Big names, great games make 2008 year to remember

The lesson of 2008: the bigger the stage, the better the show. All through the year, the top names and most-hyped events lived up to their billing.

From Michael Phelps to Usain Bolt, from Tiger Woods to Boston's new Big Three, from the Super Bowl to the Final Four, the stars always seemed to come out at exactly the right moment.

"They wanted a show," Rocco Mediate said after Woods beat him on the 91st hole at the U.S. Open to win his 14th major, "they got one."

Or in Phelps' case, more than just one.

The lanky 23-year-old from Baltimore set his eye on the most hallowed of all Olympic marks - Mark Spitz's seven gold medals in a single Summer Games. And he took it down in spectacular style: Eight gold medals, seven world records and more drama than any reality show.

He won his seventh gold by the teeniest margin possible, a mere one-hundredth of a second. The very next day, he had to play catch-up on the third leg in a medley relay the Americans had never lost to get No. 8.

"There are moments," Phelps said with his typical understatement, "I'll never forget."

Just as memorable, but a whole lot faster, were Bolt's trio of golds.

Little known outside the track world before Beijing, the tall Jamaican sprinter burst onto the scene, shattering his own world record in the 100 meters - even managing to mug for the cameras before he hit the finish line.

He got two more gold medals - and two more world records - in the 200 meters and sprint relay, and his post-race celebrations turned the Bird's Nest into a dance party. Shimmying, shaking and swiveling his hips to the delight of the crowd, he brought a badly needed dose of levity to a sport knocked low by doping allegations, regardless of what the fun police, aka IOC president Jacques Rogge, thought.

"They come out and pay their money to see a good performance and also to see a personality," Bolt said. "So I go out there and give them a show."

The Chinese spared no expense for their coming-out party, and it was a smashing success: beautiful venues, opening ceremonies with enough kilowatt power to make Las Vegas blush, even several days of blue skies. Phelps and Bolt weren't the only athletes equal to the grand setting.

Dara Torres reminded us that age is just a number with three silver medals at 41, while Nastia Liukin was the picture of grace and elegance, on and off the gymnastics floor. The Redeem Team did everything the NBA could have asked from their multimillionaires, rolling over almost every opponent but doing it with such class you couldn't help but like them.

We felt a little unsettled once the grandeur of the Beijing Games faded, and it had nothing to do with a post-Olympic hangover, the annual dread of a BCS debacle, Brett Favre's new uniform or the knee injury that turned Tom Brady into a couch potato.

The economy is in deep trouble, and sports were quick to feel the hit. There were layoffs at the NFL, the NBA and Major League Baseball's Internet division, and the Arena Football League is taking a break for at least a year. There's hardly a team in NASCAR that hasn't felt the pinch.

Of course, none of that stopped the New York Yankees from showering CC Sabathia with $161 million. But then, the rich always have always been different or maybe, as baseball uberagent Scott Boras likes to point out, they just use a "very different economic model than the real world."

But no matter which model you used, 2008 delivered plenty of bang for the buck.

A Super Bowl that was expected to be the coronation of Bill Belichick's New England Patriots as the greatest NFL team ever turned into something even better, thanks to Eli Manning and the New York Giants.

Emerging from his big brother's shadow - and a pack of New England defenders - Manning and David "How did he do that?" Tyree led the Giants on a frenzied, frantic, game-winning drive that gave the Super Bowl its best finish ever. Ruined the Patriots' perfect season, too.

Said Manning, whose performance gave his family back-to-back Super Bowl MVPs: "You can't write a better script."

Maybe not. But that didn't keep Memphis and Kansas from trying in the NCAA championship game.

The title was going to Graceland until Memphis squandered a 9-point lead with 2:12 left by missing four free throws down the stretch. With 2.1 seconds on the clock and no time-outs, Mario Chalmers coolly knocked down a 3 to force overtime - the first in a title game since 1997.

Overtime was all Kansas, as the Jayhawks pulled away for their first title in 20 years.

"Ten seconds to go, we're thinking we're national champs," Memphis coach John Calipari said mournfully. "All of a sudden a kid makes a shot, and we're not."

The state of Tennessee did not go titleless, however, with Candace Parker and Pat Summit's Lady Vols winning their second in a row. Parker also picked up an Olympic gold medal with the U.S. team, and won both the WNBA's rookie of the year and MVP honors.

Going the (extra) distance was something of a theme in 2008.

The Philadelphia Phillies finally got their World Series title two days after the decisive Game 5 began. Hey, when a city's waited 25 years for a major championship, what's a little rain delay?

Dusk had turned to dark by the time Rafa and Roger's epic battle at Wimbledon was settled, the longest men's final in the history of the 121-year-old tournament. Only fitting, really. Deposing a king is never easy work, and Rafael Nadal needed a victory over Roger Federer on a surface other than clay to prove he truly is the Swiss master's equal.

