By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk
BOSTON – The year twenty-twenty-five was a difficult year. The news was grim. We lost too many favorite people, actors and rock stars but the sports scene was a constant source of entertainment and solace.
January 2025 brought terrible wild fires in California with the Palisades fire destroying a legendary neighborhood near Los Angeles. It worsened with the inauguration – but that’s a column for another day.
We lost the lovable, boxing great and entrepreneur/grill salesman George Foreman. Midyear, we lost rock legends in Beach Boys leader and songwriter Brian Wilson and Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne.
We lost President Jimmy Carter and every living POTUS attended his funeral to pay proper respects to a wonderful man who set the standard for life after a Presidency.
Astronaut Jim Lovell, the captain of the ill-fated yet miraculous Apollo 13, passed away at the age of 97. In September, we lost one of Hollywood’s most admired legends with the death of Robert Redford and not too much later, we lost actors Diane Keaton and a personal fave – Val Kilmer (Top Gun (1986), The Doors (1991), Tombstone (1993) and Heat (1995). We lost the great Gene Hackman and then heard of the terrible death of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner.
After the death of beloved Pope Francis, 88, Pope Leo XIV, the first United States-born Pope, brightened spirits for a new generation of Roman Catholics, never mind lifting the hopes for championships in his native Chicagoland and at Villanova University, near Philadelphia, where the Pontiff attended college as “just a guy” named Robert Francis Prevost.
The war in Ukraine/Russia rages on and National Guard hit the streets in five US cities, with two guardsman shot and killed in an ambush in Washington DC in November. On a dark December New England Saturday, two students at Brown University were shot and killed while nine others were wounded by bullets and an entire region was wounded without scars – but mentally. A day later, the same gunman shot at MIT Professor and the mass shooting numbers for the United States, alone, swelled to 470 for 2025. The same weekend, crazed gunmen in Bondi Beach, (near Sydney) Australia, killed 16 and wounded at least 40 others in an attack on a gathering of people of the Jewish faith celebrating the first night of Hanukkah.
There were jewel heists and constant bickering over the release of the Trump-dreaded Epstein files which were ruled to be made public by Congressional decree.
As noted the world of sports provided some incredible moments and entire seasons. The Philadelphia Eagles upended the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl and Baseball had an amazing 2025 season and postseason. The current NFL season is primed to provide an unpredictable playoffs to culminate at the Super Bowl (Santa Clara) in February 2026.
My beloved St. John’s won the BIG EAST (regular season and conference title) to enjoy their best season in 30 years. The Johnnies had The Garden rocking as they went undefeated on their home court, but lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament (to Arkansas), putting a quick end to March Madness in Jamaica Estates.
Rory McIlroy won The Masters and, in doing so, clinched a Career Grand Slam of wins at golf’s four major championships.
The Florida Gators took the NCAA men’s tournament while the UConn Huskies won their 12th NCAA women’s tourney in grand fashion with a statement victory over the tough South Carolina Gamecocks, 82-59. In the NBA, regular season and NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the OKC Thunder to the 2025 NBA title.
Lastly, on another personal adventure, the NBA played a pair of exhibitions in Abu Dhabi and – together with longtime basketball friends – we were able to attend one of the games while we launched the NBA Basketball School of Turkiye and managed to win the U-17 young men’s tournament in the UAE. Remember, Gold Medals are a good thing.
Twenty-twenty-five is almost over and that’s a good thing. Let’s be sure there are much better days ahead.
HERE NOW, THE NOTES – Picking up from last weekend’s January-to-June 2025 Part I of the list, here’s what was written in WWYI from July-to-December:
July 6:
- The Kaitlin Clark Effect
- PGA TOUR adjusts tourney purses upward
July 13:
- Savannah Bananas Invade Fenway and it was fun
- Fred VanFleet Named NBA Players’ Assn. President
July 20:
- STAND UP to Cancer
- WNBA: “Failing to prepare, is preparing to fail.”
July 27:
- House of Reps Order = Real March Madness; Govt. should stay out
- Gotham City
August 3:
- FedEx Cup Playoff Preview
- WNBA in Boston? Not So Fast
August 10:
- Seasons Change: A Look at Fall Sports
- JIMMY Fund Radio/Telethon
August 17:
- HARD KNOCKS is Back
- BU vs. BU
August 24:
- The New ESPN App
- Whole Lotta Streaming and $
August 31:
- Ryder Cup Preview | Bradley Family
- College Football Preview
September 7:
- Basketball Hall of Fame | Jeff Twiss
- NFL Preview
September 14:
- U.S. Open Tennis
- What it Takes to Watch Sports on TV
September 21:
- What Happened to Penn State?
