10.
Linsanity
Hey remember
Linsanity? Jeremy Lin took the league by
storm as a last ditch replacement and he saved the New York Knicks season. The man was basically Tim Tebow but almost
worth the hype. After Lin’s incredible
start to his career where he was able to put up a PER of 19.9, which in case
you are wondering is quite good. He
missed a decent chunk of the season because of injuries and missed the post
season. He controversially left New York
because of petty argumentation as James Dolan didn’t like that Lin tried to get
a good deal and wasn’t eternally grateful to the team. He has struggled a bit this season adjusting
to playing with James Harden but the talent is still evident and the pairing
seems to be improving.
9.
Miraculous Recoveries
Well 2012
seem poised to be a passing of the guard in football. Peyton Manning looked to be done as a
quarterback in general and Adrian Peterson was supposed to take some time
recovering from injury. Neither of these
has happened as both these players have returned completely to form. They are the top 2 candidates for MVP and
Comeback Player of the Year. They are
probably the best quarterback and running back in football respectively and
have just been pure joy to watch play this season. To watch two of the greatest of all time
compete at a level like this when neither was expected to be the same player
ever again is exciting for the future of sports. Expectations of recovery times are changing
and the impact of injuries on careers.
8.
New Dodgers
As a
franchise the Dodgers have changed dramatically quite quickly. Up until May 1st this team was one
of the most dysfunctional sports franchises out there. The McCourt family destroyed the storied
franchise and seemed to leave it for dead.
Then the Magic Johnson “led” group bought the team and everything
changed. The team basically became the
Yankees on steroids. As every other team
in baseball attempts to get under the punitive luxury tax line the Dodgers
completely ignore it. They seem to have
no budget and have made the craziest trade deadline and offseason moves. They traded for Hanley Ramirez and Shane
Victorino before the deadline. They basically bought Adrian Gonzalez, Josh
Beckett and Carl Crawford from the “large” spenders the Boston Red Sox. They then went out this offseason to sign Zach
Greinke to a massive contract. At some
point all of these moves have been criticized but the way to look at it from a
completely different perspective. Every
team in the history of sports in some way has operated under a budget, and
while some are significantly larger than others it does in fact exist. That doesn’t seem to exist for the
Dodgers. There seems to be no limit to
how much this team is willing to spend so that should completely recalibrate
our mindset about the team going forward and how they make decisions.
7.
Trout vs. Cabrera
The most
intellectually frustrating story of the entire year was Mike Trout’s inability
to win MVP award in a year he clearly deserved it. This story spawned articles form both Taylor
and I talking about it’s the ridiculousness of it all and the dismay we felt
over it. Also if you haven’t noticed
read Taylor’s 2012 awards then check them out because he mentions this quite
frequently, the Hungry Dog Blog has a huge crush on Mike Trout. Really though it was a sad story where a
community of baseball writers and analysts continue to ignore the statistic
revolution in baseball and insult those who have embraced it. You would think for baseball statistician
turned political blogger Nate Silver nailing his 2012 election predictions
would have helped with that, but it seemed to have little impact. While the movement has made much headway and
many now understand advanced statistics important, especially those inside
baseball, the sad part becomes when prominent writers who cover the sport don’t
understand it. Let’s also never forget
this is the year that Mike Trout became the best player in all of baseball and
took the sport over.
6.
Bounty Gate
There were a
lot of scandals in football this season between the replacement refs and
miraculous recoveries, but there might have been nothing stranger than Bounty
Gate. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell
found out that former Saints Defensive Coordinator ran a bounty program when
there and decided to act swiftly. He
decided to suspend Williams indefinitely, Head Coach Sean Payton for a full
season, a half season for General Manager Mickey Loomis, and 6 games for
assistant head coach Joe Vitt. That was
fine and fair for a horrible program.
However what Goodell did to the players was unforgiveable. He suspended Jonathon Vilma, Anthony
Hargrove, Will Smith and Scott Fujita without really looking into it and investigating
at all. These players all appealed
vigorously and were willing to testify under oath that they led any
program. Scott Fujita wasn’t even
involved with it and ended up being suspended.
Eventually Goodell had to call in former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to
clean up his mess as he rescinded the suspension of all the players
involved. Combining this scandal with
the replacement ref debacle really made a strong case for worst commissioner in
sports.
5.
