The Big Show - Handing out the Hardware

In all reality, it was a year of agony for professional sports. Baseball's doping history proved real, and extremely embarrassing. Professional football was stroked with cheaters as well, although they got off the hook much easier. And it wasn't just the players, "Spygate" centered on coaches. Professional basketball turned out to be corrupt - to few's surprise - and their end of the deal concerned the officiating. The NFL and NBA had a number of players gunned down, or caught with guns, in gang-related or other obscure events. MLB was associated with at least four well-known drinking and driving charges, two of which resulted in deaths. Surprisingly enough, it was the NHL that made out best this year amongst the big time professional sports. Their ratings are growing, the stars are flourishing, and not a single player has blurted out steroid allegations against a household star.

On the college scene, college football didn't make out much better: the call for a playoff system grew louder with the BCS' obvious money-driven scheme. The notorious BIG BOYS of college football couldn't get to where they were supposed to be without the help of the black suits. And, unlike the past, this season, it was obvious. NCAA hoops is living in an exciting time of parody. Florida became the first repeat champion since Duke in 1991 and 1992. Duke cleaned up its name, finding their lacrosse boys to be innocent of any major crime. Mizzou and Illinois each had impressive and exciting seasons in football. And low and behold, Southeast Missouri State is on the edge of proving themselves a legitimate OVC threat once again in hoops.

The controversy on the Southeast Missouri high school scene was wide, as per the usual. The high school hoops show is just getting fired up, and there looks to be a grand follow-up season to last year's area success. Charleston finished as state champs in hoops and Notre Dame's soccer team brought home a ring as well. Bell City and Notre Dame found itself in Columbia, along side Charleston, for the hoops' final four. Jackson landed in the Christmas tournament final for the fifth consecutive time, and it's football team went to the final four. On the softball diamond, both Kelly and Notre Dame went to the final four. (I'm sure there was more, but it's tough to keep tabs from a distance. For those who can list other team accomplishments, or individual accomplishments, that deserve to be recognized please post them.) Numerous "small sports" across the area produced state qualifiers and state champions. And the only "doping" accusations were off-the-wall comments on blog boards concerning Tom Petty's favorite girlfriend. A number of teams look to be able to compete on a statewide level this coming season as well.

All across the board, from Pee Wee ball to the Bigs, the story lines mounted up. There's simply no way to mention them all. So, at the break of this new year, here's my non-systematic award show:

Most Embarrassing Moment for St. Louis Fans: The release of Tony LaRussa's sobriety test on the world wide web. The video proved to be far worse than originally reported. LaRussa was hammered drunk, and the following news of Josh Hancock's death didn't combine for a banner year in Cardinal baseball headlines.

Most Enthusiastic Move in a Positive Direction Among St. Louis teams: The St. Louis Blues and the addition of top tier stars Paul Kariya and Andy McDonald, the acquisition of youngsters Erik Johnson and Brad Boyes, and the re-signing of veteran All-Star Keith Tkachuck. The Blues upper management proves to its fans that it's serious about putting St. Louis back on the hockey map. The continuing development of youngsters within the organization and revived attraction from big-name stars gives St. Louis one of the brighter 10-year futures in the national hockey league.

Greatest High School Moments: The combination of great team performances across the board went a long way in pushing Southeast Missouri onto the map with the well-known St. Louis powerhouses. Although many fans in the area don't seem to want to cheer together, they damn well should. The greatest high school moment of 2007 didn't come from a single team or individual, but rather it came as a region. More than one state championship, a plethora of state qualifiers, and a copious amount of individual talent that's finding its place in colleges across the nation all amount to one thing....St. Louis be warned. Southeast Missouri is for real.

Most exciting thing to watch as a baseball fan: The collapse of the New York Mets. Adding Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez, Carlos Delgado, Tom Glavine and Billy Wagner added 306.5 million to the payroll in the offseason alone. My friends, there wasn't another NL team CLOSE to the Met's payroll. With that talent, they were a shoe-in for the pennant.

Um...It was "glee bordering on euphoria" watching this colossal giant collapse like Goliath. 17 games to play. A seven game lead. Not even Bob Knight could choke something this big. What made it worse, or better, was their final seven game homestand: losing six of the seven to the Nationals, Cardinals, and Marlins - none of which had winning records. The Phillies flew past the Mets and into the playoffs, the division rival Phils took all eight of their final meetings against the Mets. And on the final day of the season, Hall of Famer Tom Glavine turned in an impressive seven run first inning, getting only one out, in an 8-1 loss to Florida.

Saddest Affair in professional sports: Doping.
Of all the athletes who have been caught red-handed, there is one I like bashing the most. And I wish I could say it better, but I can't. So I'll let an unknown yahoo.com sports writer tell it for me:

"Let's see, before he left Boston he said he wanted to be closer to his family but ended up in Toronto, proving he was either fibbing or failed geography. Then he abandoned Toronto so he could join a team that won 114 games in 1998 and collect a couple of World Series rings with a team that hardly needed him. While in New York, he managed to become Public Enemy No. 1 for Mets fans by drilling Mike Piazza in the coconut and then throwing a shattered bat at him in the Series. Then, after accepting all the fare-thee-well honors and accessories from the Yankees he "retired" to Houston, where he would perfect the process of playing the franchises he supposedly loved off against one another.

So there was no shortage of baseball fans who must have reveled in the Rocket's season of discontent in 2007. After signing a prorated $28M deal with the Yankees in May — that would earn him $17,442,637 and cost the team an additional $6.98M in luxury tax penalties — Roger Clemenswent 6-6. In other words, the Yankees shelled out more than $4M per win. Clemens lasted less than three innings in his only ALDS start, hobbling off the mound with a leg injury.

Things only got better for Rocket haters after the season when the Mitchell Report landed with a thud on the pitcher's toe. In light of Brian McNamee's testimony, Andy Pettitte's corroborating confession and C.J. Nitkowski's endorsement of McNamee's character, Clemens — whose career took an obvious steroid arc — has become increasingly isolated with his denials. The world is waiting for that defamation lawsuit, Roger. Wouldn't it be fun to watch George Mitchell, prosecutor of more than 1,000 cases, cross-examine Clemens under oath? C'mon, Roger, go for it. Roger? Roger?"

And there you have it. Oh, how there was so much more. But for me, these topped the list. Remind me of the things I missed, and cash in with some of your own.

My congratulations goes out to all the high schools and high school athletes who accomplished their goals and dreams this season. There is no better time to play sports than in high school, and for those of you who rose to the top of the high school world, you deserve to be cheered. For the others, there's always this year.

Here's to 2008, may it be one hell of a year.