Or maybe better. With his victory at Wimbledon, along with a fourth straight French Open title and gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, Nadal broke Federer's stranglehold on No. 1.

And then there was Tiger.

Limping his way around hilly Torrey Pines on a knee worse than anyone knew, Woods forced a playoff with a 12-foot birdie on the final stroke of regulation. After blowing a three-shot lead with eight holes to play, he sent it into OT again with yet another birdie on the 18th hole.

Finally, on the 91st hole, Woods prevailed. It was his 14th major title, leaving him just four shy of matching Jack Nicklaus' record.

"It was just unreal," Woods said. "It was back and forth, back and forth. And 90 holes wasn't enough."

Apparently, it was. Two days after the Open, he announced he needed surgery and would miss the rest of the season, including the last two majors and the Ryder Cup.

That's a gaping hole for golf to fill, but Padraig Harrington managed quite nicely. The Irishman overcame a sore wrist and a resurgent Greg Norman to win his second straight British Open, then added the PGA Championship a month later.

Without Woods, the Americans' chances of ending their oh-fer streak at the Ryder Cup seemed as likely as Bill Murray being named the greenskeeper at the Valhalla Golf Club. But without Woods and his dominating presence, U.S. captain Paul Azinger got the rest of his rugged individualists to buy into the team concept, and they responded with their first victory since 1999.

"I poured my heart and soul into this for two years," Azinger said. "The players poured their heart and soul into this for one week. They deserved it."

So, too, did the Boston Celtics.

The Celtics may have hit the talent motherlode when they added Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to a team that already had Paul Pierce. But prolific scorers don't always play nice together - too much ego, not enough ball - and there was no telling if Boston's new Big Three could work as seamlessly as the original had.

No worries there. Garnett, Allen and Pierce were so unselfish they could give Miss Manners some tips, and together they steamrolled the Los Angeles Lakers for Boston's 17th NBA title.

"I hope we made you proud," Garnett said when he found Bill Russell, the Celtic great turned mentor.

"You sure did," Russell said.

Might just do it again, too, the way they've been running roughshod on takers from the East, West and everywhere in between this season.

Auto racing gave us a couple of big firsts and one really big third. Danica Patrick broke IndyCar's gender barrier on Victory Lane while Lewis Hamilton became the youngest and first black Formula One champion. As for Jimmie Johnson, he just kept on winnin', matching Cale Yarborough as the only drivers to win three straight NASCAR Cup championships.

Lorena Ochoa ruled the LPGA. Again. She won seven times, including her second major title at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, and was player of the year for a third straight season.

The Williams sisters were back to their dominant selves, facing each other in yet another all-Williams final at Wimbledon - their third, for those keeping score - where it was advantage, Venus. Serena won the U.S. Open, and they ganged up on everybody else to win their second Olympic gold medal in doubles.

Lance Armstrong is back, too, following Favre's lead and coming out of retirement for a go at his eighth Tour de France title.

And how's this for a switch: While baseball's version of the Billionaire Boys Club missed the playoffs for the first time since 1993, the Tampa Bay Rays won the American League pennant. Yes, those same Rays who were so bad their first 10 years they never even sniffed a winning record, let alone the postseason.

"It's powerful what we got done this year," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "And I know, from my perspective, this is just the beginning."

For others, 2008 was the end. Some, like Annika Sorenstam, Greg Maddux, Justine Henin and Mike Mussina, went out on their own terms, while others - this means you, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens - finally wore out their welcome.

There were also those who left before we got the chance to say goodbye. Longtime NFL union head Gene Upshaw died just a few days after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and few had even known he was ill. Eight Belles broke down after finishing second to Big Brown at the Kentucky Derby. New York Rangers prospect Alexei Cherepanov, only 19, collapsed during a Russian league game and died.

As great as most of 2008 was, however, not everybody got with the program.

Big Brown stormed through the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, giving us hope we might actually see a Triple Crown winner for the first time since 1978. But he flopped at Belmont, easing home to a last-place finish.

Sean Avery got himself suspended, and the only shocker was that it came from crude comments off the ice, not his thuggishness on it. Pacman Jones earned another timeout from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Plaxico Burress shot himself in the thigh after accidentally pulling the trigger on a handgun in his pants while he fumbled a drink.

But nobody compares to the Bowl Championship Series, which extended its whining streak for another year.

Last year's title game between LSU and Ohio State was a dog - no, SEC, you can't add the Buckeyes to the conference - and the BCS has all of Texas seeing crimson this year. The Longhorns beat Oklahoma, both teams ended up in a three-way tie atop the bruising Big 12 South, yet it's the Sooners who will face Florida in the title game.