NHL Lockout
However as
hard as Goodell tried he couldn’t take the award away for worst commissioner in
sports, seemingly annual winner Gary Bettman outdid himself as it looks to
throw away its 2nd season in 8 years. This lockout has the potential to cripple the
sport that was just beginning to recovery from the last one which devastated
the league. It will likely lose all the
casual fans it has regained. This is an
ideal time for the league to showcase itself, it has good teams in big markets
like Los Angeles, New York and Boston, it has arguably the best player since
Gretzky in his prime in Crosby and yet there is no hockey to be watched. This is destroying careers, for most players
it really isn’t worth it at all to miss a full season of income considering the
majority of NHL careers are quite short.
Really the lockout is just a total disaster for all involved owners,
players and fans, it just plain sucks, there are people who want it back, the
problem for the league might be there just aren't enough.
4.
Sandusky Scandal
There was no
scandal that was sadder as the year progressed then the Sandusky Scandal. This scandal destroyed the lives of all of
Sandusky’s victims and had a profound impact on Penn St. Between Paterno’s firing in 2011 and death in
2012 this scandal destroyed his reputation and everything he had built. Sandusky being found guilty and going to jail
the rest of his life. The scandal was
sad from every angle. My deepest
sympathy goes out to all the victims who were harmed over the years. There is also the impact that the scandal had
on Penn St. All involved with the
scandal were fired and Penn St. was fined for its wrong doing, all reasonable
punishments. Then we get to the non-reasonable
punishments placed on Penn St’s football program. They received a 4 year postseason ban, and
many scholarships were taken away, which would all be fine if they were
punishing people who did something wrong.
Literally the only people punished in this situation are Penn St Football
players and their new coach Bill O’Brien.
They did nothing wrong but are being punished. It was quite impressive how the team banded
together under O’Brien as he led them to an impressive 8-4 season.
3.
Usain Bolt’s Olympics
This is the
even that I will always remember the 2012 Olympics for. Not Lebron leading the US to gold, not Phelps
and Lochte going at it in the pool, Missy Franklin dominating swimming events
while still in high school, Gabby Douglass becoming America’s sweetheart or
even McKayla Maroney’s face. No what my
enduring memory will be is the self-proclaimed “most naturally gifted athlete
the world has ever seen” living up to his own billing. I’m not a track and field guy, and am someone
who will honestly say that he only watches it every 4 years during the
Olympics. Watching Usain Bolt run though
is just the most insane sight to see.
The way he accelerates through the pack is incredible and just doesn’t
seem human. The run itself and the way
he did it was what was most memorable.
The man is the cockiest man on the face of the planet, but for some
reason this rubs no one the wrong way, including myself, and only adds to his
likeability and the amazement of watching him.
He has a charisma that is quite telling even on television and the fact
that he is the greatest runner the human race has ever seen only adds to the
wonder. I will remember watching Usain
Bolt run, those less than 10 seconds when he blew away the field will be my
most memorable 10 seconds of the year.
2.
Super Bowl
Look every
single year the Super Bowl is going to be a major story. This is especially true if it involves two of
the league’s most talked about franchises playing in a rematch of arguably the
greatest Super Bowl of all time. The
best part was that the game didn’t disappoint, well except for Patriots
fans. The Giants got a thrilling victory
led by the one-of-a-kind Eli Manning, and the ferocious front 4. The Giants honestly might be the worst Super
Bowl team ever though considering this was a team that got outscored in the regular
season before miraculously turning it on and not only sneaking into the
playoffs but getting to and winning the Super Bowl. The Patriots were a dominant team that lost
because their top target Rob Gronkowski was clearly playing severely injured
during the Super Bowl and was quite limited.
The Patriots lack of post Spy Gate Super Bowl wins continue and Bills
fan could take solace in that.
1.
Year of Lebron
Usain Bolt
may claim to be the “most naturally gifted athlete the world has ever seen” but
in reality that honor belongs to one Lebron James. Now to the terror of the rest of the NBA
Lebron seems to have fully figured out how to maximize his gifts and play like
one of the all-time greats in league history.
The year was quite a trial for Lebron as well. He was on the brink of defeat against both
the Pacers and the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals and Finals
respectively. The Skip Bayless led
criticism of his “clutchness” seems to be pointing toward possibly being true
before Lebron decided that it wouldn’t.
He had all-time great performances in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference
Semifinals and Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals before his dominant NBA
Finals. O after that NBA season where he
destroyed all his demons, won MVP, and won Finals MVP he went out and dominated
the Olympics. He was clearly the leader
of the team and was the team “closer” who took over any time a game seemed to
be in question. This was the year of Lebron;
he won the much deserved Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year. When we think back at this year I think we’re
going to remember it above all else for being the year Lebron James figured it
out and took the NBA over.
Also Mike Trout is awesome! Never ever forget this fact!
Stay Hungry My Friends and Happy New Year
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