The top 10 New York-area sports stories for 2019
Yankees rightfielder Aaron Judge and second baseman DJ LeMahieu celebrate LeMahieu's game-tying homer in the ninth inning in Game 6 of the ALCS against the Astros on Oct. 19 at Minute Maid Park in Houston. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
10. New York fetes USWNT
There were only three sports teams honored with ticker-tape parades in the Canyon of Heroes in the 2010s. Two were the 2015 and ’19 U.S. women’s national soccer teams, the latter after a second consecutive World Cup title.
9. Koepka holds on at Bethpage
Brooks Koepka reacts after he sinks his putt on the 18th hole to win the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black on May 19. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The PGA Championship returned to Long Island for the first time since 1930, with Brooks Koepka successfully defending his title at Bethpage Black after nearly blowing a seven-stroke lead with four bogeys in a row on the back nine on Sunday.
8. Islanders go on a streak
The Islanders swept a first-round playoff series against the Penguins, returned their roster mostly intact, then come autumn fashioned a team-record 17-game point streak that included only two overtime losses and 15 victories.
7. Giants’ big-name goodbyes
Giants quarterbacks Daniel Jones, left, and quarterback Eli Manning warm up before an NFL game against the Dallas Cowboys on Nov. 4 at MetLife Stadium. Credit: AP/Adam Hunger
The Giants traded mercurial receiver Odell Beckham to the Browns in March. Then, after drafting Daniel Jones No. 6 overall, they benched Eli Manning after two games. He returned in December and secured an emotional win in his presumed home finale.
6. Nets take daily double
The Knicks traded Kristaps Porzingis to the Mavericks in February, part of a plan to land the likes of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Come summer, Durant and Irving did land in New York City . . . but in Brooklyn, not Manhattan.
5. Mets win twin trophies
Jacob deGrom signed a new contract and lived up to it by repeating as NL Cy Young Award winner. Pete Alonso won Rookie of the Year after he hit 53 home runs for a rookie record. It had been 43 years since a team won both awards and missed the playoffs.
4. Islanders break ground at Belmont
Patrick Dowd of Bay Shore celebrates the groundbreaking of the new Islanders arena at Belmont Park on Sept. 21. Credit: Howard Schnapp
August brought final approval for the Islanders’ new arena at Belmont Park, and September brought the official ground-breaking. The plan is for the team to move into a 21st century facility of its own in the 2021-22 season.
3. Yankees reach ALCS
The Yankees ended their first decade since the 1910s without winning a pennant, but they won 103 games despite a crushing series of injuries before losing the ALCS to the Astros. Then they signed the Astros' ace, Gerrit Cole.
2. Wilpons set to sell Mets
This one will not full play out until the 2020s, but late in 2019 came the bombshell — via a scoop by Tiki Barber! —that the Wilpons finally are ready to give up their beloved Mets, to multibillionaire Long Islander Steve Cohen.
1. The Rotten Apple
The Knicks concluded a 17-win season, then picked up where they left off, firing their coach along the way. The Giants and Jets were terrible — again. The Mets missed the playoffs, then fired their manager. The Rangers missed the playoffs. No one won a championship, extending the longest stretch without a major metropolitan-area pro title since 1905-21, and ending a decade with only one championship (the 2011 Giants), New York’s fewest since the 1910s. Yikes.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
