CNN Sports

Sports year in review

1995: A year of triumphs, tragedies and comebacks

When it comes to picking the top 10 sports stories of any year, there is only one element that is consistent with everyone's opinion: their inconsistency!

So having said that, here is our humble but subjective opinion of what we think were the top ten sports stories of 1995. Agree or disagree, but enjoy!


Baseball Strike

5. Major League Baseball strike ends

It was the longest and costliest work stoppage in professional sports history, lasting nearly eight months. Players returned to the field, but they did so without a collective bargaining agreement.

The strike came down to this: the owners wanted a salary cap, and the players refused any system that would artificially limit salaries. When the strike ended, management was still looking for a way to control costs (i.e. salaries) and a way to help out the small-market clubs by way of revenue sharing. It found neither, and the players still rejected anything that resembled a salary cap.

The immediate past has players, owners and fans all concerned about the immediate future. But this much management and labor can take to the bank, courtesy of the fans: one strike we'll forgive; two strikes and you're out!



montage photo

4. Many happy returns to Jordan, Tyson, Seles, Irvin and Lemieux

1995 was indeed the year of the comeback. One by choice, one from prison and three from injury. "His Airness" Michael Jordan said good-bye to retirement and baseball (for now) and wanted to do more than endorsements. Maybe he needed the work, but the game and the fans needed him more. For Mike Tyson, having spent more than 1,000 plus days behind bars for a rape conviction was enough . On March 25, shielded by bodyguards, with media choppers hovering overhead, "Iron Mike" emerged from an Indiana prison as a free man. Since then, Tyson has fought twice and easily won against less than adequate competition.

Injuries played a big role in the return of Monica Seles, Ernie Irvin and Mario Lemieux. Seles' return came after being stabbed in the back in 1993 by an obsessed fan at a German tournament. Irvin made a miraculous return to the NASCAR circuit following a horrific crash that almost took his life. And the NHL's Lemieux was again playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins, thanks to a medically improved back that allowed "Super Mario" the opportunity to perform his magic act on ice.



Northwertern University

3. Northwestern's Wildcats bowl over the college football world

Where does one begin with this fairy-tale story? Also- ran, cellar-dweller and downright awful Northwestern, synonymous with losing, was THE college football story in 1995. These former "Mildcats" clawed their way back to more than respectability,. The 'Cats hadn't had a winning season in over 20 years and hadn't been to a bowl in over 40 years!

All Northwestern did was beat Notre Dame, Michigan and Penn State en route to a 10-1 magical season, winning the Big Ten title and a trip to the Rose Bowl against Southern Cal. To borrow a phrase from an old Al Stewart song, '95 was indeed the "year of the cat."



NFL moves

2. NFL franchises on the move

Think Major League Baseball or the NBA have problems off the field? Not only does professional football have to deal with high salaries and free agency, now the league has a real political football bouncing across the landscape and its fans don't like it one bit.

1995 saw a pair of franchises change addresses as Los Angeles took a double-hit when the Rams went east to St. Louis and the Raiders returned north to Oakland. Houston Oilers' owner Bud Adams couldn't work out a deal with the city of Houston, so he said he would take his club to Nashville where "Music City USA" was music to his ears.

But the real firestorm took place in Cleveland where longtime owner Art Modell struck a deal to move the city's beloved Browns to Baltimore, which had seen its own Colts franchise drive off in the night years before to Indianapolis. While Cleveland hopes to block the move, a bigger and more pressing problem faced the league office: how many more teams would pack up and leave? And if they did, what was going to be done to stop them?



Cal Ripkin

1. Cal Ripken, Jr. becomes the `Iron Man' of Major League Baseball

On September 6, the baseball world was transfixed as Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. broke one of baseball's greatest records: Lou Gehrig's streak of 2,130 consecutive games played. "The Streak" began on May 20, 1982, and Ripken's competitive spirit kept him in the lineup for over a decade.

To give one some perspective on the feat: while Ripken suited up every day in an Orioles uniform for 13 straight seasons, the Major League's other 27 teams used a combined total of 521 starting shortstops during the same period. The closest professional player in any sports is A.C. Greene, whose personal streak in the NBA is just a little more than one-third of Ripken's.

Playing in over 2,100 games is impressive enough, but Ripken played in over 99 percent of the innings during those games. In fact, he went over five years without missing a single inning! That translates into over 8,200 straight innings!. Ripken credits his father, coach and mentor, Cal Ripken Sr. with instilling the toughness needed to break "The Streak," our number one sports story for 1995.

Previous

| Top Ten Sports Headlines and Achievements |

| Month by Month Review |

 Next

capsule Join the world's news leader for an in-depth multimedia look at the top news stories of 1995.

CNN Time Capsule: The Defining Moments of 1995 is a new multimedia CD-ROM which chronicles the year's top stories through video, photos, text, audio clips and editorial cartoons. Click here to find out more!


[Imagemap]
| CONTENTS | SEARCH | CNN HOME PAGE | MAIN SPORTS PAGE |

Copyright © 1995 Cable News Network, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.