Top 5 Sports Stories of 2009

Honorable Mention:
-Canada's World Junior Hockey team wins a 5th straight championship.
-Alex Rodriguez overcoming PED scandal and going on to play well and win the World Series. A 27th in the history of the Yankees franchise.
-Roger Federer wins the French Open, the only asterisk is he didn't beat Nadal.
-Detroit Lions go winless (0-17) in an NFL season.
-UCONN women's basketball goes undefeated, 39-0, and win their 6th national title.
-Lance Armstrong returns to cycling, but can't win the Tour de France.
-Jimmie Johnson wins his 4th straight NASCAR title.


5. Steelers win 6th Super Bowl.
The Pittsburgh Steelers went to Tampa to face the upstart Arizona Cardinals. The Cards had turned around decades of frustration to finally make it to a Super Bowl. The Steelers would not roll over and hand them the victory. In an amazing game that featured the longest play in Super Bowl history (a 99 yard interception return by James Harrison), Larry Fitzgerald of the Cardinals then had an unbelievable 64 yd touchdown reception that split the Steelers defence, gave the Cards their first lead and gave them a great chance to win if the defence could hold. Big Ben wasn't having any of it though. He drove the length of the field, finally threading the needle to Santonio Holmes with 35 seconds who tippy-toed in the back of the endzone to seal the victory for the black and gold. For his 135 yd performance, Holmes was given the MVP and Big Ben got his second Super Bowl ring.

4. Roughriders lose Grey Cup.
Your typical Canadian football game. Back and forth scoring, some timely defense and special teams that actually mean something. This game, unlike the Super Bowl won't be remembered for who won (Montreal Alouettes) as it will for who lost (Saskatchewan Roughriders). In a very pro-Roughriders environment in Calgary, the Als had a field goal attempt on the final play of the game for the win. The field goal attempt sails wide and it looked for the moment that the Green Riders would take home the Grey Cup. Unfortunately, the 13th man, which throughout most of the game was the fans, in this case was an actual player and the penalty on Saskatchewan allowed the Als to retry their field goal from 5 yards closer and this time kicker David Duval was true and split the uprights for the Montreal win.

3. Usain Bolt is fastest man alive.
Have to say this one quickly. Jamaica's Usain Bolt who came to prominence during the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 had another world stage to showcase his personality and quick twitch muscles. This time the venue was Berlin and the World Track and Field Championships. Bolt quickly (and I mean quickly) brought the world to its feet by running a blistering 9.58 in the 100m and then ran a 19.19 in the 200m to cement himself as the fastest human being ever.

2. Barcelona FC wins 6 championships.
This amazing event flies under the radar because it happened over the whole year and not in one game or under 20 seconds. FC Barcelona became the first football team ever to win six out of six competitions in a single year thus completing the sextuple, comprising the 2008–09 La Liga, 2008–09 Copa del Rey, 2009 Supercopa de España, 2008–09 UEFA Champions League, 2009 UEFA Super Cup and 2009 FIFA Club World Cup. Similar to American sports where trades or transfers are now becoming more common and dynasties are less likely this will probably never happen again.

1. Tiger Woods.
Where to start with this one. Is it Tiger winning Golfer of the Year, Athlete of the Decade or 6 tournaments this year on the PGA tour. Perhaps it is the other side of the coin, maybe the biggest story is Tiger LOSING to YE Yang in the PGA Championship, after leading on a Sunday Woods did something he hadn't done before, gave up the lead. The real story of the year in this one though is Tiger Woods's fall from grace. That link pretty much says it all.


What was your top sports story of the year?

Did You Miss?

So much as occurred since I last penned for the Sandwich Shoppe, so I am not really sure where to start...

1. "Drago's Cut" - Tiger Woods went down for the first time in a major after leading after 36 holes. He shot a very uncharacteristic 3 over on a Sunday to choke away the title to Y.E. Yang. Is this the end of Tiger's run as the dominant golfer of our generation? Everyone on the PGA tour would hope so, but I really doubt it. Tiger has been in contention in almost every tournament he has entered with the exception of the British Open. Tiger is still good, check that great and will be within a couple of shots of the top of the leaderboard in almost all of the tournaments he enters.

