Biggest Sports Events Delivered The Goods

The lesson of 2008: the bigger the stage, the better the show. All through the year, the top names and most-hyped events lived up to their billing.

From Michael Phelps to Usain Bolt, from Tiger Woods to Boston's new Big Three, from the Super Bowl to the Final Four, the stars always seemed to come out at exactly the right moment.

"They wanted a show," Rocco Mediate said after Woods beat him on the 91st hole at the U.S. Open to win his 14th major, "they got one."

Or in Phelps' case, more than just one.

The lanky 23-year-old from Baltimore set his eye on the most hallowed of all Olympic marks - Mark Spitz's seven gold medals in a single Summer Games. And he took it down in spectacular style: Eight gold medals, seven world records and more drama than any reality show.

He won his seventh gold by the teeniest margin possible, a mere one-hundredth of a second. The very next day, he had to play catch-up on the third leg in a medley relay the Americans had never lost to get No. 8.

"There are moments," Phelps said with his typical understatement, "I'll never forget."

Just as memorable, but a whole lot faster, were Bolt's trio of golds.

Little known outside the track world before Beijing, the tall Jamaican sprinter burst onto the scene, shattering his own world record in the 100 meters - even managing to mug for the cameras before he hit the finish line.

He got two more gold medals - and two more world records - in the 200 meters and sprint relay, and his post-race celebrations turned the Bird's Nest into a dance party. Shimmying, shaking and swiveling his hips to the delight of the crowd, he brought a badly needed dose of levity to a sport knocked low by doping allegations, regardless of what the fun police, aka IOC president Jacques Rogge, thought.

"They come out and pay their money to see a good performance and also to see a personality," Bolt said. "So I go out there and give them a show."

The Chinese spared no expense for their coming-out party, and it was a smashing success: beautiful venues, opening ceremonies with enough kilowatt power to make Las Vegas blush, even several days of blue skies. Phelps and Bolt weren't the only athletes equal to the grand setting.

Dara Torres reminded us that age is just a number with three silver medals at 41, while Nastia Liukin was the picture of grace and elegance, on and off the gymnastics floor. The Redeem Team did everything the NBA could have asked from their multimillionaires, rolling over almost every opponent but doing it with such class you couldn't help but like them.

We felt a little unsettled once the grandeur of the Beijing Games faded, and it had nothing to do with a post-Olympic hangover, the annual dread of a BCS debacle, Brett Favre's new uniform or the knee injury that turned Tom Brady into a couch potato.

The economy is in deep trouble, and sports were quick to feel the hit. There were layoffs at the NFL, the NBA and Major League Baseball's Internet division, and the Arena Football League is taking a break for at least a year. There's hardly a team in NASCAR that hasn't felt the pinch.

Of course, none of that stopped the New York Yankees from showering CC Sabathia with $161 million. But then, the rich always have always been different or maybe, as baseball uberagent Scott Boras likes to point out, they just use a "very different economic model than the real world."

But no matter which model you used, 2008 delivered plenty of bang for the buck.

A Super Bowl that was expected to be the coronation of Bill Belichick's New England Patriots as the greatest NFL team ever turned into something even better, thanks to Eli Manning and the New York Giants.

Emerging from his big brother's shadow - and a pack of New England defenders - Manning and David "How did he do that?" Tyree led the Giants on a frenzied, frantic, game-winning drive that gave the Super Bowl its best finish ever. Ruined the Patriots' perfect season, too.

Said Manning, whose performance gave his family back-to-back Super Bowl MVPs: "You can't write a better script."

Maybe not. But that didn't keep Memphis and Kansas from trying in the NCAA championship game.

The title was going to Graceland until Memphis squandered a 9-point lead with 2:12 left by missing four free throws down the stretch. With 2.1 seconds on the clock and no time-outs, Mario Chalmers coolly knocked down a 3 to force overtime - the first in a title game since 1997.

Overtime was all Kansas, as the Jayhawks pulled away for their first title in 20 years.

"Ten seconds to go, we're thinking we're national champs," Memphis coach John Calipari said mournfully. "All of a sudden a kid makes a shot, and we're not."

The state of Tennessee did not go titleless, however, with Candace Parker and Pat Summit's Lady Vols winning their second in a row. Parker also picked up an Olympic gold medal with the U.S. team, and won both the WNBA's rookie of the year and MVP honors.

Going the (extra) distance was something of a theme in 2008.

The Philadelphia Phillies finally got their World Series title two days after the decisive Game 5 began. Hey, when a city's waited 25 years for a major championship, what's a little rain delay?

Dusk had turned to dark by the time Rafa and Roger's epic battle at Wimbledon was settled, the longest men's final in the history of the 121-year-old tournament. Only fitting, really. Deposing a king is never easy work, and Rafael Nadal needed a victory over Roger Federer on a surface other than clay to prove he truly is the Swiss master's equal.

Or maybe better. With his victory at Wimbledon, along with a fourth straight French Open title and gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, Nadal broke Federer's stranglehold on No. 1.

