#5 St. Nicholas Abbey
No, that’s not a place. It’s a horse. And the horse did better than place, he won (see what I did there?). St Nicholas Abbey was never better than fourth place until the final stretch when he easily outpaced every other horse on the track. The come from behind –-  way behind – - victory made 18-year-old jockey Joseph O’Brien the youngest winner ever at the Breeder’s Cup. And at 5’11’’, probably one of the tallest, too.

#4 Local Boy Makes Good
Roger Federer hadn’t won a title in almost a year. A trip home did a world of good for the defending champion. Federer won the Swiss Indoor Final on Saturday. It was the fifth time in six years that Federer had won this particular event –- an event at which he worked as a ball boy in his youth.

#3 Who Woke the Dolphins?
Somebody woke up the Miami Dolphins this week. After 7 consecutive losses, the Dolphins came alive against the Kansas City Chiefs with a 31-3 beat down. Somehow the Dolphins dominated in every facet of the game on the road against a Chiefs team that came into the contest with a winning record and a four game winning streak.

#2 LSU beats Alabama
It looks like the AP had the order right when they put LSU at #1 and Alabama at #2. LSU proved to be better, slightly, than Alabama on Saturday. ‘Bama dropped to #4 after dropping an overtime heart-breaker against the top team in the land. If nothing else, this game was a serious reminder of just how important special teams are in college football.

#1 New York over New England
The New York Giants and New England Patriots put up what could charitably be called a defensive struggle for the first half.  Even at the three quarter mark not much had happened on the offensive side.  It was as if they were saving all the fireworks for the final period.  A battle between two of the top teams in the NFL was surprisingly sloppy and filled with penalties and turnovers.  When the Pats scored on a fourth and nine play with a minute left, taking a three point lead, it looked like it was all over but the shouting.  Fortunately for Eli Manning and the G-Men, they did more than shout in that final minute.  Helped by some more sloppy penalties by the Patriots, the Giants marched down the field in a most workmanlike fashion and scored with 15 ticks left on the clock to win the game.

#5 The Breeders’ Cup
The Breeder’s Cup is the biggest stage outside of the Triple Crown races for horse racing. The annual world championship event, held in Louisville, KY showcases the best of the best thoroughbreds in the final races of the season. The best part? The names of the horses, of course. Uncle Mo is the favorite, but other contenders are Prayer for Relief, Ruler on Ice, Game On Dude, and my personal favorite – Stay Thirsty. I’m pulling for Stay Thirsty to win and open the floodgates for corporate naming of race horses. Maybe next year we’ll see Heartbeat of America take on Golden Arches.

#4 Super Bowl Rematch
The New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl a few years back. That time, it took David Tyree‘s miraculous ball-against-the-helmet catch. The 5-2 Giants will need that much and more to beat the 5-2 Patriots. The Giants will most likely try to copy the game plan that the Steelers successfully used against the Pats last week. Is one week enough time to get it right? Probably not. This should be a great game as both teams need to make a statement if they want to be in the Super Bowl conversation.

#3 South Carolina at Arkansas
The #9 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks have one loss this season. The #7 ranked Arkansas Razorbacks are also a one loss team coming into this game. Somebody’s going to pick up a second loss and fall out of the top 10 this weekend.

#2 Dream Team?
Back in August, newly acquired backup quarterback Vince Young declared the Philadelphia Eagles to be the Dream Team, a proclamation that he would immediately regret. After six decidedly non-Dream Team-like games, the Eagles put on a clinic on both sides of the ball against the Dallas Cowboys last Sunday night. The big question is: was that game a turning point or a fluke? The answer should be apparent when the Eagles play the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football.

#1 There Can Be Only One
This is it. The big one. As a big as college football games can get in November. #1 ranked LSU travels to #2 ranked Alabama on Saturday night. By a wonderful quirk of the NCAA schedule, both teams had a bye last week, giving them extra time to get healthy and game plan for the toughest opponent either team will face this year. This should be the tough, hard-hitting, smash mouth game that everyone will be talking about around the water cooler this week.

