Now that the last of the four major sports (well, five, if you include golf) has finished for the year, it’s that time of year again - who’s going to get Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year? This year is a little tougher, as there aren’t really any “standouts”.
This year, my three “categories” - who I think should win, who I think will win, and who I would pick - are the same person: David Ortiz. I think he’ll get it both for being World Series MVP and as some sort of tie-in with “Boston Strong”. In fact, I was originally going to put as my choice, Ortiz and a Boston Marathon runner who was seriously injured, but I cannot find any reports of anybody who was actually in the race (as opposed to just watching it) being more than slightly injured (mainly ear problems caused by the loudness of the explosion).
The only other two names that come to mind as reasonably serious candidates are Andy Murray (for winning Wimbledon to add to his Olympic and U.S. Open titles from last year) and the Oracle America’s Cup team (for winning eight consecutive “must win” races), but men’s tennis usually doesn’t rate this award, and I don’t think SI really covered the America’s Cup in that much depth this year.
There are also a couple of names that could be in the running: Joe Flacco, since he had three touchdown passes in the Super Bowl, and David Stern, who is retiring as NBC commissioner on February 1; a considerable number of people credit him with turning the NBA into the “supersport” that it is.
Then again, who saw Mike Krzyzewski and Pat Summitt being chosen in 2011?
I think that if SI was really interested in NASCAR, it would have given it to Jimmy after #4 or #5 in a row. (#4 was in Derek Jeter’s year; #5 was in Drew Brees’s.)
In 2004 they picked the entire Red Sox team. I guess they could do it again but I doubt it. I also doubt it will be Ortiz because of the persistent PED rumors.
Nick Saban, Alabama head football coach Andrew McCutcheon, Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder, taking them to the playoffs after 21 year drought Peyton Manning, having one hell of a comeback after his year off two years ago (but probably too far removed for that to make him SOTY) Bud Selig, MLB Commissioner, who announced he’ll retire after next season (actually, he’s a good bet for next year for this reason - and probably why Stern won’t win this year) LeBron James - have they ever given it to the same person in consecutive years?
InBee Park (WHO?) was in position to make a run at SotY earlier this summer.
Halfway through the year, InBee had won 6 LPGA tournaments including the first three LPGA Majors. The Kraft Nabisco, LPGA Championship, and the US Womens Open.
She’s lost some form in the last couple months and there is an outside shot that she won’t even win the LPGA Player of the Year to Suzann Petterson who is hotter than a firecracker, literally and figuratively. Suzann has posed ‘nude’ for ESPN body issue.
Serena Williams had a phenomenal year and broke a lot of records based on her age. She would be my pick.
I’m quite the Ravens fan but Joe isn’t going to win much in his career outside of football. In fact I’m still surprised about the Super Bowl win and I don’t really care about this season. I’m a terrible fan.
I agree with LeBron, InBee Park, and Ortiz being good picks besides Serena. I don’t see Andy Murray getting the nod even with his historic win at Wimbledon. In fact, Rafa Nadal would be a better men’s tennis pick.
I think another interesting candidate is Mesut Ozil. His value to his previous team and his current one cannot be denied, but I doubt he has a chance since he’s not Messi or Ronaldo.
If SI was interested in women’s tennis, Serena would have won it in 2003 when she won her fourth straight major (David Robinson and Tim Duncan won that year). Even a “true” Grand Slam plus an Olympic title wasn’t good enough for Steffi Graf.
Although if SI ever decides to take back Lance Armstrong’s 2002 SOTY award, they can retroactively give it to Serena for her three consecutive wins in majors…
Ortiz was my first thought.
Do people really think he’s using PEDs now? I know he tested positive for something back in 2003, but we don’t even know what it was. He hasn’t been linked to anything lately, that I know of.
My opinion is he’s using PED’s. I don’t think Ortiz will win it as an individual, but I do think it will be some sort of a “Boston Strong” type award. The media has beaten the story to death, with the Bruins making the Stanley Cup Finals and the Red Sox winning the series.
Sachin Tendulkar of India is retiring from cricket this month. He is considered by many to be the greatest cricket player of all-time, and pretty much unanimously in the top two or three.
I know SI is a US-centric publication, but if they are having trouble coming to a consensus on one athlete, they could pick him and would have no trouble defending their pick.
Given the absolutely Biblical flood of melodramatic “Boston Strong” nonsense being written about the Red Sox winning the World Series that manage, in the most absurd ways, to connect it to a double murder committed back in April, I think it’s gotta be better than even odds that SI will choose to go with some sort of collective pick of Boston teams, or its fans, or the city as a whole. It’d say there’s a pretty good chance - 1 in 4 - that the citiation will actually be “Boston Strong” or some form of that.
Look on CNNSI right now. It’s all about how the victory “means more” than the fact the Red Sox were an excellent ballclub that handed the Cardinals their own asses.
Or, then, Bill O’Brien for his ability to come into this mess and field a fairly competitive group of athletes in the face of ignorant people who STILL cannot separate a degenerate from a collegiate football team, while battling unduly harsh sanctions from an impotent NCAA President who also cannot separate the actions of a degenerate from a collegiate football team.
Have you ever heard the term “lack of institutional control”? I am no apologist for the NCAA but they have used that to smack around some significant programs. In my mind lack of institutional control was a very significant element of the problem.
When I suggested Sandusky and PSU for “Sports People of the Year” it wasn’t all in jest. Time Magazine made Hitler “Man of the Year”. SI can have the sports equivalent of that.