The Best Stories of 2003

1. DRIVE FOR FIVE

Who says there are no dynasties anymore? Lance Armstrong’s streak of five Tour de France championships has already achieved legend status, tying him with Spain’s Miguel Indurain for most successive titles. Armstrong has been so good for so long, it’s easy to take his streak for granted. Armstrong admitted as much himself as he struggled through a fall, flu and some early lackluster performances before regrouping and grinding out the most difficult of his five championships.

2. A WOMAN’S WORK

Annika Sorenstam didn’t make the cut at the Colonial in May, shooting five over par for 36 holes. But her appearance was historic -- Sorenstam was the first female to play a PGA Tour event since Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1945 -- and during a year that saw the old boys at Augusta National cling, white-knuckled, to their archaic no-women-allowed membership policy, Sorenstam’s dignity and quiet charisma was especially resonant.

3. 55 FOR 55

Perfection isn’t a word often tossed around Chavez Ravine, but relief pitcher Eric Gagne fit the description, converting all 55 of his save opportunities for the Dodgers, who won only 85 games. Gagne became the first Dodger to receive the Cy Young Award since Orel Hershiser in 1988, the last time the Dodgers won a playoff game. Gagne still holds out hope of someday winning one of those too.

4. THE BCS’ FINEST HOUR

Before the insanity and inanity of the 2003 college football season, the BCS actually got it right, pitting undefeated Ohio State against undefeated Miami in a Fiesta Bowl championship showdown to remember. On Jan. 3, in one of the greatest college games of the last 25 years, Ohio State upset the Hurricanes in double overtime, 31-24, in controversial fashion, ending Miami’s 34-game winning streak in the process.

5. THEY WERE MIGHTY DUCKS

With the Angels still sorting out the early stages of their title defense, Anaheim was briefly perched atop the pinnacle of American sports, with the Ducks staging a startling run to the Stanley Cup finals. The Ducks fell just short of the finish, losing Game 7 to the New Jersey Devils, but goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere became something of an Orange County folk hero, as well as playoff MVP, for his extended and remarkable stretch of pressurized puck stoppage.

6. LIFE BEGINS AT 73

The Florida Marlins weren’t popular champions -- their postseason success came at the expense of America’s adopted teddy bear, the sad-sack Chicago Cubs. But their manager, 73-year-old Jack McKeon, struck a welcome blow for seniors, who also got a lift by the 9-0 start fashioned by the Kansas City Chiefs and their 67-year-old coach, Dick Vermeil. McKeon signed on for another season with the Marlins and would like the opportunity to repeat, provided those whippersnappers in the front office don’t dismantle the team before spring training.

7. WHY WAIT TILL

NEXT YEAR?

USC’s Trojans were in the middle of a rebuilding year when an 11-1 season broke out on them. Sophomore Matt Leinart threw for more touchdowns than Carson Palmer did during his Heisman Trophy season, Mike Williams caught nearly 90 passes and the Trojan offense went from averaging 36 points a game in 2002 to 42 in 2003. That was good enough to place USC atop the writers’ and coaches’ polls, setting the Trojans up for no worse than a split championship should they defeat Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

8. ARTE’S ANGELS

It was a year for breaking down gender, age and cultural barriers, with Arte Moreno becoming the first Latino majority owner of a major league franchise with his May purchase of the Angels. Moreno got a good deal, buying the team for a reported $184 million, much less than what Disney desired. And, early on, he’s making fan-friendly moves, from lowering certain concession prices to paying what it takes to improve the club’s pitching staff and batting order.

9. FUTURE IS NOW

It was also a good year for teenagers, with 18-year-old LeBron James elbowing his way through the Himalayas of hype for a respectable start to his NBA career, 19-year-old Carmelo Anthony re-energizing the long moribund Denver Nuggets, Michelle Wie, who just turned 14, making the cut in six of seven LPGA events and 14-year-old Freddy Adu signing with Major League Soccer and giving U.S. soccer its first potential world-class field player.

10. BATON IS PASSED

Finally, Pete Sampras made up his mind and called it a career, after numerous false starts, at the U.S. Open. Two weeks later, Andy Roddick was hoisting the trophy Sampras won for the last time in 2002, on his way to the year-end world’s No. 1 ranking and, U.S. tennis hopes, the revitalizing jolt the slumping sport sorely needs.

-- Mike Penner