A Season Cursed

For Boston Red Sox fans, both living and dead, the baseball season was a historic high: a come-from-behind victory over the hated Yankees in the play-offs, followed by the team’s first World Series triumph in 86 years. But for the rest of the U.S., the sports year was one to forget. And we’re not just talking about Kobe Bryant’s rape case. A rundown of the swings and misses of 2004. –By Sean Gregory

BASEBALL The steroid scandal widened and moved inexorably closer to Barry Bonds. Fans wonder: Did the slugger really think his trainer was just giving him flaxseed oil?

FOOTBALL After apologizing for Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl faux pas, the NFL watched Nicolette Sheridan flash Terrell Owens on Monday Night Football. Then apologized again.

OLYMPICS A record 24 Olympians were caught using drugs during the Games. Michael Phelps won eight medals, then got arrested for drunken driving back home.

HOCKEY What’s that? The sport has been shut down all season because of the NHL lockout. The players’ latest offer–wage cuts but no salary cap–was nixed by the league.

BASKETBALL NBA stars fizzled in Athens. And the league is still reeling from the brawl that spawned criminal charges against five Indiana Pacers and seven Detroit fans.