The sports world had a very interesting and entertaining year. From one of the greatest Super Bowls in recent memory in February to some dominant golf moments; from some heartwarming stories to the spectacle of the Olympics in China…the sports world dominated many headlines in 2008.
As I have said in the past, I separate out the sports stories from the rest of the news stories because I think sports should be separate…an escape from the real world to something we all enjoy to watch and to cheer for. Obviously, sports creeps into the national media from time to time, usually in a negative light, but there are many stories that are just big in the sporting world and no where else. To people like me, who are huge sports fans, this list will be a look back at the real news makers of 2008.
First, time to award my Team of the Year and my Athlete of the Year!
Athlete of the Year: Bernard Pollard, Safety, Kansas City Chiefs. Pollard’s sack of Tom Brady in Week 1 this season tore Brady’s ACL and knocked him out for the season. This was karma coming back to bite Brady in the ass, hard (hmmm…). For being a cheating, stuck up prick; for being a terrible father who abandons his child; for being just a miserable excuse of a human being…he deserved this. For being an effective weapon of karma, Bernard Pollard is my Athlete of the Year…and you’ll be hard pressed to convince me otherwise.
Team of the Year: New York Giants. Obviously this will be one of my top stories later, but the team is also my team of the year for winning the Super Bowl against the greatest cheaters of all time. They were huge underdogs, but karma smiled upon them, both for giving it their all in week 17 against the Patriots to try to prevent a perfect season (they failed, but they tried, even though they didn’t have anything of note to play for), and for the Patriots being their opponents and not deserving to win the title. The Giants played their hearts out, and the game ended up being very exciting, right down to the end. Not to mention that the Giants are having one hell of a season in 2008, clinching the #1 seed in the NFC just this past week. They truly are the Team of the Year.
I’m going to count backwards in my major lists this year, sort of like a teaser…you have to read to the end to find out my top story of the year! I’ll also describe, in more detail for some and less for others, why I think it’s a memorable story. So, without further ado…
Top Sports Events of 2008
10. An Example of True Sportsmanship: In April, during the second inning of a Division II college softball game in the Pacific Northwest, Western Oregon University senior outfielder Sara Tucholsky hit the first home run of her life, a three-run blast that broke a scoreless tie with Central Washington. But as an elated Tucholsky rounded first base, she missed the bag. When she turned around to touch the base, Tucholsky's knee gave out. In a freak accident, Tucholsky tore her ACL; she fell to the ground, and couldn't move. If Tucholsky's teammates carried her around the bases, she'd be called out — an active runner cannot receive assistance from her own team. An umpire mistakenly ruled that if Western Oregon inserted a pinch runner, she would have to stay at first base, turning Tucholsky's surprise three-run blast into a mere two-run single (in fact, the NCAA rulebook says a pinch runner could have completed Tucholsky's home run trot). Then, Central Washington's Mallory Holtman, who was playing first base, spoke up. The senior offered to carry her opponent around the bases so that the home run would count; a player has every right to aid the opposition, an all too rare occurrence in competitive sports. Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace lifted Tucholsky and completed the inspiring home run trot. Western Oregon won the game, 4-2, knocking Central Washington out of playoff contention, and went on to win the conference title.
9. Boston Celtics win the NBA championship over the Lakers: This is my obligatory NBA note. I don’t watch basketball. I really could care less for the sport. The sports fan in me can appreciate a game, and I’ll cheer for the Warriors and Lakers on occasion if I’m watching or following the game…but otherwise it’s a non-entity to me. However, a good ‘ol Lakers v. Celtics clash is all anyone talked about for weeks, so it was hard to avoid. The Celtics won in 6 games, clinching their 17th NBA Championship. Impressive.
8. Phillies defeat Rays in World Series: This World Series had potential, but in the end, was just as boring as the last few years. We haven’t had a great World Series since 2001, when the Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in that amazing 7 game series. The Phillies hadn’t won the world series since, what, 1980? And Philly as a city was suffering the effects of bad karma because of their retarded fans, and hadn’t won a title in anything in nearly as long. The Rays were the Cinderella story, and all that. However, in the end, this World Series will be most remembered for the 2 day rain delay in game 5. How sad.
7. Red Wings win another Stanley Cup: The NHL is back baby! This was an exciting season for hockey fans, and the Stanley Cup finals featured two really intriguing teams. The Pittsburgh Penguins, on the brink of bankruptcy a few years ago, rode their young stars into the finals to face the Detroit Red Wings (the Yankees of the NHL, except not as hated…they don’t buy championships as much). It wasn’t an amazing series (the best game of the playoffs was probably Game 6 between the Stars and the Sharks), but it was a fun finals to watch. The Red Wings won, and took home yet another championship, but the future is bright in Pittsburgh. Hockey has some amazing young kids that could really pique interest in the sport here in the near future.
