Top 10 Sports Stories in 2010

As presented on Wednesday, December 29th’s edition of “Section 26 Sports,” this is the top ten sports stories in the calendar year, 2010.  Once again, this is purely the opinion of the “Section 26” hosts.  Others may have the stories in a different order, some might have different stories, others may have a different ranking.

Here they are:

10.  Isner-Mahut never ending battle at Wimbledon.

It was an early match, but it went on forever, literally.  France’s Nicolas Mahut and the United States’ John Isner battled for eleven hours and five minutes.  The fifth set alone was eight hours and eleven minutes.

Neither player could break the other’s serve, until Isner finally did.  Isner won three sets to two.  Isner beat Mahut 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6, 70-68.

9.  Who wants to be number one?

For three straight weeks, no team in college football wanted to claim the title as the number one team in the country.

First, it was South Carolina beating Alabama on October 9th, 35-21, with ESPN’s College GameDay set-up in the University of South Carolina’s Horseshoe.

Then, for consecutive weeks on ABC’s Saturday Night Football, the number one team went down.  It was Wisconsin defeating Ohio State, 31-18, in Madison, Wisconsin.

Finally, on October 23rd, Missouri upset Oklahoma, 36-27.

In all three occassions, the number-one team, was beat easily by teams that may or may not have been better.

8.  Baseball says good-bye to two of its greatest managers.

Bobby Cox and Lou Piniella have seen a lot in their baseball careers.  Neither the best player, both became pretty good managers (sarcasm).

Cox, led the Atlanta Braves to the 1995 World Series Championship and 14 consecutive divisional titles.  Cox retired at the end of the season, winning 2,504 games, which is 4th all-time.  Cox also holds the record for most ejections at 158.

Piniella probably had many more exciting ejections compared to Cox.  Piniella might be for famous for tossing first base as he was tossed by random umpires.

Piniella finished 14th all time in managerial wins with 1,835.  He won the 1990 World Series with the Cincinnati Reds.  He also managed the Cubs, Rays, Mariners, and Yankees.

7.  Butler’s Gordon Hayward almost beats Duke.

The 2010 NCAA Men’s Division I Tournament featured the “Cinderalla-story” Butler Bulldogs and the love-or-hate Duke Blue Devils.

It was a desperation shot by Butler’s Hayward to attempt to beat the Blue Devils.  The shot, which no one thought had a shot, bounces off the rim.  Duke becomes National Champions again, beating Butler 61-59.

6.  a) Pitching Perfection in 2010

It was an unprecedented season for pitching in Major League Baseball.  There were six no-hitters, two of which were perfect games.  Oakland’s Dallas Braden (on Mother’s Day) and Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay each threw perfect games in the month of May.

Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez, Arizona’s Edwin Jackson, and Tampa’s Matt Garza all threw no-hitters this season.  Halladay also threw a no-hitter in the National League Division Series against Cincinnati.  This game was pitched better than his perfect game.

6.  b)  The Perfect Game that was not.

How would you like to get 26 consecutive outs, just one away from getting perfection as a major league pitcher.  It was done twice, and a young Detroit Tigers’ pitcher was about to have one of the most economic perfect games in history.

On June 2nd, Armando Galarraga got those 26 consecutive outs.  He only had to get Cleveland’s Jason Donald out to finish the job.  A ground ball in which Galarraga had to cover first base.  It was a close play and Donald is called safe by first base umpire Jim Joyce.  Galarraga appeared destined to end up with guys like Mike Mussina and Curt Schilling, who came oh-so-close, but not perfect.

And then the replay.  It showed that Galarraga’s foot touched the bag prior to Donald’s foot.  He should have been called safe by Jim Joyce.  However, after the game Joyce apologized, admitting that he took a perfect game away from Galarraga.  Galarraga responded with “nobody’s perfect.”

5.  Jimmie Johnson becomes 5-time consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion.

Many people thought entering the year that this would be the year Johnson doesn’t win.  Not so fast.

Denny Hamlin appeared in control of the points heading to Homestead.  However, the pressure appeared to get to Hamlin, and the guy who had been there the last 4 years, made it number five.  A feat that no driver has ever accomplished, five consecutive championships.

4.  Brett Favre.

Whenever you think you can make it a week without Brett Favre being mentioned, there he is.  The media darling created by ESPN didn’t fail us again this year.

