Chris's Sports Blog: Year in Review

I could wax philosophical here about the year that was, but as Darius Songaila once told the Wolfman, “let’s cut to chase”.

Best Game: Yankees at Red Sox - July 24
Game 4 had “The Steal” and Game 5 had the nail-biting tension, but the Yanks/Sox tilt on that warm summer afternoon at Fenway trumped them both.
After Bill Mueller’s homerun soared over the right-field fence, capping a three-run ninth inning against the supposedly indestructible Mariano Rivera, one could sense that the Red Sox season had just begun.
One week later Nomar was gone and Boston began a remarkable run that saw them finish the season with a 53-20 record and their first World Series win since 1918.
The game is most remembered for the brawl that erupted after Alex Rodriguez started jawing at Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo, but that incident was just a short chapter in what would become another classic Yankees-Red Sox story.
A persistent rain almost forced the game’s cancellation (a few Yankees, assuming the game would be called, had already showered), but the Red Sox wanted to play.
Down 9 ½ games to the hated Yanks, and in a dead-heat for the Wild Card, the Sox had played .500 ball in their last 76 games and that familiar sinking feeling was being experienced by the Red Sox Nation. The team knew they needed a jump start, and perhaps playing on a day when nobody expected them to would accomplish just that.
The Yankees had surged to a 3-0 lead before the brawl took place and would eventually jump out to a 9-4 lead headed into the bottom of the 6th.
Boston scratched out four runs in their half, but still found themselves down 10-8 in the bottom of the 9th with Mariano Rivera on the mound.
The “Hammer of God” had converted 23 consecutive save opportunities but gave up a leadoff double to Nomar Garciaparra and almost allowed a game-tying homerun to Trot Nixon that instead was caught on the warning track in the deepest part of the park.
A Kevin Millar single scored Nomar and Bill Mueller’s line-drive homerun gave the Sox the victory and momentum that carried into October.
Rarely does one regular season game produce a spark that lasts until the postseason, but this one did.
That’s why it is the game of the year.

Best Game (Runner-Up): UAB-Kentucky – NCAA Tournament 2nd Round – March 21
The top-seeded Wildcats were expected to breeze through the St. Louis region en route to the Final Four, but couldn’t even make it out of the first weekend thanks to an up-tempo team from Conference USA.
UAB jumped out to an early lead, but fell behind Kentucky by six with 4:05 to play.
After six lead-changes in the final minute, Gerald Fitch missed an open three-pointer that would have won the game for the Wildcats.
Instead, UAB moved on to the Sweet 16 with the upset of the tournament.

Worst Game: Games 1-5 of the NBA Finals
What do you get when you pit a team with a brutal offense and suffocating defense against five future Hall of Famers that can’t stand sharing the same locker room?
Five boring games and Chauncey Billups as the series MVP.
Rumor has it that soldiers at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay had begun showing detainees game 3 on a continuous loop before being told by the Red Cross that such behavior was prohibited by the Geneva Convention.

Athlete of the Year: Michael Phelps:
The 19-year old from Baltimore went into the Athens Games with the pressure of an entire nation on his broad shoulders.
Somehow, he managed to exceed (realistic) expectations and won six gold medals (along with two bronzes) and became the star of the Olympics.

Athlete of the Year (Runner-Up): Emeka Okafor
Don’t sleep on the Mek. (How is it possible that this guy doesn’t have a nickname yet?)
Okafor single-handedly led Uconn to a national title and then, despite skeptics galore, proved himself NBA-ready from the season’s opening tip and has already led his expansion Bobcats to more wins (7) than most people expected them to have all year, all while averaging a cool double-double (15 and 11), including in 16 straight games (an NBA rookie record).

Athlete of the Year (Honorable Mention): The Entire Boston Red Sox Roster
It’s impossible to choose between Schilling, Ortiz, Manny or even Dave Roberts. I can, however, say with some certainty that Dale Sveum is not included.

Disappointing Athlete of the Year: Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, Jason Giambi (tie)
At least Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield had big years in the midst of the steroid controversy.
But Jones, Montgomery and Giambi, in addition to repeatedly lying to the public, looked like amateurs in 2004.
Jones didn’t make it to the podium once in Athens, while her pseudo-boyfriend Montgomery didn’t even make it to Greece in the first place.
Giambi battled health problems due to his steroid abuse and only played in 80 games, batting a cool .208 with a .379 slugging percentage. That he was left off the Yankees playoff roster seemed to be the icing on the cake, until The San Francisco Chronicle reported that in his grand jury testimony Giambi admitted to using illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
It could have been worse for Giambi I guess. He could have gotten on stage and screamed out a couple state names, punctuating his rant with a madcap “YEEEAHHHH!”

