Overview:
Jeff McNeil celebrates the Mets’ wild-card triumph with a newborn daughter; The Guardians’ Shane Bieber is expecting his own new addition — and perhaps a new team, as well
The song “Let’s Go Mets!” had reached gold-level status by the time Jesse Orosco performed its final outro to the 1986 Major League Baseball season.
The lefthanded relief pitcher, Santa Barbara born and bred, struck out Boston Red Sox second baseman Marty Barrett to clinch the World Series championship for the New York Mets.
For one shining moment, Orosco was the King of Queens.
The song is sure to be replayed in that borough many times this week as the Mets battle the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Division Series.
But Jeff McNeil, the latest Mets star from our local playing fields, was busy singing a different tune as his team advanced in the playoffs with Thursday’s wild-card victory over the Milwaukee Brewers:
“Let’s Go Mom!”
His wife, Tatiana DaSilva McNeil, gave birth to their second child just hours after Pete Alonso’s three-run home run in the ninth inning carried the Mets to their epic, 4-2, comeback victory.
“Officially a girl dad!!” McNeil declared Friday on his Instagram account. “Serena Bee McNeil, October 4th, 2024.”
His post was accompanied by the tune of Taylor Swift’s “Never Grow Up.”
He did reshare news of the Mets’ dramatic win, however, with the caption of “Let’s Go!” in his Instagram story.
McNeil, who learned his baseball on the diamonds of the Goleta Valley South Little League, could only cheer on the Mets the last month. He was sidelined when a pitch from Brandon Williamson fractured his right wrist in a Sept. 8 game against the Cincinnati Reds.
It was a cruel turn of events after he’d bounced back from a slow start to the season. He’d batted .289 after the All-Star break, clubbing four home runs in the first five games alone.
“Huge blow,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said when the injury was diagnosed.
“The way he’s been playing the past two months all the way to this point, he’s been a huge reason, one of the reasons, why we got to this position.”
But McNeil, who won the 2022 National League batting championship with a .326 average, isn’t giving up on this year. He resumed baseball activities last week with hopes of playing if the Mets go deep into the playoffs.
“Not how you want to end the season,” he said of the injury. “A little unfortunate … I want to be out there with the guys.
“This team has done so much. Just want to contribute. But (we’ve) got a good group of guys in there who can do it, and (I’m) just going to be happy to be here and be part of it.”
Pregnant Pause
Former UC Santa Barbara pitcher Shane Bieber also has been relegated to the role of spectator as his Cleveland Guardians play the Detroit Tigers in this week’s American League Championship Series.
Bieber, winner of the 2020 American League Cy Young Award, underwent Tommy John surgery in April to reconstruct the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
The tear in that ligament, however, did come with a silver lining: It allowed him to support his wife, Kara, who is due to deliver their first child in February.
“Just enjoying that time and really taking advantage of quality time and taking good care of both our bodies,” Bieber said. “Getting plenty of rest.
“It’s funny how life works, and I’m very happy to be able to attack my rehab while also spending this time with her.”
Bieber, 29, met his wife, the former Kara Maxine Kavajecz, when they were students at UCSB. They were married in January 2023.
Cleveland selected him in the fourth round of the 2016 MLB draft just as he was pitching the Gauchos to the first College World Series berth in their history.
He has started 134 games for the Guardians in parts of seven seasons, compiling a win-loss record of 62-32 and an earned-run average of 3.22.
Bieber, a two-time All-Star, threw 12 scoreless innings to start this season, striking out 20 and allowing no earned runs, when he hurt his elbow.
The rehabilitation from that kind of injury often takes a full year. Bieber said the Guardians’ training staff has kept him from rushing it too much.
“Looking at guys who have come back from Tommy John and done it successfully, it’s like they do it on the correct timeline,” Bieber said. “There are reasons to push and there are situations where it’s good to do that, and the risk is worth the reward.”
He says the trainers have done a great job “just taking care of me.”
“It’s a good thing that I want to push, and it’s a good thing that they want to pull me back,” he said.
But Bieber, who will become a free agent after the end of this season, may not be back with Cleveland next spring.
Although the Guardians want to sign him to a new contract, several other teams, including the Boston Red Sox, have set their sights on him.
“I try and keep an easy mindset about it,” Bieber said. “Just enjoying this time.
“I know it’s kind of cliché, but hopefully you can feel the sincerity. That’s just how I am.
“I’m going to let my people handle (next season). But right now, I’m happy to watch these guys go win a World Series.”
McCann-Do Attitude
James McCann, veteran catcher of the Baltimore Orioles, is also now out of the playoffs after his team was swept by Kansas City in their wild-card series.
But his own baby quest has helped put him into a different kind of MLB competition: The Orioles nominated the former Dos Pueblos High School star for the Roberto Clemente Award.
It goes to the MLB player who “best represents the game of baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.”
The winner will be announced during World Series week.
McCann, who graduated from DPHS in 2008, was also nominated by the New York Mets in 2022 for the years he and his wife, Jessica, have supported families with babies in neonatal intensive-care units.
Their own twin sons, Christian and Kane, spent the first seven weeks of their lives in Vanderbilt Children’s Neonatology Intensive Care Unit after their premature births in December 2017.
James and Jessica were at the hospital on Christmas morning when they received a gift card from country music superstars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.
“One of their children had spent time in that Vanderbilt NICU,” McCann said. “It was just a little gift card, but it meant so much to know that somebody else out there was thinking about us while everyone else is at home with their family celebrating Christmas.”
It motivated the McCanns to support NICU workers, patients and their families the last six years with both deeds and donations.
McCann, now 34, has expanded his philanthropy over the years.
He and Jessica donated 50 pairs of shoes to Church of the City’s Wrap Around Closet to support children in foster care.
They also made videos for Meals on Wheels to promote a “Night of A Million Meals” event.
But McCann enjoyed nothing more than taking the lead in the Orioles’ partnership with Harlem Park Elementary/Middle School. He and Jessica helped to start off the school year by providing its students with new backpacks, clothing and shoes.
He also welcomed the kids to Camden Yards for Oriole games and returned the visits to teach in their physical education classes.
“This year has actually been really special,” McCann said, “going over to Harlem Park and getting to do P.E. classes and hang out with the kids there, and just being a positive role model for some of those kids.”
McCann, the son of Goleta’s Carla and Jim McCann, received a different kind of honor recently when Major League Baseball presented him with a 10-year service award. It’s a feat of endurance accomplished by only about 7% of big-league players.
He played for the Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox and New York Mets before the Orioles traded for him two seasons ago.
McCann caught fire in the final month of this year’s regular season. He raised his batting average from .217 to .234 by going 11-for-34 (.324) with two doubles, four home runs and 11 runs batted in.
But he’d gained the respect of his manager long before that.
“He’s done a lot of great things with the community, and congratulations to him,” Brandon Hyde said of McCann’s Clemente Award nomination.
“This is something that’s really, really special, and it means a lot to players.”
Baseball, after all, can be more than just a game.