Huh?

Add in one-loss USC, Penn State, Alabama and Texas Tech, and it's no wonder even President-elect Barack Obama is calling for a playoff system.

"Any sensible person would say that if you've got a bunch of teams who played throughout the season, and many of them have one loss or two losses, there's no clear, decisive winner, that we should be creating a playoff system," Obama said in a "60 Minutes" interview.

It's never too early to start a to-do list for 2009.

Baugh, Haskins pass on; Knight says goodbye in ‘08

It was a year of bittersweet passings in Texas sports.

The state lost two icons when trailblazing UTEP basketball coach Don Haskins and TCU gridiron great Sammy Baugh died. But their deaths, at the least, permitted us a pause to celebrate their accomplishments.

Baugh was a Texan through and through - born in Temple, attended TCU and bought a ranch in West Texas that he returned to just as soon as he could. But his retirement to ranching came only after establishing himself as one of the best pro football players in the game's history.

Haskins was so much a Texan that he's forgiven for being born in Oklahoma. He was an old-school coach whose team toiled in anonymity until 1966, when Haskins started five black players and won the NCAA title. That was a first and it was a game-changer, creating previously denied opportunities for African-American players everywhere.

Here's a look at Slingin' Sammy, "The Bear" and some of the other top sports stories in Texas in 2008:

DON HASKINS: The Bear has always insisted he wasn't trying to make a social statement; he was simply starting his best players - and they happened to be black. But when Haskins and Texas Western (now UTEP) won the 1966 NCAA championship with an all-black starting five, doors that had always been closed to black athletes began opening. Haskins died in September at age 78 in his beloved El Paso.

SAMMY BAUGH: Slingin' Sammy Baugh was a cowboy and a quarterback, probably in that order. Perhaps the best all-around player in pro football history, Baugh once led the league in passing, punting and defensive interceptions in the same season. After winning a national title at TCU and two pro championships with the Washington Redskins, Baugh retired to his West Texas ranch. He died in December in Rotan at the age of 94.

BOB KNIGHT: The Indiana and then Texas Tech coach did everything loud in his memorable career. He coached loud, argued loud, berated loud, lived loud. But he retired quietly, on a weekday in the middle of the season with almost no notice. He won three national titles and more games than any other Division I men's coach. He'll be remembered as a flawed genius.

NASTIA LIUKIN: It took an amazing effort to steal some of the spotlight from Olympic star Michael Phelps, but Liukin did it. The North Texas gymnast won the coveted all-around gold, helped the U.S. team win silver and picked up three more medals. She was graceful, elegant and - apparently unlike some of her Chinese rivals - of age.

BIG 12 FOOTBALL: It was a season to remember in the Big 12, and not without considerable controversy. Texas beat Oklahoma, Texas Tech knocked off Texas and Oklahoma shellacked Texas Tech. Each team finished with a single loss. How'd it shake out? With Oklahoma playing for a national title, Longhorn fans outraged and the Red Raiders demoted to the Cotton Bowl.

JOSH HAMILTON: It was a breakthrough season for Hamilton, who returned to a sober life of crushing baseballs after years of addiction to drugs and alcohol that included eight stints in rehab. The crowning moment came on national TV during the All-Star Home Run Derby. With the Yankee Stadium crowd chanting his name, Hamilton hit a record 28 homers in the first round, including 13 in a row and three that traveled at least 500 feet. "I got chills," he said.

HIGH SCHOOL STEROIDS: It was the nation's largest steroids testing program, and it was supposed to root out the cheats among Texas high school athletes. The good news: After testing more than 10,000 students, the program rooted out just two steroids users. The bad news: The testing cost $6 million - or about $3 million per cheater.

ROGER CLEMENS-STEROIDS: The pitcher's trainer outed Clemens to baseball investigators last year as a steroid cheat. Trainer Brian McNamee even claims he has proof because he saved gauze, tissue and needles - which everyone can agree is just gross. The story got some, ahem, juice in 2008 because of ongoing developments in Clemens' defamation lawsuit against McNamee. Stay tuned.

PACMAN JONES: Call it the saga of the would-be Cowboys cornerback. He's traded to Dallas but still suspended. He's reinstated. He fights with his bodyguard. Oops, suspended again. Then reinstated. Then injured, maybe for the season. No wait, he's back! That's perhaps too much drama for a player with zero interceptions and a 4.8 punt return average.

TRACK STAR: Bonnie Richardson was the only athlete from Class 1A Rochelle to qualify for the state track and field meet. So she won the team title by herself. She won the high jump and the 200, took second in the long jump and the 100 and finished third in the discus. Richardson earned 42 team points for Rochelle, enough to edge team runner-up Chilton's 36 points. The UIL says it's the first time they can remember a single athlete winning a girl's team title.

