I was trying to decide how to wrap up this series, I figured why not look back at 1 of the years in the past 10. I was going to try to find the most newsworthy year and talk about it, but then realized I didn't want to talk about 2016, where you had 2 of the majors have champions come back from 3-1 series deficits. I then amended my idea to talk about my favorite sports year, which was easy to narrow down, 2010, 2012, or 2014. Obviously those 3 are the 3 championships the Giants won, so my next step was finding something else to differentiate between those 3. I decided on 2012 because that was the year RG III took the Redskins to the playoffs and I actually watched a lot of their games that season. So let's get into it, the year of 2012, my favorite sports year of the last decade.
January: January is championship time for football. NFL playoffs take the entire month and the NCAA has their premier Bowl games. In 2012 the National Championship was a replay of #1 LSU vs #2 Alabama, in New Orleans at the BCS National Championship Game. They had met earlier in the season in November 2011, a game dubbed "The Game of the Century." That game was sluggfest, a 9-6 Overtime win for LSU, Alabama missed 4 FGs that night. But this was the BCS era and the computers decided we needed round 2, the only other contenders were 1 loss Oklahoma State who lost to Iowa State and 1 loss Stanford who lost to Oregon, and man do those computers love a quality loss. Either way, Alabama had a shot at redemption vs their conference rivals. Alabama's defense smothered LSU, holding them under 100 yards of total offense. Alabama won 21-0 on 5 FGs and a Trent Richardson touchdown, they missed the PAT. LSU only managed 5 first downs the entire game.
February: You get two premier events in February, obviously the Super Bowl and then a couple weeks later the Daytona 500. Super Bowl 46 was also a repeat. The Giants and Patriots faced off 4 years after the helmet catch. This game was just as improbable. Eli again threw up a blind prayer that Mario Manningham came down with. The Giants won 21-17, wasn't the greatest Super Bowl ever, but Aaron Hernandez did catch a Touchdown pass, so that's neat. After the Super Bowl it was time for Daytona. The 2012 Daytona 500 was won by Matt Kenseth because Greg Biffle is a coward, but the race isn't remembered for who won. The 2012 Daytona 500 is remembered for the 2+ hour delay because Juan Pablo Montoya hit a jet dryer, spraying jet fuel all over the track and causing a fire on the track. Juan didn't hit it on purpose, his car broke and he had no control of the car and just plowed right into it. The race was already delayed a day because of rain, so the race was on a Monday night. The entire scene was incredible.
March: There is only 1 event in March, (unless you're like me and watch college wrestling) the NCAA Basketball Tournament. This particular tournament brought us all great joy, as not one but two #2 seeds lost to #15 seeds in the 1st round. Lehigh beat Duke 75-70 and Norfolk State took down Missouri 86-84. Kentucky lead by a young player named Anthony Davis won the Championship beating Kansas 67-59. I can't remember much else from that tournament, of course Kentucky was loaded with Freshman.
April: I always think April is the best month, but of course I'm very biased. In April you get Opening Day, the Natty in hoops, the Masters, and the NFL Draft. The Masters was won by Bubba Watson on the 2nd hole of sudden death. Bubba hit one of the most amazing shots I've ever seen. After hitting his drive into the trees, he hit a hook shot with a 52 degree wedge. The ball got out of the woods and curved towards the green, it bounced on the green and rolled past the hole for an easy putt and the win. It truly was outstanding. The 2012 NFL draft was a huge night for me, earlier in March the Redskins traded up to the #2 pick and it was known that they were taking Robert Griffin III after the Colts took Andrew Luck #1. That's exactly how it went down, I was hesitant at the time, and I was probably right, but RGIII did some special things the next fall. This draft was only 7 years ago but 3 guys taken in the top 5 are already out of the league, Luck, Trent Richardson, and Justin Blackmon.
May: There are a couple premier events in May, you get the Kentucky Derby early in the month, a couple weeks later the Preakness Stakes, and then on Memorial Day weekend you get the best day of racing of the year with the Monaco Grand Prix (F1), Indianapolis 500 (Indy Car), and Coke 600 (NASCAR). The Derby and Preakness were swept by "I'll Have Another" rallied from 7th at one point in the first half of the race to take the lead in final furlong and win by a length and a half. In the Preakness, I'll Have Another used the same strategy of holding back and making a run after the final corner, just barely getting past Bodemeister at the line. Unfortunately, I'll Have Another was scratched before the Belmont and we went another year without a Triple Crown winner. Dario Franchitti won his 3rd Indy 500, you may know his ex-wife Ashley Judd. It was a thrilling finish with the 2nd place driver wrecking coming out of turn 1 on the final lap.
June: In June you get 2 Champions crowned, with the NBA and Stanley Cup Finals both happening. For the NBA it was the first championship won by LeBron James, as he lead the Heat to a dominating 4-1 series win over the Thunder and Kevin Durant. Obviously we can't give LeBron credit for winning the title, but it was his first so it's special. On the NHL side the Los Angles Kings followed hot goal tender Jonathan Quick, to a 4-2 series win over the New Jersey Devils. LA got up 3-0, lost 2 before winning it all in Game 6. Quick was named MVP. One extra moment from June, after a game in Toronto a reporter asked Bryce Harper if he would go have a beer since Canada has a lower drinking age, Bryce looked at him and said "that's a clown question, bro." Absolutely amazing, just awesome.
