By Jacob Perelman
At the very end of my previous article, which highlighted the best sports moments from the first 6 months of 2023 (go check it out if you haven’t already), I ended with “Come back to read Part 2 in the coming weeks.” Well, here it is.
July
Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Women’s World Cup
This year Spain brought home their first FIFA Women’s World Cup. Before last year’s Women’s World Cup, only 3 countries had won– the United States, Germany, and Norway.
Just a few years before, in 2015, FIFA switched the format from 16 to 24 teams. The US won that year, beating Japan 5-2, in a near blowout match. 2 World Cups later, now in 2023, Spain found themselves in the finals against England, led by left-back Olga Carmona, among others. Even though Spain only scored one goal in that match, it was enough to get their country their first Women’s World Cup title.
August
Little League World Series (LLWS)
When doing my research for this article, I asked my dad what sporting event I should write about for August. He confidently replied with the US Open–though I was sure the Little League World Series was a bigger event. I used reliable Google to find out which event had more viewers. I turned to my dad saying, “How much do you want to bet that the US Open had more viewers than the LLWS?” Turns out, the Little League World Series beat the US Open by around 100,000 viewers. So here I am.
Founded in 1939, the LLWS is played yearly in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. In the most recent tournament, California won, winning by 1 run in a 6-5 game. Of course, this win only added to the overall number of United States LLWS wins (an astounding 37).
However, the US has split into 1 team per state. California has the most wins (7) for a state, but the country with the most wins is China (17).
September
U.S. Open Men’s and Women’s Singles Finals
I guess I’m writing about the US Open anyway.
There are 4 Grand Slam Tournaments in tennis: Wimbledon, Roland Garros (French Open), the Australian Open, and the US Open. These 4 tournaments are considered the most prestigious and most popular for tennis viewers and players. The Grand Slams provide a place where all players can compete in the most challenging matches.
Stretching between August and September, the top tennis players from around the world compete for one of the 4 Grand Slam titles: the US Open, located in Flushing, Queens. This year, World Number 1 Novak Djokovic breezed his way to the men’s singles title. On the women’s side, 19-year-old American Coco Gauff took home the first grand slam title of her young career.
October
American League Championship Series: The Battle of Texas
The MLB playoff format is complicated, so I’ll do my best to describe how this works. On each side of the league, the National League and the American League have 4 Wild Card teams. The winners of each Wild Card series will play a team that won their division, and the winner of each of those series will go to the Championship Series for their league. Picture the divisional series as the quarter-finals, which generally pits two teams against each other from the same division, and the Championship Series as the semifinals. In 2023, the American League Championship Series set the Houston Astros against the Texas Rangers.
This match-up earned the moniker “The Battle of Texas.” The series reached a climatic Game 7, the most games the ALCS can have. The Rangers came away with the American League pennant, led by the ALCS MVP, Adolis Garcia.
Garcia broke records during that series, including the record for the most runs batted in, which is the runs scored on a person’s hits– the number of runs you drove in on your hits. (If you hit a 3-run home run, you would get 3 RBIs) Garcia had 15 RBIs, beating the record by 2, which had been held by Nelson Cruz, who also played for the Rangers when they reached the ALCS in 2011.
November
MLB World Series
The winners from each side’s Championship Series go to the World Series. The Rangers took the pennant in the ALCS, while the Arizona Diamondbacks conquered the NLCS, the National League Championship Series. While this game reached only 5 out of 7 games, it was something special for the Rangers.
The World Series 2023 was something of an underdog story. The Rangers were just a year past winning 68 of 162 games, one of the worst records in the MLB. The Diamondbacks were in a similar situation, winning 74 games in the 2022 season and 84 games in the 2023 season. Both came from a Wild Card game, and neither team lost a home game before the World Series. The Diamondbacks and Rangers went to a Game 7, the longest a League Championship Series can go, so it was expected to be a close series.
The first game lived up to the expectations, but it was the most thrilling and really the only thrilling game in the World Series. Game 1 went into extra innings (basically overtime). With the Diamondbacks leading by 3 runs in the 11th inning (overtime part 2), Corey Seager (the soon-to-be World Series MVP) tied the game up with a dramatic home run. A few innings later, Adolis Garcia topped off the game by hitting the walk-off winner.
I recommend you watch the clip of Garcia’s walk-off home run— it’s quite jaw-dropping.
December:
Shohei Ohtani Signs a Record-Breaking Contract
Ohtani is insane. For those who didn’t read Part 1, Ohtani is highlighted in two of the six best sports moments. In this article, he takes up yet another.
Before Ohtani signed this record-breaking contract, the largest record in American sports history belonged to Patrick Mahomes, who signed with the Kansas City Chiefs for 10 years, earning $450 million total. Ohtani on the other hand, a man who can’t stop winning, signed a 10-year, $700 million contract. I mean, come on, this isn’t even fair.
Furthermore, Ohtani deferred $68 million per year of the $70 million he would be paid, meaning during his time with the Dodgers, he would be paid only $2 million a year. Once his time in LA with the Dodgers is over, he would get $68 million a year, on top of his future contract. This way, he’s still getting paid his due, but the Dodgers can use the money to sign other players–and boy, have they done that. This caused legal issues with the California government, but I won’t be getting into that here.
That’s it from me. Those are the best sports moments from every month in 2023.
The Beacon Beat 