JASON KIDD TRADE: Kidd's return to Dallas was supposed to energize the Mavericks. Instead, Kidd was outplayed in the playoffs by the new best point guard in the league, New Orleans' Chris Paul. Kidd is still one of the top floor leaders in the world, but his best days appear behind him.

JUNE COMETH: The ubiquitous billboards in the Dallas area heralded the arrival of new SMU football coach June Jones, fresh off a historic turnaround at Hawaii. The truth, however, was that June Loseth - a lot, as it turned out. The Mustangs went 1-11, no better than the previous season.

-- Jeff Carlton

Phelps and ‘Great Haul of China' take AP awards

Michael Phelps had just finished his work at the Water Cube, still wet but his place in history secure, when he walked up to his longtime coach.

"Good job," Bob Bowman said.

C'mon, coach, couldn't you come up with something a little more memorable? Didn't you have a "win one for the flipper" speech stashed away for such a momentous occasion?

"At that point, there was not much to say," Bowman recalled when reached by phone, chuckling at the brevity of his comments on that August day in Beijing. "It had all been said."

Well, not quite.

The honors just keep on coming for the "Great Haul of China" - Phelps' feat has now been selected as the top sports story of the year by members of The Associated Press.

By taking down Mark Spitz's Holy Grail of records with eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, Phelps also was a runaway selection for AP's male athlete of the year. Only Olympic sprinting sensation Usain Bolt (five votes) and New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning (four) got more than a single vote. Phelps was named on 172 ballots, becoming just the third swimmer to claim the award.

"Every single moment over there - whether it was winning a gold medal, swimming for my county, spending time with teammates - I had a blast," the 23-year-old Phelps told the AP recently.

He one-upped Spitz's mark from the 1972 Munich Games by winning five individual golds and serving on three relay teams that also touched first - and by breaking seven world records along the way. Not bad for someone who couldn't sit still in elementary school (he was eventually diagnosed with ADHD), a once-scrawny kid with big ears who was picked on mercilessly and prone to fits of whining and crying.

"Some of the accomplishments have sunk in, but some haven't," said Phelps, who followed Don Schollander in 1964 and Spitz in '72 as swimmers winning the AP's annual top male athlete award. "I've been on the road a lot and haven't had time to myself to really sit there and think about what really did happen this summer and this whole year."

Trust us, Michael, it was quite a ride.

Your wake included the New York Giants' upset of New England in the Super Bowl, which ruined the Patriots' perfect season but had to settle for second place in story-of-the-year voting. Tiger Woods' saga - season-ending surgery after a gutty U.S. Open playoff win - was third, followed by Brett Favre's on-again, off-again retirement and move to the New York Jets. The Boston Celtics' worst-to-first turnaround that ended with an NBA title over the rival Los Angeles Lakers took the fifth spot.

As with all great stories, the opening chapter laid the foundation.

Phelps was only 16 - an emerging stud in the pool but little known to the non-chlorine crowd - when he sat down at a table full of lawyers to discuss signing with an agent for the first time. He was wearing a baseball cap, probably tilted sideways. He sat through most of the meeting with that bored, distant look of his, seemingly unconcerned with such mundane matters as percentages and sponsorships.

Finally, Phelps was asked what he wanted out of this new relationship.

His answer, delivered without hesitation, showed a foresight beyond his years. He was seeking mainstream acceptance, for both himself and his sport. He saw no reason the world's greatest swimmer couldn't be part of the same exclusive club as guys such as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.

"I want to be on SportsCenter," he told agent-to-be Peter Carlisle.

Mission accomplished - and then some. There's been countless magazine covers, enough TV appearances to qualify for his guild card (including a stint hosting the season premiere of Saturday Night Live) and a quickie book just in time for the holiday buying season.

And, yes, he's even made the tabloids, the ultimate compliment in our celebrity obsessed culture though not always the most flattering coverage.

"I think the biggest change for him is just trying to adjust to the attention," Bowman said. "It's really been beyond anything we imagined."

How is Phelps handling everything from speculation about his girlfriend to his exploits on the late-night circuit?

"Overall, he's done pretty well," Bowman said. "He's learned a lot about how to handle himself. I think the hard part is handling all the people who come along with celebrity."

The pool is where he'll always be most comfortable. Phelps already has resumed light training and will get back into a full-time training routine shortly after the first of the year. He plans on

swimming at one more Olympics before getting of with the rest of his life, and the 2012 London Games will give him a chance to put another of his records - winningest Olympian ever with 14 gold medals - totally out of reach for the foreseeable future.

On his way out of Beijing, Phelps hinted that he might try for eight more golds in England, though not the same grueling events.

