The Best Work in a Bad Philly Sports Year

It's the time of the year when media review the year in sports. But really, who wants to review this year in Philadelphia sports?

The Eagles folded in December and threw away a playoff berth. The Phillies finished in last place and (finally) began a long and painful rebuilding process. The Flyers remained mediocre, making the playoffs and losing in the first round. The 76ers … well, at least there's supposed to be a light at the end of that ink-dark tunnel. It was a humdrum March for the city's college basketball teams, and though Penn State hired a new football coach and made a bowl game, the Nittany Lions' season hasn't exactly come off as a springboard to greatness.

Here's all you need to know: The best Philadelphia sports story of the year involved a Little League team … that didn't even reach the World Series championship game.

The other subject that media review at this time of year is … themselves. We're quite the self-obsessed lot. Fortunately, here at the Inquirer and Philly.com, we produced some quality work in 2014 that's worth revisiting. What you see below isn't all of that terrific work, and it may not be enough to make you forget about this lousy year in local sports. But it was more than enough to get me through this blog post.

So here we go:

All the Taney Dragons coverage that you could want, in one place.

Zach Berman went one-on-one with Jeffrey Lurie to mark the 20th anniversary of Lurie's purchase of the Eagles.

Phil Anastasia told the remarkable story of Holy Cross High School football player Chris Riggio, playing through personal tragedy.

Sam Carchidi saw the Flyers honor a college student who tried to play peacemaker … and nearly paid with his life.

Frank Fitzpatrick's two-part series on Haverford rower—and terrorist fugitive—Leo Burt.

Keith Pompey accompanied Nerlens Noel on a

» READ MORE: visit

to Noel’s home country, Haiti.

Bob Ford on the connection between Charlie Manuel and Olympian Katie Uhlaender.

Matt Gelb explained how the Phillies really feel about Ryan Howard.

Mike Jensen on a soccer club that unites African refugees.

Bob Brookover on Jimmy Rollins, standing at the precipice of history.

Jeff McLane, DeSean Jackson, and "Didn't you hear? I'm a gangster."

Happy New Year, everyone.