The Biggest Sports Stories Of 2008

20) Always a Bridesmaid ...
No national soccer team seems to squander as much talent in the major tournaments as Spain. Be it the World Cup or the Euros, the surest bet has long been that Spain will dominate the qualifying and then disappoint. All that came to an end at the 2008 Euros when Spain defeated Germany 1-0 for its first major championship in 44 years. Equally surprising was the quality of play. Too often the games at the biggest competitions become dreary, tactical matches with no flow, but plenty of fouls. Spain played exquisitely and the four quarterfinals were all thrillers. Even the American TV audience watched in record numbers.

19) Hockeytown, Titletown
The NHL championship, pitting the Detroit Red Wings against the Pittsburgh Penguins, was old-time hockey in the very best (rather than the "Slap Shot") sense. In Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh had the two brilliant young stars, but Detroit, deeper and more cohesive on the back line where it counts most, prevailed in six games. It's always good to see the Stanley Cup spend a year in a true, rather than a fairweather, hockey town.

18) Brown-Out
It's getting to be a familiar tease. Since 1978, when Affirmed became the last horse to win the Triple Crown, 11 horses—four in just the past seven years—have won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness only to falter at the Belmont. This year's pretender was Big Brown and, after his decisive romps in the first two legs, you would have bet the proverbial house—that is if you had no memory of Smarty Jones, Funny Cide, War Emblem and the rest. Big Brown outdid all of them by becoming the first to win two legs and then finish dead last in the Belmont, far behind 38-1 shot Da' Tara. Photos would later reveal that Brown's right rear shoe came loose early in the race and he was pulled up down the stretch.

17) Clemens Ks before Congress
The Republicans seemed to believe in him, but this year that was a bad omen. Roger Clemens's appearance before Congress—to deny that he was a drug cheat—was the worst performance on the Hill by a ballplayer since Mark McGwire's sad pleading that he didn't want to talk about the past, only the future. At least credit McGwire for a reluctance to lie before Congress; Clemens apparently thought his best fastball would blow away the pesky reps, just as it has hitters for more than two decades. But in the end, it was Clemens's credibility that whiffed, almost assuring that he and Barry Bonds will stand as the bookend figures of baseball's tarnished drug era.

16) BCS Bust
Florida's rout of Ohio State in the BCS Championship last year had made it clear that the perennial Big Ten champ was no match for the speedier SEC elite. So when late upsets sent the Buckeyes back to the big game, this time against LSU, we didn't expect too much—and we weren't disappointed. This time Ohio State's performance could at least be described as respectable—the team jumped out to a 10-0 lead—but LSU was dominant, scoring 31 straight points and cruising to the national championship 38-24. This year we were spared the Big Ten, but not the annual controversy after Oklahoma got the nod to move on to the Big 12 Championship despite the identical records of Texas and Texas Tech. Even President-elect Obama is fed up with the BCS and urged college football to adopt a playoff system.

15) Autopilots
NASCAR produced little in the way of dramatics and too many of the Formula One fireworks occurred off the course—a sex scandal involving circuit boss Max Mosley and the racist taunts of fans aimed at its top driver, Lewis Hamilton. Still, both circuits made history: Hamilton, a 23-year-old Brit, became the youngest and first black driver, to top Formula One; and Jimmie Johnson, in prevailing in NASCAR's "Chase" for the third consecutive year, joined the legendary Cale Yarborough as the only drivers to pull off a three-peat. The IndyCar circuit got a historic win, too, as Danica Patrick became the first woman driver to capture a race.