- Ryder Cup Preview at Bethpage Park (Black Course)
September 28:
- USA Ryder Cup Blues
- College Football Report
- WNBA Uprising vs League, Officiating
October 5 (Special Edition):
- Dateline: Abu Dhabi
- NBA Basketball School Tournament
October 12:
- Thoughts from Abu Dhabi – Post Trip
- The Story of “I Love This Game”
- NBA and NHL Look-Aheads
October 19:
- College Basketball 2025-26
- St. John’s with High Ranking, Higher Expectations
- MLB Gold Gloves
October 26:
- Federal Gambling Investigation Involving Basketball
- Paul Newman and The Sting tribute
November 2:
- Load Management Issues Examined
- BC vs. ND
- CFP Schedule and Look-Ahead
November 9:
- Thank You to Baseball for an Incredible Season of ‘25
- Penn Gaming Flops
- NBA on NBC (Peacock Network) Plays it Straight
November 16:
- NBA in “Good Trouble” with dominant International Team Set for All-Star ‘26
- MLS Calendar Change Upcoming
November 22 (Thanksgiving Day Preview):
- TL Thank-You Column
- Great TV
November 30:
- The American Revolution Documentary
- The Voices: Including Peter Coyote (Ken Burns’ narrator)
December 7:
- The DIGGIES ‘25 – Great Rock Lyrics
- Missing NYC
December 14:
- Stuart Scott Remembered
- FIFA World Cup Draw
December 21:
- Fenway Sports Sold the Pittsburgh Penguins
- Year in Review: Part I
BIG EAST HEADS-UP: The Villanova Wildcats are now 10-2, and the Seton Hall Pirates are a solid 11-2. The Butler Bulldogs are 10-3 and the UConn Huskies are 12-1 with their lone loss inflicted by Arizona back on November 20th. Only Marquette is playing sub-.500 ball. BIG East play begins in earnest on December 30th and it will be a challenge to wind up in the top four as of March 7, 2026 when the regular season concludes with a Providence at Georgetown game at 8:00pm at the Cap One Arena. Playing on BIG East Friday might determine NCAA bids (unless UConn gets upset on Thursday – as they’ll be “in” for sure. How will St. John’s fare? Your guess is as good as mine. As of Dec 24th, the Johnnies had some coal placed in their stockings and fell out of the Top 25.
TIDBITS & NUGGETS: After some calculations, Major League Baseball handed out its postseason cash awards for the teams participating in Baseball’s Playoffs. The Red Sox divided their bonus into 91 shares. Here’s the breakdown for the teams nice, rather than naughty. Note: Amounts are distributions per full share, rounded to the nearest dollar, with the number of full shares in parentheses:
- Los Angeles Dodgers: $484,748 (82)
- Toronto Blue Jays: $354,118 (70)
- Milwaukee Brewers: $168,853 (70)
- Seattle Mariners: $182,376 (69)
- New York Yankees: $47,318 (71)
- Detroit Tigers: $46,865 (75)
- Philadelphia Phillies: $52,043 (64)
- Chicago Cubs: $48,741 (70)
- Boston Red Sox: $9,346 (91)
- Cleveland Guardians: $11,056 (71)
- San Diego Padres: $10,711 (68)
- Cincinnati Reds: $11,528 (69)
ANOTHER SHAMELESS PGA TOUR BRUNCH PLUG: Say Happy New Year to your favorite golf fan with A GIFT SUBSCRIPTION to PGA Tour Brunch. Posted to in-boxes six days a week (not Tuesdays) for lunch or brunch-time reading, PGA Tour Brunch provides fans of the PGA Tour (and its growing list of Fantasy, gambling and DFS players, too) with a one-stop, mobile friendly e-news to help navigate the hundreds of golf news sites available. PGA Tour Brunch is short and sweet, a couple mobile page scrolls and it provides all the basic information, like tee times, the field, odds, player notes, leaderboards, and even some breaking news. It’s designed by @terrylyons with a blessing from the popular @SoxLunch creators. Discount for 2026 is HERE.
PREMIER LEAGUE PREDICTIONS: In Major League Baseball, fans circle the standings on the 4th of July as foresight to the eventual pennant race winners and post season participants. In the English Premier League championship, Christmas Day or Boxing Day is a time to look at the ladder and to put a tuppence or more down for a bet on the EPL champ. As of December 25, 2025, here’s a look at the odds to win the title in 2026:
- Arsenal – (-140)
- Manchester City – (+140)
- Aston Villa – 22/1
- Liverpool – 28/1
- Chelsea – 40/1
- Manchester United – 80/1
However, as USA Network’s Premier League tv coverage and The Athletic pointed out Saturday morning, “In the Premier League era, leading at Christmas has not always meant getting the job done in May. Those that have topped the table on December 25 have gone on to be crowned champions in 17 of the past 33 seasons, meaning just under half of the league leaders at this stage have been pipped to the post.”