WASHINGTON — Two weeks ago, we brought you our #TOP15 favorite sports stories of 2015. Last week, we counted down the #TOP15 sports moments of the year. Now it’s time for the 15 WTOP Sports stories that you, the reader, made the most popular this year.
Unsurprisingly, the list is football-heavy, with nearly half somehow relating to America’s favorite sport. But there’s plenty of room for baseball, college basketball, golf and other stories as well. See the stories that defined our year here on the Sports page.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
WTOP/Noah Frank
15. Toronto Blue Jays pitcher loves life living in a van
Former Blue Jay (and current Detroit Tiger) Daniel Norris made headlines this spring for choosing to live in his 1978 Volkswagen van during spring training. His odd lifestyle choice didn’t appear to affect his performance, though. The 22-year-old was the centerpiece of the David Price trade, putting up solid numbers over 13 starts in his first big league season.
(Twitter)
Twitter
14. AP Investigation: Olympic teams to swim, boat in Rio’s filth
Over the summer, the Associated Press broke a story that continues to develop and will no doubt dominate the news cycle into next year’s summer Olympics. The contaminated waters around Rio de Janeiro have long been thought to be an issue for swimming, rowing and canoeing events, but this testing showed them to be unsafe for competition.
13. The faces of the Washington Nationals
Say what you will, but people love themselves a photo day. With anticipation around this year’s Washington Nationals team at an all-time high, it’s understandable that people might have wanted to see the faces of the team that would bring home D.C.’s first World Series in over 90 years. Alas, it wasn’t to be.
(Getty Images/Chris Trotman)
Getty Images/Chris Trotman
12. Bryce Harper is right and Matt Williams is wrong, again
The potential signs of trouble came early for the Nationals, as it quickly became clear that their 22-year-old superstar had a more flexible mind for understanding the nuances of the game than their second-year manager. This isolated incident from Spring Training was small on its surface, but proved endemic of the type of issue that would rise time and time again, eventually torpedoing the entire campaign and resulting in Matt Williams’ eventual termination.
11. Where in D.C. to watch each team in the NCAA Tournament
Washington is a city full of transplants (present company included), many of whom still cling fiercely to college loyalties. That makes an event like March Madness even better in a city like ours, as you can find fans of many schools congregating for watch parties. But where to go to watch your favorite team can be tricky, which is why we created this guide. Affiliations change all the time, so we’ll be sure to update it for the 2016 tournament.
(Facebook.com/RagtimeRestaurant)
Facebook.com/RagtimeRestaurant
10. Super Bowl commercials: Watch the ads early
As much as people love football, they love Super Bowl ads nearly as much. That’s what we learned this year, anyway, as people flocked to watch the commercials before they aired for the big game.
((YouTube))
(YouTube)
9. Va. Golfer shoots 3 holes-in-one in single round
In one of the crazier local sports stories of the year, Woodbridge resident Patrick Wills caried three holes-in-one in a single round of golf — including two on a par 4s — and shot a 14-under 57 at Laurel Hill Golf Club in Lorton.
(Courtesy SB Nation)
Courtesy SB Nation
8. Potential replacements at Maryland for Randy Edsall
People may act like they didn’t care about Maryland football this year, but the numbers tell us otherwise. When word came down that head coach Randy Edsall had been fired, this list of potential replacements (three of whom moved into vacancies at Syracuse, Iowa State and Virginia Tech) drew plenty of attention, even if eventual hire D.J. Durkin wasn’t among them.
(AP/Patrick Semansky)
AP/Patrick Semansky
7. The Chicago Cubs and the curse of Murphy
Baseball is a game of superstition and curses, with perhaps no team and fan base as afflicted as that of the Chicago Cubs. And as Daniel Murphy single-handedly torpedoed their season this October, we looked into the bizarre link between that name — Murphy — and Chicago’s misery, only to get much more than we bargained for.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
6. Montgomery County showdown highlights DMV Game of the Week candidates
We covered a handful of high school football games this year and let readers vote on the matchup they most wanted us to attend. There were some hotly contested contests, but none like this one, where the small school battle between Maret and Flint Hill edged the Damascus/Seneca Valley showdown, and also provided us a more entertaining game.
(WTOP/Noah Frank)
WTOP/Noah Frank
5. Super Bowl 49’s advertising winners and losers
Yes, more Super Bowl advertising. As much as we care about winners and losers on the field, we care which commercials worked, which were funny, or sad, or made us talk about them the next day at the office. This list of winners and losers was a winner with our readers.
(PR NEWSWIRE)
PR NEWSWIRE
4. Suggestions for your fantasy football team name
As we all know, the single most important part of the football season is coming up with a topical, creative fantasy football team name. Clearly people were looking for inspiration, making this the fourth most-viewed sports story of the year. Perhaps it even helped you in your own quest for the best fantasy team name.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
3. 10 of the funniest tweets during Super Bowl XLIX
When things go well during the Super Bowl, nobody really notices. But when things go poorly — light banks going out, sharks dancing out of rhythm — everyone chimes in, and they do so on Twitter. This collection of the best tweets from Super Bowl XLIX has us excited to see what the Twitterverse will bring us this year.
2. Ranking the NCAA Tournament team mascots, 68-1
We cover plenty of hard news, from investigative stories, to enterprise stories, to in-depth features, to statistical analyses. But sometimes, we make arbitrary rankings of college mascots, and that’s OK, too.
(AP Photo)
AP Photo
1. Column: You should feel bad for caring about Deflategate
Yes, the fake scandal of the sports year — and our scrutiny of it — was the single most-read sports story of 2015. The best part? It was published the morning before Tom Brady’s absurdist, “balls”-filled press conference, at which point the entire exercise jumped the shark into a parody of itself. What will be next year’s Deflategate? We’ll have to wait until 2016 to find out, but you can sure we’ll be here, ready to give it all the attention that it deserves.
(or lack thereof)
