Retro Year in Sports: 2003

Image via Complex Original

As a fan, you never expect to have an impact on the actual ballgame. But Steve Bartman, who surely was looking forward to Game 6 all day, became the story of the sporting world by the end of a fateful October night. As the Chicago Cubs sat within five outs of winning their first pennant in 58 years, Luis Castillo hit a foul ball in which many fans reached for. However, all we remember is the fan who actually got his mitts on the ball. Bartman then entered the game and made an error at shortstop while also allowing seven runs in relief. The next night, he followed up by blowing a 5-3 lead in Game 7. Of course, none of that is true. But with the ironic comments, and initial bewilderment surrounding Wrigley Field in October of '03 you may have thought it was.

The media wondered how much information (if any) they should divulge about Bartman. Veteran Chicago newsman Dane Placko summed it up: "How far do we go in identifying this guy?" So they told his name and, for some reason, told everyone where he lives. He became the perfect scapegoat for a fanbase that had blamed an actual goat in the past. Bartman's crouched figure complete with headphones and a hat pulled over his eyes became the "Bane" of Cubs fans misguided anger. It also provided a Halloween costume for unimaginative partygoers nationwide. The most grateful people had to be shortstop Alex Gonzalez and the Cubs' pitching staff. Bill Buckner would've appreciated a similar fall guy. 

Much like how you can gauge how people older than you were getting screwed less for gas you can tell the same with ticket prices. Sometime between the early '90s to the early '00s owners realized fans are desperate as hell to escape their realities and pony up big bucks to watch others play a game. In 2003 this is how they broke down:

MLB: $18.69 (With over half the teams raising their prices a year after threatening a strike).

NHL: $43.57 (Raised by 17 eams and lowered by seven).

NBA: $44.68 (12 teams raised but interestingly enough the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs were one of five that lowered).

NFL: $53. (This is the year the New York Jets required a $50 deposit to remain on their season ticket waiting list. Fifty dollars for nothing in an ever-expanding pool of personal seat licesnses. In 2008 they did the right thing and refunded it.)

The highest paid athlete was Tiger Woods who made $78 million, although it's anyone's guess how much of that is currently in Elin's possession. Though he was the PGA Tour Player of the Year, he was actually second to Vijay Singh in earnings from the PGA. It's just that he had a whole litany of pre-pornstar-banging endorsements.

Eurpoe shells out dough to watch racing so it's no surprise that German Formula One driver Michael Schumacher was No. 2 with $75 million. In his final year, on the court, Michael Jordan financed his retirement (and his grandkids ten times over) by putting away an additional $35 million to (probably) surpass Somalia in GDP.

On the third day of the year, Ohio St. beat Miami, 31-24 in double OT, in the last time the Big Ten had any respect nationally. It was the final collegiate game of overrated freshman Maurice Clarett who capitalized on his 23-carry, 47-yard, two touchdown performance (though he did cause and recover a fumble) to challenge eligibility rules and bolt for the NFL. It also featured one of the most horrific knee injuries you'll ever see. If you're a serial killer you'll enjoy the video, if you're a normal person you'll cringe next time you do a lunge at the gym. It came down to a controversial pass interference call on 4th down of the first overtime that's still despised in Coral Gables and praised in Columbus.

In the regular season, Oklahoma quarterback Jason White won the Heisman beating out Pitt wideout Larry Fitzgerald. Guess which one has had more success in the NFL?

On the college hardwood, the National Championship became a showdown of coaching legends in Jim Boeheim and Roy Williams. Freshman sensation Carmelo Anthony led the Syracuse Orangemen to an 81-78 victory and the National Title over Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison's experienced Kansas squad. It was fitting that Carmelo and company beat Kansas in the championship since they plowed through the Big 12 throughout the tourney. The final showdown ended climactically with future Big East Player of the Year Hakim Warrick blocking Michael Lee's three-point attempt with 0.7 seconds remaining.

Anthony won the MOP of the tournament and then intrigued Syracuse undergrads by saying "I thought you were supposed to go to college for four years," during the championship rally. He then promptly bolted to the NBA.

In the AL, there was another town that blamed almost a century of ineptitude on a curse. In the midst of the rivalry, ESPN won't let us ignore that two advesaries were battling in a particularly contentious series. The Boston Red Sox were finally going to exorcise their imaginary demons and beat the Yankees on the way to their first World Series in a whopping 17 years (Cleveland, Texas and the Southside of Chicago might've had something to say about the media portrayal of beleaguered Beantown fans). But Manager Grady Little left staff ace Pedro Martinez in an inning too long and Martinez proceeded to implode. The Yankees rallied and won the deciding Game 7 with a walk-off bomb by Aaron Boone in the 12th. The lack of a move by Little cost him his job and made him a goat (see the theme?) in Boston for about a year.    

