THE REAL Y2K BUG IS A CONTAGION OF SPORTS LISTS

By Al Mattei

Founder, TopOfTheCircle.com

Everywhere you turn in the last months of 1999, you find lists, lists, and more lists.

There are books of so-called "millenium" lists, shopping lists, and lists of things to get in case the Y2K situation leads to gun nuts running amuck in the streets.

The most pervasive and onerous set of lists, however, are the ones involving sports. "The 50 Greatest Athletes," says one. "The 25 Greatest Dynasties," bellows another. "The 10 Most Influential," another is titled.

The root of the list-mania which has begun to permeate American sports culture (you don't notice this kind of thing in India or Australia, do you?) comes from a noble project put together by the Disney collection of sports networks: ESPN, The Network Formerly Known As Classic Sports, and ABC Sports.

The "SportsCentury" project is roughly 100 hours of documentaries, as well as a traveling exhibition and a book. The centerpiece of SportsCentury, however, are 50 half-hour minidocumentaries about athletes from Jesse Owens to Julius Erving, from Billie Jean King to Secretariat.

You can tell that much care has been put into each and every documentary. Video footage and interviews shot over the past several years are spliced together, Ken Burns-style, to tell the stories of the athletes.

True legends in sport and in public life have had their thoughts broadcast on the air: the political (Oren Lyons and Jesse Jackson), the intellectual (Juan Williams and Harry Edwards), the artistic (Alan Thicke and Billy Crystal) and the journalistic (the late Jim Murray, Frank DeFord, Chris Schenkel, Jim McKay, Jack Whitaker).

With the exception of one or two athletes, each of the ESPN documentaries tells stories of on-the-field triumph as well as off-the-field tragedy and conflict. SportsCentury takes pains not to lionize: the drinking of Jim Thorpe and Mickey Mantle are documented, as well as the atomism of Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays, struggles with homosexuality (King and Bill Tilden) and rumors about it (Babe Zaharias and Carl Lewis).

Memorable moments in the series are spread throughout the 50 broadcasts. Bob Cousy breaks into tears upon reflecting about how he could have better handled his relationship with Bill Russell. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's biographer tells about the time fans sent him jazz albums to replace those lost in a fire at his home several years ago. Bob Kersee's piercing voice off-camera breaks off an interview between a group of journalists and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

The project has spawned hordes of imitators, large and small. Fox Sports Net's Keith Olbermann, a self-styled sports historian who occasionally anchors the nightly sports telecast, has created a personal list called "The Real 50."

Not to be outdone, Sports Illustrated created its own sports awards show which created categories for its winners: women's sports, team sports, Olympic sports, and so forth. The winner was Muhammad Ali.

The SI-Turner-Time Warner empire then went two steps further. It created a list, though Sports Illustrated For Women, of the top 100 female athletes of all time. Its top athlete was Joyner-Kersee, with Zaharias second and King third.

Then, the Sports Illustrated juggernaut created a behemoth of an enterprise story: the 50 greatest athletes from each state of the Union. As if to somehow give mention to all those athletes who were left off previous lists, SI went to the far corners of the nation -- except for the District of Columbia -- to create 50 all-encompassing lists.

Newspapers have been creating lists of their own. The Blethen Newspaper Group in Maine has been creating the 20 top athletic moments in Maine in the 20th Century. Joan Benoit winning the 1984 Olympic Marathon, the University of Maine's men's ice hockey championships, and the play of basketball player Cindy Blodgett top that list.

The Boston Globe has created a list of the 100 greatest athletes in the greater Boston area. It is a list that includes many sports as well as two entire teams: the 1980 US Olympic ice hockey team, and the 1998 US Olympic women's ice hockey team.

All-Century teams in professional and high-school sports have been created in many local papers, notably The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. and the Camden (N.J.) Courier Post.

The one thing about all of these lists is that, while they try to have the ring of historical authenticity, none really seem to latch on.

For some, the lists are opinions which are thrust at us to create debate. Olbermann's list is one such creation. He adds Pele to his list when it becomes clear that ESPN is not including the great Brazilian soccer star. Too, while Wayne Gretzky is fifth on the SportsCentury list, he is 33rd on the "Real 50" list. Perhaps it is because Fox no longer holds the rights to national hockey broadcasts.

Some fall short because research is incomplete. While forgotten female athletes like Shirley Babashoff (swimming) and Rosi Mittermaier (skiing) were included in the Sports Illustrated For Women top 100, others were mysteriously left off the list or were further down than perhaps they should. Volleyball's Flo Hyman (69th), and WNBA MVP Cynthia Cooper (90th) were far more deserving to be in the top 30 than several who made it near the top of the list. The editors left off the list athletes like Heather MacKay, the squash player who, for more than a decade, was undefeated in singles play.

There was also the omission of anyone having to do with field hockey or lacrosse. If anyone from those endeavors is to be mentioned, how about someone like Barbara Longstreth? She, at one time or another, played on both national teams -- a scenario which, despite the greatness of modern players, is unthinkable.

This space knows a little about trying to put together an historically-based sports list, in trying to draft an American scholastic All-Decade field hockey team.

Given the scope of the job, as well as my relative inexperience in comparison to those who have been in the sport for more than a quarter-century, I know that trying to assemble a good representation of scholastic field hockey players is like unraveling the Gordian knot: it cannot be done gently, and occasionally requires a little heavy artillery.

So, I ask the gentle readers of this website, when considering the TopOfTheCircle.com All-Decade team, consider whether you believe that this is just another list written down to sell just another newspaper or magazine, or whether this is a list created out of a genuine admiration and love for the sport of field hockey.