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 News from Around the Americas | January 2006 
A Look Back at Sports in 2005
 Bob Cohen - PVNN
| | Tiger's back: Woods won over $10 million in purses in 2005, winning six tournaments and finishing second four times. |
What a year: 2005 was filled with highlights and low blows, stellar performances from the young and old and instances of great and vile behavior. We even got some new Sox and said goodbye to old friends.
Baseball
In April and May, clutch hitting and timely pitching allowed the Chicago White Sox to open a large lead in the AL Central. In May, June and July people said they were just coasting in a weak division. The in August, as the Cleveland Indians began to whittle away at their huge lead, prognosticators just said the Sox were just lucky and not a team to be reckoned with. As the season reached its final week, everyone was ready for a patented late swoon by Chicago. With the final weekend coming down to a matchup with the Indians, the White Sox did just the opposite; they swept the four games prior to the season ending series and then swept Cleveland to make it to the playoffs. Again, with the Red Sox, Yankees and Angels all in the AL playoffs, again the skeptics made the White Sox the longshots.
The White Sox faced the Red Sox in the first round of the AL playoffs and of course were made prohibitive underdogs. The bats came out swinging with an opening 14-2 victory and didn't stop as Chicago swept the reigning champs in three consecutive games. Next up were the Angels, who knocked off the Yankees and they took the first game from the Chi Sox 3-2. The loss seemed to wake them up and they completely dominated the Angels with superb pitching and clutch hitting, winning four straight to move onto the World Series to face the Houston Astros. The Series had exciting games but the White Sox won them all, becoming World Champs for the first time since 1917 with a 1-0 victory in the final game, finishing an 11-1 post season. Not bad!
Football
Like a perfectly tuned engine in a sports car, the New England Patriots behind QB Tom Brady, carved up the powerful Philadelphia defense, winning their third Super Bowl in four years 24-21. In typical Brady style, he answered every Eagle challenge and in this reporters view, could best the most clutch QB in NFL history. With Brady at the helm, he appears to always have everything under complete control, despite playing in close games. In the AFC championship, the Patriots were underdogs to the offensive minded Indianapolis Colts, behind Peyton Manning's record breaking season, but the Patriots dismantled the Colts to move on to the Super Bowl. Starting very slowly and looking extremely mortal, the Pats have put together a late season surge to make the playoffs and hope to be the first team to win four Super Bowls in five years. We'll see on February 5th if Brady and his teammates can overcome a fair season and become perhaps the best dynasty in NFL history.
NBA
The NBA final was a matchup between the defending champion Detroit Pistons against a solid San Antonio squad. The Spurs were well balanced, led by star forward Tim Duncan, while the Pistons were a rough and tumble defensive team with no big name star, just a ring to prove that defense wins in the NBA. The Spurs jumped out to a 2-0 series lead but the resilient Pistons fought back to tie the series at two games apiece. The Spurs zeroed in on the title, beating Detroit at home, needing only a victory on their home court to claim the championship, but Detroit prevailed, forcing a final game to determine the NBA champ. The final game was so close that the teams entered the final 12 minutes of the season tied at 57. Duncan took over and the Spurs built an early 4th quarter lead and held on to capture the NBA title 71-64.
College Basketball
North Carolina met an Illinois team that tied the NCAA record with 37 victories in a season, but earned little respect throughout the regular season. Carolina, a veteran at post season play took a 40-27 halftime lead and led by as many as 15, until Illinois staged a fierce comeback to tie the game twice late in the second half, but just couldn't get over the hump as the Tar Heels took back the lead and the Illini missed their last five 3 point attempts as time waned. North Carolina was crowned National Champions with a hard fought 75-70 victory.
NHL
What more to say other than a horrible player strike and owner lockout canceled the NHL season in its entirety for the first time in history. There was no Stanley Cup champion and no season as the owners and players finally reached an agreement and play started back up for the 2005-06 season.
Tennis
Men's Tour - Roger Federer! Not that much more to say, as the smooth Federer completely dominated men's tennis the whole year with an 81-4 match record. Spain's 18 year old Rafael Nadal came on strong mid year and defeated Federer on clay at the French Open, but his game needed work on the hard courts. He is still in the midst of a long winning streak on clay, but his aggressive style has already caused some minor injuries. Ageless Andre Agassi, tennis' ambassador played extremely well in the late summer and early autumn, notching a couple of victories, but fell to Federer in the finals of the U.S. Open. American Andy Roddick, with so much natural ability had quite an erratic year; a year in which he was predicted to take over the top spot on the men's circuit.
Women's Tour - A whole different story here as Lindsay Davenport ended the season as the top ranked player, but it wasn't easy. Two comebacks from injuries were successful for Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, as Clijsters was named player of the year. Russian beauty Maria Sharapova had a good year and even reached the top ranking for a week, but didn't win any majors and ended the year with some minor injuries. The Williams sisters once feared proved to be very mortal as each sister won one major, but lacked consistency and the domination they once had. Perhaps the story of the year was the comeback of 30 year old Mary Pierce who was down below 200th in the world and had a sensational year to finish fifth in the rankings. Amelie Mauresmo finished the year in strong fashion to capture the #3 ranking.
Golf
Tiger Woods is back. After seeing his earnings record fall to Vijay Singh the year before, Tiger dominated men's golf once again after two years of un-Tiger like play. Woods, who just turned 30, is looking ahead to a new decade that could give him every honor that golf can offer. Tiger won over $10 million in purses in 2005, winning six tournaments and finishing second four times.
Sweden's Annika Sorenstam totally dominated women's golf winning ten tournaments, bringing her career total to 66, putting her in range of the once unreachable 88 victories of Kathy Whitworth. Sorenstam was also voted Female Athlete of the Year in 2005 and dominated golf much more than Tiger Woods in her category. Excitement late in 2005 occurred when 16 year old Michelle Wie, Hawaii's phenom turned pro and earned more money through immediate endorsements than Sorenstam had earned. Only time will tell.
Boxing
The fight of the year was the first bout between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo, a lightweight brawl that Corrales dramatically won with a 10th round knockout after a non stop bloody fight complete with savage action, knockdowns, controversy, courage, momentum swings and high stakes. After nine rounds Corrales, already with a bloody swollen eye, and knocked down twice in the 10th, losing his mouthpiece each time, which saved him from defeat, giving him a few extra seconds to regroup. The Corrales unleashed a flurry that stopped Castillo against the ropes, giving him the victory. The bout is already being compared to Ali-Frazier III, Hagler-Hearns, Leonard-Hearns and Morales-Barrera. Only time will tell where it ranks in boxing history.
Boxing however had a sad and tragic year, losing fighters to deaths that occurred in the ring, and a slew of former greats that fought "Father Time" rather than their opponents and looked like fools going for another pay day. Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Tommy Hearns were the most apparent, but many others should have hung up their gloves before sustaining permanent damage, none of which can be apparent for a few years. It was very sad and dangerous to see these once proud warriors look like punching bags.
Soccer
The whole world spent most of 2005 securing their spots for the World Cup to be held in June. Team Mexico and the United States both qualified as two of the 32 teams playing for four years of glory. Currently Brazil is the world's top ranked team; Mexico and the United States are ranked 8th and 9th. |
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