The Championship Series' overshadowed the headlining World Series. The Florida Marlins took on the New York Yankees after each team broke the hearts of Boston and Chi-town's northside. The South Beach bunch was quietly stacked with plus talent from speedsters Juan Pierre and the aforementioned Luis Castillo, to boppers Mike Lowell and Derrek Lee, to veterans like Ivan Rodriguez to a rookie stud in Miguel Cabrera. Led by a grizzled manager in Jack McKeon and a young, but talented, pitching staff, the Marlins beat the heavily favored Yanks in six games for their second title in seven years (despite a lousy owner). We felt it important to show the city of Miami that we didn't forget they had a baseball team.

As for the "cursed" teams: Boston rebounded with (spoiler) a championship the following season while he Cubs are still the Cubs and haven't won a playoff game since.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Oakland Raiders in the least entertaining Super Bowl of the last 20 years. Recently, this game made headlines as former players accused their coach Bill Callahan of sabatoging the game. We're not sure about a guy intentionally tanking the biggest game of his career, but maybe, if you're ever coaching, you'll want to at least change the audibles when you're facing the guy (Jon Gruden) who coached the team the year before.

In the following regular season, Jamal Lewis ran for almost 300 yards in a game against the Browns (of course). Lewis ended up topping 2,000 rushing yards for the season on his way to Offensive Player of the Year. Peyton Manning and Steve McNair tied for the MVP award as both their teams (Colts and the Titans, respectively) tied for first atop the AFC South. Tom Brady didn't care as he knocked out both in the playoffs on the path to a Super Bowl championship. Also notable was Kansas City Chiefs halfback Priest Holmes who scored more than Ron Jeremy and James Deen combined. Okay, not even close, but he did set a short-lived NFL touchdown record with 26.

The season was memorable for expanding the already too massive playoffs by making the first round a best-of-seven. One of the biggest men from one of the biggest countries came overseas as the Year of the Yao began. Yao Ming added global interest to a sport looking to expand with David Stern as its little Napoleanic general. Yao didn't get off to a great start but the international intrigue was there. He also started in the All-Star Game because that's how All-Star Games work. 

The aging Spurs (before they were aging) won the championship in six games over the New Jersey Nets after churning through the American Southwest (Phoenix, L.A. and Dallas) to get there. They were led by the quietest of superstars in regular season MVP Tim Duncan who put up some not so quiet numbers (24.2 PPG, 17.0 RPG, 5.3 apg and 5.3 BPG) on his quest for his second career Finals MVP. It makes us wonder how he didn't suffer a major back injury carrying David Robinson to a title in his final season. Robinson ended his career a champ and unlike MJ, resisted any temptation to come back and ruin that.

While the New Jersey Nets lost in the Finals to the San Antonio Spurs, the New Jersey Devils claimed hockey supremacy by defeating the Ducks of Anaheim in seven games to win the Cup. Goaltender Jean-Sebastian Giguere won the Conn Smythe Trophy despite playing for the losing squad.

Roger Federer from Switzerland beat Aussie Mark Philippoussis for his first career Grand Slam victory. He then proceeded to win Wimbeldon four more years in a row. On the women's side, Serena Williams made both her family and country proud by winning her second consecutive Wimbledon title. She defeated sister Venus Williams who subsequently let both her family and country down by losing.

Canadian Mike Weir won a playoff over American Len Mattiace (by far his best Major finish of his career) to take home the green jacket. Tiger Woods, the 2002 champ, adorned Weir with the coveted jacket. The great thing about these retrospectives is that you possess knowledge now that you previously lacked. You're older and wiser and because of that you realize Tiger is, no doubt, staring off into the distance thinking about what he's going to do to a tan, big racked pornstar lookalike who's been itching to meet little Tigre since the first round.

With the first pick of the 2003 NBA Draft, the Cavs kept it simple and took the prodigy whose high school games were aired on ESPN (The Detroit Pistons should've taken note). 2003 was representative of a simultaneous entry and exit for the NBA's promising future and accomplished past.  LeBron just missed his opportunity to play a 40-year-old Jordan (which is 100 in basketball years) after MJ gracefully retired from a 37-45 Washington Wizards team. Neither superstar would ever be able to matchup (though their primes were far more distant) depriving time-machineless fans from ever watching the most hyped basketball players square off. This has in no way led anyone to argue loudly and with a confusing amount of anger over which player is/was better.

MJ bowed out with class as he waved to the crowd, opposition and even the refs as they reciprocated with a three-minute standing ovation in his final game on April 16. The response by the notoriously tough Philadelphia crowd was indicative of how respected the legend was nationwide. It was an exit befitting the greatest talent the league had ever known. Then, afterward, owner Abe Pollin fired him as team president.