For a lot of of New York’s groups, 2024 was a 12 months of progress.
The Yankees and Mets launched into their deepest playoff runs in years, fueling an electrical October.
The Knicks and Rangers additionally captivated the town with their very own playoff successes, even when neither finally superior so far as they hoped.
And the Liberty delivered the long-awaited first WNBA title in franchise historical past, within the course of snapping New York’s equally in depth championship drought.
There have been duds, too, notably for the NFL groups that decision MetLife Stadium house.
Certainly, it was an eventful 12 months within the 5 boroughs, even when many of the native groups did not dwell as much as the town’s championship-or-bust expectations.
Listed here are the most important New York sports activities tales of 2024.
YANKEES RETURN TO WORLD SERIES
The Yankees entered 2024 with loads of strain.
Contemporary off of a playoff-less 2023 season that normal supervisor Brian Cashman labeled as a “disaster,” the Yankees made a franchise-altering commerce for Juan Soto, hoping the famous person slugger would assist them return to the World Sequence for the primary time in 15 years.
Soto delivered, hitting a career-high 41 house runs whereas forming an all-time tandem with Aaron Decide.
Decide’s season was much more prolific, as he led the majors with 58 house runs, 144 RBI, 133 walks, a .458 on-base proportion, a .701 slugging proportion and a 1.159 OPS en path to his second American League MVP Award.
The Yankees went 94-68 to win the American League East and clinch the AL’s high seed. They cruised previous the Kansas Metropolis Royals within the ALDS in 4 video games and the Cleveland Guardians within the ALCS in 5 — ending the latter with an instant-classic house run by Soto.
Aaron Decide, pictured throughout Recreation 5 of the World Sequence, gained his second AL MVP Award in 2024. (Picture by Alex Slitz/Getty Photographs)
That arrange a star-powered World Sequence in opposition to the Los Angeles Dodgers — however that’s the place their enjoyable ended.
Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and the Dodgers disposed of the Yankees in 5 video games, throughout which defensive lapses in Video games 1 and 5 proved to be the Bronx Bombers’ undoing.
Nonetheless, the run marked the Yankees’ first journey to the Fall Traditional since 2009, after they gained their twenty seventh championship.
METS MAGIC
Whereas the Yankees’ run didn’t sneak up on many individuals, the Mets’ path to the postseason got here out of nowhere.
After buying and selling away a number of big-name veterans throughout a disappointing 75-win season in 2023, the Mets appeared poised for extra distress in 2024 after they began the season 0-5.
They had been 11 video games under .500 as late as June 2.
After which the magic occurred.
Led by first-year supervisor Carlos Mendoza, the Mets completed the season on a 65-28 run to earn a Nationwide League wild-card spot.
Followers rallied round Grimace, the super-sized McDonald’s mascot whose ceremonial first pitch on June 12 coincided with the Mets’ first massive successful streak.
The sudden contributions of journeyman second baseman Jose Iglesias turned consultant of the Mets’ rag-tag nature, whereas the Latin pop tune he wrote, “OMG,” turned their anthem.
However, greater than something, it was an MVP-caliber season by Francisco Lindor that sparked the Mets’ turnaround.
Extra magic ensued within the playoffs, the place Pete Alonso’s go-ahead house run in Recreation 3 of the Wild Card spherical despatched them previous the Milwaukee Brewers, and Lindor’s NLDS Recreation 4 grand slam pushed them previous the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Mets would go on to lose to the Dodgers within the NLCS in six video games, ending the franchise’s longest run since a visit to the 2015 World Sequence.
SOTO SWEEPSTAKES
The top of the baseball season didn’t spell the tip of the drama for the Yankees and Mets, who went head-to-head in a high-stakes bidding battle to signal Soto.
The Yankees knew full effectively that Soto supposed to check the free-agent market after they acquired him a 12 months earlier, they usually badly needed to maintain him, providing a reported 16-year, $760 million contract.
However the Mets’ Steve Cohen, the richest proprietor in baseball, wouldn’t be denied. He signed Soto to a 15-year, $765 million contract that may max out at $805 million.
Followers can debate whether or not the Mets’ marquee Soto signing is symbolic of a altering of the guard in New York. However what just isn’t debatable is that the lack of Soto is an enormous one for the Yankees — and an enormous acquire for the Mets.
