The biggest quandary

A few days ago, my boss asked me to come up with a list of what I considered to be the 10 biggest sports stories of 2004.

Well, it wasn’t so easy.

After all, what was bigger — the Red Sox winning a World Series or the Red Sox beating the Yankees to get to the World Series?

Vijay Singh winning a whole bunch of golf tournaments or Phil Mickelson winning the Masters?

NASCAR changing its rules on how to win the championship or Kurt Busch winning the championship?

New England winning the Super Bowl or singer Janet Jackson flashing the Super Bowl?

Connecticut winning the men’s college basketball championship or Connecticut winning the women’s college basketball championship?

Smarty Jones winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness or not winning the Belmont?

Shaquille O’Neal and the Lakers getting beat by the Pistons or the Lakers getting rid of Shaq?

Barry Bonds hitting his 700th home run or being linked to a steroid stink?

U.S. women’s teams winning at the Olympics or our men’s teams not?

It depends on your definition of “big.”

Would you say the biggest story of the year is: (a) A story everybody in town was talking about? (b) A story everybody in the world was talking about? (c) A great victory? (d) A great surprise? Or (e) A great controversy?

For example, Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France bike race … again. How big is this news? Is it huge because he won again? Or is it “so what else is new?”

And how big a deal is a European bike race to you? How big a deal is Armstrong’s fight with cancer to you?

I admired what Armstrong did. But I didn’t hear one-hundredth the talk about the Tour de France here in Chicago that I did about a TV broadcaster leaving the Cubs.

Depends where you live, I guess.

Throughout my life, I have seen or heard references to “the legendary” Vince Lombardi, “the legendary” Willie Mays, “the legendary” Joe Paterno, “the legendary” Bill Russell. But how big a legend can you be if three-quarters of the globe has no idea who you were or are?

Steve Stone and Sammy Sosa made big news in the Chicago area this year. But big news worldwide? Or even coast to coast? Hardly.

I covered an Olympic soccer game in Greece at which the U.S. women upset Brazil for the gold medal. To me, that was big. It was a very exciting, very emotional game and possibly the high point of the Olympics for our country.

My column on it ran on Page 6 of the sports section. At the bottom.

I asked a colleague Friday what he was choosing as the No. 1 sports story of 2004.

“BALCO,” he replied.

I nodded. Yes, a big story. Scandalous. Drugs. Steroids. Accusations. Outrage.

And then I thought: “Wait a minute. What BALCO story?”

Has Bonds been charged with anything? Has Marion Jones had to give up her Olympic gold medals? Quick, name the “famous” athletes who have been suspended. Quick, the letters BALCO stand for what?

Biggest story of the year? I don’t know. Could be.

Three sports stories in 2004 made my pulse race a little faster.

One was the way Boston came back to beat the Yankees. For me, the World Series was an anticlimax. It wasn’t that the Red Sox did it … it was that they lost three in a row, then did it. That’s what made it bigger than “big.”

One was the way Mickelson won the Masters. I don’t get all goose-pimply about golf as some friends do. I find it interesting, not exciting. But so many people dumped on this guy for so long, I got a kick out of seeing him jump.

The third was Smarty Jones. I saw this horse almost single-handedly revive the sport of kings. I saw him come within seconds of becoming Seabiscuit. If one lousy horse — quick, name him—hadn’t caught him at the Belmont, to this day Smarty Jones might be the biggest sports draw in America.

What was the big sports story of 2004?

Beats me. Maybe it hasn’t happened yet.