Article in the New England Baseball Journal detailing his final decision ...
The Choice: Keane caps whirlwind journey with the decision on future
After being drafted and leading North Andover High to Super 8 title, ace weighs commitment to Northeastern with offer from Red Sox
By Eric Beato
August 16, 2019
Tuesday, June 18 — 8:52 p.m.
It’s the middle of the seventh inning of the Massachusetts Super 8 championship game. North Andover is protecting a slim 2-0 lead over St. John’s Prep. Survivor’s seminal 1980s Rocky-inspired anthem, “Eye of the Tiger,” begins to blare over the speakers of Trinity Stadium in Haverhill, Mass.
A slim 6-foot-3, 170-pound figure begins to jog to the mound, and the North Andover crowd erupts in cheers and applause.
“Seb! Seb! Seb!” howl a horde of young children positioned right behind the backstop.
It’s Sebastian Keane, and this is the moment everybody has been awaiting.
Keane — the Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year and the 11th-round draft pick of the Red Sox just two weeks earlier — has delivered his team to this position, bringing the eighth-seeded Scarlet Knights to the brink of an unprecedented state championship.
Keane didn’t start the potential title-clinching game, in part because he had spent the previous day at mandatory orientation at Northeastern, where he started classes earlier this summer. North Andover coach Todd Dulin instead called upon sophomore Brendan Holland, saving Keane for a potential must-win second game the next night — or for exactly this situation. Holland had blanked St. John’s Prep for six innings, giving Dulin the chance to call upon his rested ace — the state’s best pitcher — for a nine-out save.
This moment would be the culmination of a frenzied whirlwind for Keane and his family that included high-pressure playoff games, the MLB draft, graduation, professional contract offers and the beginnings of college — or the start of a pro career.
Keane would eventually earn that save to clinch North Andover’s first Super 8 championship in program history with a 6-0 victory over St. John’s Prep.
“It still hasn’t really sunk in that I’m a state champion,” Keane told New England Baseball Journal a week after North Andover’s state championship-clinching win. “It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. It hasn’t been too stressful; I just want it to be over with, honestly. I want to move on to one thing. Hopefully it will be the right decision.”
To get a better sense of the stress levels the 18-year-old Keane may have been experiencing, let’s review the timeline from his “crazy” last month.
Monday, June 3
It’s the first day of the 2019 MLB draft, and Keane is hopeful that he will be selected by the Chicago Cubs in the second round. Cubs front office personnel has hosted Keane at Wrigley Field this spring, and they are aware of the financial commitment it will take to get Keane to forego his scholarship offer to Northeastern.
It’s also the night of the North Andover senior prom.
“I’m walking around at prom checking my phone,” Keane said. “I didn’t know if I would get drafted in the second round. I’m like, ‘Do you mind if I check my phone?’ It was a lot to think about.”
Keane’s name is not called on Day 1 of the MLB draft, which includes the first two rounds.
“I thought I would get selected by the Cubs in the second round; it didn’t happen,” Keane said. “That’s the way the draft goes. Once a player gets picked, every team’s board changes.”
Tuesday, June 4
It’s the second day of the MLB draft, which includes Round 3 through 10. Keane’s representative has an open dialogue with interested teams, but he has let it be known that teams will have to dip into the draft pool for other picks to accommodate Keane’s financial requests, which are starting to eclipse the slotted value of the picks.
“In the third round, teams were offering money, and we rejected it and said no,” Keane said. “We told teams I would go to school for three years. The agent said the Red Sox might call and try to persuade me to sign with them.”
Wednesday, June 5 — Morning
It’s the day of North Andover’s Super 8 opener against top-seeded and defending champion Franklin, and Keane will be getting the start. He has come to grips with the fact that he is unlikely to get drafted in the top 20 to 30 rounds. More likely, he’ll hear his name called at the end of the draft as a courtesy pick by a team looking to demonstrate their interest. Just before the 11th round is scheduled to start at noon, Sebastian’s father, Tom Keane, receives a call from the family’s representative.
“He said the Red Sox are interested in taking Sebastian and wanted to know what it would take to sign him,” Tom Keane said. “I politely said, ‘No, thank you. It’s an honor, but we want more of an investment.’”
A few minutes later, the representative called back to tell Tom Keane his son would in fact be drafted by the Red Sox in the 11th round.
