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Rousing returns and fond
farewells
By Kostya Kennedy, Sports
Illustrated
The end of the year is nigh and with its approach, we take a look back at a few
of those who left the sporting scene and the two who were reborn. In January,
our eyes turned to the NHL as magnificent Mario Lemieux skated through the early
stages of his comeback with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He scored early and often,
playing in his uncanny and often unstoppable half-speed style. In the spring he
guided Pittsburgh all the way to the Eastern Conference finals. Mario loomed
larger than even his own majestic height and dwarfed those around him, even
superstar teammate Jaromir
Jagr.
Six months later, Michael Jordan bucked 99.9-to-.1 odds and returned to the NBA.
He is a more grounded, less awesome figure now; Jordan, a Washington Wizard,
doesn't fly like he used to but his tongue still wags and he can still drain a
deep three over a sticky defender. For all the fanfare of Jordan's comeback it
has unfolded quietly, largely because the Wizards have no Pippen, no Rodman and
no chance of winning the championship trophy that Jordan had once made an annual
habit of
hoisting.
At this writing, in early December, both Mario and Michael were out of their
respective lineups, nursing injuries caused by the grind of their sports. It's a
reminder that for even the super-mortals among us, time marches
on.
Nowhere was time's passage more evident than in baseball, where we were subject
to a suite of retirements that brought to a close some of the game's most vital
careers. We'll read about them ages hence and will recall them by their
statistics: a big batting average, a bevy of home runs, a batch of championship
wins and a record number of games played. Here's a look at a fabulous foursome
who bid farewell following the 2001
season.
Tony
Gwynn
C.V.: Eight-time batting champ, lifetime .338 batting average,
including .394 in strike-shortened 1994. Finished with 3,141 hits
Memories: Four times in my sportswriting career a professional
athlete has said to me, unsolicited: "Look at Tony Gwynn, it's amazing. How
good would he be if he wasn't so round?" The fact is, Gwynn, who shortly
after his retirement opened a Church's Chicken restaurant, cut a figure that
suited him fine. He was the best hitter I ever saw, George Brett
notwithstanding. Gwynn could drive the ball harder than you'd think, he fielded
his position like a dream and he could move better than people gave him credit
for. I won't soon forget the image of him, in 1997 at age 37, racing around the
bases on his aching knees and burning the Dodgers for an inside-the-park grand
slam.
Mark
McGwire
C.V.: 583 career home runs, including a then-record-setting 70
in 1998 the season in which he averaged one homer every 7.27 at
bats.
Memories: McGwire's chase of Roger Maris' record, of course,
and his humility in breaking it, plus the way he embraced St. Louis and St.
Louis embraced him in the process. I won't soon forget Big Mac striding to the
plate as a hobbled pinch-hitter in the 2000 playoffs against the Braves and
seeing the stands light up -- literally -- with the flashes of a thousand bulbs
as the first pitch to McGwire came
in.
Paul O'Neill
C.V.: Won five world championships, four with the New York
Yankees, one with the Cincinnati Reds. Batted .303 with New York, one of only 12
Yankees to boast a career batting average better than .300. Had four straight
100-plus RBI
seasons.
Memories: O'Neill griping about every close pitch that went
against him; O'Neill stepping out, muttering to himself, stepping back in,
stepping out, stepping back in and lining a tough outside fastball for a crucial
extra-base hit late in a game the Yankees would win (this happened many times);
the way he ran the bases with textbook precision, making him a better baserunner
than men with twice his speed. O'Neill knew what it took to win and did exactly
that. I won't soon forget him legging out a pair of triples against the Mets in
Game 4 of the 2000 Subway
Series.
Cal Ripken
Jr.
C.V.: Played in 2,632 consecutive games, a record. An 18-time
all-star, finished with 345 home runs as a shortstop, the most in major league
history
Memories: Ripken's victory lap around Camden Yards after
playing in his 2,131st consecutive game and breaking Lou Gehrig's Iron Man
streak in 1995; the home run he hit that day; the way he played in the 1980s --
an offensively dominant shortstop long before offensively dominant shortstops
were the rage. With his gray hair and icy blue eyes and his day after day after
day of high-level effort, Ripken seemed born of a bygone era. I won't ever
forget standing in Camden Yards and looking out as the flags draped on a
warehouse behind the outfield fence went from reading 2,129 to reading 2,130.
Ripken would break the record the next day, but the tying of Gehrig's mark stays
lodged in my mind. I shivered as I stood there -- a private moment even among
all those cheering fans -- because 2,130 was the round number that echoed back
to the baseball books of my youth. It was a large and unattainable figure that
we considered and weighed and rolled over in our minds (2,130 divided by 154,
we'd figure, that's almost 14 seasons!) I can still see that gorgeous, legendary
2,130 -- a number as gorgeous and legendary as DiMaggio's 56 or Aaron's 755 --
gleaming giant-sized in the Baltimore night and remembering how sure I had once
been that it was a mark that would last
forever.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy is a regular contributor
to
CNNSI.com.
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