FOOTBALL DYSFUNCTION
The 2024 season was alleged to go a lot in a different way for the Jets.
Aaron Rodgers returned from the Achilles tear that ended his 2023 after solely 4 offensive snaps, bringing with him Tremendous Bowl aspirations.
Play-making weapons Breece Corridor and Garrett Wilson returned, as did a stout protection headlined by cornerback Sauce Gardner.
However the Jets by no means appeared the a part of a contender.
Head coach Robert Saleh was fired after Week 5, and normal supervisor Joe Douglas was canned six weeks later.
Rodgers, 41, didn’t resemble the longer term Corridor of Famer who gained 4 NFL MVP Awards with Inexperienced Bay. The hamstring, knee and ankle accidents he performed by did him no favors.
Even the arrival of Davante Adams — Rodgers’ favourite goal with the Packers — didn’t energize the offense till it was too late.
The Jets had been eradicated from playoff competition by Week 14, after they fell to 3-10.
Extra adjustments are doubtless coming.
Aaron Rodgers is pictured in the course of the Jets’ Dec. 15 sport in Jacksonville, Fla. (Picture by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Photographs)
The 12 months wasn’t any higher for the Giants.
Their resolution to maneuver on from Saquon Barkely backfired because the famous person working again put up MVP-type numbers with the rival Philadelphia Eagles.
They benched Daniel Jones after falling to 2-8, then granted him his launch after an ungainly apply by which he operated because the fourth-string quarterback.
Tommy DeVito and Drew Lock did little to reinforce the quarterback place as Jones’ replacements.
The Giants will attempt once more subsequent 12 months to discover a long-term resolution at QB after failing to take action final offseason.
GIVE THEM LIBERTY
The Liberty had been the one unique WNBA franchise to have by no means gained a championship.
They had been 0-5 in WNBA Finals appearances, together with final 12 months’s, after they fell in 4 video games to the Las Vegas Aces.
The 2024 season marked the second 12 months of the Liberty superteam, with Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu motivated by their unfinished enterprise.
They usually lastly reached the top.
The Liberty slayed a number of dragons to win the 2024 WNBA Finals, together with beating the Aces within the semifinal spherical of the playoffs.
Sabrina Ionescu and New York Liberty gained the primary WNBA championship in franchise historical past. (Picture by Elsa/Getty Photographs)
They then topped the Minnesota Lynx — who gave them hassle all common season — in an instant-classic WNBA Finals by which all 5 video games went all the way down to the wire.
The outcome was New York’s first sports-related ticker-tape parade since 2019, when the Canyon of Heroes celebrated the USA girls’s nationwide soccer group for successful the FIFA World Cup.
KNICKS KICK
Nothing energizes New York fairly like a aggressive Knicks group, and the Knicks had been definitely that in 2024.
Jalen Brunson additional emerged because the face of the Knicks, scoring not less than 39 factors in six of their 13 playoff video games.
His historic manufacturing helped lead the Knicks to a six-game collection victory over the Philadelphia 76ers within the first spherical, throughout which Joel Embiid turned New York’s latest villain.
The Knicks went to seven video games with the Indiana Pacers in a equally epic second-round collection, however a rash of accidents proved an excessive amount of to beat.
OG Anunoby, Mitchell Robinson and Bojan Bogdanović all went down over the course of the postseason, becoming a member of Julius Randle, who suffered a season-ending shoulder damage in January.
Even Brunson broke his left hand — his taking pictures hand — in the course of the Recreation 7 loss to the Pacers at Madison Sq. Backyard when the rating was doubtless already out of attain.
OPEN EXCITEMENT
Title droughts in New York didn’t solely apply to the native groups.
Almost 20 years of shortcomings have hung over the American males within the U.S. Open, the place no U.S. male had reached the ultimate since 2006 or gained it since 2003.
However a number of American males made runs in 2024, benefiting from a wider area not dominated by Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer.
That arrange an All-American semifinal match between Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz, with the latter outlasting his countryman in 5 units in an epic bout at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Fritz turned the primary American man to make the ultimate since Andy Roddick 18 years earlier, however he misplaced in straight units to Jannik Sinner. Roddick stays the final American man to win the Open remaining.
American girls have had rather more success within the U.S. Open, however whereas Jessica Pegula additionally superior to the 2024 remaining, she misplaced in straight units to Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka.
