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 By Frank Deford Senior Contributing Writer Sports Illustrated |
(CNN) --Some years in sports lend themselves to a neat packaging. Last year -- 1998 -- was simply spectacular. But in the final 12 months of this century, no easy pattern emerged. Oh, there was more of the same that made 1998 so divine: the Denver Broncos won again, more easily; the New York Yankees at the end were as brilliant as their predecessors; Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa reprised their epic home-run race.
In a curious way, however, 1999 was distinguished mostly by those who left the field. Did any other year in the century ever see so many giants exit the stage? Why, it was almost Shakespearean:
Brave Jordan departs us first, only once his fellows have returned to play the game, but half-a-season on,
While Gretzky, great once, now but another flower in yon Garden, leaves to trumpets and flourishes.
Sanders, though, is most silently gone of them all,
A runner who did not sprint off, but steal away, to leave behind a father's voice.
And Elway: so bright did history shine on his valedictory,
That to return could only have taken a hero's mantle and shredded its glory.
But soft ye now: the fair Steffi makes her farewell from our stage,
Only to return -- a lover, not a player -- cheering as a tender heart, not roaring as a champion.
Best comeback of the year
But then, in a year of go-aways, maybe Fraulein Graf's new inamorato, Andre Agassi, was the best comeback of the year. Divorced from Brooke Shields, not only did he win the French Open, to complete a rare victory circuit of Grand Slams, but also he won another U.S. Open title, and ended the year No. 1 -- breaking Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras' reign.
Whatever Agassi achieved, though; however stirring was Lance Armstrong's win over his rivals and cancer in the Tour de France; however grand Michael Johnson and Hicham El Guerrouj were in setting new records in the 400 meters and the mile; whatever any star did in any individual sport paled before the youthful grandeur of Tiger Woods.
Can you actually believe now that it truly was in the year 1999 when experts argued that David Duval might be better than Woods? But down the stretch, Woods played only against all greatness predicted for him -- and even then, he won: the PGA Championship and four straight tournaments, an accomplishment last managed by Ben Hogan 22 years before Woods was born. Could anybody else seriously be rated the Athlete of the Year?
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The contribution of women's teams
Someday, though, years from now, I would venture that the most lasting impact of 1999 will be its contribution of women's team sports to the world.
In fact, not much of the world cared about the Women's World Cup (well, at least until Brandi Chastain de-jerseyed), but soccer joined WNBA basketball in showing that women's team sports have as much a future as women's individual sports. Other countries will take a while to catch up with the United States, but 1999 will always be the key year in that revolution.
Old 1999 also showed us for sure what we really knew -- that the Olympics have been corrupt for years; that the so-called Olympic Movement is powered by greed, not by brotherhood; and that the International Olympic Committee is a vestige of another century -- oh, maybe the 14th.
But this is no time to be disagreeable. Hail to the Connecticut Huskies, for upsetting Duke. (Poor Duke -- will the last player left please take the basketballs over to Chapel Hill?) Hooray to li'l sister Serena Williams, for avenging big sis Venus against Martina Hingis at the U.S. Open.
Congratulations to David Stern for winning the NBA lockout and to David Robinson and Tim Duncan for winning the post-lockout. And raise a cheer (but decorously, now) for Justin Leonard, who sank the putt that won the Ryder Cup.
Goodbye to these forever
And as we began this paean to 1999 by remembering those who have left the arena, let us also recall those who departed for good:
Joe DiMaggio and Wilt Chamberlain, Marion Motley and Pee Wee Reese, Gene Sarazen and Bill Talbert, and three champions whose time was cut cruelly short: Walter Payton, Payne Stewart and Catfish Hunter.
It isn't Shakespeare, but as the Cat used to say so eloquently after a loss: "The sun don't shine on the same dog every day." Still, it should have shone a lot longer on Hunter ... and Stewart and Sweetness.
Commentaries by Frank Deford, senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated, appear every Wednesday on CNNSI.com.