However he's apparently put the kibosh on that idea, as he revealed during yet another TV appearance this month on The Colbert Report.

When asked about his plans for the London, Phelps said, "Hopefully I'll be there. I won't go for eight again."

Bowman is just fine with a scaling-back of the schedule and he's eager for Phelps to try out some new events, especially the backstroke.

"He's really good at it, but he never got to swim it a big event," the coach said.

After winning six gold and two bronze medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Phelps resumed his pursuit of Spitz's record in Beijing. At last year's world championships in Australia, he provided a tantalizing glimpse of what was to come by going seven-for-seven, beating several world records by absurdly large margins in a sport measured to the hundredth of a second.

Then again, the capricious nature of his pursuit also was exposed Down Under. He never got a chance to swim his final event - a relay the Americans were heavily favored to win - because a teammate got disqualified in the morning preliminaries while Phelps was resting up back at his hotel for the evening final.

With that in mind, no less an expert than Ian Thorpe predicted Phelps would win six or seven golds in China, but figured eight was probably beyond reach. There was so much that could go wrong, from another teammate messing up to a rival swimming the race of his life at just the right time.

"It's not at all because I thought Michael was incapable of doing it," the Thorpedo said. "There were just so many other factors that were going to influence the results rather than it just being Michael."

But all the stars aligned during nine magical days in Beijing.

The Americans looked beaten by the French in the 400 freestyle relay, but world record-holder Alain Bernard made a tactical mistake off the final flip. Jason Lezak was able to draft like a NASCAR racer and pull off the fastest relay leg ever, winning by eight-hundredths of a second.

Phelps appeared hopelessly behind in his final individual event, the 100 butterfly, but Milorad Cavic started his glide to the wall a little too soon and subtly lifted his head, which slowed him even more.

Phelps, realizing he was behind, took an extra half-stroke and slammed the wall a hundredth of a second ahead - the smallest possible margin.

"I haven't been able to think in great detail about everything that's happened and what I've done," Phelps said. "Once I start getting back in the water and things settle down, I think I'll be able to look back on things and remember everything that happened and really be able to think about it and ponder it."

Looking ahead, Phelps will likely focus on three or four individual events, plus the relays. That would give him a chance to close his Olympic career with an even 20 gold medals.

Not too shabby.

"Anything he does from here on out is gravy," Bowman said. "He's earned the right to do it any way he wants to do it."

-- Paul Newberry

Sports in 2008 was enough to drive someone bats

Indignities come in all forms. John Odom, however, may have found a classification all his own.

Odom is a minor league pitcher, and not an especially good one. He was traded this year from the Calgary Vipers to the Laredo Broncos of the Golden Baseball League. He wasn't traded for cash or even for those old reliable "future considerations" and "player to be named."

Odom was traded for 10 bats.

No doubt, it could have been worse. A year or so ago, a European soccer player was said to have been traded for a slab of beef.

But for the Odom, the going price was 10 black, 34-inch maple bats. According to the manufacturer, they sell at discount for $65.50 each.

Odom was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 2003 but released. He still thinks he's got a shot at the big leagues. In the meantime, without a Robin for a sidekick, he has a nickname: Bat Man.

"I'm still in shock from this phenomenon," he said. "I don't know how to describe it. It's mind-boggling."

Humiliation is an equal opportunity employer, and in 2008 there was plenty to go around.

Consider Eliot Spitzer. It wasn't enough that the former New York governor got caught in a tabloid inferno for his call-girl escapades. The Macon Music of minor league baseball's South Coast League promoted - before ultimately backing off - an "Eliot Spitzer Night" in which any fan named Eliot, Spitzer or Kristen (his lady of choice) would get $1 off admission.

Or consider the women's hockey team of Bulgaria, which lost an Olympic qualifier to Slovakia 82-0. There was not even the faintest silver lining for the Bulgarians. They were outshot 139-0.

Soccer referee Sergei Shmolik didn't fare much better. In a game in Belarus, he wobbled off the field, seemingly from back pain. Later, the source of his discomfort became clear: He was drunk.

Even Adam "Pacman" Jones, no stranger to excess, broke new ground. The Dallas Cowboys cornerback got into another scuffle, this time with one of his own bodyguards.

China's Wang Hao, an Olympic table tennis champion in a country where the sport is revered, was ordered to explain himself to teammates in a shameful declaration. His crime? He confronted a parking attendant who reportedly caught him urinating outside a karaoke hall.

It was more a case of courage than contrition for photographer Ryan McGeeney of the Standard-Examiner in Provo, Utah. He was covering a high school track meet when he was speared in the leg by a javelin. McGeeney was not one to pass up a good shot. While others tended to him, he snapped a photo of his wound.