#5 Triple Crown Trisected
That’s the last we’ll pay attention to horse racing this season. No horse claimed the Triple Crown – again. In fact, as usual, the crown was shared among three horses. The winner at the Belmont Stakes on Saturday – Ruler on Ice – was a surprise long-shot that at least provided us with the joy of seeing the ‘experts’ confounded.

#4 200 MPH Bumper Cars
The 5-Hour Energy 500 itself was entertaining. But the real show was the bumper to bumper grudge match between Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch. The two somehow managed to finish the race (in 5th and 3rd place, respectively) without violating their mutual probation from their last scuffle. If these two are this willing to push and shove at 200 mph now, things should be very interesting next week in Michigan, their first race together after their probation ends.

#3 The Mavs Roll
To misappropriate a misquote of Sarah Palin – the team from Dallas has looked downright mavericky in their bid to unseat the Team of Destiny from Miami. Dirk Nowitzki has his team within one win of the NBA Championship. LeBron James has looked overwhelmed and overmatched against the Mavs. But neither is a one man team and James, Wade, and the boys aren’t out until they’re out. Which may be tonight… (Editor’s note: The Mavs took the NBA Championship last night, with a 105-95 win over the Heat.)

#2 The Bruins Bounce Back
The Boston Bruins got mad. And mad is good in the NHL The Bruins’ two wins upon returning to their home ice were absolutely domination. Then the Canucks returned to their stingy defensive ways once back on the northern side of the border. Home ice has never looked as important as it has in this series. Back to Boston for one more then – if the trend continues – one more in Vancouver to close things out.

#1 Inside the Park Home Run
Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays pulled off the rare and elusive inside the park home run on Sunday. Not only was it an unusual individual accomplishment, but those two runs came in very handy in a hard-fought 9-6 victory. And it will be a nice addition to the third baseman’s eventual Hall of Fame highlight reel.

#5 The Teams Get Relegated
“Relegated” is the European word for “kicked to the curb”, or something along those lines. On the final day of the season, with hopes of moving onto the upper tier of soccer, the Blackpool Tangerines blew a 2-1 half time lead to Manchester United, the New York Yankees of the soccer world who had nothing at all to gain from the win. By the end of the day, Blackpool was ‘relegated’ while ManU sat poised for their gagillionth run at the championship.

#4 The Little Guy Wins Big
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is the epitome of the little guy in NASCAR. He’s among the best of the Nationwide Series drivers, which most weeks just earns him the right to get smacked around by one or more of the Sprint Cup big dogs who participate in NASCAR’s lesser circuit. This wasn’t one of those weeks. For the first time this season, a Nationwide-only driver won a Nationwide race.

#3 The Race Kills the Dream
It happens almost every year. Whatever horse wins the Kentucky Derby gets talked up as having a realistic shot at the Triple Crown, even though they don’t. The Preakness Stakes should be called The Regicide Stakes because it kills the Crown nearly every year.  (Get it? Regicide?  Crown?  Eh.)  This year was no exception as Shackleford beat Animal Kingdom, ending the talk of a Triple Crown for another 12 months.

#2 The Game Completes the Sweep
Asdrubal Cabrera of the Cleveland Indians had a series’ worth of stats in one game against the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday. The Tribe had their way with the Reds all weekend, outscoring the Reds 19-9 and sweeping the series. But Sunday’s finale was especially ugly for the Reds and especially glorious for Cabrera who went 5 of 5 with 2 Home Runs and five RBIs.

#1 The Comeback Evens the Series
Some intrepid sports reporters may have – MAY have – shut off the Tampa Bay Lightning – Boston Bruins Game 4 after the Bruins went up three – nil. “Foregone conclusion” these reporters may have been heard to say at the time. These reporters deeply regret missing THE comeback of the playoffs as the Lightning rattled off five unanswered goals to even up the series at two games a piece.

