As we count down to 2020, TSN.ca looks back over some of the most interesting stories of 2019. Not necessarily the best of the year, per se, but memorable games, moments and events that are worthy of reflection.

On Tuesday, it's Major League Baseball.

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Gone too soon

After losing three straight games, the 42-43 Los Angeles Angels landed in Dallas ahead of their July 1 matchup with the Rangers looking to get back on track against a division rival. A series at Globe Life Park, three games in Houston and then back to L.A. to take on the Mariners.  It was all so routine – until it wasn’t.

A handful of Angels players and broadcasters were on the team bus ready to depart their Hilton hotel in Southlake, Texas, when travelling secretary Tom Taylor delivered devastating news. Pitcher Tyler Skaggs was found unresponsive in his hotel room and later pronounced dead by local police just two days after pitching against the Oakland A’s. That night’s game was postponed as devastation set in.

Skaggs, 27, was pitching well as one of the Angels’ more reliable rotation arms, having given up just three earned runs over his previous three starts. But more important than his pitching, Skaggs was a devoted husband and a beloved teammate.

As the weeks wore on, the cause of Skaggs’ sudden death became clearer. His autopsy found evidence of fentanyl, oxycodone and alcohol in his system. According to ESPN, an Angels team employee admitted to providing Skaggs with oxycodone for years and gave investigators the names of five other players on the team who also used opiates. The legalities – messy and still ongoing – are complex. And according to best friend and long-time teammate Andrew Heaney, they don’t change a thing.

“It really didn’t change much,” he said. “He’s no longer with us. That’s what hurts the most. The circumstances don’t change how I feel about him. It doesn’t change how everyone here was treated by him and how much they loved him.”

Angels manager Brad Ausmus agreed.

“I said at the time, it didn’t matter to me what the cause was. We still lost someone way too early, someone that we liked and cared about. And there’s a huge void as a result.”

If you believe in the baseball gods, you probably believe they had something to do with what happened next in their first home game after Skaggs’ death. With every player wearing Skaggs’ No. 45 on their jersey, the Angels combined to no-hit the Mariners in a 13-0 victory. The last time a combined no-hitter was thrown in the state of California? July 13, 1991 – the day Skaggs was born.

Soon after the final out, Angels players removed their jerseys and laid them down on the mound one-by-one as a tribute to their fallen teammate.

“Tonight is about him,” teammate Zack Cozart said before the game. “We’re going to do what we can to honour him and keep his legacy going.”

They ended up doing more than anyone could have imagined. - Allan Perkins

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The Blue Jays' kids are alright

The 2019 season was one of the most painful years in recent memory for the Toronto Blue Jays. The team won just 67 games – their lowest total since 2004 – and drew the fewest number of fans since 2010. Toronto was fourth-last in the American League in runs scored (726), second-worst in walks allowed (604) and recorded the second-fewest strikeouts (595) among starting pitchers. But for all the struggles, there was something there wasn’t much of the past few seasons – hope.

No, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s rookie season wasn’t quite as advertised, but he still posted an OPS of .772 with 15 home runs as a 20-year-old rookie. That’s something. Cavan Biggio recorded an on-base percentage of .364 and actually finished ahead of Guerrero in Rookie of the Year voting while playing five different defensive positions. That’s something, too.

After an impressive rookie season in 2018, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. went deep 20 times and had a nifty .869 OPS. If injuries didn’t slow him down late in the season, he could have been even better.

But perhaps the biggest takeaway from 2019 was Bo Bichette. The 21-year-old absolutely raked in 46 games once he was called up in late July, totaling 11 home runs and 29 extra-base hits in just 196 at-bats. If he sustained that level of production for most of a season – or even half, for that matter – he might have given Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez a run as the AL’s top rookie.

“We’re expecting [them] just to continue to get better and better,” Jays general manager Ross Atkins said of his team’s young core after the season.

For the first time in what feels like a long time, it looks like there’s light at the end of the tunnel. - Allan Perkins

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RIP Billy Buck

"Little roller up along first...behind the bag...it GETS THROUGH BUCKNER. Here comes Knight and the METS WIN IT!"

Bill Buckner.

