Pedro Martinez’ 1999 Season Should Have Gotten Him MVP
The Pedro Martinez 1999 season was one of the truly great pitching performances of the modern era and should have been recognized as an MVP year.
The Pedro Martinez 1999 season was one of the truly great pitching performances of the modern era and should have been recognized as an MVP year.
There have been great playoff battles, memorable regular season games, be it prime-time or the late afternoon window. Where did it all start?
Officially, the answer to that question is 2001, when Brady took over the starting reins of the New England Patriots—and ironically made his first start against Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. But how about we dig a little deeper. 1999 was the first football season that both quarterbacks made a significant mark simultaneously, even if Brady was still at college.tom
The St. Louis Rams and Tennessee Titans were not likely candiates to give America a great championship battle. They weren’t even good candidates to make the playoffs, much less the Super Bowl when the 1999 NFL season began. But in an unpredictable year, a great battle is exactly what America got, as the Rams-Titans Super Bowl came down to but a single yard.
Were the 2014 San Antonio Spurs the greatest story of sports redemption in recent years? That was the theory put forth by ABC/ESPN studio commentator Bill Simmons in the aftermath of the Spurs’ demolition of the Miami Heat in this year’s NBA Finals, as he compared them to the 2004 Boston Red Sox. I think Simmons drew a faulty correlation and overlooked another story that’s even better–the 2012 Baltimore Ravens.
The Kentucky Wildcats had won the national championship in 1996 and been to the title game in 1997. The 1998 team was a different animal though. There were no great players and Rick Pitino was gone to the NBA. Tubby Smith was the new coach and even though the roster might not have been loaded, Tubby made sure the beat went on in Lexington.
Jordan, now a 15-year veteran, and sidekick Scottie Pippen, had just enough gas in the tank to survive strong challenges from the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals and the Utah Jazz in the NBA Finals.
For the second straight year, the Detroit Red Wings had a nice regular season, but were seeded behind Western Conference rivals, the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche. And for the second straight year it didn’t matter come playoff time, as the Red Wings rolled to a second consecutive Stanley Cup.
The New York Yankees felt like they’d missed an opportunity in the 1997 playoffs when they lost to the Cleveland Indians in the Division Series. The 1998 New York Yankees took it out on the rest of baseball with a display that, even allowing the many great teams this organization has fielded over the years, was the absolute best.
The Denver Broncos got a long-overdue Super Bowl win in 1997 by going the wild-card route and then winning the Super Bowl itself as a double-digit underdog. The 1998 Denver Broncos completed a back-to-back run and they did it with considerably more authority, as John Elway completed his illustrious career.
The UCLA Bruins hadn’t won a national championship since John Wooden retired on top following the 1975 season. The Bruins had made the Final Four a couple times in the immediate aftermath, in 1976 and again in 1980, but had otherwise been alarmingly absent from the national stage.
New Jersey held its opponent to two goals or fewer 16 times in 20 games, including all four in the Finals. Claude Lemieux scored thirteen postseason goals for New Jersey to win the Conn Smythe Award, as MVP of the entire playoffs.
“Don’t ever underestimate the heart of a champion.” Those were the words of Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich in the post-Finals celebration, a quote that lives on in NBA championship montages. It was a second straight title that marked the Rockets as the team that owned the “interim” period in the Michael Jordan era of NBA history.