2. "Lookin' Good" - In a move only in Canada, Hockey Canada unveiled it's jersey for the 2010 Olympic games in August for February games. Most people would say - "hey, put that jersey in stores around October or November so that kids will all want it for a Christmas present." Not Hockey Canada, they understand that hockey is a twelve month a year passion in Canada so they jump the shark and unleashed it on the masses. As for the jersey itself, it isn't that bad looking, some nice details and they had to adapt because of the regulations of the IOC and not being able to use the association logo. As was noted in the press conference, many people will be wearing these jersey's in the middle of the winter.

3. From the "it just didn't just happen did it" file. Today was either the worst day ever to be a Packers fan or the best. I still can't figure it out. When Favre retired two seasons ago, I thought it was the right move for him and the Packers. A young QB in Aaron Rodgers was ready to take the lead for the franchise and Favre had set all the records that he wanted to accomplish. Then Favre made the radical decision to return to football and play with the NY Jets. He started the season out really well, but his age and nagging injuries caught up to him and the Jets faltered. Favre again decided to retire - this time for good in July, saying that his body could no longer take the punishment and he wouldn't regret the decision. I turn on the interweb today and what do I see - Brett Favre is wearing Viking purple.

The only thing I am happy about is that the saga is over. He signed and the soap opera is done. Favre is going to play football in the 2009 season. It sucks that he is back in the NFC North, it sucks that he is playing for one of the Packers arch rivals and it sucks for Tavaris Jackson and Sage Rosenfels. As we saw last year, Favre is slightly passed his prime. He is still an NFL caliber quaterback but he will no doubt struggle at times and with all the lies to his former #1 and #2 quaterbacks I don't think Brad Childress is going to have an easy time going back to Jackson or Rosenfels during the season.

Brett Favre in purple won't be easy on the eyes, but no matter what he does in Minnesota he will still be enshrined in Canton as a Packer.

Random Thoughts and Musings

Random thoughts to finish off an interesting hump day/April Fool's day...

1. Jay Cutler and the Broncos soap opera. The Broncos have now publicly come out and said that they will trade their quarterback as he and the new coach Josh McDaniel can't get along after McDaniel tried to trade Cutler a month ago to acquire Matt Cassel. Cutler will get his wish and leave the franchise that has wronged him. Now it is just a matter of what team will acquire him. A couple of teams have already made inquiries about the pivot and it is thinking that a second round pick will get him. The teams in the running include the New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers Jacksonville Jaguars and Cleveland Browns according to the Sporting News.

2. John Calipari is ditching the University of Memphis basketball program for some bluegrass. He is going to take over the troubled University of Kentucky program which lost in the elite eight of the NIT tournament. Callipari is a loud coach who demands attention and if gets Kentucky and their superfan Ashley Judd back on TV I am okay with this hire.

3. TFC is off to a good start in the 2009 season. They won their opener in Kansas City and then tied the defending champions Columbus Crew 1-1 in Columbus. The only negative from the game was a small riot after the game that lead to an arrest of a TFC fan and another fan being tasered. They open the 2009 home on Saturday vs. the expansion Seattle Sounders. GO REDS!

4. Finally some new music for 2009. The man with the most alias ever DOOM has released his new album Born Like This. Not sure how to classify his rap or songs except that they are chopped, quick hitting and raw. He has some great collaborations on the album with appearances by Ghostface Killah and Slug. Support good music...

5. Can anyone stop Tiger Woods? Arnold Palmer and his course couldn't do it and neither could the largest final day deficit of his career. He finished it off with a huge birdie putt. You can't really bet against him when the Masters kicks off on April 9. If you have the choice between Tiger or the Field, how do you really take the field?

5. Don't forget to go read the latest bleacher report article and vote for who you think is the greatest jays pitcher of all time.