Major League Baseball

The top stories of 2003

Published Dec. 25, 2009 12:00 a.m. ET

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Though it was a year of scandal and politics, 2003 most prominently featured baseball's two most tortured franchises finding more reason to believe those curses might never be lifted.

10. Anything Tiger can do

One year after Tiger Woods introduced the "Tiger Slam" into the lexicon, becoming the first golfer to simultaneously hold all four major championship titles, Serena Williams got in on the act.

Williams won the Australian Open to complete the "Serena Slam." And just like the French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open the year before, she had to dispatch her sister, Venus, in the final to do so.

Like Tiger's, the "Serena Slam" did not occur in a calendar year. Unlike Tiger, Williams was not the first female player to simultaneously hold all four major titles. But even though Williams was the fifth to accomplish the feat, it was still pretty slammin'.

9. What a Rush

When ESPN made the decision to add Rush Limbaugh to Sunday NFL Countdown, the move was met with fears that the conservative radio host would inject his unique brand of political discourse into the pre-game show.

It didn't take long for Rush to validate those fears.

Just a few weeks into the stint, Limbaugh uttered this gem about Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb:

"I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL,'' Limbaugh said. "The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. They're interested in black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well. ... McNabb got a lot of the credit for the performance of the team that he really didn't deserve.''

McNabb publicly addressed the comments two days later, opening the floodgates of criticism. A trio of Democratic presidential candidates and the National Association of Black Journalists called for ESPN to separate itself from Limbaugh's comments.

Four days after making the controversial statement, Limbaugh resigned from the show.

8. Dave Bliss scandal

In summer 2003, Baylor player Patrick Dennehy was shot and killed by ex-teammate Carlton Dotson — a horrific tragedy to be sure, but not an indictment of all that was wrong with college sports.

At least not at first.

But during the course of the Dennehy investigation, the question emerged of how the transfer student had managed to pay for his education during the 2002-03 season, when he was not on scholarship at the university.

The answer? Baylor coach Dave Bliss apparently paid the portion of Dennehy's tuition not covered by financial aid — an NCAA violation. Making matters worse, one of Dennehy's assistant coaches taped him instructing players and coaches to tell investigators that Dennehy was financing his college education by selling drugs.

For those violations (and several others, including failure to report positive drug tests by team members), Bliss was handed a "show-cause" order by the NCAA, meaning any school that attempted to hire Bliss as a head coach before 2015 would need to show just cause for the hire or face sanctions itself.

7. World, meet BALCO

At the beginning of the decade, few sports fans had ever heard of BALCO. By the end, most could probably tell you the acronym stood for the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative.

Victor Conte's company entered national consciousness in 2003, when the United States attorney for the Northern District of California began investigating BALCO after an anonymous tip accusing the company of providing athletes with an undetectable performance-enhancing drug.

On Sept. 3 of that year, federal agents conducted a search of the BALCO facility, during which containers of steroids and human growth hormone were found, along with a list of athlete clients.

Among those clients were sluggers Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi, both of whom testified before a federal grand jury investigating BALCO, one of the first dominos to fall in the steroid scandal that MLB would find itself embroiled in for the better part of the decade.

6. Who's No. 1?

The BCS computers have given us a few fuzzy math moments throughout its first full decade of existence, but nothing like what transpired in December 2003.

The USC football team was ranked No. 1 in the final regular-season AP and coaches polls, seemingly assuring it a spot in the national championship game.

But apparently in the BCS's world, 1+1=3.

When the final standings were released, the Trojans were inexplicably third, behind LSU and Oklahoma, even though the Sooners had just been routed in the Big 12 title game, 35-7, by Kansas State.

In the wake of this mathematical discrepancy, the BCS would drastically rework its formula before the 2004 season.

5. No women allowed

A nearly year-long debate between Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson and Martha Burk, the head of the National Council of Women's Organizations, over the club's all-male member policy culminated in a protest during the 2003 Masters.

But Burk's march on Georgia wasn't exactly of the Million Man variety. It was more like a 40-woman tea party. Or a three-ring circus.

Burk's group of protestors was outnumbered by the policemen assigned to provide security for the demonstration by nearly 2-to-1.

And we're not sure whether that total takes into account the Elvis impersonator, the cross-dresser quoting Nazi leader Hermann Goering or the imperial wizard of the American White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan who joined the festivities.

4. Aaron "Bleepin'" Boone

Or Grady "Bleepin'" Little. Take your pick.

