We say Goodbye to 2019, Here's a Review.
The year 2019 was a memorable year in sports. This we saw some first times in some of the major professional sports and in the college ranks. I am going to take you down memory for 2019 and you will see what was the most memorable.
January: It all started on New Year's Day with Ohio State winning the Rose Bowl in Urban Meyer's final game as head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes by beat the Washington Huskies 28-23.
The Clemson Tigers went on to win the National Championship in College Football over the Alabama Crimson Tide 44-15 behind QB Trevor Lawrence.
February: It all started with the New England Patriots winning the most boring Super Bowl in History over the Los Angeles Rams 13-3. It was so boring I felt bad for the viewers that actually tried to watch the whole thing without falling asleep.
Denny Hamlin went on to dominate speed weeks at Daytona by winning the Daytona 500 for a second time. Hamlin also had a great NASCAR Season to go with it.
March: NCAA March Madness lives up to it's name as we saw two first timers meeting for the National Championship in College Basketball. The Virginia Cavaliers went into overtime against the Texas Tech Red Raiders with Virginia coming out on top. It was Virginia first National Championship ever and head coach Tony Bennet could have not bee more proud.
April: The NFL Draft was upon us and the question was who was going to go No.1. That question was answered very quickly when it was discovered that Kyler Murray, would go No.1 for the Arizona Cardinals. Former Ohio State Defensive star Nick Bosa, would go No.2 in the Draft.
May: The Month of May at Indianapolis was dominated by Simon Pagenaud and Roger Penske. Pagenaud won the IndyCar Grand Prix on Indy's road circuit. Then two weeks later Pagenaud dominated the Indianapolis 500 leading 116 laps and scoring his first 500.
It was also the 50th anniversary for legendary car owner Roger Penske and what a moment it was at Indy.
June: It was the most memorable month in sports for 2019. It all started with the St Louis Blues winning the biggest prize in NHL Hockey, the Stanley Cup. This was a team that was the laughing stock of the league back in January. They went form worst to first in a span of five months. With the help of goalie Jordan Binnington and Cup finals MVP Ryan O'Reilly the St Louis Blues did something that no other team has done. The Blues beat the Boston Bruins in 7 games.
Just on a side note, The Blues were 10-3 on the road in the playoffs, they were 6-7 at home.
No more than just two days later after the Stanley Cup Finals the Toronto Raptors beat the Golden State Warriors in 6 game to become the NBA Champions. Kawhi Leonard was named MVP of the finals. It would also be the final game for Kevin Durant in a Golden State uniform. Durant suffered a horrible ACL injury during the finals.
Kevin Durant is now a member of the Brooklyn Nets while Kawhi Leonard is now with the Los Angeles Clippers. Durant is out for the 2019-20 season as he recovers form his devastating injury.
October: It was time for postseason baseball. The Washington Nationals were 12 games out of the division lead back on May 25th. The Nationals then went on a tear that would be something to remember. The Nationals got a wild-card spot and had to face the Milwaukee Brewers in the wild-card game. The Brewers were down 4-1 to the Brewers and they came back and won 5-4.
The League Division Series, The Nationals had to face the Dodgers in the NLDS. In game one it was the pitching that got it done. Now let's move on to game five, why you ask, because It was the most memorable LDS game in Baseball History.
In game five Walker Buehler got the start for the Dodgers and he pitched 6 2/3 innings of solid baseball. Manager Dave Roberts pulled Buehler after giving up one run. The Dodgers had a 3-1 lead. Clayton Kershaw was brought in to pitch and then the wheels fell off for the Dodgers.
Kershaw lived up to his name of Chokeshaw in the postseason by giving up the two run lead on back-to-back home runs. The game went into extra innings. Joe Kelly was brought into pitch the 10th inning, then Howie Kendrick, the former Dodger hits a grand slam heard all over the country except at Dodger Stadium.