It’s an iconic name that stands alongside others like Paul Henderson, Jean van de Velde, David Tyree and Buster Douglas - all evoke a singular, vivid moment in sports history.

Famous or infamous, just saying those names brings fans back to an indelible play that will never be forgotten.

In more than a century of baseball, few names have ever, or will ever, recall a more dramatic, defining moment than Buckner's infamous error in the 10th inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.

Vin Scully's call of Mookie Wilson's grounder up the first base line that rolled through Buckner's legs to end the game is instantly remembered by those who saw it live...and certainly by any baseball fan with an appreciation of the thrilling moments of the game's history.

Buckner passed away on May 27 at the age of 69 from complications surrounding his battle with dementia. His obituary led with the moment that defined Buckner's career and, in many ways, a losing century of Red Sox baseball.

From the moment of his gaffe, Buckner, already a 17-year veteran at that point, carried Boston's eventual seven-game loss to the Mets on his back. There were plenty of other factors that went into Boston losing that Fall Classic, but Buckner became the face of the defeat. "The Curse of the Bambino" lived on through Billy Buck.

Buckner was released midway through the 1987 season, his legacy in Boston shattered by the play.

"I would have to say that things were good for me here, up until the sixth game of the World Series," he told the Boston Globe upon his departure. "After that, it just went down. All the bad media and fan reaction. I think everybody in this town, including the Red Sox, holds that against me."

Buckner would become a free agent and bounce to the Angels and Royals for three seasons before the story came full circle for himself and the City of Boston.

The Red Sox took him back, ignoring his 40-year-old bad knees to sign him prior to the 1990 season. He received a standing ovation on Opening Day at Fenway Park, and a welcoming tribute from the Globe in the following day's newspaper.

"Bill Buckner, won’t you please come home? First base beckons. New England doesn’t forget. But New England forgives. You are us. We are you. Only by forgiving you do we forgive ourselves."

He played his final 22 games with the Red Sox and retired on June 5. He left the game and moved to Idaho, away from the media spotlight.

But time continued to heal old wounds. The Red Sox invited him back to throw out the first pitch of the 2008 season as Boston celebrated its second world title in four years.

The Fenway crowd cheered for a full two minutes as Buckner wiped a tear from his eye. He acknowledged the fans and fired a strike to former teammate Dwight Evans.

Billy Buck had come home, one last time. - Barry Riz

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Carsten Charles hangs them up

Throwing his last pitch in Game 4 of the 2019 American League Championship Series, against the Houston Astros in the eighth inning, where he was forced to exit after injuring his shoulder is exactly the way CC Sabathia envisioned it.

“It’s kind of fitting," he said. "I threw until I couldn’t anymore.”

The 39-year-old announced before the beginning of the 2019 season that it would be his last and the farewell tour began.

In a season where Sabathia battled a number of injuries, he pitched in 23 games in his final season posting a 5-8 record with a 4.95 ERA

The Vallejo, CA native retired with an impressive list of accomplishments including six All-Star appearances, leading the league in shutouts in both 2006 and 2008, winning the AL Cy Young Award in 2007, claiming the Warren Spahn Award from 2007 to 2009, being named the 2009 ALCS MVP, winning the 2009 World Series and earning membership in the 3000-strikeout club.

Sabathia spent 19 years in the majors making his debut for the Cleveland Indians in 2001, pitching in 33 games posting an impressive 17-5 record. He finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting behind Ichiro Suzuki. He went on to play in Cleveland for 8 seasons before being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in a contract year.

On Dec 18, 2009, Sabathia signed a seven-year, $161 million contract with the Yankees, which was the largest contract ever for a pitcher at the time.  Sabathia would be the Opening Day starter for the Yankees in their first year at the new Yankee Stadium.

Sabathia would go on to spend 11 seasons with the club, posting an 134-88 record with an 3.81 ERA.

Upon retiring, Sabathia received congratulations from a number of high-profile athletes, including the likes of LeBron James

Sabathia finished his career with a 251-161 record and an ERA of 3.74 and was known as a workhorse throughout the Major Leagues, reaching the 200 innings pitched mark on seven occasions.  Sabathia was also known for wearing his heart on his sleeve, most notably when the pitcher gave up a $500,000 bonus in the 2018 season. Sabathia was two innings away from hitting the 155-inning mark which would have enacted the bonus, when he hit Jesus Sucre of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Sabathia was retaliating for the previous inning, when Rays pitcher Andrew Kittredge threw a 93-MPH fastball near Austin Romine’s head. 

