WASHINGTON — It’s the most wonderful time of the year, when we count down our favorite everything from the past 12 months. We’ll be cataloging the craziest moments of the sports year, the best moments in D.C. sports, and the most-read stories of 2015 later in the month. But to start things off, I wanted to revisit my favorite features from the year — the best stories I had the chance to tell.
I realize this could seem self-serving, but telling stories is the reason we do what we do as journalists. Happy or sad, funny or thought-provoking, if they give us a chance to reminisce about the past or project into the future, the stories we tell define what we do. Whether you read them when they first ran or are seeing them for the first time, I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I enjoyed writing them.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
WTOP/Noah Frank
#15. Why a local man is on the cover of Runner’s World in his underwear
When you offer up a nontraditional pitch, it isn’t always well-received. I had a number of stories that I thought would be really interesting turned down by their subjects this year, across very different cuts of the sports world. So when I asked Bobby Gill, the founder of Cupid’s Undie Run, if he would let me interview him while we ran this year’s new course, I was happy that he jumped on board.
(WTOP/Sarah Beth Hensley)
WTOP/Sarah Beth Hensley
#14. Longtime NCAA basketball coaches who look like their mascots
There is no news value to this piece, but there’s plenty that is fun about it.
It’s a funny idea that first came to me back in 2002 or 2003, in college, when watching John Chaney on television and noting with my roommate how much he looked like the Temple Owl, then realizing the same applied to Kryzewski and others. And it was hilarious searching through images and finding ones that matched up perfectly, like Scott Drew yelling or John Thompson leaning in and clapping.
(AP Photos)
AP Photos
#13. A day in the life of Chris Pontius
Chris Pontius was one of the most popular and longest-tenured members of D.C. United before he was officially traded on Monday to Philadelphia. And yet, despite his status within the soccer community, he managed to fly almost entirely under the radar as a professional athlete in the city.
In order to get a feel for just how he was perceived in the city in which he starred and to get more insight into his day-to-day life, we spent a random, non-gameday together, his roommate and teammate Steve Birnbaum joining in for part of the day. It provided a snapshot of the little things that made his life the same, and different, from the average twenty-somethings.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
WTOP/Noah Frank
#12. Bringing friends together with NBA Jam
One day late this summer, a friend emailed me and asked me if I wanted to play in a 32-man NBA Jam tournament. While I said yes to playing immediately, it didn’t strike me until later that it might make a great story, an event born out of nostalgia for a sports game we all played as kids.
If you’re under the age of 40, video games were a part of your socialization in a way that they weren’t for prior generations. They were a way to entertain yourself, yes, but also a way to share in a communal experience, a way to connect through a common medium, whether playing by ourselves or against one another.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
WTOP/Noah Frank
#11. The Chicago Cubs and the curse of Murphy
Having worked for the Cubs, I know all about the curses, the way the city holds its collective breath under a cloud of dread as soon as things start to turn for the worse in October. But a joking tweet from a New York beat writer tipped me off to the idea that the name Murphy, rather than the goat, might have just as much lore in Chicago Cubs misery.
Sure enough, I was right. And as I went down the rabbit hole looking for more bizarre coincidences, I came across my favorite research nugget of the year. It’s almost enough to make you believe …
(AP Photo)
AP Photo
#10. Five years later on Isner-Mahut and when sport becomes madness
Anyone who remembers Isner-Mahut, the longest tennis match in history, remembers where they were when it happened. It transcended how we look at sports, devolving into a metronomic madness that looked like it might not ever end. It was crazy enough that Andy Samberg used it as a loose construction for the basis of a spoof film this year.
And there was nobody better with whom to rehash the moment, five years after the fact, than the Guardian writer who happened to be on assignment that day. Normally a film writer, Xan Brooks took the helm of the paper’s live blog just as Isner-Mahut reached into the unknown, and he cataloged it with a sublime mix of dark humor and metaphor, setting the bar for such coverage.
(AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett)
AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett
#9. Waiting for Corso: College GameDay comes to Harrisonburg
This was the original title I submitted for the story, rather than the one that actually ran. I’m using it here in the hopes that somewhere out there is a college football fan and Beckett enthusiast who will appreciate the reference.
Even if that dream is too much to ask for, the College GameDay tradition is one always enjoyed best at small schools, the ones so happy for the exposure because they never thought it would come. Fittingly, Harrisonburg rolled out the red carpet when GameDay visited James Madison in October. It was an event arguably bigger than the game itself.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
WTOP/Noah Frank
#8. 500 days of the boys of summer, or why the Nats need to fire Matt Williams
I’m not usually a part of the “fire the manager” crowd. I generally think managers have much less to do with the overall successes and failures of their teams than they are credited with. However, in Williams’ second season at the helm, it had become apparent that he didn’t learn from his mistakes, that he was constantly overwhelmed by the moment.