"If I didn't," he said, "it would probably be my editor's first question when I got back."

Seemingly no sport was immune from its quirky moments: Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summit dislocated her shoulder fending off a raccoon on the deck of her home; German champion billiards player Axel Buescher was suspended for doping; soccer fans in Argentina - twice in one week! - hijacked buses to get to games on time, making it in neither instance; Volvo Ocean Race sailors girded themselves not only for icebergs but pirates; and pirates of a different sort, the last-place Pittsburgh Pirates, looked to India for hope. They signed two pitchers who until this year had not thrown a baseball.

There also was an odd intersection between sports and a couple of political flash points from the 1970s.

It's not often - comets streak the sky more frequently - the names Westminster Kennel Club and Patty Hearst are mentioned in the same breath. But there she was: the one-time gun-toting Tania of Symbionese Liberation Army fame making her presentation among coiffed pooches at the world's most famous dog show. She is now Patty Hearst Shaw and 54 years old, and altogether proud her Diva was voted best French bulldog.

"When people find out it's me," she said, "it's like it doesn't make sense."

Also resurfacing was the name of Jim Jones, the cult leader who orchestrated the 1978 Jonestown massacre in Guyana in which more than 900 died in a murder-suicide. Grandson Rob Jones now plays college basketball for San Diego. He brushes off taunts from opposing crowds about drinking Kool-Aid.

"It's just part of my past, part of my history," he says. "We look at it and try to keep moving."

The macabre mix of death and commerce took some strange turns.

The Spanish Soccer League was awarded a cemetery in lieu of unpaid debts in a lawsuit involving a club owner. Fans of the German soccer club Hamburger SV now have their own cemetery, with the option of a grave covered in grass from the team's field. And the Jamaican hotel room where Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer died under mysterious circumstances now pulls in tourists.

"It's pretty amazing," said Lloyd Bremner, general manager of the Jamaica Pegasus. "Some people request to be in it; some want to be on the same floor."

Some oldsters were still going strong in 2008. Leo Fiyalko, 92, made a hole-in-one in Clearwater, Fla. - he is also blind. Dale Davis of Alta, Iowa, who is 78 and legally blind, bowled a 300 game. Ken Mink found new life on the basketball team at Roane State, a Tennessee community college, at a sprightly 73.

Sportsmanship, so often on the run, made a rare sighting in 2008 this year. Sara Tucholsky, a Western Oregon softball player, slugged her first college home run against Central Washington. But her knee buckled at first base and she couldn't go farther.

She was told teammates couldn't assist and a pinch-runner would limit her to a single. Then, two Central Washington players carried Tucholsky around the diamond, allowing her to touch each base with her good leg until she made it to the plate. The homer helped eliminate Central Washington from the playoffs.

"In the end, it is not about winning and losing so much," said Mallory Holtman, who helped lift Tucholsky around the bases. "She hit it over the fence and was in pain, and she deserved a home run."

There was nothing sporting about Marian Hinnant. She was a juror in the corruption trial of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. She told the judge her father died and she had to go to California. The judge halted the proceedings. It turned out she was lying and her father hadn't died. Hinnant had flown to California to see the Breeders' Cup.

Court documents do not show on which horses Hinnant bet, but she might well have been eyeing the second race that day. For running in The Turf Sprint was a 4-year-old colt by the name of Idiot Proof.

-- Fred Lief

Remembering Upshaw, Haskins, McKay in 2008

One is remembered not so much for crushing blocks - although he made it to the Hall of Fame with plenty of those - than for the dense, exacting language of contracts that would leave NFL players richer than they ever hoped.

Another simply wanted to win a college championship with the best players he could put on the court. In the process, he sent a racial barrier in the South tumbling, and basketball was never the same.

Yet another took us to exotic places, expanding the reach and possibilities of sports television. He was an elegant guide in a network blazer, and one day in Munich in 1972 the grim task fell to him to say, "They're all gone."

Gene Upshaw, Don Haskins and Jim McKay died in 2008, each leaving a distinct stamp, each taking sports on a new road.

Upshaw played guard for 15 years for the Oakland Raiders, helping them make the Super Bowl three times, winning twice. In a way, that was just the start. He went on to spend 25 years as head of the NFL Players Association, resetting the balance of labor and management. He was one of the few African-Americans to lead a major union.

In August, with another season about to begin, Upshaw died at 63 of pancreatic cancer. He learned he had the disease only days earlier.

"Gene Upshaw's career successes as a professional football player and a union leader are unparalleled," Raiders owner Al Davis said. "He is as prominent a sportsman as the world has known."

Upshaw could be harsh and direct, and didn't always say what was polite or expected. Many retired players felt betrayed, insisting he didn't do enough for them. Others felt his relationship with the NFL commissioner's office was far too cozy.

