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© St. Petersburg Times, published December 30, 2001
The world of sports is supposed to enable us to put aside the real world, to engage in the fantasy of believing that victory and defeat really are as important as life or death.
This year, one death, and the deaths of thousands, tore apart our joy of participating, even if only vicariously, in sports. It forced us to rethink and change our definitions of heroic and tragic and the rest of our sports cliches.
We had plenty of reasons to cheer in 2001. But as this year melds into the next, we recall, too, some dark moments that altered our perception of, and connection to, fun and games.
FEB. 18, the death of an American icon: Dale Earnhardt was the face of NASCAR, the face of the "Intimidator" hidden behind trademark sunglasses that reinforced his nickname. He was a seven-time Winston Cup champion whose No. 3 on the roof of his Chevrolet was as famous a number as any on an athlete's uniform.
He was running third, just behind son Dale Jr. in the final lap of the Daytona 500, when his car and Sterling Marlin's bumped one-half mile from the finish line. Earnhardt swerved and hit the Turn 4 wall virtually head-on at 158 mph as Ken Schrader's car plowed into his. Earnhardt suffered a basal skull fracture. He was killed instantly. NASCAR conducted an extensive investigation without determining an exact cause but later mandated the use of head and neck restraint systems.
On July 7, in NASCAR's first race at Daytona since Earnhardt's death, Dale Jr. won the Pepsi 400, and on Oct. 21 he won at Talladega where, a year earlier, his father had won his final checkered flag.
SEPT. 11, the day that silenced sports: In the days after the terrorist attacks that killed thousands of innocents, NFL and Major League Baseball games were postponed, as was virtually every other professional, college and high school event on the American sports calendar.
When play resumed, it did so with a patriotic passion unmatched since World War II. Old Glory was everywhere -- on the fields, in the stands, and on helmets, caps and uniforms of countless teams. God Bless America replaced Take Me Out to the Ballgame as baseball's seventh-inning anthem. Firefighters, police, emergency medical personnel and members of the military -- real heroes -- were lionized before, during and after games. They still are.
NOV. 4, a classic Fall Classic: It was the Yankees' fourth consecutive World Series. The Diamondbacks were here in just their fourth season -- but they had Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson.
Arizona won the first two games at home. The Yankees won the first of three games at Yankee Stadium. The next two were heart-stoppers.
The Yankees tied Game 4 in the the ninth inning on Tino Martinez's two-out, two-run homer and won 4-3 in the 10th on Derek Jeter's homer, both off Byung-Hyun Kim. They tied Game 5 in the ninth on Scott Brosius' two-out, two-run homer, also off Kim, and won 3-2 in the 12th on Alfonso Soriano's single off former Ray Albie Lopez.
Back home, Arizona won Game6. In the finale, the Yankees led 2-1 in the eighth and brought in closer Mariano Rivera, who had 23 consecutive postseason saves. Their fourth consecutive championship seemed assured ... until Rivera gave up Mark Grace's leadoff single in the ninth, threw away a bunt, gave up Tony Womack's tying double, hit a batter and gave up Luis Gonzalez's Series-winning single.
Schilling started Games 1, 4 and 7 and was 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA. Johnson started Games 2 and 6, relieved in Game 7, and was 3-0 with a 1.04 ERA. They shared the Most Valuable Player Award.
It was an extraordinary World Series. The exhilaration lasted two days. Then commissioner Bud Selig announced plans to eliminate two franchises, and "contraction" became part of sports' lexicon.
OCT. 5, records are made to be broken: Just three years after Mark McGwire hit 70 home runs to break Roger Maris' record of 61 that had stood for 37 years, Barry Bonds claimed baseball's most glamorous mark. The night after he tied McGwire, the Giants slugger passed him with his 71st, a titanic 442-foot first-inning homer at Pacific Bell Park.
Fireworks exploded, the crowd roared, the scoreboard flashed 71. And two innings later Bonds hit No. 72. Two days after that, he completed his odyssey with No. 73 off former Ray Dennis Springer.
Bonds' pursuit didn't capture the fancy of the fans nearly as much as McGwire's had, in part because so many West Coast games are played while much of the nation sleeps, because the record was still relatively new, and because both McGwire and the Cubs' Sammy Sosa, a pair of extroverts, had chased it together and clearly had much more fun doing it than Bonds ever exhibited.
