World-class athletes and the usual misdemeanors

As Americans focused more than ever before on international contests, the biggest story was Italy winning soccer. But there were other unexpected champions too.

By King Kaufman

Read more: Sports, King Kaufman, Year in 2006

Jan. 1, 2007 | The World Cup.

Around the globe, the year in sports began and ended in the middle of the calendar, with the World Cup. Biggest story in the world: Italy, not one of the South American powers, winning the final over France. French legend Zinedine Zidane getting red-carded in what he said would be his last international match for head-butting an opponent in the chest.

In the United States the world's biggest sporting event was big, bigger than ever, despite our side's disappointing showing and first-round exit. But it was just one chapter in a year filled with surprising champions and new young stars, along with more than a few disturbing events away from the field of play.

It was a year in which Americans spent more time than ever before focused on international sporting events, not just the World Cup but also the inaugural World Baseball Classic and the Winter Olympics.

You forgot about the Winter Olympics, didn't you?

Americans even paid passing attention to the world basketball championships, traditionally ignored on these shores, but perceived as a first step toward a new American seriousness in international hoops, toward regaining the old U.S. birthright of Olympic gold. The U.S. took the bronze medal, which is becoming a habit. On to Beijing in 2008.

All of this may have been a glimpse of the future, a product of the communications revolution and the global economy, the shifting sands of the sporting landscape pulling Americans out of their comfort zone and into the international arena. Or maybe it was just one of those funny years.

On the home front it was a year of underdogs and unexpected champions -- or had you been thinking Carolina Hurricanes over Edmonton Oilers for the Stanley Cup?

And it was a year of the usual crimes and misdemeanors. Though only tangentially related to sports, the Duke lacrosse rape scandal, in which members of the team were accused of gang-raping a stripper they'd hired for a party, was the biggest of these.

The rape charges against three team members were dropped Dec. 22, but district attorney Mike Nifong is still pursuing sexual assault and kidnapping charges. Meanwhile, the North Carolina bar has filed ethics charges against Nifong, accusing him of making misleading and inflammatory statements about the suspects in the Duke case.

One of the worst instances of street violence against an American sports team struck the Duquesne University men's basketball squad in September when five players were shot outside a campus dance. All survived. The most seriously injured, junior Sam Ashaolu, shot twice in the head, has resumed playing basketball and hopes to return to competition.

More directly related to the field of play was this year's crop of drug stories. Tour de France champion Floyd Landis of the United States failed his post-race drug test and was stripped of his title, though he denies the charges and is fighting for reinstatement.

Journeyman relief pitcher Jason Grimsley was nabbed by the feds for allegedly accepting a shipment of human growth hormone, an illegal performance enhancer for which baseball has no test. Grimsley cooperated, telling authorities he used steroids, HGH and amphetamines during his career and naming names of others who he said did the same.

Barry Bonds started the year in drag and ended it reupping with the San Francisco Giants, with whom he'll launch an assault on the all-time home run record in 2007 to the boos of baseball fans who don't live in San Francisco. In between, the book "Game of Shadows" detailed the BALCO case that, among other things, told the world once and for all that Bonds was a steroid user.

The authors of that book, San Francisco Chronicle reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, were found in contempt of court by a federal judge for refusing to divulge their source for the grand jury leak at the center of their story. They face prison time if their appeals fail.

In the last week of December, an appeals court ruled that federal investigators could use confidential data -- names and results -- from 2003 MLB drug tests that were said at the time to be confidential. The samples, collected as a survey to gauge the prevalence of steroid use at the time, were confiscated in a 2004 raid on two drug labs.

If a Bonds sample is among them, it could have implications in the perjury case the government has reportedly tried to build against him since he testified he'd never knowingly used steroids. Also, given that the BALCO story has been driven by leaks, it's not unreasonable to expect information about the more than 100 positive tests to find its way to the public.

In an effort to rehabilitate his image, Bonds tried his hand at producing a reality TV show for ESPN about his life. It was canceled for a lack of viewers, to say nothing of a lack of reality.

As the year came to an end Mark McGwire, whose star turn in the 1998 home run chase inspired a jealous Bonds to start taking steroids, according to "Game of Shadows," appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time. Despite career numbers that would make him a shoo-in under ordinary circumstances, McGwire had virtually no chance of being elected this time around. He'll have 14 years to hope the baseball writers change their view that his performance was drug-aided and his stonewalling of Congress in 2005 was unforgivable.

Baseball's biggest loss of the year was really a win -- for fans. A federal judge ruled in August that Major League Baseball doesn't have the exclusive right to ballplayers' names and stats, meaning it couldn't force fantasy league companies to pay a fee to use them. A win for baseball in the case might have been devastating for fantasy baseball, which is likely a huge driver of the sport's recent surge in popularity.

Next page: The NFL's best story in 2006