THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 1, 1995 TAG: 9501030231
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 151 lines
The irony is evident now, almost 12 months after Nancy Kerrigan unwittingly gave a brutal year in sports its theme by wailing ``Why me?'' following her attack in a Detroit rink by one of Tonya Harding's goons.
As sports in 1994 spilled out in too few spasms of glory, the broader question became ``Why us?'' For what reason were we assaulted with an unprecedented hail of pestilence, greed, moral meltdowns, labor wars and even murderous bullets?
What is it about the hysterical scramble for fame, wealth, national pride and Nike deals that brought us to this point? Is there any way to turn back?
Despite the efforts of its best people, sports as an institution in 1994 offered non-believers little incentive to become loyalists. Meanwhile, the suspicion is strong that droves of sports parishioners lost their religion, maybe forever. At the very least, many simply don't care as much anymore.
We'll play along with the year-end, top 10 stories thing - you have your ideas, we have ours:
1) The baseball strike that resulted in no World Series for the first time since 1904;
2) The Kerrigan-Harding fiasco;
3) 45-year-old George Foreman recapturing the heavyweight championship;
4) The New York Rangers winning their first Stanley Cup since 1940;
5) Jimmy Johnson winning his second consecutive Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys, then breaking up with owner Jerry Jones;
6) The NHL lockout that has so far prevented the Rangers from defending their title;
7) The World Cup's successful foray into the United States, with the U.S. making the second round, Brazil winning the crown and Colombia's Andres Escobar dying in a Medellin ambush for inadvertently scoring a goal for the U.S.;
8) Dan Jansen, falling again, then winning his first Olympic speedskating gold medal in his final attempt;
9) Michael Jordan taking up baseball;
10) Wayne Gretzky passing Gordie Howe as the NHL's all-time leading goal scorer.
No law says sport is required to uplift our value system. Still, it's disappointing that so many of those news items are cartoons. Tabloid curiosities that offer no escapism, but mirror society's darker side.
Gold medals and endorsement dollars are at stake, so Team Harding whacks Kerrigan, who later wins Olympic silver - Harding is a Lillehammer washout - but loses luster as a whiner, sniping at winner Oksana Baiul and Mickey Mouse. The thugs go to jail and Harding gets off with a fine and lifetime ban from the U.S. Figure Skating Association for hindering prosecution.
Foreman, bald, fat and happy, plays the media like a big bass fiddle, lands the one punch his comeback was founded on and kick starts a joke of a division. Texas proves too small to house the egos of Johnson and Jones.
Arrogant baseball owners can't control their spending, so they try to force their arrogant players to do it for them. Everybody quits and goes home, leaving Frank Thomas, Matt Williams, Ken Griffey Jr. and Cal Ripken Jr. - four of a surly game's finest citizens - no ghosts to chase till further notice.
Jordan swings and misses, swings and misses, in a .200-hitting minor-league sideshow that barnstorms the south in summer and Arizona in the fall.
There was so much not to like, to make you wonder why you bother. And so many vexing questions: Why so much preening for the baseline cameras? Why high fives after missed free throws? Is tennis really dying?
What's up with Spike Lee, John Daly, Dwight Gooden, Brooke Shields, Monica Seles, Marge Schott, Bud Selig, Deion Sanders, Dennis Rodman, the judge who asked Barry Bonds for an autograph, Jennifer Capriati, Andre Rison, the NFL people who didn't draft Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward?
Is Darryl Strawberry's alleged tax evasion the beginning of Armageddon for athletes who charge for autographs? And when's the damn O.J. Simpson trial going to start?
Don't even try to call the Simpson circus a sports story, though. Yet while that double-murder case owes its inertia to Simpson's legendary football status and media presence, it has thrown an unsettling light upon how we regard humans with special talents, athletic or otherwise.
But then we look back and, in spite of ourselves, see why we still watch sports with at least one eye.
In a tragic NASCAR season, with the deaths of Neil Bonnett and Rodney Orr within five days of each other at Daytona, 23-year-old Hoosier Jeff Gordon won the inaugural Brickyard 400 before nearly 300,000 people.
Nearly killed in an auto accident, Bobby Hurley fought back to the NBA's Sacramento Kings. Norfolk's Pernell ``Sweetpea'' Whitaker, the world's best boxer, further polished his credentials, but for how much longer?
Five-time Olympic gold medalist Bonnie Blair was the picture of precision, sportsmanship and work ethic. Nobody ran a football finer than Barry Sanders, and nobody navigated a golf course like Nick Price, the first player to win back-to-back majors (the British Open and PGA) since 1982. Meanwhile, Paul Azinger returned to the tour after treatment for cancer.
Martina Navratilova ended the greatest career in women's tennis, reaching the final in her last Wimbledon. Maryland gymnast Dominique Dawes won every event to capture the national crown. Charlotte Smith hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give North Carolina the NCAA women's basketball championship, while Scotty Thurman's late 3-pointer nudged Arkansas past Duke in a thrilling men's title game. Hakeem Olajuwon got his due while leading the Houston Rockets to their first NBA title.
And a politically troubled Brazil was lifted by the World Cup title, its greatest triumph two months after its greatest loss. Brazil's beloved Formula One racing star Ayrton Senna, 34, was killed in an accident in Italy. Three days of national mourning were declared, 100,000 people waited overnight to file past his coffin, and one million lined the 20-mile route of the funeral procession to mourn their hero.
Twelve days later in Portland, Ore., two of the four men convicted in Kerrigan's assault were sent to jail.
A year of heroes, a year of hacks. We have far too many of the latter but, well, take heart. Joe DiMaggio just turned 80. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS COLOR PHOTOS
Clockwise from left, Rangers first baseman Will Clark walks from the
dugout to the Texas clubhouse for the last time in 1994.
Tonya Harding was at the epicenter of a scandal that shook figure
skating. And NHL players are still waiting at year's end to see
whether their season will end up a casualty lke baseball's.
Photos
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dan Jansen had the talent to win a hatful of gold medals, but after
years of struggle and personal tragedy, maybe his 1,000 meter win at
Lillehammer was sweeter for standing alone.
At 45, George Foreman regained the heavyweight title he'd held 20
years before. A definite blow for middle-agers everywhere.
Michael Jordan has a weak bat and arm, but how many people can take
up a sport at 31 and perform at all? This story's not over.
No U.S. player exuded more brash confidence than Alexi Lalas as the
World Cup grabbed the nation.
Here's one to recall while the rinks are quiet. The New York Rangers
took the '94 Stanley Cup, finally.
Wayne Gretzky, who held just about every other major NHL scoring
record, got past Gordie Howe to become the all-time goals leader in
far fewer games.
Embarrassment and hard feelings were evident as Jimmy Johnson, left,
and Jerry Jones parted ways in March.
KEYWORDS: 1994 SPORTS by CNB