Senior Farewell: We have seen great professional sports moments

Sports can fill fans with excitement, heartbreak, and anger. The Class of 2019 has witnessed plenty of professional sports moments over the past fours that filled them with these emotions.

Coming into our freshmen year, we saw a dynasty start in the NBA as the Golden State Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers, 4-2, to claim the first of their three championships won since that 2014-15 season.

During that dynasty we all saw “the superteam” form when Kevin Durant signed with the Warriors in 2016. This came after Durant’s Oklahoma City Thunder team blew a 3-1 lead against the Warriors the year before.

Many were upset with Durant, labeling him “a snake” after he followed the famous quote “If you can’t beat them, join them.”

The Warriors grew heading into our senior year, signing Demarcus “Boogie” Cousins after their back-to-back championship wins. Heading into graduation, we are waiting to see if the Warriors can “three-peat” and be the first team to do so since 2000-2002, when the Los Angeles Lakers completed the feat.

Getting more local, heading into freshman year we saw yet another disappointing loss to the New York Rangers in the playoffs by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Many were wondering when the magic for the Penguins would come back, and many were calling for then-coach Mike Johnston’s head after consecutive disappointing playoff losses.

Pens fans got an early Christmas present in December with the firing of Johnston and the promotion of Mike Sullivan to head coach.

The Sullivan Era started off slowly, but the season ended in spectacular fashion as the Pens clinched a playoff spot, when five months prior, many thought the Pens had no chance. The season culminated with a Stanley Cup and the magic was just getting started.

Coming into our sophomore year, Pens fans were still on a high and joking about the possibility of back-to-back Cups.

The jokes became an actual possibility when the Pens reached the finals for a second straight year. The jokes and possibility became a reality when the Pens defeated the Nashville Predators to clinch the first back-to-back Stanley Cup wins of the salary cap era in the NHL.

The last two years have been a little sad and disappointing after goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was taken in the expansion draft and two years of playoff losses. But Pens fans and Baldwin seniors should be grateful, as they may have witnessed one of the best Pittsburgh Penguins teams in history.

Baseball, America’s greatest pastime, had one of its biggest stories our sophomore year: The Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in 107 years.

The series was an entertaining one, as it saw the Cubs come back from a 3-1 deficit in the series, and then Game 7 head to extras, where the Cubs finally broke the curse of the Billy Goat.

In the NFL, our freshmen year we saw the culmination of the career of one of the all-time greats in Peyton Manning. His career ended with a Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl 50 as his Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina Panthers.

The next three years, as much as most of us hated it, we saw the continuation of the Patriots’ dynasty.

Super Bowl LI saw the Patriots’ come back from 28-3 deficit against the Falcons to clinch their fifth Super Bowl in the Brady-Belichick era.

The next year we saw backup Nick Foles fill the position of star QB Carson Wentz and lead the Eagles to a win against the Pats to clinch the Eagles’ first Super Bowl win in history.

Finally, this year we saw that the Pats dynasty was not over as they beat the Los Angeles Rams in the lowest-scoring Super Bowl in history, which came in one of the most dominant offensive seasons in NFL history.

The last four years in sports we have seen dynasties start, dynasties grow, championship droughts end, and the City of Champions add a couple more rings. Love them or hate them, we witnessed some great sporting moments throughout our high school career.