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Best of the rest

By Times staff reports

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 31, 2000

JAN. 29: Andre Agassi wins the Australian Open, his third Grand Slam tennis title in less than a year.

JAN. 30: The Rams get a 73-yard touchdown pass and a tackle at the 1 to beat Tennessee 23-16 in Super Bowl XXXIV.

JAN. 31: Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis is charged with murder in the slayings of two people hours after the Super Bowl. On June 6 charges are dropped and Lewis pleads guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice.

FEB. 2: The Bucs fire offensive coordinator Mike Shula at the Pro Bowl.

FEB. 3: Wrestling impresario Vince McMahon announces the birth of the XFL, a spring football league.

FEB. 11: Seattle trades 10-time All-Star Ken Griffey to Cincinnati, his hometown team.

FEB. 22: Bucs linebacker Hardy Nickerson signs a free-agent contract with Jacksonville.

FEB. 26: The Securities and Exchange Commission files a civil lawsuit against sports agent William "Tank" Black, the central figure in UF's investigation into illegal agent activity.

MARCH 8: Former Bucs quarterback Trent Dilfer signs a free-agent contract with Baltimore.

APRIL 15: Orioles iron man Cal Ripken becomes major-league baseball's 24th player to get 3,000 hits.

MAY 6: Fusaichi Pegasus, the favorite, wins the Kentucky Derby. Two weeks later he finishes second in the Preakness.

MAY 28: CART champion Juan Montoya wins the Indianapolis 500, beating Buddy Lazier, flag-bearer for the Indy Racing series. Rookie Matt Kenseth wins the Coca-Cola 600.

JUNE 2: Devil Rays first baseman Fred McGriff hits 400th career home run. On Sept. 23 he joins Hall of Famer Frank Robinson as the only players to hit 200 in each league.

JUNE 8: Mike Modano's goal for Dallas at 6:21 of the third overtime ends the longest scoreless game in NHL Stanley Cup final history.

JUNE 10: New Jersey wins the Stanley Cup with a 2-1 victory on Jason Arnott's goal in double-overtime.

JUNE 19: Regular-season and playoff MVP Shaquille O'Neal leads the Lakers to the NBA championship with 41 points and 12 rebounds in a 116-111 win over Indiana.

JUNE 21: A week after a jury finds him innocent of attempting to bribe a Tallahassee police officer, former FSU placekicker Sebastian Janikowski is charged with possession of the "date rape" drug gamma hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB.

JUNE 30: Braves reliever John Rocker makes his first appearance in Shea Stadium since speaking derisively of unwed mothers, homosexuals and foreigners in New York City. He pitches an uneventful eighth inning of Atlanta's 6-4 win over the Mets.

JULY 23: Lance Armstrong, who came back from cancer to win the 1999 Tour de France, wins it again.

AUG. 21: The Bucs release nine-year defensive tackle Brad Culpepper. The following day he signs with the Chicago Bears.

AUG. 24: Devil Rays pitcher Tony Saunders' career comes to an end when he breaks his left arm for the second time in 15 months.

AUG. 24: A federal lawsuit filed in Tampa by former South Florida point guard Dione Smith contends USF athletic director Paul Griffin tried to "shut down" an internal racial discrimination investigation of women's basketball coach Jerry Ann Winters.

AUG. 29: Boston's Pedro Martinez pitches eight no-hit innings after triggering a brawl by hitting Devil Rays leadoff batter Gerald Williams.

SEPT. 5: After 12 seasons, the final one ended by a broken leg sustained in the last regular-season game in 1999, Bucs offensive tackle Paul Gruber officially retires.

SEPT: 28: The Devil Rays complete a three-game sweep of the Yankees, outscoring the defending (and future) world champions 24-5. The following night the Rays beat Boston to eliminate the Red Sox and give the Yankees the AL East title.

SEPT. 30: Sprinter Marion Jones ends her Olympics with three golds and two bronzes at Sydney, setting an American record for medals won in one Olympics. The Summer Games are marred by reports of the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Other notable moments: Norway beats the United States 3-2 in overtime in the women's gold-medal soccer match; in gold-medal basketball games the U.S. men beat France 85-75 and U.S. women defeat Australia 76-54.

OCT. 7: Wide Right III: Just as in 1991 and 1992 when FSU missed last-second field goals and lost to Miami, redshirt freshman Matt Munyon fails on a 49-yard attempt at the gun and the Hurricanes win 27-24.

NOV. 1: Alabama coach Mike DuBose says he will resign at season's end after the Crison Tide record falls to 3-5 with a 40-38 homecoming loss to Central Florida.

NOV. 10: In his latest struggle with drugs, former baseball star Darryl Strawberry is sentenced to a month in jail followed by house arrest at a local treatment facility.

NOV. 10: The Lightning moves into first place -- briefly -- in the NHL's mediocre Southeast Division.

NOV.18: Florida State defeats Florida 30-7 and, despite knocks on his age, 28-year-old quarterback Chris Weinke cements his claim to the Heisman Trophy, formally awarded Dec. 9.

DEC. 4: Warrick Dunn runs for 210 yards, 9 shy of the Bucs record, and two touchdowns against Dallas.

DEC. 14: The University of South Florida fires women's basketball coach Jerry Ann Winters in the wake of racial discrimination and retaliation charges.

DEC. 18: Retribution at Raymond James. The Bucs, with a Shaun king-directed drive for the ages, beat St. Louis 38-35 to clinch a playoff berth.

DEC. 24: "Wide right" infects Tampa Bay. Martin Gramatica misses a last-minute 40-yard field-goal attempt in frigid Green Bay. The Bucs lose 17-14 in overtime. Their streak of losses in sub-40 degrees stretches to 19, and they lose a division title, a week off and a guaranteed home game as well.

DEC. 27: Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux, owner and former star and saviour of the NHL's Pittsburgh franchise, comes out of retirement with panache, scoring one goal and assisting on two in the Penguins' 5-0 win over Toronto before an ecstatic sold-out home crowd.

- Information from Times files was used in this report.

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