Maybe we should start with a quiet moment between old college teammates after a heart-stopping Super Bowl victory. The confetti hadn’t even stopped falling yet at University of Phoenix Stadium when they started thinking about bringing their new championship jewelry back to the Rutgers campus, where their athletic journeys had started.
Back to New Jersey.
“What do you think, Dev? Should we bring our rings to Piscataway?” Duron Harmon asked his old friend after pulling a New England Patriots championship T-shirt over this shoulder pads.
MORE: Trout and Frazier fly back to N.J. together
“Oh, man,” replied Devin McCourty, the second of four Rutgers players in that victorious locker room. “My ring is going with me everywhere. As soon as they give it to me and right until training camp!”
So that’s where it starts, but it certainly isn’t where it ends. That’s because it hasn’t ended yet, this unique little roll that athletes from our state are on right now on the biggest stages in sports.
If you’re from our fine state, chances are you tend to look at the world through Jersey-shaped glasses. So the rest of the country will have to forgive us if we crank up a little Sinatra — “My Way” seems the perfect song, doesn’t it? — and take a victory lap.
Everything in sports is coming up Jersey in 2015. Everything is coming up Rutgers, too, in what has to be the steadiest stream of good news for that athletic department since the fall of 2006.
Three busloads of Rutgers fans and officials made the trip up the Turnpike last week, not just to celebrate one of the biggest moments in American soccer history, but to celebrate one of their own.
“I’m a Jersey girl and a Philly fan, but New York City, you’re awesome,” Carli Lloyd told the cheering crowd. The parade through the Canyon of Heroes was the first ever for a women’s sports team, and the Delran, N.J., native was at the center of the celebration, for good reason.
MORE CARLI: Complete coverage of the Women’s World Cup
Lloyd’s three-goal performance in the World Cup championship game victory over Japan will go down as one of the greatest clutch performances by a New Jersey-born athlete ever. Think Carl Lewis in the 1984 Olympics, or Derek Jeter in 2000 World Series against the Mets, or a kid from Toms River named Todd Frazier in the Little League World Series, and you have the beginnings of a very short list.
Speaking of Frazier …
He happily tweeted out the news that fans had voted him as an All-Star Game started for the first time — “pinch me now,” he wrote — and then, in front of his adoring Cincinnati fans, absolutely owned the Home Run Derby.
For years, many of the best sluggers have treated this event with utter indifference, but it was clear from the start that Frazier would be different. The player who walks to the plate as the ultimate Jersey crooner, Frank Sinatra, sings “Fly Me To The Moon” had three last-gasp moon shots of his own to turn the exhibition into a memorable moment for the sport.
He became only the second player to win the derby in his home stadium. “Go Jersey, baby!” one fan yelled at Frazier as he walked off the field, and he used his press conference to give Lloyd and his alma mater a shoutout.
MORE FRAZIER: Complete coverage of the All-Star Game
“It’s a great university and we take a lot of pride in what we do for sure,” said Frazier, who starred at Rutgers from 2005-07. “Carli Lloyd stepped up in the gold medal game. Three goals is pretty cool. I did what I did tonight. Hopefully, we can keep it going.”
You know who was impressed? An old pal from South Jersey baseball circles, a pretty good baseball player himself named Mike Trout, who tweeted out his respect from Cincinnati.
Frazier !!!!! #Jersey #HRDerby
— Mike Trout (@MikeTrout) July 14, 2015
If Frazier turned the Home Run Derby into his personal showcase, then Trout, once again, took over the game. The Millville, N.J., native was named All-Star MVP for the second straight season, hitting a lead-off home run and scoring two runs as the American League prevailed.
Look, this is no surprise. Trout is the best player in baseball and has been for a while now, and the only downside is that he’s built that reputation playing on the West Coast.
That doesn’t mean he’s forgotten about where he’s from. He flew on a private jet back to South Jersey after the All-Star Game to spend time with family, sharing the ride with — yup, you guessed it — his old pal Frazier.
“We’re always trying to put Jersey on the map, obviously,” Trout said as he accepted his MVP Award. “I’m pretty good friends with him. Talk to him all the time. Mess around with him. Just knowing that there’s some players on the East Coast that can make some impact.”
Consider that done, and now it’s hard not to wonder: Can Jersey athletes keep this roll going? Can Wyckoff native Morgan Hoffmann win the British Open? Can No. 1 pick Karl-Anthony Towns be the NBA rookie of the year? Can Martin Truex Jr. win NASCAR’s Sprint Cup?
With the roll we’re on, do you want to bet against it?
Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find Steve on Facebook.