#5 Bruins Ruin Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers found their way into the second round of the playoff despite a complete lack of effective in goal tending.  The Boston Bruins were distinctly unimpressed.  The Broad Street Bullies will have plenty of time to consider their lack of defense – they were outscored 20-5 in the series – while watching the remainder of the Stanley Cup from home.

#4 The Mavericks Run Wild
The Los Angeles Lakers were the #2 seed in the Western Conference. They were two time defending champions on their way to a three-peat. They were the team of destiny. Then they played the Dallas Mavericks.

The Mavs didn’t just beat the Lakers, they embarrassed them. They outclassed them in every conceivable way en route to a four game sweep of the defending champs. By the time that Lakers players Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom were thrown out of the game for acting like self-pitying thugs who just wanted somebody to hit, it was already too late.

#3 Lightning Strikes Again
The Washington Capitals were the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. Same story, different sport. The lowly Tampa Bay Lightning, who fell down three games to one in the opening round of the playoffs only to bounce back, decimated the Caps in a four game sweep that felt like sweet vindication for a team that many thought didn’t belong.

#2 Animal Kingdom
The Kentucky Derby has been an annual tradition for 137 years. That’s longer than Joe Paterno has been coaching. It’s a beautiful thing when a long-shot proves everyone wrong, and that’s exactly what happened when 20-1 dark horse Animal Kingdom won the Kentucky Derby, ridden by a jockey who expected to be watching from the sidelines until just days before the race. Anyone else smell a Disney movie in the making?

#1 Verlander’s 2nd No-No
Justin Verlander did it again. Verlander and the Detroit Tigers shut out the Toronto Blue Jays. Verlander was spectacular – I guess you’d have to be to go a whole game in MLB without giving up a hit. His fastballs were blindingly fast. His sliders were un-hitable. His curveballs were… also un-hitable. Before all was said and done, Verlander threw 108 pitches on the day, any one of which was a thing of beauty.

#5 Lakers – Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks stole Game 1 from the L.A. Lakers, staging a 17 point comeback and shaking the confidence of Kobe Bryant. After the game, Bryant was quoted as saying “This team can beat us.” Uh, Kobe, I think they just did. Now we’ll see if that defeat brings out the best in the Lakers or if they’re gong to follow Kobe’s lead and call it quits.

#4 Bulls – Hawks
Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose became the youngest player ever to win the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award. I always thought it an unfortunate oddity that the award was announced in the middle of the playoffs. This weekend, we’ll see whether it is Rose’s play or his ego that gets pumped up by the MVP award when he takes the court against the Atlanta Hawks.

#3 The Kentucky Derby
51 weeks a year I do my very best to ignore horse racing, which it turns out, is pretty easy to ignore. But once a year, this thing called the Kentucky Derby turns up and suddenly everyone, everywhere is a horse racing enthusiast. Maybe it’s the funny hats, maybe it’s the mint juleps. I don’t know. But this year I’m just going with it.

#2 Capitals – Lightning
The Washington Capitals had the best record in the Eastern Conference. They breezed through the Conference Quarterfinals by beating the New York Rangers 4 games to 1. Then along came the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team that barely survived the first round of the playoffs on the back of a tremendous three game streak after falling behind 3 games to 1 against Buffalo. Now the Lightning has marched into the Capitals house and taken the first two games of the series. It’s back against the wall time for the Caps, and they’ll need to snatch an away game in Tampa this week if they’ll even have the chance to play on into the weekend.

#1 Celtics – Heat
As of this writing, only one game of the best of seven series between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics is in the books. But somehow it already feels like it has the makings of a classic. Never in the history of the NBA has there been a more successful franchise than the Celtics. Never in the history of the NBA has there been higher expectations for a team than the 2010-2011 Miami Heat. The fanfare at the start of the season surrounding the arrival of the Heat’s triumvirate was off the charts in a sport that is all about the fanfare. As I so presciently wrote at the time, anything less than a championship for the Heat will be a failure. Game 3 on Saturday, the first of the series to be played in Boston, should be telling.