The Yankees ended up giving Sabathia the bonus anyway and resigned him for one more year, in what would be his final campaign in the bigs. - Luke Simard

 

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Trent Grisham's very bad 8th

On September 10, reigning National League Most Valuable Player and Milwaukee Brewers right fielder Christian Yelich fouled a delivery from Miami Marlins starter Elieser Hernandez off of his right kneecap, dislocating it and prematurely ending his season with the Brewers in the midst of a playoff chase.

With their talisman and best player injured, the Brewers improbably went 14-5 the rest of the way to claim the second wild card and reach the postseason in consecutive years for only the second time in franchise history and first time in 37 years. At the time, nobody would have guessed that Yelich’s injury would end up being the catalyst for a magical run that led to a World Series triumph, but it did.

Unfortunately for Craig Counsell’s Brewers, though, it wasn’t theirs.

In the NL wild-card game on Oct. 1, the Brewers faced off with NL East runners-up, the Washington Nationals, and things started well for the visitors. Nats ace Max Scherzer walked the game’s first batter and then proceeded to surrender a two-run home run to the next batter, Yasmani Grandal, as Milwaukee jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead. The Brewers added to their lead in the second when Eric Thames led off the inning with a solo shot, quieting the home crowd and extending the lead to 3-0.

Washington pulled one back in the bottom of the third through a Trea Turner home run, but Brewers pitching was masterful. Starter Brandon Woodruff exited the game after four innings with the Turner homer as his lone blemish. He was succeeded on the mound with scoreless frames in the fifth, sixth and seventh with relievers Brent Suter and Drew Pomeranz handling the duty.

The Nationals’ bats woke up in the eighth and that’s when the significance of the injury to Yelich a month before became fully realized.

With his team up by two runs, Counsell turned to hard-throwing closer Josh Hader for a six-out save. Hader started the inning by fanning Victor Robles for the first out. With the pitcher’s spot in the order up, Nationals manager Dave Martinez sent speedy outfielder Michael A. Taylor to the plate to pinch-hit for Stephen Strasburg, who had come in as relief. Hader came inside with a fastball to Taylor and it appeared to catch the outfielder on the left wrist. Home-plate umpire Mike Everitt awarded Taylor first base. Counsell challenged the call with the belief that the ball had in fact struck the knob of the bat and not Taylor’s hand, but the review was inconclusive and the call stood.

Hader then struck out Turner for the second out, brining Ryan Zimmermann to the plate with Taylor on first. The Nationals’ long-time first baseman looped a broken-bat single over second base, allowing Taylor to advance to third and waking up a now-boisterous Nationals Park crowd. Slugger Anthony Rendon came up next, able to work Hader to a full count with runners on the corners. On the 3-2, Hader threw an elevated fastball and Rendon didn’t bite, walking to load the bases.

Super sophomore Juan Soto was up next. On a 1-1 count, Soto ripped a single to right where Christian Yelich would normally be. With Yelich out, right-fielding duties were handed to rookie Trent Grisham.

Taylor was undoubtedly going to score on the hit, making the game 3-2. With Zimmermann being 35 and not a particularly great runner, there was a high likelihood he would have been held at third, rather than attempting to test Grisham’s arm with two outs and with the Nationals’ season hanging in the balance. This would have meant the bases were still loaded with two outs and Howie Kendrick set to bat.

But these are all hypotheticals because Grisham would go on to make the costliest error of 2019.

Seemingly having lost the ball off of the bat, Grisham came too far towards the first baseline and took his body from behind the ball. This forced the 23-year-old Grisham to reach to his right for it, but the ball would travel underneath his glove, towards the wall.

Taylor scored, Zimmermann scored and Rendon scored all the way from first base to give the Nationals a 4-3 lead. Soto was retired for the third out of the inning, caught between second and third and caught up in the moment of the biggest at-bat of his young career.

