Cheers to Year to Remember By: Dave Gurney The year 2000 has ended leaving some sports fans satisfied, joyous and victorious while others are left with a dry, sour taste in their mouths. It was a year filled with achieving local heroes and distant failures, grievous individuals and awe-struck loyalties. We watched the Yankees win a twenty-sixth World Series, against the rival New York Mets no less. The Subway Series will be an everlasting memory, Yankees vs. Mets, Bronx vs. Queens. We will never forget those five games...until they play each other in the World Series again in a couple years. Next, we saw the Devils skate around the ice with that towering Stanley Cup in their hands for the second time in their young, storied franchise. But it was also a year in which we saw both local football teams fail to make the playoffs, forcing us to watch a 1999-2000 Titans vs. Rams match up, a game that did not fail to entertain, but failed to bring us closer to the action a local team would have done. As fans we saw the Knicks come close one more time, and the Nets fall apart once again. Seton Hall made it to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament, while local university Rutgers struggled to get to the sweet sixteen of the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). We also must not forget the achievements on the national level as well. Florida State won the first ever BCS Championship Game and saw Michigan State hail the country as "the home of the Spartans" after becoming the kings of college hoops. Shaquille O’Neil and Kobe Bryant redefined the phrase "dynamic duo" by bringing the NBA title back to the Great Western Forum and Los Angeles. No one can double-team down low because Kobe will hit the jumper and there is really no one who can pressure up top because can you name one man who can guard Shaq down low? Does anybody even know what happened in the MLS (Major League Soccer)this past year? The Olympics came out of hibernation in 2000, leaving the entire world with a blurred image of the colors red, blue, black, green, and yellow. By the way, the US dominated the most prestigious worldwide event, winning easily by over twenty medals against the opposing countries of the world. The basketball team won again, swimming events were dominated, and an undefeated wrestler took the first downfall of his career. Has anybody seen the New York Rangers lately? It got so quiet I could hear my voice echo. Alex Rodriguez made a "little" money, caring more about the game and the location of the team rather than the amount of crisp dollar bills he received. We wished. He makes so much money he could actually buy a major league baseball team. Tiger Woods won tournament after tournament after tournament leaving us to wonder if there will ever be another like him again. The infamous John Rocker finally shut his mouth and the Pacers came close to winning the NBA championship, but now it seems they are closer to enlisted into a nursing home. We all love the underdogs, especially during March Madness with college hoops, where teams like Gonzaga and Tulsa come out of the shadows of weaker Division One conferences to be elevated onto the national platform of stardom by upsetting favored, but vulnerable powerhouses. Teams like Oklahoma, preseason ranked 24th, come out with one mission; to prove people wrong. And prove people wrong they did, being the only undefeated team in all of Division One college football and defeating heavily favored Seminoles of Florida State in the 2000-2001 collegiate football season. There was the improbable run of the Seattle Mariners, forced to trade their star player Ken Griffey Jr. and still making it to the American League Championship Series. It just shows that a team does not consist of only one player. Don't look too closely at Stop and Shop employees, a find like Kurt Warner happens once every millennium. But then the Giants came back, emerging from the depths of sports mediocrity to become the number one ranked team in the NFC conference. At the end of the 2000-2001 season Jim Fassel guaranteed victory, an exclamation of confidence exhibited by very few. But Giants fans were not left hanging on the ledge as the Giants fulfilled their promises and made it through with a 12-4 record. Now they have become Super Bowl bound. Congratulations, you were a part of something great. The past sports year was filled with heroics and success, drama and fairy-tale endings. It was a year where we took the bad by hearing Allen Iverson rap, and the good with two women sports athletes making over 40 million dollars in endorsement deals. If you were a fan of local teams, you were not left disappointed. It's rare to live through a collection of events as prized as the one's we experienced by staring at the vivid picture on the thirty-six inch TV. For a lucky few, they were able to experience them live with the opportunity to say, "I was there." For those unlucky fans whose teams struggled to sub-500 records, early draft picks, and seasons over before the playoffs began, just sit there, smile, and try to be optimistic; there's always next year.