SPORTS needed a bath in 2004, even acknowledging it also provided some inspirational champagne showers.
After all, have more selfless teams than the Patriots, Pistons, and Lightning ever shown us how it should be done? The Red Sox, cursed for 85 seasons, down 3-0 to their historic nemeses, finally won it all. If all you took from that was that the Yankees blew it, not only was Kevin Brown’s salary misspent, but the message in Boston’s perseverance.
Still, during New England’s euphoria came the street death of a young woman, the tip of an iceberg that this year sank the luxury sports liner to perhaps new lows. A year starting with Pete Rose reversing 15 years of vigorous denial ended with a player-fueled riot in the stands at an Indiana-Detroit NBA game, plus leaked grand jury testimony confirming Barry Bonds’ use of steroids.
How’s that for a there-are-no-heroes sandwich? On top, a slice of baseball’s all-time hit leader confirming his degenerate gambling to make a buck on a book. On the bottom, the cartooned-bodied, all-time home run champion doing a perjury dodge as the walls closed in on his indicted personal trainer and “supplement” supplier.
And the meat? Lawyers for Kobe Bryant, the most magnetic player in the NBA, making a charge of sexual assault go away after his petulance helped pack off Shaquille O’Neal and Phil Jackson, Kobe’s partners in three championships.
Bryant reminded us there is an “I” in Icon, as did presumed patriot Marion Jones and her world-record-holding boyfriend Tim Montgomery, both linked, like Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield, to the nefarious Victor Conte and BALCO. As 2004 ends, we are waiting for them all to get theirs, but Kobe certainly got his, a maximum contract.
It was just business, like the chutzpah of Major League Baseball to successfully demand public stadium money from the District of Columbia for a franchise it had ruined in Montreal, and the restraint of free enterprise by NHL owners who have shut the league down in a scheme to guarantee franchise values and themselves profits, never mind the players are willing to offer the needed relief.
The lockout threatens to be unending, like the shame. Jamal Lewis, just off only the NFL’s fourth-ever 2,000-yard rushing season, faced drug conspiracy charges. The Diamondbacks quickly fired Wally Backman after the new manager failed to tell them of domestic-assault charges.
We were hardly surprised when the Pacers’ Ron Artest sold his music on television two days after being suspended for the season. But please say it ain’t so that Michael Phelps, the son we all wanted as he won six golds, two bronzes and unselfishly gave a gold medal to a teammate, was arrested for drunk driving.
So was Rob Ramage, a former NHL bedrock, in the crash that killed Keith Magnuson, once the Blackhawks’ heart and soul. As if natural causes, which took two of the most beloved figures in Met history, Bob Murphy and Tug McGraw, plus likable former manger George Bamberger, didn’t exact a large enough toll, cocaine did in former National League MVP Ken Caminiti at age 41.
We also lost Giant great Rosey Brown; accomplished NBA coach Cotton Fitzsimmons; Bruce Edwards, courageous caddy for Tom Watson; Gunder Hagg, the best miler by a mile before Roger Bannister; two-time Indy 500 winner Roger Ward, hockey Hall of Famer Sid Smith and Yinka Dare, a Net No. 1 pick with a sad, short career and a devastatingly short life.
It was the year of all years for Connecticut, whose men’s and women’s basketball teams won a double that was unprecedented, like the U.S. medal total in Athens. But the spirit of the competition was lost upon our gymnast Paul Hamm when he refused to give back gold lost by a Korean in a scoring error.
As Tiger Woods went a second year without a major title, the golfer of 2004 by far was Vijay Singh, believed once to be a cheater. He, Phelps and Roger Federer, who won Australia, Wimbledon, and U.S. Open, were the most dominant performers of a year in which George Sisler’s 83-season hit record fell to Ichiro Suzuki, while Peyton Manning moved to the brink of Dan Marino’s single-season touchdown record.
Mia Hamm, the best U.S. woman soccer player ever and an inspiration to her gender, hung ’em up, as did Lennox Lewis, a fine heavyweight champion whose notoriety suffered from lightweight competition. Scottie Pippen, one of the best side acts in sports history, retired too, along with Smarty Jones, a horse from the other side of the tracks, after coming heartbreakingly close to a Triple Crown.
Smarty hit a dead end in a year that went down dark alleys, but the death of Pat Tillman, a patriot who walked away from $2.7 million into a death trap in Afghanistan, reminds us how even the worst of human behavior helps regenerate our values.
Rose released his book and made his Hall of Fame bid the week Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor, two recovered substance abusers, were elected. And the year ended with baseball players seeking a level playing field, wanting stronger testing. So maybe sports did get better in 2004, mostly the hard way.
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2004 NEW YORK SPORTS AWARDS
The ball dropped, then our teams dropped the ball, nobody getting past a second round. Still, not all the mentions from the year in New York sports are dishonorable:
PERFORMER OF THE YEAR
Curtis Martin leads the NFL in rushing and maybe in good deeds, astoundingly shows not a hint of any slippage in his 10th, and best, NFL season.
DUD OF THE YEAR
What a waste of a perfect basketball body Tim Thomas is. Kaz Matsui at least hit OK.
TEAM OF THE YEAR
Yanks were up 3-0, Nets were up 3-2, Jets haven’t clinched a playoff spot or beaten anybody good yet. Uh, get back to you next year.
GAME OF THE YEAR
Game 5 – Nets 127, Pistons 120 in three overtimes – refused to end. And actually didn’t for Jason Kidd, who paid dearly for his 57 minutes.
EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
The Jets’ Terry Bradway. Justin McCareins, Jonathan Vilma, David Barrett, Eric Barton, Pete Kendall. Whoever stuck all those pins in Bradway’s doll a year ago suddenly stopped.
MANAGER/COACH OF THE YEAR
This year, it’s a scramble, but so did Joe Torre to 101 wins with that same pitching that brought the ignominious ending.
MANAGEMENT MOVE OF THE YEAR
Damn the torpedoes, George Steinbrenner wanted Gary Sheffield, who was damn near American League MVP.
MANAGEMENT BLUNDER OF MANY YEARS
Bruce Ratner broke up a contender and alienated his indispensable star by letting Kenyon Martin go over a luxury tax that won’t even exist.
CLUTCH PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR
Four Nets fouled out, the remaining millionaires couldn’t buy a basket and Brian Scalabrine hit four 3-pointers from almost as deep as his place on the bench, scoring 17 points to save a Game 5 the Nets tried to lose every other way.
PLAY OF THE YEAR
Derek Jeter went into the stands headfirst July 1 against the Red Sox, one more example why New York remains head over heels for him.
FIASCO OF THE YEAR
Yankees, epitome of clutch under Torre, ironically made history by blowing a 3-0 lead. Nets, once 3-2, lost Game 7 by 21 points. Could anything we all thought was more right, Mike Piazza going to first base, have turned out more wrong? Actually, yes. He could have been Jason Giambi.
HEARTWARMING SIGHT OF THE YEAR
Class act Todd Zeile’s final act, a three-run homer his last time up.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Even with only 263 at-bats Mets’ David Wright gave it a run, but Jonathan Vilma gave the Jets a middle linebacker who can run and impact at a tough position for a rookie.
UNFATHOMABLE SIGHT OF THE YEAR
Kidd couldn’t get to the line once in Game 7 or score a point. But the world turned upside down the night Red Sox celebrated at Yankee Stadium.
-Jay Greenberg