6. Brett Favre retires, returns, plays ok for the Jets: Once again, this was another storyline in the sports year that I didn’t really care about, but it dominated the news for a while. Brett Favre retired in January after the Packers were eliminated in the NFC Championship game. Then, that spring, he decided that he really did want to play. A mini soap opera ensued with him meeting with the Packers, the Packers offering him a package to become a front office guy, he turned it down, the Packers said they picked Aaron Rodgers to be their QB, and then they traded Favre to the Jets. This was mostly a big deal because of the drama involved. Aaron Rodgers has played very well, even though his team has not. Brett Favre hasn’t played very well, even though his team has. So all of a sudden the Packers would have been a playoff team if Favre had stayed? Nah. Their D still sucks. Anyways, this was “news” for like 2 months.
5. U.S. end Ryder Cup drought: The U.S. team, led by Paul Azinger, won for the first time since 1999, beating the Europeans 16 ½ to 11 ½. It was an impressive victory. Without it’s best player, Tiger Woods, the U.S. was heavy underdogs, and hadn’t won in 10 years. However, led by players like Anthony Kim, Boo Weekley, and J.B. Holmes, the U.S. looked loose and had fun. And this translated to a thumping of the Euros on the first day of pairs matches (with the team of Hunter Mahan and Justin Leonard leading the way). The U.S. cruised from there, behind a home crowd that was going wild for the home team, and ended up winning by their biggest margin since 1981!
4. Wimbledon: Nadal finally tops Federer on grass. This was an epic tennis match. Literally one of the greatest matches of all time. Back and forth and back and forth. 5 sets: 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7. The match, which took 4 hours and 48 minutes to complete, featured three rain delays, a Federer comeback from two sets down, and an awe-inspiring fifth set that ended with two exhausted champions dueling in the dark (it ended at 9:16 p.m; fittingly this was the last year there were no lights on Centre Court). I actually watched this match and was enthralled. And I rarely watch tennis. It truly was one of the greatest matches in tennis history.
3. Giants defeat Patriots in greatest super bowl since 1994: Yes, since 94, when the Niners won. What? I’m a homer. Deal. Anyways, I bet you’re surprised that this isn’t my #1 story, with my Tom Brady hatred and all. And, yes, I considered it, but I figured with my Athlete of the Year and my Team of the Year selections, I could be a little more honest with the story rankings and still make my point. This was just a great game. Everyone will remember the catch by Tyree with the ball pinned to his helmet, after Manning had scrambled out of two sure sacks to get the ball to him. Then the TD pass to Burress when everyone thought the Patriots were a shoe in to win. Amazing. I talked about this enough up in the Team of the Year section, so I’ll move on now.
2. Tiger Woods wins U.S. Open with torn ACL and stress fracture in knee in a playoff over Rocco Mediate: This should be my number one. It really should, but I couldn’t slight my #1 (which should be obvious by this point). Tiger Woods just continues to amaze me. To get into the playoff with Rocco by drilling a, what, 40 ft. putt? And then to do it again to keep the playoff tied after 18 holes that Monday and to go to a 19th hole sudden death? This was an incredible U.S. Open just from that standpoint. However, what makes this a truly incredible story is that Woods did all this on one leg. He revealed after the Open victory that he had been playing with a torn ACL and a stress fracture in his leg, and would have to take the rest of the year off to repair it. He won a 5 day, epic U.S. open on one leg. No other golfer in history is as tough or mentally sound as Tiger Woods. He is just incredible.
1. Michael Phelps’ 8 Gold Medals in Beijing: Tiger Woods may have defied logic and won the most incredible U.S. Open in history, but Michael Phelps did something otherworldly. His 8 gold medals in the Beijing Olympics broke Mark Spitz’s record of 7 in a single Olympics and catapulted Phelps into superstardom. For one amazing week, the entire world was glued to their TVs as Phelps, in race after race, broke more and more world records. The best race of the bunch…well, shit, there’s probably two that stand out.
The 4x100m freestyle relay, his second race, almost ended his quest very early. The Americans were well behind the favored French team coming into the final lap of the anchor leg. Teammate Jason Lezak, after beginning the anchor leg more than half a body length behind Alain Bernard (the 100m world record holder at the time, I believe), managed to finish ahead of the second-place French team by eight hundredths of a second. He swam his 100m split in 46 second, the fastest anyone had ever swam 100m. Just an incredible finish.
The other one was when Phelps tied Spitz’s record, his seventh race, the 100m butterfly. Phelps was behind Serbian-American swimmer Milorad Čavić coming into the final 20m. He powered his way to even, and with one final half stroke while Čavić was coasting into the wall, barely passed him to keep his quest alive and shock everyone in attendance. It was just an amazing finish, one-hundredth of a second. The 4x100m medley relay was his final event, and when Phelps dived in to swim the 100-meter butterfly leg, the third leg of the 400-meter medley, the United States had been trailing Australia and Japan. Phelps completed his split in 50.1 seconds, the fastest butterfly split ever for the event, giving teammate Jason Lezak a more than half-second lead for the final leg, which he would hold onto to clinch the event in world record time.
Phelps’s 8 gold medals highlighted an Olympics that were put on in spectacular fashion by the Chinese in what was described as a “coming out party” to the world. Anyone who saw the opening ceremonies won’t soon forget them. The events went off without issue, and for the most part, the Olympics ran rather well. The U.S. won the most medals in these Olympics, and the Chinese won the most golds. All in all, it was an awesome Olympics and very fun to watch.
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