(Editor’s note: As of publication, the Heat lead the series 2-0.)

#5 Octopus

For more than 50 years, Detroit Red Wings fans have been throwing an octopus onto the ice to celebrate the start of the NHL Playoffs.  The eight-legged critter represented the eight wins that were needed to capture the Stanley Cup back in the day.  Now it stands mostly for tradition, and partly for sticking a thumb in the eye of the authorities who frown on such things as throwing dead animals onto the playing surface of a professional sports team.

Now, for the first time in the history of the Red Wings franchise, a fan was ejected and arrested for throwing an octopus onto the ice during game one of the Red Wings – Coyotes game this weekend.  When I first caught wind of the story, I thought it was some sour-grapes Phoenix cop with a chip on his shoulder.  Then I remembered game 1 was in Detroit!  Detroit PD fined a Detroit citizen $500 for participating in a long-standing Detroit tradition.  Even if it is a law on the books (Municipal Code 38-5-4, I’m told), I’m shocked that they found a Detroit police officer to enforce it.

#4 Archarcharch

Archarcharch was a 25-1 shot to win the Arkansas Derby.  He was well behind for most of the race, but managed to pour on the speed towards the end of the 1.125 mile race to become the latest long-shot to win our hearts, for one weekend at least.

#3 Youth Movement

Rory McIlroy was going to win the Masters last week.  But he didn’t.  He fell apart on the final day and dropped out of sight, crossing paths with the upward bound Charl Schwartzel on his way down.  This week, the 21-year-old golf phenom made a legitimate run for it at the Malaysian Open.  He lead after 36 holes.  He looked confident.  He said all the right things after his calamitous collapse last week.

Then along came 17, yes 17-year-old Matteo Manassero, who played a flawless final round and turned McIlroy’s redemption story into a footnote.

#2 Grizzlies

The Memphis Grizzlies had never won a playoff game.  Coming into the playoffs this season as the #8 seed facing the league’s best San Antonio Spurs, the odds of picking up their first didn’t look very good.  After twelve playoff games and twelve playoff losses, the Griz finally got their win in an impressive upset of the winningest team in the league this year – in San Antonio.  The Grizzlies shouldn’t get too cocky just yet, as the Spurs may (or may not – it really isn’t clear yet) get their All-Star forward Manu Ginobli back in time for Wednesday rematch.

#1 The Aaron’s 499

Jimmie Johnson’s .002 second margin of victory over Clint Bowyer was one of the most amazing finishes in NASCAR history.  That faster-than-a-blink .002 seconds ties the narrowest lead since they’ve been able to time things down to 1/1000th of a second.  The sight of six cars crowding into three lanes at the finish line Sunday may well prove to be the highlight of the 2011 NASCAR Season – and the moment that Johnson began his irresistible march toward a sixth consecutive Sprint Cup Championship.

Trainer Nick Zito and owner Robert LaPenta although disappointed are not out of the Derby altogether, as they also have Cool Coal Man, winner of the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park last year.

The Super Bowl – It kind of speaks for itself. It is a massive event that almost the entire country watches on television. Star entertainers perform at half time. Commercials cost millions of dollars, and many people aren’t even sure who is playing.

The Kentucky Derby – Horse racing has really fallen off in the U.S., but for one day of the year the whole country pays attention. Big hats, mint juleps, and solid television ratings make this an event everyone wants to be part of.

The Masters – Tiger has made golf trendy. Even beyond that, Augusta and its majesty make this an event.

The First Thursday and Friday of March Madness – Fans figure out a way to get out of work so they can watch the dozens of games that are on all day.

It is a great time of the year to be a sports fan!