Splinters: Reliving the Year's Best

I love the holidays because the end of the year and Christmas provide the perfect opportunity for lots of “List” columns, which require the devotion of exactly zero-effort to transitional sentences. So conjunctions, I give you a respite. Enjoy yourselves. We’ll carry on without you this week as I take a look at the best moves of the Sporting World in 2004.

10.) Jake Plummer’s insistence on wearing Pat Tillman’s 42 sticker after the NFL fined the Denver quarterback for breaking the league’s uniform policy. In such a money-dominated age, it’s nice to see some people value some things more than the all-mighty dollar. Plummer would be higher on this list had he not tried to re-invent the Mile High Salute using only his middle digit.

9.) Michael Phelps steps aside in his final Olympic race to let Ian Crocker win the gold. With a medal essentially guaranteed by participating in qualifying heats for the 4 x 100 medley relay, Phelps proved he’s the furthest thing from a glory hog by allowing his teammate and rival Ian Crocker to take his spot. A great moment in an Olympics that was marred by doping scandals and medal controversies.

8.) The media properly shifting attention away from Anna Kournikova and onto Maria Sharapova. By winning Wimbledon, Sharapova proved that you can be gorgeous and good. The winner? The sport of tennis, which seemed to be turning its courts into modeling runways rather than playing surfaces.

7.) David Stern suspends Ron Artest for the season. This fan-athlete altercation thing has got to stop, and Stern let everyone know it won’t be tolerated. Hopefully the NBA’s teams will also let fans know it won’t be tolerated either.

6.) The Steelers don’t trade anyone and get the best quarterback in the draft in Ben Roethlisberger. Don’t think Big Ben was the best? Top 13-0. He might not have the “tools” that Eli and Rivers do, but he has the poise to quarterback a championship team at age 22. In my book, that counts for more. Tom Brady would probably agree.

5.) The Eagles trade for Terrell Owens. Forget about the underhandedness of the union stepping in to halt the trade to the Ravens so T.O. could get his way (hey, they got a draft pick out of it), the trade locked up the NFC for Philly.

4.) The Chargers’ display of backbone at the Draft and beyond. They won three games last year. But now they’re 11-4 and have claimed the AFC West Title. Thank you Drew Brees. Of course the Chargers have been trying to ditch Brees for years and drafted over him, ultimately getting Phillip Rivers last spring. But instead of betting the farm on a miraculous rebirth under rookie Rivers (you can thank Ryan Leaf for this), San Diego balked at offering Rivers the uber-contract his agent demanded, electing to start Brees instead of caving. The rest is history. Oh yeah, they also robbed the Giants blind in exchange for Eli Manning, who has yet to win a game for the G-Men.

3.) Roger Clemens coming out of retirement and winning the Cy Young. Hey, he’s still a jerk for accepting all the gifts and accolades the Yankees bestowed upon him when he hung it up the first time. But you can hardly fault a guy for believing he’s still got some juice left and then pitching his team to the playoffs and earning pitching’s highest honor for a record seventh time.

2.) Another baseball move rates highly this year, with the Astros’ decision to trade struggling closer Octavio Dotel to acquire Carlos Beltran. Not only did Beltran shine down the stretch and in the playoffs, but Brad Lidge was lights out as the new closer, chalking up 157 strikeouts in 94.2 innings. Tied for the second best move, fittingly, is the Astros’ decision not to trade Beltran at the July 31 deadline, despite being under .500. But the team trusted its players, its new manager Phil Garner and ended up in the NLCS. You gotta have faith. Just ask George Michael.

1.) Everything Theo Epstein did. All of it. And not without controversy either. Signing Schilling and his bionic ankle was a no-brainer, but trading the beloved Nomah for a shortstop barely batting his weight in Montreal and a first baseman whose name looks like it was the creation of Cyrillic alphabet soup, was a huge risk.

But Cabrera had key hits, was solid up the middle and Mientkiewicz allowed Ortiz to focus on hitting. Meanwhile, Schilling was the personality that refused to let the Sox die and gave them the spirit to endure and comeback from an “impossible” 3-0 deficit in the American League Championship Series. Nothing says toughness like a staple in the ankle, huh?

Speaking of staples, that wonderful physician that sutured Schil’s ankle enabling the pitcher to take the Sox on his back and win the team’s first World Series Championship since 1918, remember him? You’d think that the team would enshrine this guy with a statue, rename their children after him, but no, Monday the Red Sox fired him. Now that qualifies as one of the worst moves of 2004. More on those next week, but in the meantime if you think I’ve omitted one of this year’s best moves or moments, please let me know. In the meantime, happy New Year.

Mike Hume may be emailed at mhume@fcnp.com