The Nationals stunned the Dodgers who won 106 games during the regular season. Then it was on to the NLCS where they had no trouble sending the St Louis Cardinals packing with a four game sweep.
The World Series, The Nationals had to face the 107 win Houston Astros in the World Series and the Astros were loaded with pitching and hitting. Justin Verlander was the best pitcher that the Astros had. The Nationals knew they would be tested and they were.
In Game one the Nationals took the win.
In Game two the Nationals won it.
The Nationals shocked the Astros by taking the first two contests on the road.
It was back to D.C for games 3,4,5. The Astros won all three of those games and now it was the Astros up 3-2 going home with a chance to put it away.
The Nationals took game six to force game seven the next night.
In Game seven the Astros had a 2-0 lead then Astros manager A.J. Hinch went to his questionable bull pen. The Nationals took advantage and took game seven 6-2 in Houston.
It was the first time in history of all of the professional sports that the road team won all seven games in a championship series.
Anthony Rendon was named world series MVP. The blame goes to A.J. Hinch for not putting Justin Verlander in the 7th and deciding game.
November: It was College Football that took center stage. Ohio State was a team that many felt was a team that was going to rebuild under new head coach Ryan Day. The Buckeyes schedule was a tough one. They had to face Wisconsin twice, Penn State and of course Michigan. The Buckeyes past the test on all of those occasions. They would go on to win the BIG-10 Championship by beating Wisconsin for a second time.
LSU was a team that nobody thought would even be in the discussion when the season started. QB Joe Burrow was hoping to have a decent season, head coach Ed Oregeon was hoping to see something special in his star. LSU got off to a good start by beating Texas. Then SEC play started, LSU went on to beat, Auburn, Florida, then Alabama on the road. The Tigers won the SEC crown by beating Georgia.
The team that everybody was talking about was Alabama. The question was could they get revenge after losing to Clemson for the National title.
Bama was accused of playing a cupcake schedule. But when it came to the ranked teams Bama had no answer. They lost to LSU at home, then Alabama knew they would have to win out to have any chance at the CFP.
Then came Auburn on the road, The Crimson tide struggled all game, as a matter of fact Alabama QB Mack Jones, who was starting for the injured Tua Tagouvila threw two pick-sixes in the ball game. Auburn had nothing to lose so they decided to ruin the party for Alabama and Nick Saban. Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn said after that game we were proud to ruin the party.
December: It was a memorable month to close out the year. College Basketball has been through so many new No.1 teams in the country I have just stopped taking count. LSU's Joe Burrow won the Heisman Trophy and the food bank in Athens Ohio was seeing so many donations they were so happy.
It was kind of a anticlimactic end to the College Football season. Ohio State beat Wisconsin for the BIG-10 title despite the fact the OSU had to come from behind to do it.
LSU Dominated the SEC championship game over Georgia and Joe Burrow proved himself.
Clemson put 62 on the broad against Virginia in the ACC champions game. The ACC was joke AGAIN!!!.
The only real competitive game was the BIG-12 championship when Oklahoma needed Overtime to beat Baylor 30-23 after coming form behind.
Here's my final take for 2019..
What a year it was and this review of the year tells the story of what happened. The New England Patriots won another Super Bowl.
We saw first time winners in the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Finals and in the World Series. The Toronto Raptors ended a long drought without a professional sports title. The St Louis Blues won their first Stanley Cup after 52 years of waiting, they were the 2nd group of six. The Washington Nationals won the first World Series title in franchise history.
In the College Ranks we saw Virginia win their first NCAA Men's title in their first ever trip to the National championship game.
We also saw Clemson dominate Alabama to win Another College Football National Championship.
The year 2019 was a memorable one at that. So the question is, what will 2020 bring us, hopefully some more dramatic moments in sports. As we closeout 2019 we lost some sports legends along the way and I want to dedicate this post to them as well.
2019 was memorable, will 2020 be the same way, we'll find out.
Bottom Line..
