Look, we can be drama kings and queens, those of us who love sports. A year ago, many of us bid good riddance to 2013 because it seemed impossible that there would ever be a sporting year in New York that made us feel so — what? Depressed? Defeated? Desultory?
Ah, but it turns out such misery is like the old joke: You want to make God laugh? Tell Him this was the worst sports year you’ve ever seen.
Because if He chuckled last year … He’s guffawing now.
OK, it wasn’t all awful. The Rangers made a feel-good trip to the Stanley Cup final in June (and are as hot as any team in the league in December). The Islanders have been touched by pixie dust for two months. The Nets won the first playoff series for Brooklyn since Next Year finally arrived for the Dodgers in 1955. Derek Jeter left in style. Jacob deGrom arrived similarly. And who knows where Odell Beckham Jr. will take us before he’s through.
But those were brief sparkles speckled across a vast, dark firmament this year. 2014 was tough for almost everyone who cares about sports in New York. 2015 will have to be better than that. Right?
(Is that thunder or laughter we hear …?)
Athlete of the year: All due respect, you know it’s been a rough year when the consensus choice is so overwhelmingly obviously a hockey player. But Henrik Lundqvist heroically carried the Rangers to three playoff series victories and reminded us just how electrifying the Garden can be when a team worthy of our affections inhabits it. The dream died three wins shy of the Canyon of Heroes but the ride was unforgettable. And the King was the pilot.
Moment of the year: Even the most frosty-hearted among us had to have goose pimples freckling their flesh when Derek Jeter found yet one more hole on the right side of yet one more defensive alignment, plating the winning run in the final at-bat of his career at Yankee Stadium. The standings insisted it was a meaningless game between the vanquished Yanks and the conquering Orioles; tell that to 50,000 spectators — and one future first-ballot Hall of Famer — who found it impossible to keep their emotions in check. Joe Girardi once famously likened Jeter’s career to a movie; we’d argue it’s even better.
Coach/manager of the year: In New York, in 2014, that is the classic world’s-largest-midget question, but Alain Vigneault did succeed a high-profile, highly flammable personality in John Tortorella and he certainly did guide the Rangers to within sight of Valhalla after a tough early patch. And truth be told, another hockey coach — Jack Capuano — enters 2015 as the leader in the clubhouse for next year’s plaque.
Comeback player of the year: There were those (and you know who you are) who wondered if maybe we already had seen the best of Eli Manning, especially in the teeth of that horrific seven-game losing streak. But in truth, Eli had one of his best years, he was — as always — a physical rock in the lineup every single week, and suddenly he has a whole football city (or at least the portion painted blue) dreaming of what he can do with a full season with Odell Beckham Jr. as a running mate and Victor Cruz returning to the foxhole, too.
Play of the year: It may well be that we need to retire this trophy because it’s almost impossible to conjure an image of any play in any sport measuring up to the absurd one-handed touchdown grab Beckham pulled down against the Cowboys. We talk about Willie Mays’ catch 60 years after. We will do the same with this. It still takes the breath away even after 3,000 viewings and re-viewings.