The Best Sports Moments of 2024

These are the top memories of the year as witnessed by the WSJ Sports staff

- Rachel Bachman, Jared Diamond, Jim Chairusmi, Joshua Robinson, Jonathan Clegg, Jason Gay, Laine Higgins, Louise Radnofsky, Robert O’Connell, Andrew Beaton and Ben Cohen

The Caitlin Clark Effect

Last March, I met with David Levy. A former president of Turner, Levy was an architect of the network's and CBS's massive rights deal to broadcast the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

That deal put the NCAA men's title game on TBS every other year-including in 2024. But since the deal's 2010 start, cable TV had bled viewers as subscribers cut the cord. The NCAA women's final, meanwhile, would be on a major network ABC. So I asked Levy: If Caitlin Clark's Iowa team went the distance, could the women's final outdraw...

"No way," he said.

Three weeks later, the early numbers came in: The women's final had outdrawn the men's by 4 million. Levy texted: "18.7 million viewers...uncle...or should I say aunt!!"

Baseball’s (Almost) Worst Nightmare

For a few chaotic days in late March, baseball was on the verge of utter catastrophe.

That’s not an overstatement. Shohei Ohtani is the most important player to come along in generations, and now he was the subject of an explosive gambling scandal that threatened to end it all.

Federal investigators would quickly conclude that Ohtani had done nothing wrong. His longtime interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, had stolen $16 million from Ohtani’s bank account in order to place bets with an illegal bookmaker. Mizuhara has pleaded guilty to bank and tax fraud charges.

The incredible part is how little all of this seemed to affect Ohtani. He hit 54 home runs, drove in 130 runs and stole 59 bases this season, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to a World Series championship.

Ultimately, 2024 further emphasized Ohtani’s greatness—and highlighted the extent to which the specter of gambling looms as a threat.

Playing for Third

The first-ever Super Bowl played in Las Vegas was an epic night capped by a questionable decision.