We San Diego sports fans were treated to the exploits of a lot of interesting people over the past decade. Here's my look at some who played a major role in the local sports scene from 2000 to 2009:
LaDainian Tomlinson and Drew Brees - The running back from Texas Christian and quarterback from Purdue came seemingly as a package deal in the 2001 draft and double-handedly rose the Chargers from the near-dead. Both were immensely talented and, perhaps more important, were quality people. The Chargers began the decade 1-15. By 2002, when Brees took over, they improved to 8-8 and by 2004 were in the playoffs. Tomlinson rushed for more than 12,000 yards, caught more than 500 passes and scored 153 touchdowns to make himself a cinch first-ballot Hall of Fame selection. Brees was run off after the Bolts slipped to 9-7 in 2005, but he made himself a fixture in New Orleans and might himself be enshrined in Canton one day.
Trevor Hoffman - "Hells Bells" has moved to Milwaukee, but there's some interesting stats about the all-time baseball saves leader. His 591 saves are the most ever, of course. Of those, 552 came with the Padres, which is still the most ever. The Yankees Mariano Rivera is second on the all-time list with 526 as of the end of the 2009 season. Some things you won't know if you're not a stat freak are that his career ERA of 2.73 is second among active pitchers behind Rivera, his ratio of walks and hits to innings pitched is also second to Rivera, and his ratio of hits allowed for every nine innings pitched of 6.884 ranks first for active players and fifth all-time. 326 of his saves came in this decade, if my addition is correct. You have to figure he has another year or two left in him, and it would be really nice to see him retire as a Padre.
Jimmie Johnson - The El Cajon native won NASCAR's championship four straight years, and always seemed to be back home the next day visiting a school and handing out gifts. He's like the guy who always returns the shot in tennis or ping-pong, he just drives without mistakes and let's his opponents fail. Now he's the first driver to be the AP Athlete of the Year.
John Lynch - It is easy to criticize 1090 XX Sports, but I think if we didn't have this guy, we might not have any local sports on the radio dial. We didn't when XTRA 690 was scrapped early in the decade, and it was Lynch who stepped up and made a deal with 1090 to put sports on the radio other than the horrible ESPN station that had no local content. His station has been extremely inconsistent and hard to listen to, but it's to his credit that it's there in the first place. No one said he was a programmer and I think some people have taken advantage of him by not working as hard as they could. He's someone who knows how to make something happen, and he did with local sports.
John Carroll - the head coach of the highly successful football team at Oceanside High, Carroll has succeeded legends like Herb Meyer and John Shacklett as the face of the local prep game. This year's team was clearly his best, with Division 1 players across the lineup, especially on defense. But he has generally won without overwhelming talent and depth. You won't read this anywhere else because he keeps a low profile, but Sean Doyle of Cathedral (former USDHS), is close to being on the same level.
Candice Wiggins - There are stories of kids who survive the sins of their parents, and then there are stories of those who thrive. Wiggins, the former La Jolla Country Day star from Poway, is one of the latter. Her father, former Padres second baseman Alan Wiggins, was a hard-headed drug addict who died of AIDS. Her mother must have been pretty special, because she raised some pretty special kids, of whom Candice is the best known. Local girls basketball was never better than when she played, and the level of talent has diminished greatly when she left. Even with a bunch of great competition, she was the best. She now plays with Charde Houston of San Diego High for the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx, and is spending her off-season playing for a team in Greece.
Shaun White - He's to this decade's kids what Tony Hawk was to those who grew up in the 90s, a legend in athletic pursuits a lot of us geezers don't really understand. The Carlsbad product won a gold medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics and is a favorite to win at least another in Vancouver in 2010. Indeed, recent performances indicate that he's stepping up his game. He's claimed a stratospheric celebrity status that might even surpass Hawk's.
Mark Fabiani - Everyone above is notable for success. Not Fabiani. The former special counsel to President Clinton has been tasked for most of this decade with coming up with a site for a new Chargers stadium, and so far he's failed. I cannot imagine why this guy remains employed by the Spanos family -- and no one should take this personally because I've talked to him a few times and he is personable and friendly with reporters. Perhaps the fact that the Chargers aren't building a new facility now isn't his fault, but he has yet to succeed, either. The proposed downtown site, news of which I broke over the summer with Mark's help, now looks like a bust, too, for reasons not quite so apparent at the time. It seemed like a good idea. Oceanside and Escondido never seemed liked good ideas. The pursuit of a new stadium, after more than half the decade, appears to be back at square one.
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