This was a year of moments.
Justify won the Triple Crown. The US beat Canada in a shootout for gold in women’s hockey at the Pyeongchang Olympics. Stefon Diggs engineered a miracle in Minneapolis to win a playoff game for the Vikings. Roger Federer won a point at the US Open without getting the ball over the net. Tiger Woods walked down the 18th fairway as a winner again.
All of them spectacular.
Photo: AP / The Boston Herald
Still, none of them made the list of the plays of the year.
Here are the best plays in sports for 2018:
10: Holtby saves the Caps
Photo: AP
Washington Capitals goalie Braden Holtby might have turned the NHL’s Stanley Cup Final around with one save.
Alex Tuch had a chance to tie Game 2 of the series with about two minutes left in regulation.
Alone in the slot, he took a pass and had tons of open net to shoot at from right on the doorstep — only to be denied by Holtby, who stabbed his stick at the air and just managed to find the puck.
“Thank God he’s our goalie,” Caps star Alex Ovechkin said.
The Washington Capitals went on to win the series.
9: Harden breaks ankles
Poor Wesley Johnson. All he was trying to do was guard Houston star James Harden, and he ended up on the ground as an unwitting participant in a highlight for the ages.
Harden crossed Johnson over and caused him to stumble to the floor — called “breaking ankles” in basketball vernacular — and it only got worse from there for the Los Angeles Clippers guard.
Harden stared at him, held the ball for nearly three seconds, then made a three-pointer.
8: Messi in a flash
Argentina’s Lionel Messi, even in a full sprint, simply does things that hardly anyone else in the soccer-playing world can pull off.
He took a long pass in a FIFA World Cup game against Nigeria, controlled it with his left thigh, then tapped it forward with his left foot — the ball had not hit the ground yet — then stutter-stepped his way to the ball and delivered a right-footed strike into the far side of the net.
7: Bump, kick, spike
The pass from Kailey Elrod was not perfect, and all Talia Watson could do was get her foot on the ball and flick it skyward.
By the way, this was not soccer. This was volleyball.
The Cedar Crest College Falcons of Allentown, Pennsylvania, had match point against the College of Staten Island on Sept. 6, and Elrod’s bump from the baseline was low.
Watson got her foot on the ball — yes, it is legal — to extend the point, and eventually she had a more conventional set to set up a kill that capped Cedar Crest’s 3-0 victory.
6: Sling and a prayer
Julian McGarvey is a quarterback at Marist College, and his best throw of this year had nothing to do with football. Down by two with time running out in New York state’s Section 1 Class A boys basketball championship game, McGarvey intercepted a long pass, stumbled, gathered himself — some angles show that he did not travel, either — and heaved a 21m desperation try that dropped to give Ardsley a 52-51 win over Tappan Zee.
Ardsley went on to make the state championship game, before eventually falling.
5: LeBron saves the day
Jimmy Butler tried a layup with about three seconds left in overtime, only to have it swatted away by LeBron James, who tracked the play perfectly and rejected Butler’s shot with ease.
Moments later, James outdid himself — again.
After a timeout, James delivered Cleveland a win over Minnesota when he took an inbound pass, turned and swished a fadeaway over Butler to help the Cavs top the Timberwolves 140-138.
4: Tua for the win
This has to be the best second-and-26 play in football history.
Down by three in overtime in the national championship game, one play after taking a very bad sack for a 16-yard loss, Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa connected with DeVonta Smith on a 41-yard toss on what became the final play of the Crimson Tide’s 26-23 win over Georgia.
Tagovailoa took over for Jalen Hurts at the half and threw for three touchdowns as Alabama finished off their fifth national championship in the past 10 seasons.
3: Patriots posterized, twice
The two most memorable plays of the year in the NFL have much in common — they were touchdowns against the New England Patriots, went viral immediately and got cool names.
The Philly Special was Nick Foles catching a touchdown pass from Trey Burton late in the first half of the Philadelphia Eagles’ win in the Super Bowl over the Pats, and the Miami Miracle was the Dolphins connecting on a pass and two laterals before Kenyan Drake darted into the end zone to cap a 69-yard touchdown that beat New England 34-33 on the final play.
2: Arike’s two miracles
Saying Notre Dame’s Arike Ogunbowale had a flair for the dramatic at the women’s Final Four does not even come close to doing what she did justice.
She broke ties and the hearts of Connecticut and Mississippi State.
Against UConn, Ogunbowale’s jumper with 1 second left put Notre Dame ahead to stay in the national semi-finals — and two nights later, in the national title game, she went to the right and let fly with a wild, high-arcing three-pointer that dropped at the buzzer for the win.
1: A dive into Red Sox lore
Andrew Benintendi might never make a better catch.
The Boston Red Sox left fielder made a diving grab to end Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, a huge play on his team’s run to the World Series title.
Boston led 8-6 in Game 4, up 2-1 in the series, but the bases were loaded in Houston and the crowd at Minute Maid Park was roaring.
Alex Bregman hit a liner that was sinking fast, and if it had gotten past Benintendi, the Astros would have likely scored three runs to win, but Benintendi dove perfectly, snared the ball just above the grass and the rest is now Red Sox lore — as well as the play of the year.
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
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