“Up to Round 10, they don’t want to draft a kid and have him not sign because they’ll lose the money,” Tom Keane said. “I guess their strategy was to draft him as high as they can before someone else takes him. Then they’ll see if they can patch together enough money to sign him.”
Perhaps the Sox attempted to appeal to a local player’s affinity to play for the Sox at Fenway. However, they may have used that strategy on the wrong player. Tom Keane raised his son a Yankees fan after spending his formative years in New York. The Keanes have until July 12 to come to an agreement with the Red Sox, or else the Sox lose the player’s rights.
“I was a little confused by the 11th round,” Sebastian Keane said. “After I told teams I was going to school, I thought that was kind of odd. I thought I’d go in the first few rounds or the 35th.”
Wednesday, June 5 — Evening
It’s opening night of the Super 8 tournament, and Keane takes the ball a handful of hours after being selected by the Red Sox.
Keane rides the energy from the day and pitches 7⅔ innings in a winning effort. He strikes out nine, as North Andover defeats top-seeded and defending champ Franklin.
“Getting drafted by the Sox that day made me energetic and want to win the game so much more,” Keane said. “I felt so good out there. I was having fun. We were playing the No. 1 seed, I just got drafted by the Sox, so many people were watching.”
Keane caps the evening by doing a gauntlet of interviews on the field. He calls it “the best day” of his life.
Friday, June 7
It’s graduation day for the North Andover seniors, and the baseball team has a game against Boston College High scheduled for the next day. As such, the Scarlet Knights baseball players will have to skip the All-Night Party at the school following graduation. They already have missed most Senior Week activities, which included a visit to Kimball Farm and the beach, as well as bowling and mini-golf outings.
“We got excused from all of that stuff,” Keane said. “We were all pretty exhausted without doing any of that.”
Saturday, June 8
North Andover beats BC High, 7-5, to advance to the Super 8 semifinals.
Tuesday, June 11
With a trip to the Super 8 final on the line, Keane tosses eight scoreless innings in a dominant performance, allowing just two hits with 15 strikeouts in a 6-0 victory over Walpole.
Monday, June 17
It’s the day before North Andover’s state championship-clinching win over St. John’s Prep, and Keane is at Northeastern orientation. He spends much of the day walking around the Boston campus before spending the night sleeping in a fourth-floor dorm room with no air conditioning.
“I did so much walking around … sleeping on bogus beds,” Keane said. “I was trying to sleep, but I was cooking the whole time.”
Tuesday, June 18
Dulin gives Holland the nod, and he combines with Keane for a shutout victory over St. John’s Prep.
“They really liked playing for each other, and they also pulled for each other,” Dulin said. “They worked really hard in practice, and as a result, they had a ton of confidence that they could win it.”
Keane continued to wrap his head around the victory a week later.
Sunday, June 23
The Red Sox host the Keane family at Fenway Park. Sebastian spends time chatting with Pedro Martinez one-on-one about how to grip various pitches.
Sunday, June 30
Keane returns to the Northeastern dorms for the start of his summer session.
“I want to get a jump on things so I’m ahead of the game, and it won’t be as stressful in the fall,” he said.
His representative continues to negotiate with the Red Sox.
Monday, July 1
Keane starts summer classes at Northeastern.
“Technically, he could take the summer session, and all of the sudden move out,” Tom Keane said. “He could, but I also think the longer it takes them to make it all work, the more ingrained he’ll be there.”
Friday, July 5
Keane reports to the North Shore Navigators of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League. He plans to pitch 10 to 12 more innings before shutting it down for the season.
“I want to play in the Cape Cod League next year, so I want to play in the Futures League this summer,” Keane said. “I think I’m going to develop a lot more in the three years at Northeastern. I’ll be a priority. I think I can definitely develop into a better pitcher.
Thursday, July 11
Tom Keane texts an NEBJ writer to deliver the news that Sebastian has decided to stay at Northeastern and will not sign with the Red Sox before the July 12 deadline.
“I texted the Red Sox to thank them and hopefully do it again in three years,” Keane texted.
Just like that, Sebastian Keane’s wild ride through the MLB draft, the Super 8 tournament, college orientation and big-league negotiations is over. He’s content now and settling in at Northeastern, where he’ll pitch for the Huskies for the next three years before going through the MLB draft process again.
The Super 8 championship, though, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.