APRIL8, Tiger's the Master: When Tiger Woods sank his final birdie into Augusta National's 18th hole, it gave him his second Masters. And his fourth consecutive major championship, the latter never accomplished in golf's modern era.
Only four others -- Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus -- have won the British Open, PGA Championship, U.S. Open and Masters. Only Hogan had won more than two in a year. Woods won three in 2000 and opened this year with his fourth in a row.
Bobby Jones was a Grand Slammer -- winning all four majors in the same year. But that was 1930, when the U.S. Amateur and Open and the British Amateur and Open were the biggest tournaments. So is Tiger's feat -- four in a row but not in one calendar year -- a Grand Slam?
NOV. 23-24, No-klahoma, No-braska: Unless the Hurricanes blew it, Miami would play in the Rose Bowl for the national championship. The opponent surely would be the Big 12 Conference champion, presumably Nebraska (No. 1 in the Bowl Championship Series standings) or Oklahoma (No. 3, just behind Miami and ahead of Florida).
Then Colorado crushed the Cornhuskers 62-36. The next day the Sooners, defending national champions by virtue of their Orange Bowl victory over Florida State, lost 16-13 to Oklahoma State when the Cowboys scored a touchdown with 1:36 remaining.
Neither played for the Big 12 title, and that only began the chaos visited upon the nation by the BCS computers.
If Florida won out, the Gators would play the Hurricanes. So they lost 34-32 to underdog Tennessee, which then lost 31-20 to underdog Louisiana State in the SEC title game -- and the BCS computers put Nebraska in the Rose Bowl. Only one thing is certain. Miami is No. 1 -- for now.
OCT. 30, here comes Mr. Jordan ... again: For months Michael Jordan was "99.9 percent" certain he wouldn't play again, but the hardcourts' siren song was just too seductive for the twice-retired former Chicago Bulls guard turned Washington Wizards president.
What the sold-out crowd in New York's Madison Square Garden hoped to see was yet another incarnation of the five-time NBA MVP. What it saw was a 38-year-old who missed 14 of 21 shots, one of them an air ball, and scored 19 points in a 93-91 loss to the Knicks to open the regular season. Jordan has had some excellent games since, but a lot of average ones with an average team. Until now, that is the one word you never could have called Jordan: average.
OCT. 27, Paterno and Lions and Bear (oh, my): Penn State coach Joe Paterno entered the college football season with 323 victories, one fewer than the late Paul "Bear" Bryant. But he began the season with four consecutive losses. Even some of Penn State's most faithful fans were criticizing the coach, who turned 75 on Dec. 21.
He finally tied Bryant when the Nittany Lions upset Northwestern 38-35. Next up: Ohio State. When the Buckeyes opened a 27-9 lead, it seemed Paterno would have to wait at least one more week. But Zack Mills ran for a touchdown and passed for two and Penn State won 29-27. And Joe Pa was No. 1.
JUNE15, a runaway: The Lakers' 108-96 victory over Philadelphia to clinch consecutive NBA championships was hardly unexpected. After all, the route they took to get there was one game short of perfection.
Los Angeles swept Portland in the three-game first round, swept Sacramento in the four-game second round and swept San Antonio in the four-game Western Conference final. Philadelphia upset the Lakers in the overtime opener of the title series -- the only smudge on the Lakers' run. They won the next four games for a 15-1 run through the postseason, the best playoff run in NBA history.
JAN. 28, welcome home: When the Baltimore Ravens arrived at Raymond James Stadium for Super Bowl XXV, they brought along Trent Dilfer, the former Tampa Bay quarterback Bucs fans loved to hate (or the other way around).
After six frustrating seasons, the Bucs cut him. The Ravens picked him up. Baltimore coach Brian Billick gave him the same game plan the Bucs had: Don't lose the game for us. Dilfer did what Billick asked 10 of 11 times en route to the Super Bowl -- and through the Ravens' 34-7 victory over the Giants as well.
Dilfer was efficient: 12-for-25 passing for 153 yards and a touchdown. The game was not particularly memorable. The teams gained a record-low 393 yards on offense and punted a record 21 times. Defense won the game. Baltimore sacked Kerry Collins four times and picked off four of his passes. Linebacker Ray Lewis was the MVP.
At game's end, Dilfer became a free agent. The Ravens thanked him. They didn't offer him a contract.