ONE37PM’s Best Sports Moments of 2018

As a salute to the year in sports, ONE37PM editors rounded up their favorite moments, which we've collected here. See you in 2019. 

Ask any Met fan who their favorite player of all time is and chances are David Wright is somewhere near the top of their list. Regardless of what generation of fan they are, from the 1960s 'Amazin' Mets, the 1980s 'Bad Guys' all the way up to today, you'd be hard pressed to find a Met fan, or any baseball fan for that matter, who has something bad to say about Wright. 

Wright had a storied career with the Mets, proving himself to be a cornerstone of the franchise in the 2000s up until today. His career was ultimately cut short due to back problems and injuries which continued to plague him throughout 2015, 2016, 2017 and finally into 2018. He played in just 77 games throughout those years, but he never stopped trying to fight through his injuries to get back to the field. 

On September 29th, 2018, Wright took his final at-bat as a professional baseball player. In front of a hometown crowd at Citi Field, Wright went 0-1 with a walk and a groundout, but it didn't matter. Wright had suited up which was a true testament to his will and dedication to the sport. He was taken out of the game in the fifth inning and proceeded to shake the hands of almost every Met player and coach, doing all this to a standing ovation from the crowd. With tears in his eyes, Wright said goodbye to baseball as a player, leaving behind a legacy that Met fans won't soon forget.—Conor Sheeran

Before #16 seed UMBC faced #1 seed Virginia in the 2018 NCAA tournament, #16 seeds were 0-135 against #1 seeds. But then the unthinkable happened.

The storyline for this matchup was epic. The Virginia Cavaliers secured the tourney's overall #1 seed thanks to its dominating play throughout the season. UMBC secured their automatic bid by hitting a buzzer-beating three in their conference championship game against Vermont. But what myself and America did not expect was an upset unlike no other.

Not only did UMBC made history by becoming the first #16 seed to beat #1 seed in an NCAA tourney game. But they did it in impressive fashion. They completely controlled the game and layeth the smacketh down on the Cavaliers by 20 points. A 20 point ass-kicking on the nation's best defensive team in front of millions of people watching! It was something to behold.

There's a saying in high school basketball that goes, "Bring Your Game, Not Your Name." It seems like UMBC got the memo.

In a era where athletic stars are anointed long before they reach the pinnacle of their sport—Duke freshman Zion Williamson immediately comes to mind. He has roughly 1.3M more followers than Duke's Men's Basketball page on Instagram, for instance—watching Chloe Kim become a national sensation overnight felt like a revelation, and her run to gold in the halfpipe became by far the best moment of the 2018 Winter Olympics. 

This is not to say that Kim was some kind of complete unknown—she was nominated for an ESPY in 2016, and had been talked about in US skiing and snowboarding circles as the American heir apparent to Shaun White. But watching her transformative, twisting run down the pipe in PyeongChang felt like a transformative communal experience in a time where that can be hard to find.

Didn't hurt that she's incredible at social media, too. 

—Lauren Gniazdowski