December 26, 2005 Table Of Contents
Catching Up With
DECEMBER 13, 1993
By Bill Syken
Air and Space
A Pro's Guide to Heavy Spending
By Steve Rushin
SI Players: Life On and Off the Field
PANTHERS WIDE RECEIVER
As told to Elizabeth Newman
Edited by Kostya Kennedy
Edited by Kostya Kennedy
WITH Al Harrington Hawks Forward
Edited by Kostya Kennedy
The Best of 2005
First baseman Paul Konerko experienced a once-in-a-lifetime October, leading the White Sox to their first title in 88 years
By Tom Verducci
By Tom Verducci
The Colts take on the personality of Tony Dungy, their poised and pioneering coach. That means no wasted breath
By Peter King
By Peter King
Every team had a crack at lockdown defender Bruce Bowen; the Spurs signed him. That's why they're the champs
A spate of Did you see that? moments during an NCAA tournament weekend had cellphones ringing across the land
By Grant Wahl
By Grant Wahl
Displaying a newfound camaraderie, an inspired U.S. team gave Captain Jack a memorable Presidents Cup victory
Fans may have come to the U.S. Open hoping to see homegrown talent, but a pair of European stars opened their eyes
After deferring his retirement, U.S. shot putter Adam Nelson finally struck gold at the world championships
By Tim Layden
Look no further than the Harvard-Yale triple-overtime thriller for proof that the NCAA has gotten at least one thing right
Two dozen games crammed into 13 days? No problem. SI picks the winners and offers a viewer's guide to which matchups are worth watching
In Lance Armstrong's seventh and final triumph in the Tour de France, the race was all but over as soon as he started
By Grant Wahl
The Year in Sports 2005
The congressional hearings on steroids in baseball, the bigger-than-sports story of the year, turned into a three-ring circus. And only the clown, Jose Canseco, may have told the truth
By S.L. Price
An array of influential figures from the sports world passed away in 2005, from subtle contributors to trailblazers to true giants in their fields
'Twas the Fight Before Christmas
A high-wire experiment in sports fiction, written in nine chapters, sequentially, by nine SI authors, wherein a fast-fading pugilist suddenly finds himself in the bout of his life. Read on....
Best of the Worst 2005
Fifth Annual Too True To Be Good
For 12 long months, Steve Rushin rummaged the depths of sports to unearth these nuggets of surreal news from 2005
By Steve Rushin
Inside
By Peter King
By Peter King
By Ian Thomsen
By Ian Thomsen
By Grant Wahl
STEWART MANDEL'S Two-Minute Drill
Pierre McGuire's In The Crease
Freestyle skier Jeret (Speedy) Peterson has overcome personal hardships to become a gold medal favorite in Turin
Life of Reilly
By Rick Reilly
Departments
With an upset of No. 1 Nebraska, Washington's true believers went from also-rans to national champs
Despite leading the NFL in evictions, distractions and uncertainty, the storm-blown New Orleans players are hanging together
Need sensible last-minute suggestions for that sports fan on your list? Good luck. What follows is something else entirely
Edited by Stephen Cannella
Edited by Stephen Cannella
The U.S. bars Cuba, one of the world's best teams, from the World Baseball Classic
By Albert Chen
One of the world's top figure skaters--Japan's Mao Asada--is too young for the Olympics
By Yi-Wyn Yen
Prosecutors are rewriting the rules and getting aggressive in their pursuit of drug-using athletes
By Tim Layden
The two-time NL MVP, 49, is the author of The Scouting Report, a how-to guide to negotiating life as a professional athlete
By Adam Duerson
What to watch and watch for
By Chris Mannix
Edited by Stephen Cannella
By David Sabino