Year in Review 2006: Part 3

The third and final installment of the year in review will deal with my favorite topic to talk about...sports.

Top 10 Sports Stories/Moments of 2006

This year in sports was not particularly glorious for American sports. We lost in the olympics. We lost in the world baseball classic. We got caught (allegedly) doping to win the Tour de France. Not so good. But there were many bright spots. So, here they are.

Team of the Year: St. Louis Cardinals. The ultimate underdog story. See #6 where I talk about their improbably World Series Title.

Athlete of the Year: Vince Young. He started the year by leading Texas to an amazing Rose Bowl victory for the National Championship, and now he has the Tennessee Titans in position to make the playoffs after 6 straight wins as a rookie QB. Simply amazing.

10. LaDainian Tomlinson caps off an amazing season setting a new record for TDs in a season with 31 to date. LT has been incredible this season. He has broken numerous records, including the TD record, and the 45 year old scoring record. And he still has one regular season game to go. He has led the Chargers to the best record in the NFL, and primed to make a deep playoff run.

9. George Mason makes it into the Final Four. The little 12 seed that busted brackets and defied the odds. Mid major teams arent supposed to compete, and George Mason not only competed, they beat the number 1 seeded UConn en route to an improbable Final Four birth. America loves underdog stories, and no team was a bigger underdog success story this year than George Mason basketball.

8. April 18: Two Duke University lacrosse players — Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann — are arrested on charges of raping a stripper hired to dance at an off-campus party. A third player, co-captain David Evans, was charged later. All say they are innocent, and DNA tests would later fail to conclusively link any of the players to the alleged rape. Rape charges are dropped on December 22. That pretty much says it all. This whole thing has been pretty ridiculous.

7. Andre Agassi retires from tennis after 3rd round U.S. Open loss. Agassi was the last great American in the sport from the glory days of tennis. He started out as the brash young gun, and turned himself into one of the most beloved players in the game. His U.S. Open run was pretty magical to watch, even for non-tennis fans like myself.

6b. Pittsburgh Steelers go from being the 6 seed to Super Bowl champions. Now, this Super Bowl was pretty shitty. And the Seahawks should have won, but got jobbed by the refs. But this game will be remembered for one of the greats of the game getting to go out on top: Jerome Bettis. This guy was pure class, and he deserved to go out as a champion.

6a. St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series after barely making the playoffs. This was the second biggest underdog story of the year. The 83-win Cardinals were given no chance to win, were the underdog in every series, and were led by their littlest player (David Eckstein) to the height of the sport. It was an amazing run to watch.

5. Zidane head butts his way out of the World Cup finals and into retirement; viva Italia. I don't watch soccer, but I was watching this game, and I almost fell out of my chair laughing. I thought it was pretty funny. The announcers had spent all game talking about how this dude was one of the all time greats, a real class act. And then BAM, he headbutts an Italian player who may or may not have talked shit about his mom and sister. Classy, eh? And then France lost the World Cup on penalty kicks. Soccer is lame.

4. Vince Young leads Texas over USC in Rose Bowl; National Champions. This was considered an upset, but the most amazing aspect of this wasn't that Texas won, but how they did it. On the back of Vince Young. Texas had no business winning that game. They had inferior talent and coaching. But Vince Young is a winner and picked his team up and dragged them to the title. It was amazing to watch this one guy absolutely take over the game the way he did.

3. Floyd Landis wins Tour de France, tests positive for testosterone. So, Landis won and kept the American streak of champions in France alive. This pissed the Frenchies off, so they said Landis tested positive for testosterone. Landis says he's innocent, and the case is still pending. I think he's innocent. The French hate Americans, and hate us winning on their turf. Testosterone would not help Landis win by just taking it one day, and he tested clean every other day in the race. He magically tested positive for it after his miraculous comeback, and it was only released to the media after he had won. Testosterone taken the day of the race would not help him do what he did. So there would be no reason for it. Not to mention that Landis is not Lance, and therefore an easier target for some shady dealings in the testing labs. Makes you think...

2. New Orleans Saints reopen Superdome, and contend for the playoffs. The Saints have become America's team and a symbol for the rebuilding of New Orleans after last year's hurricane Katrina. And, it helps that they are good too. They're gonna be the #2 seed in the NFC and have a chance to make it to the super bowl! Talk about a revitalization for the Gulf Coast! For a city in need of some good, the Saints are as good as it gets right now. A truely amazing story.

1. Jason McElwain, an autistic teenager from Greece Athena High School New York is noted for inspiring millions by scoring twenty points in four minutes during a high school basketball game on February 16, 2006. The game was the last home game of the 2005-2006 season for Greece Athena. J-Mac was the manager of the team, and in the teams last home game of his senior year, the coach put him in at the end of the game because he had given so much to the team. This brought the entire gym to its feet. But, this was not enough for Jason. J-Mac responded by draining 6 three pointers and scoring 20 points in just 4 minutes of play. This was, by far, the most inspiring story of the year, in sports and in life.


I want to end my year in review with this last story because it shows that everyone has their moment in the sun. And heros can come from the most unlikliest of places. I guess I'd dub 2006 "The Year of the Underdog." Jason McElwain was the most inspirational story, being as how he just went out there and did his thing. But the Cardinals with David Eckstein and George Mason in the Final Four were also great underdog stories this year as well.

I hope you enjoyed reading all this as much as I enjoyed compiling it and writing it. As slow as 2006 was, it was still a good year. I wish you all the best in the new year. 2007 is just days away!