But the confluence of free agency, an advantageous salary cap and mega television deals came on Upshaw's watch, and a long river of cash flowed.

"He was very tough but also a good listener," former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue. "He never lost sight of the interests of the game and the big picture."

It took a movie, "Glory Road," to educate a new generation of basketball fans about Haskins and a college then called Texas Western. Haskins, an old-school coach who cared for his players and demanded much of them, died at home of congestive heart failure at 78.

"He took a school that had no reason to be a basketball giant and made it into one," said coach Bob Knight, a Hall of Famer, like Haskins.

In 1966, Haskins started five black players in the NCAA title game against an all-white, mighty Kentucky team coached by Adolph Rupp. The symbolism was unmistakable. Haskins, who was white, wasn't interested in political gestures. He was a coach who needed a win. And his team did just that, beating Kentucky 72-65.

Hate mail and death threats followed. But it wasn't long before the entrenched ways of recruiting changed, and black players were suddenly welcome in once-forbidden territory.

"Coach Haskins lived to be a winner not just in the X's and O's," said Nevil Shed, a starter on the 1966 team. "And he instilled in us that on the court you had to do your best, but after all this basketball you have to be a winner in life."

McKay spanned the globe, illuminating his audience with tales of barrel jumping and thoroughbred racing - even of some forsaken ski jumper careening down a mountain. He died on his Maryland horse farm at 86.

"Wide World of Sports" became McKay's signature, the show taking viewers to far-flung precincts in the days before such excursions became a television staple. But his most riveting report came at the 1972 Olympics, where Palestinian terrorists kidnapped 11 Israeli athletes. McKay was summoned to work and stayed at his post. By the time the raid to free the hostages ended, they were all gone.

"I was full of emotion," McKay said. "But when you are a professional, it is important to communicate what it is like, to capture the moment."

McKay had no use for bombast or self-promotion. Crisp detail, clear perspective and lyric touches were his tools of choice.

"He was the personification of class and style," sportscaster Al Michael said. "There has never been a more respected individual in the business, and deservedly so."

McKay's sure eye and voice would have found a place at last spring's Kentucky Derby when Eight Belles ran second to Big Brown and then collapsed. An ambulance rolled onto the track and the filly was put down. With the memory of Barbaro still fresh, it was another somber day for horse racing on national TV.

"Losing animals like this isn't fun," Eight Belles trainer Larry Jones said. "It's not supposed to happen. We're heartbroke."

The sport also lost two horses who were dazzling fillies in their day: Genuine Risk, the 1980 Kentucky Derby winner, and Winning Colors, the 1988 Derby champ and the last filly to capture the Run for the Roses.

In baseball, Buzzie Bavasi died at 93 after a lifetime of showing how a front office is run. He built Dodger teams that won four World Series titles in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale were part of his legacy. He also eased the way for Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe as baseball took a step toward racial tolerance.

"Buzzie was one of the game's greatest front-office executives," commissioner Bud Selig said. "He loved the game, and he loved talking about it."

Baseball also said goodbye to Tommy Holmes, who hit in 37 consecutive games in 1945, and Mickey Vernon, a two-time American League batting champ. They were joined by a couple of Yankees in Bobby Murcer and Tom Tresh and a pitching rotation that could do nicely in any era: Herb Score, Johnny Podres, Preacher Roe, Don Cardwell and Dock Ellis.

In basketball, 93-year-old Pete Newell was one of the outstanding teachers. He was a Hall of Fame coach who won an NCAA title at California and an Olympic gold medal. His tutoring of big men became legend, with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton and Shaquille O'Neal among those drawing off him.

"It's not like you have secrets," former NBA and college coach P.J. Carlesimo said. "But some people are a lot more willing to take time to sit down and talk to you and help. Pete was one of those guys."

Football lost not only Upshaw but one of the greatest quarterbacks in Sammy Baugh at 94. Slingin' Sammy transformed the forward pass into a more effective weapon while with the Washington Redskins from 1937-52. In one season, Baugh led the league in passing, punting and interceptions. He was the last surviving member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's inaugural class.

"There's nobody any better than Sam Baugh was in pro football," former star receiver Don Maynard said. "When I see somebody picking the greatest player around, to me, if they didn't go both ways, they don't really deserve to be nominated."

Two parts of the Steel Curtain defense from the famed Pittsburgh Steelers teams of the 1970s were stripped with the deaths of 59-year-old Ernie Holmes and 58-year-old Dwight White.

Also, Gene Hickerson, a Hall of Fame guard who blocked for Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly, died at 73; Jack Mildren, the wishbone quarterback at Oklahoma who became the state's lieutenant governor, was 58; and Georgia Frontiere, who brought the Rams from Los Angeles to her St. Louis hometown in 1995, was 80.