Either way, the outcome was still the same: The Boston Red Sox were on the verge of winning Game 7 of the ALCS against the hated New York Yankees and getting another shot at ending the dreaded Curse of the Bambino in the World Series.

The Red Sox held a 5-2 lead in the eighth inning, as Boston ace Pedro Martinez was outdueling his Yankees counterpart, Roger Clemens. However, Martinez appeared to be tiring. And after he gave up back-to-back hits to Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams, Martinez's night seemed to be done as Little headed to the mound to talk to his pitcher.

But Little not only left Martinez in the game, he also didn't take him out until after he'd surrendered not one, but two more hits, allowing the Yanks to tie the game at 5-5.

That set the stage for Boone, who wasn't having the best series. After managing just two hits in his first 16 at-bats, Boone was benched for Game 7 in favor of Enrique Wilson.

But after being called upon to pinch-run during the Yanks' eighth-inning rally, Boone came to the plate in the 11th to face knuckleballer Tim Wakefield and promptly hit the first pitch he saw over the left-field fence for a series-winning home run.

3. Ohio State beats Miami

When the BCS computers gave us Miami-Ohio State for the 2003 title, it hardly had the feel of a classic. And Vegas agreed, establishing the Hurricanes, who were on a 34-game winning streak, as 11 1/2-point favorites.

Even through three quarters, it was a hardly memorable — albeit closely contested — game.

But somewhere between the start of the fourth quarter and the final play of the second overtime, it became arguably the greatest college football game of the decade.

For starters, Miami needed a field goal as time expired in regulation to send the game to OT and keep its hopes of a second-straight national title alive.

Then for good measure, the 'Canes thought they had the game won in the first overtime after a fourth-and-three pass from Ohio State's Craig Krenzel to Chris Gamble fell incomplete. But as Miami players and fans poured onto the field, the field judge threw a flag for pass interference, giving the Buckeyes one more shot.

After Ohio State scored to force a second overtime, freshman sensation Maurice Clarett put the Buckeyes on top with a 5-yard touchdown, putting all the pressure on Miami. 'Canes quarterback Ken Dorsey, who had been knocked from the game a few plays earlier on a vicious hit, came back into the game to try to solidify his team's place in college football history. But his desperation pass on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line was batted down, and the Buckeyes prevailed, 31-24.

2. Bartman joins the billy goat in Cubs' lore

Disclaimer for reality-based users: We here at FOXSports.com fully realize Steve Bartman is no more responsible for the Chicago Cubs' ongoing dance with futility than Billy Sianis and his pet goat.

But just try telling that to Cubs fans.

Chicago was four outs away from returning to the World Series for the first time since 1945. The Cubs had a 3-2 series lead over the Florida Marlins, and Mark Prior was throwing a 3-0 shutout when Luis Castillo fouled a ball just into the left-field seats.

Even though the ball was clearly in the stands, Cubs left fielder Moises Alou appeared to have a play on it. Unaware of that fact, however, Bartman attempted to catch the foul ball himself and ended up deflecting it away from Alou.

The Cubs argued for fan interference, but the umpires ruled the ball had left the field of play and the interference rule, therefore, did not apply.

Given a second chance, Castillo drew a walk, helping to ignite an eight-run Florida rally that extended the series to a seventh game. The Marlins would win that one as well, then go on to claim the World Series in a six-game upset of the Yankees.

1. Eagle, Colorado v. Kobe Bryant

They thought they were used to drama in Laker-land. Then, they got hit with a courtroom drama unlike any in franchise history.

Kobe Bryant had checked into The Lodge and Spa at Cordillera in Cordillera, Colo., on June 30, two days before he was to have knee surgery at a nearby clinic. It was there he met Katelyn Faber, a 19-year-old hotel employee, and had what he believed to be consensual sex with her.

But Faber accused the Lakers superstar of raping her on the night of July 1, and a little over two weeks later, Bryant was formally charged with felony sexual assault — a charge that could carry a sentence as steep as life in prison.

Bryant would hold a tearful news conference two days later — with his wife, Vanessa, at his side — in which he admitted to having an adulterous affair, but insisted he had not raped Faber.

The pre-trial hearings were a constant distraction throughout the 2003-04 season, with Bryant frequently flying back and forth between Colorado and the site of the Lakers' next game — often on the same day.

And while the case against Bryant was ultimately dismissed, the tensions created by it played no small part in the breakup of the team.

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