And then there was Tiger.

Limping his way around hilly Torrey Pines on a knee worse than anyone knew, Woods forced a playoff with a 12-foot birdie on the final stroke of regulation. After blowing a three-shot lead with eight holes to play, he sent it into OT again with yet another birdie on the 18th hole.

Finally, on the 91st hole, Woods prevailed. It was his 14th major title, leaving him just four shy of matching Jack Nicklaus' record.

"It was just unreal," Woods said. "It was back and forth, back and forth. And 90 holes wasn't enough."

Apparently, it was. Two days after the Open, he announced he needed surgery and would miss the rest of the season, including the last two majors and the Ryder Cup.

That's a gaping hole for golf to fill, but Padraig Harrington managed quite nicely. The Irishman overcame a sore wrist and a resurgent Greg Norman to win his second straight British Open, then added the PGA Championship a month later.

Without Woods, the Americans' chances of ending their oh-fer streak at the Ryder Cup seemed as likely as Bill Murray being named the greenskeeper at the Valhalla Golf Club. But without Woods and his dominating presence, U.S. captain Paul Azinger got the rest of his rugged individualists to buy into the team concept, and they responded with their first victory since 1999.

"I poured my heart and soul into this for two years," Azinger said. "The players poured their heart and soul into this for one week. They deserved it."

So, too, did the Boston Celtics.

The Celtics may have hit the talent motherlode when they added Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to a team that already had Paul Pierce. But prolific scorers don't always play nice together - too much ego, not enough ball - and there was no telling if Boston's new Big Three could work as seamlessly as the original had.

No worries there. Garnett, Allen and Pierce were so unselfish they could give Miss Manners some tips, and together they steamrolled the Los Angeles Lakers for Boston's 17th NBA title.

"I hope we made you proud," Garnett said when he found Bill Russell, the Celtic great turned mentor.

"You sure did," Russell said.

Might just do it again, too, the way they've been running roughshod on takers from the East, West and everywhere in between this season.

Auto racing gave us a couple of big firsts and one really big third. Danica Patrick broke IndyCar's gender barrier on Victory Lane while Lewis Hamilton became the youngest and first black Formula One champion. As for Jimmie Johnson, he just kept on winnin', matching Cale Yarborough as the only drivers to win three straight NASCAR Cup championships.

Lorena Ochoa ruled the LPGA. Again. She won seven times, including her second major title at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, and was player of the year for a third straight season.

The Williams sisters were back to their dominant selves, facing each other in yet another all-Williams final at Wimbledon - their third, for those keeping score - where it was advantage, Venus. Serena won the U.S. Open, and they ganged up on everybody else to win their second Olympic gold medal in doubles.

Lance Armstrong is back, too, following Favre's lead and coming out of retirement for a go at his eighth Tour de France title.

And how's this for a switch: While baseball's version of the Billionaire Boys Club missed the playoffs for the first time since 1993, the Tampa Bay Rays won the American League pennant. Yes, those same Rays who were so bad their first 10 years they never even sniffed a winning record, let alone the postseason.

"It's powerful what we got done this year," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "And I know, from my perspective, this is just the beginning."

For others, 2008 was the end. Some, like Annika Sorenstam, Greg Maddux, Justine Henin and Mike Mussina, went out on their own terms, while others - this means you, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens - finally wore out their welcome.

There were also those who left before we got the chance to say goodbye. Longtime NFL union head Gene Upshaw died just a few days after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and few had even known he was ill. Eight Belles broke down after finishing second to Big Brown at the Kentucky Derby. New York Rangers prospect Alexei Cherepanov, only 19, collapsed during a Russian league game and died.

As great as most of 2008 was, however, not everybody got with the program.

Big Brown stormed through the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, giving us hope we might actually see a Triple Crown winner for the first time since 1978. But he flopped at Belmont, easing home to a last-place finish.

Sean Avery got himself suspended, and the only shocker was that it came from crude comments off the ice, not his thuggishness on it. Pacman Jones earned another timeout from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Plaxico Burress shot himself in the thigh after accidentally pulling the trigger on a handgun in his pants while he fumbled a drink.

But nobody compares to the Bowl Championship Series, which extended its whining streak for another year.

Last year's title game between LSU and Ohio State was a dog - no, SEC, you can't add the Buckeyes to the conference - and the BCS has all of Texas seeing crimson this year. The Longhorns beat Oklahoma, both teams ended up in a three-way tie atop the bruising Big 12 South, yet it's the Sooners who will face Florida in the title game.

Huh?

Add in one-loss USC, Penn State, Alabama and Texas Tech, and it's no wonder even President-elect Barack Obama is calling for a playoff system.

"Any sensible person would say that if you've got a bunch of teams who played throughout the season, and many of them have one loss or two losses, there's no clear, decisive winner, that we should be creating a playoff system," Obama said in a "60 Minutes" interview.

It's never too early to start a to-do list for 2009.

By Nancy Armour AP National Writer