Once again, it was whether he would come back.  Then when he came back, would the ankle and shoulder hold-up.  Next came the Jenn Sterger controversy, of whether or not he sent suggestive photos to the former New York Jets’ employee.

Then, he was not as invincable as thought.  After 297 consecutive starts, a shoulder injury forced Favre to be inactive.  After that week, he couldn’t resist the idea of being announced out, and then suddenly hours before the game, he can suddenly play.  Followed by another game, he couldn’t play because of a concussion.

3.  Tiger Woods.

Not a whole lot to be said here, other than Woods went through with the advances Favre did not.  He made his return to golf, and did not win one tournament.

He was semi-competitive in the major tournaments, but a non-factor in all of the others.  It was not until some of the off-the-course problems resolved themselves (divorce becoming final), that he began to look a little better.

2.  The Decision – LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh.

While figuring it was the best way to announce the rest of his life, LeBron James felt that a one-hour infomercial would improve his image.

All it led to was public ridicule and embarassment as James announced that he would be going to the Miami Heat.  Wade and Bosh just went along for the ride.

At first the ‘big three’ did not produce.  It was a disastrous start for the Heat.  However, in the last month, the play has picked up and the Heat are beginning to look like the team everyone predicted them to be.

1.  The New Orleans Saints win Super Bowl XLIV.

The lovable losers that once were the ‘New Orleans Aints’ finally broke through to win Super Bowl XLIV against the mighty Indianapolis Colts.

However, the story is about what the Saints went through to get there.  A hurricane that knocked a city off of their feet and a team out of their stadium gave the people of New Orleans a bright spot in their eyes.

Any NFL fan and any person who likes a heart-warming story could not be disappointed by the Saints and the city of New Orleans winning the Super Bowl.

There you have it, the Top 10 Stories, according to “Section 26 Sports.”  Happy New Year everyone!

MLB Realignment Solution

For a few weeks, Major League Baseball has been discussing the idea of a “floating realignment.”  This “floating realignment” would in effect give talented teams in difficult divisions an advantage towards making the playoffs.

The key example cited was moving the Tampa Bay Rays to the American League Central and having the Kansas City Royals replace them in the American League East.  This change would happen primarily so that the Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees would all make the playoffs in the same season.

This “floating realignment” is a mockery and is disrespectful to the concept of honest competition.  Moving a talented team to improve their success rate goes against everything we are taught as youths.  It supports the idea of taking the easy way out and relying on others to fix your problems rather than working hard.

I propose a more balanced and just solution.  Instead of assisting certain teams in their playoff runs and trying to set up success, MLB needs to take this opportunity to rejuvenate the sport.

Baseball has had trouble with fan numbers decreasing since the “Steroid Era.”  Casual fans have dropped the sport and moved their fandom to more exciting sports on the rise, such as Major League Soccer and the action sports performed in the X-Games.

With a possible owner lockout looming over the National Football League, now is the time for MLB to recapture fan interest and take a step closer to becoming the national pastime once again.

But the question then arises, what would bring back the casual fans?  Look at what excites the typical casual fans in your local area.  You are likely to see two key factors:  rivalry games and home runs.  Instead of realigning for the success of certain teams, MLB should realign to revitalize rivalries.

This idea of casual fan interest is what drew me to this realignment.  Doing this would put every local rivalry in the same division, therefore providing the fans with more, and more meaningful rivalries.

Also, this realignment would give the classic baseball fans such as me new, energetic rivalries for our respective teams.  Teams would get to play opponents they would not usually see on the diamond.  This would appeal to everyone, from casual fans to die hard fans to the men on the field.

In addition to the classic and new rivalries, this realignment would balance out the American League and National League.  And because of that, their rules would have to match, meaning the National League would have to implement to designated hitter rule.  This would make inter-league play more straightforward and fair.  Not to mention this would help with fans because, simply put, chicks dig the long ball.

The divisional realignment goes as follows:

American League:

East – Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Washington Nationals

Central – Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays

West – Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners

National League:

East – Atlanta Braves, Florida Marlins, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Rays

Central – Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals

West – Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers

This alignment maintains the two rivalries in baseball that I feel should go untouched, Yankees-Red Sox and Cubs-Cardinals.  It also gives more meaning to the local rivalries including the Subway Series, the Bay Series and many others in-state matchups.

I strongly urge MLB to take a look at this and give it strong consideration.  This would keep the die hard fans and regain a firm grasp on the casual fans.  Baseball would be able to return to the glorious days of exciting play that we, the fans have all come to miss.