Most Overrated Athlete: Lance Armstrong
Back when Armstrong won his first Tour de France after beating cancer, I was one of his biggest supporters.
“He’s the best athlete in the world,” I’d say, and while some would listen, others didn’t.
I was furious when Sports Illustrated named the U.S. women’s soccer team as their “Sportsman of the Year” in 1999 and even more upset when Tiger Woods (2000) and Randy Johnson/Curt Schilling (2001) won in subsequent years.
SI finally gave Armstrong his due in 2002 and in each of the past two years have published angry letters from readers asking why Armstrong wasn’t the magazine’s choice every year.
Here’s why: Once you win the Tour de France, it’s apparently pretty easy to win again.
I don’t know why this is, but the numbers don’t lie.
Since 1978 there have been only 11 winners of the Tour de France, including five men that have won at least three.
Compare that to the 19 golfers who have won the Masters in the same span or, amazingly, the 13 that have won Wimbledon (amazing because Pete Sampras won seven in the ‘90s).
Plus, the Tour de France is a bike race. Nobody cared about cycling until Armstrong came around and now that he’s here, there still aren’t too many people that care.
I didn’t see America going nuts when Miguel Indurain was winning five straight Tours, so why are we all on Lance’s jock for his streak? Simply because he’s American?
Enough, I say. It’s a nice story, but a boring one.

Team of the Year: Boston Red Sox
You thought I’d go with the Tampa Bay Lightning, perhaps?

Worst Team: USA Men’s Basketball
Has anybody had a more precipitous fall than Larry Brown, post-NBA title?
First he “coaches” this non-team to an embarrassing bronze in Athens, then he presides over the worst melee in American sports history.
Probably should have gone out on top, L.B.

Coach of the Year: John Fox
Fox led his team to the Super Bowl at the beginning of 2004 and at the end of the year has them on the brink of a playoff berth despite decimating injuries and a miserable 1-7 start.

Most Overrated Story (Runner-Up): Roger Clemens "Retirement"
(12/31/04, 1:11 p.m.) Ladies and gentlemen, I am retiring from Chris’s Sports Blog.
(12/31/04, 1:12 p.m.) Ladies and gentlemen, after some soul-searching and discussions with my family, I have decided to return to writing Chris’s Sports Blog. Consider the rest of this entry the first of my comeback posts.
In all future references to this blog, please mention that I have come out of retirement to write.

Story That Only the Press Cares About: BALCO
OK, I care too, and so do other baseball traditionalists, but the American people as a whole really couldn’t care less about who was using steroids.

Most Underrated Story: Michael Phelps
OK, I know ESPN can’t show Olympic highlights because they don’t hold the rights to the Games, but Phelps garnered exactly 12 seconds on Sportscenter: 2004 Year in Review.
And by the way, which genius decided to give hosting duties for that show to John Anderson and Linda Cohn? Probably the same genius that told Linda Cohn to wear street-walking boots and a short skirt that, unfortunately, left way too little to the imagination.

Most Underrated Story (Runner-Up): Ichiro Breaks Sisler’s Record
The diminutive Japanese slap-hitter broke Sisler’s hit record, a mark that no player in 74 years had come within 17 of. At the time there was a lot of coverage of the event, but a mere two months later most everybody seems to have forgotten.

Most Underrated Story (Honorable Mention): Derek Jeter’s Diving Catch
I’m sure most people didn’t see it, but in early July Derek Jeter made a running catch against the Boston Red Sox, and then for some reason decided to keep running full-speed into the stands after snaring the ball.
Sure, Pokey Reese made a similar catch earlier in the game and decided not to run into the stands, but Jeter’s reckless play was so much more amazing because, get this, he dove into the stands even though he already had the ball!
Simply remarkable! What a player! What passion for the game! Way to lay it all out on the line, even though the catch was already made!!!
I wish ESPN had shown this play more, but I rarely saw it after viewing it live. It’s a shame, really.

