Has Anyone Been Paying Attention Lately?

I’m not sure who out there has been paying attention, but while in the midst of all the thrills of the primary season and now the general election dual smear campaign on both sides of the aisle, something wonderful has been happening on our planet… which, depending on which kook you subscribe to, falls somewhere between Zorbok and Greyskull on the list of most important planets containing human life. I call your attention to the following facts…

- New York Giants d. New England Patriots 17-14 with a miraculous last drive featuring the now famous Manning to Tyree completion, winning Super Bowl XLII… a defensive, hard-hitting, evenly matched struggle.

- Kansas d Memphis 75-68 in OT to capture the NCAA Division IA Men’s Basketball Championship…featuring Mario Chalmers’ breathtaking three point shot to send a classic game into extra frames.

- Detroit Red Wings defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games in the series everyone wanted to see… Sid the Kid and the upstart, young, hungry Pens against Hockeytown USA. It did not matter how it ended, it only mattered that it happened… and the Pens victory in Game 5 in Detroit was the highlight of the series.

- Boston Celtics defeat the Los Angeles Lakers in six games to win the city’s first NBA Championship in over a decade in what is widely seen as the game’s best and most historic rivalry. Though it did not go seven, the hype was unimaginable.

- In what is still to me the biggest and best of this year, Tiger Woods overcomes Rocco Mediate (special in his own right and a great story to follow) on the NINETEETH playoff hole, while fighting multiple knee injuries that immediately afterwards put him on the shelf until next year at Augusta… winning the US Open and his fourteenth major, in the most dramatic fashion anyone could imagine… in what may be as good a golf tournament as the world will ever see again.

AND JUST YESTERDAY

- Rafael Nadal finally pulled off the unthinkable, finishing off most likely the greatest tennis player in history… Roger Federer, on his surface, in what many experts (and me included) are calling the greatest Wimbledon final ever… maybe even the greatest tennis match of all time, with high level tennis being played from the first point to the last. The true #1 and #2 getting it on at the All-England Club and ripping it down through two rain delays and nearly five hours of on court excellence.  The sport I played competitively in high school and college and have loved for a lifetime finally gets another jump start… one it desperately needed, with no American anywhere close to these two on the men’s side.

Now folks, these are just “final” situations, as easily one could have put Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester’s no hitter over the Royals (just one year after cancer threatened his life) in the category, as well as a few other definite feel good moments. It is the year, thus far, of the Rays and potentially we could be staring at the Chicago Cubs finally ending the curse, in the one hundredth year.

I submit to you, that at the highest of levels, there has NEVER been a year in sports that has provided this level of parity in major situations… never have the fans been treated to anything as special as FREQUENTLY as they have been this year… never have the sporting gods been more fruitful and giving than in 2008. Think about this, with the exception of what was a very mediocre bowl season in college football, virtually no “final” event has come and gone without wide discussion. Even the UEFA tournament was spectacular, with a fantastic final between Spain and Germany and of course watching the underdogs from Turkey scrapping and clawing their way round by round until finally succumbing… but not before creating so many memories for their nation and for the world.

Add in this year’s second half of the baseball season, which may feature some excruciatingly close division fights and looking at what could be a tightly contested DS, LCS, and WS in both leagues, potentially the history and pageantry of the Cubs finally getting the proverbial monkey off their backs… and remember, the British Open, PGA Championship, tennis’ United States Open at Flushing Meadows, the start of another college and pro football season, and potentially the first gold medal in a “minute” for USA Basketball as well as Tyson Gay’s rise up the ranks and Dara Torres qualifying for an individual as well as team events at age forty-one and without question, 2008 has been a year in sports unlike any other.

With so much turmoil in the world, regardless of where one stands on the issues, it is good that the world’s number one distraction has been a place of refuge for many of us. Just think about the lasting moments and the last second heroics that have gone into so many games, matches, rounds, and trials in this calendar year. To me… only one word fits the bill…

Extraordinary. Kudos to the gods of sport…

-JM

~ by jmartnwa on July 7, 2008.