In hockey, Pit Martin, an All-Star in the 1960s and ‘70s, died at 64 in a snowmobile accident in Quebec. Golf is now without two U.S. Open champions: Tommy Bolt (1958), dead at 92; Orville Moody (1969) at 74.

Boxing's Joey Giardello, a former middleweight champ who sued filmmakers over a depiction of a title bout against Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, was 78. South Korea's Choi Yoi-sam, 33, and Mexico's Daniel Aguillon, 24, never made it that far, dying from injuries in the ring.

Christopher Bowman, a compelling figure skater who won two U.S. titles but partied much too hard, had an accidental overdose at age 40 in a cheap Los Angeles hotel.

Austrian tennis player Horst Skoff, once ranked 18th, died at 39 of a heart attack. Hamilton Jordan, chief of staff for Jimmy Carter before forming the men's pro tennis circuit in the 1980s, was 63.

Gordon Bradley, 74, enjoyed a career in which he coached Pele and Johan Cruyff in the North American Soccer League and also ran the U.S. national team.

Sports also saw off two men whose names tower over their pursuits: chess master Bobby Fischer, 64, and mountaineering's Sir Edmund Hillary, 88.

But no one held the stage like Paul Newman, who died at 83. The Oscar-winning actor and entrepreneur could also drive pretty well. He was once part of the winning team in the Daytona 24-Hours endurance race. He was 70 at the time, and still the coolest guy at the track.

"The sport is a lot more exciting than anything else I do," he said. "And nobody cares that I'm an actor."

Ten prominent sports deaths in 2008:

Sammy Baugh, 94, football.

Buzzie Bavasi, 93, baseball.

Eight Belles, 3, horse racing.

Christopher Bowman, 40, figure skating.

Bobby Fischer, 64, chess.

Sir Edmund Hillary, 88, mountaineering.

Jim McKay, 86, broadcasting.

Pete Newell, 93, basketball.

Herb Score, 75, baseball.

Gene Upshaw, 63, football.

-- Fred Lief

2008, game over: sports year in chapter and verse

Don't look at the clock, we know that it's late,

And sometimes it's hard to keep it all straight.

A game back in May? A blown double steal?

A lawsuit in August now on appeal?

Here in the fading days this December

Clemens well knows we can "misremember."

We'll start at the top, the least we can do:

It's your night Les Miles, and yours LSU.

Nearly New England's, nearly perfection,

Undone by a Giant insurrection.

Yes, Eli's coming and what did we see?

The outstretched arms of one David Tyree.

On Capitol Hill, an unseemly sight:

Clemens and McNamee throw high and tight.

Surrounded by lawyers both work the room,

Arguing who has done what and to whom.

While gasoline prices soared at the pump

Congress grilled Roger on shots to his rump.

Soon opening day, but who could exalt?

The talk is of drugs and Bonds in default.

Come April, it's Kansas, good as it gets:

Over the rainbow and cutting the nets.

Big hopes in May of a rare Triple Crown,

Mint juleps and bourbon mixed with Big Brown.

But this proved a day of sober farewells -

There on the track lay the filly Eight Belles.

Red Wings and Celtics: a time to anoint.

Marion Jones: doing time in the joint.

Tiger is dazzling, on fairway and tee,

Closing the Open on one wounded knee.

Federer's back on his Wimbledon lawn,

But there stands Nadal, all muscle and brawn.

The hot summer nights find love in the air:

A-Rod, Madonna, the darlingest pair.

They whisper sweet words, study kaballah

(Yet no sign of him slicing a challah).

Then out from the mist of the Irish Sea

Comes an aging Shark, but it's not to be.

Harrington's win gives him two claret jugs.

Tour de France riders - we're shocked! - turn to drugs.

Across the Pacific, it's Beijing's show,

A clatter of drums in the Bird's Nest glow.

Phelps spins his magic, a sight to behold:

A man who turns water into pure gold.

On land, in the swelter of August heat,

Bolt runs to the pulse of a reggae beat

While Chinese gymnasts go prancing on beams,

Baby-teeth dolls with their lullaby dreams.

These games, Rogge boasts, we must not forget.

(Just don't raise a banner praising Tibet.)

In the shadow of bailouts, banks and bills,

October belongs to the Rays and Phils.

Favre as a Jet still seems slightly bizarre,

Not Jimmie Johnson, the nation's car czar.

Burress goes clubbing, like any old jock,

With his wallet, keys and a loaded Glock.

Paterno limps and a season closes;

Still all is good, Joe's coming up roses,

As are Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn,

And before we know it, it's all gone, gone.

So we'll call a timeout for auld lang syne,

Then get back in the game: 2009.

-- Fred Lief