In 2024, we had this guy in New York sports, big guy, hit 58 home runs and come that close to being the only guy in the history of the Yankees to hit 60 home runs twice. That was Aaron Judge, of course, whose regular season did feel like a 99 on a scale of 100 until he, well, dropped the ball in the postseason.
Across town we had Francisco Lindor having as exciting and dynamic a season as any Met has ever had, lifting his own game and his team at the end of May when it looked as if another Mets season was about to go up in smoke, taking the Mets all the way to the National League Championship Series, and giving the Dodgers, the eventual World Series champs, all they ever could have wanted across six games.
But neither one of them is the Sportsperson of the Year around here. Nor is Jalen Brunson, who also lifted his team, the Knicks, in a way no single player has since Patrick Ewing got to town from Georgetown. Brunson was a superb point guard in a point guard city, playing the position as well as the great Walt (Clyde) Frazier once did at the Garden, swishing and dishing and even ended ’24 with a flourish, putting a double nickel on the Wizards as the Knicks were finishing one of the best months they’ve had in ages.
They all made us watch and care this past year, but it doesn’t make them Sportsperson of the Year, because Juan Soto was. And is.
He came here to be the straw to stir the drink that Reggie Jackson once was for the Yankees and that is exactly what he became for the Yankees, even if he didn’t put them back on top in the end the way Reggie did back in 1977, when at the very end he beat the Dodgers in a World Series all by himself.
Soto and Judge were a team, for sure, the way Ruth and Gehrig were a team and then Maris and Mantle were in 1961. They made the Yankees dangerous again, because there was never a close game, the Yankees either ahead of behind, when you look ahead to when the two of them would be back at the plate in the late innings. Judge was once again the best home run hitter in the sport. But Soto looked like the best and most complete hitter anywhere, because of his power and his discipline and one of the sweetest swings you will ever see in this world.
Then, when the money was on the table in October and Judge was slumping, Soto stepped up all over again, getting 16 hits in 14 postseason games; having an on-base percentage of .478 and batting average of .368 in the league championship series and then a .522 on-base percentage and a .313 batting average in the World Series. All in, he was on base 30 times in the Yankees’ 14 postseason game. To the finish, he was everything he was advertised to be.
And when the season was over, he rang the bell one last time, in a different kind of Subway Series between Steve Cohen and Hal Steinbrenner, signing the biggest free agent contract in history to go across town and play for the Mets. From spring training all the way until he signed that deal, he was the biggest baseball story in town, because of the way he delivered once he got here and because of the constant speculation, building to his free agency, about whether he would stay with the Yankees or go play baseball someplace else.
He will never have Reggie’s swagger, or way with words. No one will ever describe him the way Graig Nettles once did with Reggie, Nettles saying that if reporters tried to pass Reggie’s locker without talking to him, Reggie would trip them. Doesn’t change the fact that Soto did become the straw that stirred the drink for the ’24 Yankees, without question, even in another MVP season for Judge; even with Lindor making his own MVP run with the Mets; even with the chants of “MVP” ringing in Jalen Brunson’s ears last spring.
Soto is the one who made the most news, start to finish, really without having to say a word, just by taking his place in front of Aaron Judge in Aaron Boone’s batting order. He was everything the Yankees could have expected from Opening Day in Houston on. And Yankee fans will always wonder what might have happened if the Yankees had forced a Game 6 in Los Angeles in the Series, just because Judge was starting to swing the bat again at the end.
Did others try to make as much news as Soto? You know another Aaron — Rodgers — sure did. But he was the one who mostly stirred the drink bad. Along the way, though, he sucked up so much oxygen that everybody else around the Jets must have occasionally found themselves gasping for breath. Or reaching for oxygen masks.
Rodgers was still a giant star here, but for all the wrong reasons. No, we had four stars who delivered the goods in such a rousing and entertaining way:
Judge.
Lindor.
Brunson.
Soto.
But none of the others were under as much pressure as Soto was, really from the time the Yankees traded for him. He was brought here to at least help get them back to the World Series for the first time since 2009. That is exactly what he did, on the great stage of Yankee Stadium, and under the big top of the big city. He delivered for Judge, hitting behind him. He delivered for the Yankees. And finally, after doing all that, he delivered for himself. Other guys had years. Not like his year. Everybody else had stakes. Not like his.
Then not only did he leave, he stayed. Even Reggie never pulled that off.