Best Line: Antonio Tarver – “Got any excuses tonight Roy?”
Before their light-heavyweight rematch, Antonio Tarver asked Roy Jones Jr. this simple question as they touched gloves.
Tarver was referring to their first fight, which Jones won in a controversial decision. After getting the nod from the judges, Jones claimed the reason the fight was so close was due to him losing a “great deal of muscle mass” after dropping down from heavyweight.
Jones didn’t have any excuses six minutes later when he lay on the canvas after being knocked-out for the first time in his career.

Best Line (Unintentional Division): Gary Barnett – “Katie was a girl, and not only was she a girl, but she was terrible.”
The fact that Barnett still has a job after this unbelievably hilarious attempt at justification for sexual assault is one of the more remarkable survival stories of the year.

Luckiest Hero Award: Adam Vinatieri
Vinatieri has made some clutch kicks over the years, but the only reason he is now the proud owner of two Super Bowl winning kicks is because he pushed a 31-yarder in the first quarter and had another kick blocked later in the half.

Best Move: Sox Trade Nomar
Had Terrell Owens not broken his ankle, his acquisition might have topped this list. As it is, the jettisoning of Garciaparra was one of the catalysts for the Sox Series run.

Best Comeback: Grant Hill
I hate all Dukies. They’re whiny like their coach, think their entitled to college success and NBA riches simply because of the four-letter word on their jerseys and always look like they’re in need of a good beat-down.
Still, I can’t help but like Grant Hill.
His comeback this season has been nothing but inspiring and even though he went to Duke, I can’t help but wish him the best for the future.
Now, if he can just get that first playoff series victory under his belt…
(Sorry, couldn’t help myself.)

Best Imitation of a Man: Alex Rodriguez
For years, I thought A. Rod was a dude. Then I saw his girlie-slap in Game 6 of the ALCS and I knew I had been duped.

Best Overreaction: George Steinbrenner
$21 million for a pitcher with a career ERA of over 5.00? Man, just think what would have happened if the Twins could have held on and knocked off the Yanks in the ALDS. Guys like Gil Meche and Carlos Silva would have been rolling in the dough!

Best Day: January 7 – The debut of Chris's Sports Blog
Of course.

Worst Innovation: CBS' line of scrimmage line
What a great invention! I never would have been able to figure out where the line of scrimmage was without this obtrusive blue line.
Now, on the 4% of plays where the quarterback looks like he crossed the line of scrimmage before making a pass, the viewer can kind of tell whether he did or not.
Jonas Salk, you’ve been bumped off the top of the list and replaced with whatever hack at CBS came up with this worthless use of technology.

Worst Innovation (Runner-Up): Renaming NCAA Tournament Regions by the Location of the Regionals
To think, now little kids will dream of cutting down the nets after winning the East Rutherford regional.

Best Redskins Prediction: Mark Brunell Makes Nine Starts in 2004 (April16, 2004)
I didn’t guess that a 63.9 QB rating would be the reason though.

Best Redskins Prediction (Runner-Up): Chris Cooley Will Catch 35 Passes for Five or Six TD's
Going into the final game against Minnesota the rookie from Utah State has 34 receptions and five TDs.

Best Redskins Prediction (Runner-Up): Team Will Start 1-2
Nice, until you read the following…

Worst Redskins Prediction: Figuring They Would Win Nine of Their Last 13 To Finish 10-6
This of course outweighs all the good calls I made about the team.

I Called It: Smarty Jones Would Not Win the Belmont

I Also Said This: "By taking Dwight Howard with the #1 pick in the 2004 NBA Draft, the Orlando Magic blew it… big time."
I was a big Okafor guy, and he's been as good as advertised this season, but Howard is putting up ridiculous numbers for a big man fresh out of high school. He's the real deal. They might be the best top two picks since Shaq and Alonzo went 1-2 in 1992.

And Then There’s This: "The Kansas City Chiefs will win the AFC West and finish the season 13-3"
This wouldn't have been that bad if I didn't keep believing they'd be great until about Week 10 of the season.

Oh, It Gets Worse: Fantasy Football Tight End Rankings: #16 Antonio Gates
That was behind Desmond Clark, Anthony Becht, Dallas Clark, Itula Mili and, presumably, Cap Boso.
By the way, I also had the Chargers going 3-13.

Have a Happy New Year and we’ll see you back at Chris’s Sports Blog in 2005 for more fairly obvious observations about the world of sports.