Nats closer Daniel Hudson came in to work the ninth, striking out Ben Gamel to end the game and send the Nationals to the National League Divisional Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Nationals would, of course, beat the Dodgers in the NLDS, sweep the St. Louis Cardinals for the pennant and defeat the Houston Astros in seven games to win the franchise’s first-ever World Series title.

And all of it started with a foul ball in September. - Mike Beauvais

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Out with the old, in with a championship

The Washington Nationals are World Series Champions, and it was a young, left-handed hitting outfielder leading the charge. Something Nats fans were hoping would happen, nearly a decade ago. 

It was 2012 when Bryce Harper arrived in Washington; he was a 19-year-old looking to lead the organization to its first championship in the clubs history.

Harper’s arrival in D.C. was met with a lot of hype, thanks to Harper being deemed “The Chosen One” as he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated at the young age of 16. 

Harper’s start in Washington didn’t disappoint. In his first season, the Las Vegas native captured the NL Rookie of the Year award, made the all-star team and received MVP votes.

Harper won the NL MVP in 2015 thanks to a season which saw him hit a career high 42 home runs, with a .330 batting average while scoring 118 runs.

By the time 2018 had ended, the right fielder had firmly placed himself amongst the games top outfielders thanks to his power at the plate, cannon for an arm and flair for the game.

Harper was a top personality in baseball, with a signature moment coming at the 2018 home run derby – in Washington – winning it in walk-off style.

But all of the personal success from Harper wasn’t leading to winning. The Nats made the playoffs in Harper’s rookie season, losing 3-2 in the divisional round to the St. Louis Cardinals. A story that would get repeated in 2014, 2016 and 2017 while the team also missed the playoffs in 2013, 2015 and 2018.

Harper was a free agent following the 2018 season and was looking to cash in, and he did just that. Harper signed a massive 13-year, $330 million deal with the Philadelphia Phillies – at the time it was the largest contract in baseball history –

With Harper exiting, it opened the door for Juan Soto.

Just like Harper, Soto cracked the Nationals lineup as a 19-year-old in 2018 playing in 116 games with 22 home runs and 70 runs batted in.

The left-fielder spent most the season hitting fifth – just two spots behind Harper – making a name for himself and finishing second in NL Rookie of the Year voting.

In 2019 he took a leap forward, with Harper out of town, Soto slid up in the order and helped bring the Nationals back to the playoffs thanks to his 34 home runs and 110 runs batted in.

At such a young age, Soto showed that no stage was too big for him, with a signature moment coming in Game 5 of the NLDS when he took Clayton Kershaw deep in the eighth-inning to tie the game.

Soto also showed up in the World Series, driving in seven runs with three home runs with a .333 batting average in the seven games.

After just two seasons in the MLB Soto, 21, has already delivered what Bryce Harper failed to do in D.C. - Luke Bellus

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Astros fire Brandon Taubman

Carlos Correa hit a walk-off home run in Game 6 of the ALCS to send the Astros to the World Series for the second time in three years. Minute Maid Park was deafening as Correa rounded the bases to join his teammates for their sweetest post-game celebration of the season to date. But what should have been joyful turned into something downright embarrassing.

According to Stephanie Apstein of Sports Illustrated, Astros assistant general manager Brandon Taubman repeatedly yelled toward a group of female reporters how glad he was the team acquired closer Roberto Osuna, who was suspended in 2018 under baseball’s Domestic Violence policy. Not only were Taubman’s comments insensitive and hostile, but ill-timed, too, as Osuna surrendered a costly ninth-inning home run sending Game 6 to extra innings and put the team’s eventual win in jeopardy. Two days later, Apstein published a story detailing Taubman’s behaviour.

Instead of an apology, the Astros initially backed Taubman, releasing a statement that accused Apstein of fabricating the story and instead saying Taubman’s comments were directed at another member of the organization. Apstein’s account was immediately corroborated by several other reporters.

In the ensuing days, the MLB began an investigation. Taubman was fired five days after Game 6 and the Astros eventually apologized to Apstein and the other reporters present. Still, the damage was done and instead of the World Series, the big story was Taubman.  

“We were wrong and I am sorry that we initially questioned your professionalism,” Astros owner Jim Crane wrote in a statement to Apstein. “We retract that statement, and I assure you that the Houston Astros will learn from this experience.”

Time will tell if they do. - Allan Perkins