reference page shows 162 games in the minors - all of them in the outfield. I should not be shocked, given Mazz had Kristian Campbell back in the minors after one game.
The post from X.com above has almost 500k views, thanks in part to its stupidity. I’m sure a lot of Red Sox fans would have liked to respond, but Mazz has turned off replies to this post. And all his other posts. You can quote him and call him a moron - which many people did - but you can’t reply. This is soft. Just turn off notifications and don’t look at replies.
It’s not as bad as being duped into believing you were texting with the wife of the Red Sox owner for two years, but this is a rough look for Mazz. He’s happy to rip into anyone, anywhere, anytime on the radio - but don’t you dare think about replying to him on social media.
On your sports media and sports betting notes…
➡️ Less than 11 months after its initial launch and five months after its abrupt cancellation, we can finally close the book on The Rich Shertenlieb Show. Boston’s Classic Rock 100.7 WZLX announced its new morning show this week. Longtime afternoon host Chuck Nowlin is moving to mornings for the Chuck Nowlin Morning Show. Danielle Murr, a longtime member of The Greg Hill Show at WAAF and WEEI, will join as a co-host, along with program director Chris Tyler.
This move should help bring back listeners who might have been pushed away by the station going all sports/guy talk for six months. Nowlin and Murr, in particular, are radio pros who are familiar to the audience.
It's worth mentioning that it sounds like this show was in the works before WZLX randomly hired Shertenlieb last year—a move I’m guessing they wish they could get a mulligan on.
➡️ Speaking of - when you're wrong, you’re wrong. I believed that there was a chance that if The Rich Shertenlieb Show was successful, it could lead WZLX to go full-time sports. A year after I wrote that, they’re 100% a classic rock station. Again. Stay hot, Mut.
➡️ The bigger question is whether the failure of Shertenlieb’s show ended any real chance of a third sports talker in Boston. It's worth watching, especially if the Sox radio rights become available.
➡️ What happens if you die but have over $100k worth of future bets on the Boston Celtics to win the NBA Title in 2025? In Massachusetts, they allowed the bets to be voided after a request from the spouse of the deceased. Robert Linnehan has the interesting story.
➡️ It’s only been a week, but Alex Cora sounds pretty comfortable talking to Will Flemming in the pregame show on WEEI - and Will is getting some good stuff as a result.
➡️ Early MutStack.com rankings have Will Middlebrooks > Lenny DiNardo when it comes to Flemming’s radio partners. No former player on the call for the series this weekend with the White Sox, as WooSox voice Cooper Boardman makes his regular-season Red Sox radio debut alongside Flemming.
➡️ By now, you know my stance RE: golf coverage on TV: it’s abysmal.
It looks even worse this week when we get to watch the Masters via the Masters App. Thursday, if you wanted to, you could have clicked the “Featured Groups” tab on the app and watched Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Colin Morikawa, Joaquin Niemann, Min Woo Lee, and top amateur Jose Luis Ballester hit every shot of their round with just minimal commercial interruption. And if I’m reading this correctly, Friday you’ll get to do the same with- Rose / Spaun / Homa - Rory / Ludvig / Akshay - Morikawa / Niemann / Min Woo - Scheffler / JT / Ballester from like 9 am til dinner.
Meanwhile, the ESPN coverage is delayed and goes ‘shot, shot, commercial, shot, commercial.’
➡️ Decent start for last week’s early Masters ideas, but it’s too early to care. Friday’s wind is likely to flip the leaderboard a few times. Go, Ludvig, go.
And with that, we have for sure said it all.
The Debry Prep season is over, so we’ll take a break from the Saturday racing posts and return next week to start digging into Kentucky Derby 151.
Good luck with all the Masters bets. And thanks for reading.
Good weekend.
Tuck rule game, what a throwback. Vinatieri is something else with those kicks in the snow. My wife hates football but, even she respects that they play in any weather. I have always said that video of Duran standing there watching Dugie run a mile was a motivating factor, now I feel different about it. I haven't watched yet but, I feel bad if he took it like that. Dudes a beast and I believe the leader we need in the clubhouse, as far as players are concerned. Raffy isn't a leader, and I do not see anyone else with the passion and ability to step up. He doesn't need a "C" on his jersey, we just know. Good looks.
Great Parcells story about Vinatieri almost being shown the door. Good for you sitting through that red sox doc. Masters is taking a backseat to a basketball team in Orlando. I ask you Mut, do you believe in Magic?