Here’s to the Better Angels of the Sports World
By DAVE ANDERSON
In a sports year often interrupted by sorrow and scandal, more than ever some deserve a Thanksgiving Day thank-you:
¦ All those who emerged from the April marathon bombings as “Boston Strong,” the motto carved into the Fenway Park outfield grass, where the Red Sox rallied to win the World Series.
¦ The Grambling football players, whose one-game boycott over budget cuts put the university’s fiscal problems on public view.
¦ Tatyana McFadden, the 24-year-old wheelchair racer who grew up in a Russian orphanage with spina bifida, which left her paralyzed below the waist. She became the first to win four major marathons in the same year (Boston, London, Chicago and New York).
¦ Tim McCarver, televised baseball’s Ph.D., for his decades of educating viewers on the whys and wherefores of the game.
¦ Ogden Mills Phipps, known as Dinny, and his trainer, Shug McGaughey, who each finally had a Kentucky Derby winner, Orb.
¦ John Idzik, the Jets’ general manager, who at least restored a no-nonsense atmosphere to a franchise that often led the league in buffoonery.
¦ Jaromir Jagr, the 41-year-old Devils wonder, who keeps climbing the ladder of hockey’s career scorers.
¦ Phil Mickelson, who won the British Open at Muirfield the way few champions have, with four dazzling birdies on the last six holes.
¦ The weekly newspaper Miami New Times, which introduced the Biogenesis anti-aging clinic to baseball investigators. The scandal ensnared Alex Rodriguez, who challenged his 211-game suspension in arbitration; Ryan Braun (suspended 65 games); and 12 other players, who each accepted 50-game bans.
¦ Tyson Chandler, the injured 7-foot-1 center, whose importance to the Knicks’ success is all too obvious as they struggle to win without him.
¦ Marv Fleming, the 1972 Dolphins tight end, who organized a better-late-than-never White House reception for the N.F.L.’s only undefeated championship team.
¦ David Eger, the Champions Tour golfer and former PGA Tour rules official who alerted Masters officials to Tiger Woods’s improper drop at the 15th hole of the second round after noticing it on television at his Charlotte, N.C., home. The next day, Woods was assessed a two-stroke penalty instead of being disqualified because the Masters rules committee erred in not interviewing him about the drop before he signed his scorecard.
¦ Joe Girardi, the manager who somehow kept the oft-injured Yankees’ playoff hopes alive with paste and paper clips.
¦ Andy Reid, whose revival of the Kansas City Chiefs has made them a contender for the Super Bowl, which they last won after the 1969 season.
¦ Ted Ligety, the 29-year-old Utah skier and the first man in 45 years to win three events at the world championships (giant slalom, super-G and super combined).
¦ Diana Nyad, the 64-year-old swimmer who finally conquered the Caribbean tides from Cuba to Key West, Fla., the first without a shark cage.
¦ The Oracle Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill and his crew, who retained the America’s Cup in San Francisco Bay by winning eight consecutive races after the challenger, Emirates Team New Zealand, had sailed to an 8-1 lead in the duel of carbon-fiber foiling catamarans.
¦ Terrell Thomas, the Giants cornerback, again playing at a premier level after three major operations on his right knee.
¦ Luke Hancock, the Louisville basketball captain who rushed to comfort his teammate Kevin Ware, who had collapsed with a grotesquely broken leg in the Cardinals’ 85-63 victory over Duke in the Midwest Region final. Louisville went on to beat Wichita State and, with Hancock scoring 22 points, Michigan for the N.C.A.A. title.
¦ All those across the world campaigning to restore wrestling as a medal sport in the Summer Olympics.
¦ Jim Leyland, an old-school manager whose profile would have fit perfectly in a major league dugout across from Casey Stengel’s half a century ago. Now retired, he twice missed a chance to win the World Series with the Detroit Tigers, but he must be remembered for winning it with the 1997 Florida Marlins.
¦ Jason Collins, for announcing: “I’m a 34-year-old N.B.A. center. I’m black and I’m gay.” The first openly gay man in the four major sports, he remains unemployed after a 12-year career.
¦ Inbee Park, the South Korean whose three major titles (Kraft Nabisco, L.P.G.A. Championship, United States Women’s Open) not only assured her place in golf history but also reminded the golf world of the greatness of the only other woman to win three majors in the same year, Babe Didrikson Zaharias.
¦ Dario Franchitti, the IndyCar driver, whose injuries in a crash in the Grand Prix of Houston forced his retirement at 40, after 31 career victories.
¦ And Mariano Rivera, the Yankees’ closer, who waved goodbye. There never has been a pitcher quite like him; there may never be another pitcher quite like him. More important, there may never be another person in sports quite like him.
