With the 2019 calendar year coming to a close its truly an end to a crazy year for not only the website but for the sports teams that we cover. Now is the time to reflect on the 2019 year before looking ahead to a 2020 calendar year that already looks to be a sensational one for the site and the teams.
Out of all the great moments I have selected ten that stand out to me personally. Ten moments that meant a lot to me and were incredible to cover in-person.
Cole Sturgeon Final Game of the Year
Talk about going out in style. That is what PawSox outfielder Cole Sturgeon did on September 2nd, the final game of the year. The 28-year-old went 4-for-5 with three home runs and drove in 5 RBIs to carry Pawtucket to a 5-4 victory. But it wasn’t just Sturgeon’s stat line that was impressive, it was how he did it.
Bottom of the 10th, two-out, one-on, trailing by one run. Sturgeon on a 2-2 pitch belted his third home run of the game, this one a walk-off, over the right-field wall at McCoy Stadium.
Sturgeon isn’t exactly known as a power threat. Entering that game he had 7 home runs on the season and was able to hit the double-digit marks thanks to his heroic effort to end the season.
Chelsea at Gillette
It’s not every day you get the opportunity to cover a Premier League side. On May 15th, I had the chance to do just that. New England hosted Chelsea in the “Final Whistle on Hate” match at Gillette Stadium.
The event was smashing success with the total donations coming in north of $4 million. Soccer took the back-seat in the match with the focus on using sports to raise awareness on social causes.
From a soccer perspective, you had stars like Eden Hazard, David Luiz, and Oliver Giroud. New England got a chance to go at a Premier League powerhouse. Ultimately the Revs fell 3-0 with Ross Barkley recording a brace.
Interestingly enough both of these teams are very much different just 7 months later. Arena watched the match from Robert Kraft’s owner’s box and didn’t make his sideline debut until several weeks later in L.A. Since that match New England’s roster has added a number of players including Gustavo Bou and both from a roster composition and a style of play perspective are a completely different team. Chelsea sort of had the same thing go down on their end. Frank Lampard is now the Head Coach for Big Blue and their stars ar Christian Pulisic, Tammy Abraham, and Mason Mount.
Roger Clemens at McCoy
The Rocket came to McCoy Stadium on June 21, 2019. Clemens since the last years of his career has been a villain of sorts. The former Red Sox and Yankees hurler has long been connected to PED’s but on this summer evening for his PawSox Hall of Fame induction, the Texan was very reflective.
You could tell that Clemens meant something to the fans in attendance that day and despite arriving late he was very generous with his time staying well after his obliged time to sign as many autographs as possible for fans.
It’s not often you get to speak to a league MVP, 11-time All-Star, 7-time Cy Young, and one of the best ever to play the game. This was definitely a memorable occasion for me.
Revolution Hiring Bruce Arena
For Revolution fans, this is likely their favorite moment of 2019. Since Arena has been brought on-board the Revolution have made an MLS playoff appearance for the first time since 2015, signed two Designated Players, and overall are very much a team on the rise in MLS.
Revolution Unbeaten Streak
If you had told me earlier in early May that the New England Revolution would go on an 11-match unbeaten streak in 2019 I would have laughed you out of the United States.
And frankly, who could blame that stance. At the time New England was leaking goals faster than the Titanic sinking with a goals allowed pace that would have blown MLS records out of orbit.
But the Revolution proved me and many others wrong. The organization fired Head Coach Brad Friedel and GM Mike Burns in favor of five-time MLS Cup Winner Bruce Arena. Under Interim Head Coach Mike Lapper and then Arena the Revolution cracked off 11-straight unbeaten matches starting on May 11th and ending on August 3rd.
New England’s first loss in the Arena era? Against the best regular-season team in MLS history, Bob Bradley’s 2019 LAFC.
A true pleasure to cover a team that was in that kind of mentality in a sport where unbeaten runs like that are rather tough to put together. In large part due to that streak, the Revolution were propelled into the MLS Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2015.
Trifecta on the road
For the first time in Trifecta Sports’ history, we hit the road to cover a PawSox away game in 2019. A five-hour trip to Lehigh Valley to cover the PawSox taking on the IronPigs at Coca-Cola Park.
Overall it was a pretty cool trip and it capped off a year where we were the only independent media outlet to cover every PawSox game in 2019 home and away.
We are looking forward to hitting the road more in 2020.
Dustin Pedroia’s Final Game
May 18, 2019. That date could very well have been the last time I will see Dustin Pedroia play in-person. Pedroia who has been rehabbing from a serious knee injury for several years now only played one game after that in 2019 with a shortened game on May 24th for the Portland Sea Dogs.
That May 18th game had Pedroia going 0-for-4 for Pawtucket. At the time I had no idea it could be the end of Pedroia’s career, in hindsight, it’s a moment I will likely cherish forever. Five days later Pedroia was shut down for the remainder of the year and for the first time he sounded defeated.
Over the past two years, I got the chance to know Pedroia first-hand rather well. Always upbeat and had no doubts about his return to the big leagues. At the end of that rehab stint, you could tell he knew it could very well be over.
.299 batting average in his career, 140 career home runs while driving in 725 RBIs. Four-time Gold Glove winner, silver slugger, four-time All-Star, Rookie of the Year, League MVP, Three-Time World Series Champion. Hall of Famer? 100%.
