For most New York City-area teams, June quickly devolved into a month to forget.
The Knicks’ season had just ended on the last day of May with a gut-wrenching Game 6 loss to the Pacers, which capped a gut-wrenching Eastern Conference finals that forever will be remembered for the Game 1 choke.
That’s when the chaos began.
When the calendar flipped from May, the Mets were 14 games over .500, atop the National League East and operating with a manageable injured list. While the cracks started to show for the Yankees, they still possessed a comfortable American League East edge and, of course, a captain in the middle of yet another historic season. Remember those murmurs about Aaron Judge hitting .400? The reigning champion Liberty still hadn’t lost a game, and Jonquel Jones’ right ankle hadn’t been injured yet.