The realization came to me in early August, before the complete meltdown that would follow. But what happened over the next few weeks was largely unsurprising (the notable exception being Jonathan Papelbon choke-slamming Bryce Harper) given what had already transpired. By the end of the season, Williams’ eventual firing seemed less a reaction to that failure than the only logical course of action.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
#7. The dual legacy of Chris Wondolowski
Wondo is a fascinating case study in how we treat our athletes. By all accounts, he’s an unlikely success story a minor college team player who rode the bench in MLS for years before a fluke of injuries gave him a chance, which he ran with all the way to becoming one of the league’s all-time scoring leaders, even earning time with the National Team.
But his one moment of public failure is what most casual fans know him for, missing a potential game-winning goal in the World Cup. Having graduated high school with Wondo and knowing him peripherally, I had watched how he handled the fallout — the vitriol, the hate, the death threats — with grace. I knew it wouldn’t be an easy topic for him to discuss, but I’m thankful he did.
(AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
AP Photo/Themba Hadebe
#6. The lost boys of college basketball: NJIT’s quest to be nomads no more
Not every story deserves a happy ending, but this one did, and it got one. After pulling a pair of stunning upsets, the New Jersey Institute of Technology basketball team — NJIT, for short — stole the heart of college basketball junkies. But as the only team in Division I without a conference, their chance to play in the NCAA Tournament, to be a March Cinderella etched into our collective consciousness, was impossible.
The first bit of good news came shortly after the story was written — the Highlanders were invited to the CBI, their first postseason tournament. Then, they were invited into the Atlantic Sun Conference, where they became instant front-runners coming into 2015. They’re off to a 5-4 start, and if they can win the A-Sun tourney, they could become March darlings after all.
(AP Photo/Tony Ding)
AP Photo/Tony Ding
#5. Your personal crash course in curling
“Curling seems boring.” I’ve heard that a bunch, usually during the Olympics, yet find people transfixed, watching as teams slide and yell and brush their way down the ice, sliding heavy stones onto a target at the other end. It is captivating, for some reason, even in America, where it still isn’t very well understood.
So I decided to try it out for myself. It turns out, it’s pretty easy to get the hang of on a basic level, and incredibly hard to be any good at.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
WTOP/Noah Frank
#4. Behind the scenes at ‘Pardon the Interruption’
PTI was not just the beginning of a transformation to a debate-styled, round-table dominated slate of programming at ESPN. It is also a show strongly tied to and rooted here in Washington, something that often goes unnoticed not just around the country, but here in D.C.
Filmed here and starring former Washington Post sports writers, the operation manages to avoid a D.C. bias despite its ties. And 15 years later, its often imitated style continues to work.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
WTOP/Noah Frank
#3. On promise, pain and purpose: Austin Cohen’s path less traveled
One of the first stories of the year, Austin’s continues to be one of the most resonant. His positivity in light of what could have been a spirit-crushing diagnosis — an osteosarcoma that cost him half his leg — he remained optimistic, always looking toward a more promising future.
Austin has continued to fight additional health issues over the past year, including a surgery to remove spots from his lungs, and trips to New York for additional medical procedures. His is a story of never giving up the fight to get back to the field. And though he may never play football again, his resolve should give those of lucky enough to have our health pause the next time we run to complain.
(Courtesy: Cohen Family)
Courtesy: Cohen Family
#2. A journey through Baltimore on Reopening Day
Not every story goes where you initially expect it to. I began with the premise of how strange it was to have a baseball game played in front of no people and finished with a much broader piece about the different ways we view sports as part of a city’s fabric and how we react to tragedy.
With Baltimore clearly still very much on edge, it was fascinating to tie the sections of the city together on foot, to see the different states of mind of the locals in the neighborhoods from the Inner Harbor to West Baltimore and between.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
WTOP/Noah Frank
#1. Hall of Famer Randy Johnson finds life after sports through the lens
Nearly every profile you read of an athlete after retirement is a tragic one — a catalog of health problems, or money problems, or legal problems, of once famous men unable to settle into retirement. That’s what made this profile of Randy Johnson one of my absolute favorite finds this year, to see a man who was so dominant within his sport harness another true talent in his retirement.
If you didn’t know Johnson was the one behind the lens, his photographs would still strike you just as impactfully. He’s a great photographer, one I look forward to continuing to follow in the years to come.
(AP Photo/Paul Connors)
