The first year of the new millennium is bound to remain infamous throughout generations due to 9/11. That single day has had more impact on our country then any other in our lifetimes. The diversions we cover weren't immune to 9/11's wrath and that's something we'll unfortunately refresh you on later. 2001 had many other notable events, however.
In January, America’s least controversial president George W. Bush was sworn in. Apple unveiled the iPod while Microsoft became Sony’s biggest competitor with the release of the original XBOX (sorry Nintendo fans). The start of Wikipedia gave people everywhere a reliable (enough) resource to quickly look up facts sometimes sourced and sometimes pulled out of an ass.
In the sports world: The Monday Night Wars ended as the WWF (now the WWE) bought WCW. At the Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt died on the final lap. He was running third behind eventual winner Michael Waltrip and his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. ESPN introduced sports’ non-horrendous answer to the horrendous CNN show Crossfire with Pardon The Interruption. And Will Smith received an Oscar nomination for his starring role as the title character in the year’s biggest sports flick, Ali.
What else? Afghanistan got invaded (that’s the only thing on here not “retro.”) Enron went bankrupt due to greed, incompetence, and take your pick of a third adjective. And Alex Trebek appeared without his moustache for the first time. Check out Retro Year in Sports: 2001.
The XFL
We Are the Champions
Cost of Living for Fans
Highest Paid Players
Alex Rodriguez’s ridiculous decade long $252 million deal set the tone for economics in baseball for the 21st century. Poor fans could pound sand while mediocre players (whose market value was driven up) could thank Tom Hicks, Texas Rangers owner/businessman/sucker who personally negotiated the contract with A-Roid. Just a little more then two years before the highest contract was signed at 7-years/$105 million for pitcher Kevin Brown. Brown headed west to Los Angeles to be a Dodger. In just 25 months the boneheaded Hicks more then doubled that. In all three seasons in Arlington, Rodriguez's Rangers finished last.
In the NBA Kevin Garnett reigned supreme as the highest paid player; however the Minnesota Timberwolves were knocked out in the first round for the fifth straight season. Opening night of the 2001-02 season began their quest, and eventual completion, of a sixth straight first round exit.
Peter Forsberg (Colorado Avalanche) and Paul Kariya (Mighty Ducks of Anaheim) split the top spot in the NHL banking $10 million each. Forsberg went on to hoist the cup while Kariya’s injury laden squad missed the playoffs (which in the NHL is saying something).
Brett Favre signed the biggest contract in NFL history in ’01 by inking a nice round 10-year/$100 million dollar deal. It was hailed as a “lifetime” extension. We don’t need to go retro to tell you how that ended.
Year on the Hardwood
Year on the Diamond
In a season where they finished 63-98 it seemed unlikely Cal Ripken would do anything more then just whimper away from the game he played daily for 17 years. But Ripken was given one final tribute when he went yard in the big league All-Star Game. Though he probably shouldn’t of been in the game in the first place, Ripken’s bomb at least justified his award. Tony Gwynn wasn’t as fortunate.
On the way to his fourth NL MVP, Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs in the least celebrated home run chase of all-time. Sammy Sosa hit 66 bombs after his previous career high was 40. Mark McGwire hits 70 home runs and nobody raises an eyebrow. Bonds hits three more and all a sudden it's obvious that everyone's using PEDs.
Led by Rookie of the Year and AL MVP Ichiro Suzuki the Seattle Mariners went on to win 116 games then they remembered they were the Seattle Mariners and lost the ALCS to the Yankees in just five contests.
The Arizona Diamondbacks won baseball’s ultimate prize in only their fourth year as a franchise. Thanks to Osama Bin Laden, the World Series was pushed into November for the first time in history. Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling split the Series MVP. The theme throughout the seven game dogfight was blown saves. Diamondbacks closer Byung-Hyun Kim showed his dedication to helping New York heal by blowing (key word) two saves in less then 24 hours. And Yankees closer Mariano Rivera (in the low point of his career) allowed two runs in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 to lose 3-2. Luis Gonzalez’s walk-off jamshot may be the single most iconic moment of baseball’s 21st century. All told, Arizona outscored New York 37-14 but still took seven games to close them out.
Also this happened.
Year on the Gridiron
9/11's Impact