July: July is usually the slowest sports month of the year, you have baseball and that's it. The MLB All Star game is the premiere event of the month. In 2012 the All Star game was in Kansas City and the only thing I remember is Robinson Cano was in charge of picking the AL entrants for the Home Run Derby and he didn't pick Royals slugger Billy Butler. Then when Cano was hitting in the derby, he was showered with boos from the Royals crowd and promptly hit zero home runs in the derby. Now that's justice. The All Star game itself was a snoozer, the NL won 8-0, Matt Cain got the W, and Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera won the MVP. The win would give the eventual NL champs home field in the World Series, but more on that in October.
August: The London Olympics took up the first 2 weeks of August. The Olympics were dominated by 2 men, Michael Phelps in the pool and Usain Bolt on the track. Andy Murray won the tennis gold for his home country, very cool they played the tennis matches at Wimbledon. On the women's side of things, the US Gymnastics teams won America's hearts again winning the team gold, and Gabby Douglas winning the all-around. Serena Williams won tennis gold in individual and pairs, teaming with Venus to win.
September: September is the beginning and the end for so much. Football starts Labor day weekend for NCAA, and the following weekend for NFL. Baseball wraps up it's regular season. The 2012 MLB season had plenty of highlights. The MVP's were Buster Posey and Miguel Carbrera, who claimed the first triple crown since 1967 and the Rookies of the Year were a couple flash in the pan guys named Mike Trout and Bryce Harper. There were 7 no hitters, including 3 perfect games (Phil Humber, Matt Cain, and Felix Hernandez). For the NFL it was a new beginning in Washington and a young rookie who came out slow in the early part of the year. For Iowa, 2012 was the most forgettable season of the decade.
October: This was a crazy month, the Giants insisted on pushing me to the brink and pulling me back. First in the NLDS with the extra Wild Card being implemented but not the extra day MLB decided to flip the travel schedule. So the lower seeded teams hosted games 1&2, and the higher seed hosted games 3,4,&5 thus eliminating a travel day. The Giants did not take advantage of hosting the first 2 games and promptly fell behind 0-2 before heading to Cincinnati. There they won game 3 in extras, game 4 was a blowout and Game 5 the Giants used a 6 run 5th inning, including a Buster Posey grand slam, to cruise to a 6-4 victory. In the NLCS they got down 3-1 to the Cardinals, before outscoring them 20-1 in the last 3 games. The crazy part is Madison Bumgarner was struggling with his mechanics so the Giants only pitched him once the entire series, a game 1 loss. Instead they turned to Barry Zito in the elimination game 5, and #RallyZito was born. By this time the Zito contract was a joke, he was even left off the 2010 postseason roster, but he pitched a great game 5. He went 7 2/3 innings of shutout pitching, brilliant. Game 6 the Giants looked to Ryan Vogelsong, he delivered giving them 7 innings and career high 9 K's. Then in Game 7, the Giants 2012 Ace Matt Cain pitched 5 2/3 innings and let the bullpen take home the Giants 9-0 win. Game 7 also featured one of the oddest hits ever given up as Hunter Pence, broke his bat on the ball and had his bat hit the ball 3 different times causing some crazy english on the ball, it was the break that blew open the game. The World Series was a cake walk compared to the first 2 rounds, Pablo Sandoval homered 3 times in Game 1, then in Game 4 Ryan Theriot scored when the Blockbuster Marco Scutaro knocked him with 2 outs, then in the bottom of the 10th with 2 outs Sergio Romo threw a fastball to Miguel Cabrera and Miggy was caught so off guard he didn't even swing and boom series over, Giants win their 2nd in 3 years. The Giants ended the season with the All Star game MVP, Regular season MVP, NLCS MVP, and World Series MVP being 4 different players, very cool, and one of those guys Melky Cabrera didn't play in the postseason after failing a PED test.
November: The Redskins had started the season off at 3-6 and were looking like the season was going down the path of so many other seasons. Then after a late week 10, they went off, winning 7 straight games, including Thanksgiving Day vs Dallas. Robert Griffin III was electric and the rest of the team followed his lead. In the last 7 games they played 5 division games, plus an OT game vs Baltimore, and Kirk Cousins got his first career start in December vs Cleveland. It was a magical run, something very special. As I said earlier 2012 wasn't great for Iowa but that November they did host their first Black Friday game vs Nebraska, why they lost 7-13.
December: The best part of December is the championship weekend for college football and the drama of the NFL regular season coming to an end. That December in the Big Ten Championship game, while getting their doors blown off by Wisconsin, Nebraska Wide Receiver Kenny Bell laid down the most wonderful, beautiful, awesome backside block I've ever seen. Nebraska ran a crossing route and when the receiver turned upfield the defender chasing him turned into a brick wall that was Bell. He got leveled and Bell got called for unnecessary roughness, bogus call even 7 years later. Gus Johnson calling the game, said "that's terrible, that's terrible, that's terrible, that's football, Charles that's football, what's he supposed to do?" Find the YouTube video and go 6 to midnight. December ended with the Redskins playing the Cowboys with the winner going to the playoffs, and wouldn't you know Tony Romo choked again. The Redskins won, went to the playoffs where Robert Griffin's career forever changed, but that happened in 2013 and honestly I don't want to think of that RG III, I'll keep those memories from 2012.
That's the year, once I started doing this I realized I made a post with a bunch videos way back in 2012 about 2012, it truly was a great sports year for me. This also ends the decade reflection series that was a lot fun for me. I'll try to get back to Tuesday posts next week when it won't take as much research to put these out. Catch me @derekbredeson, and I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I did writing them.
No comments:
Post a Comment