The Top Five Sun Devil Sports Stories of 2008
Our friends at Fanster.com are compiling a list of the top 25 Phoenix sports stories of 2008. Find out which Arizona State stories made the cut—and let us know which stories you would’ve added.
Our friends over at Fanster.com have been running down the top 25 Phoenix sports stories of the year over the last month or so. The list has been dominated by pro sports stories, but a handful of Arizona State items have nudged their way in.
Unfortunately, they’ve not been terribly positive. Here’s the list:
- No. 22: Led by pitcher Katie Burkhart, ASU wins its first ever national championship in softball. link
- No. 20: Ike Davis and Brett Wallace stage a fight and then get ousted from the Super Regionals by Fresno State. link
- No. 13: The ASU hoops team is snubbed by the NCAA Tournament selection committee – in favor of UofA no less. link
- No. 11: The high hopes of Sun Devil football fans are dashed in a school-record six-game losing streak. link
At Echo from the Buttes, we’re not big on lists of four items. Three? OK. Five? Even better. So what ASU sports story of 2008 would you nominate to round out the list?
May we suggest: heptathlete Jacquelyn Johnson winning her sixth and seventh NCAA championships en route to an appearance in the Olympics, James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph delaying their NBA careers to return to Tempe, or the Rudy Carpenter era ending with a loss to Arizona.
What’s Your Take, Sun Devils?
What Sun Devil sports story would you add to the list? Let us know in the comments below!
#1 sports story for 2008 is that RUDY C wont be here for 2009
really
its the Softball team winning a National Championship that was awesome
no mention of the track team winning both mens and womens indoor?
ASU being snubbed for the “dance” would be a story if they were actually snubbed. They didn’t deserve to be in the NCCA tournament and their performance in the NIT proved it.
@kurtis, the track championships are definitely a big deal, and Jacquelyn Johnson was a big part of them. Do you think that’s a top five story? I don’t, but I’m open to all viewpoints.
David, go back to sucTon.
1. Track NC
2. Softball NC
3. Football collapse
4. Pedroia wins MLB MVP
5. Basketball snubbed, beats au twice, high hopes for 08-09
6. Baseball failure
ASU didnt deserve to make the Dance what?
ASU won 2 games in the NIT and UofA got bounced easily in the 1st rd of the Ncaa turney.
05 Devil … Unless you graduated from the class of 1905 I can only assume that you’ve glossed yourself to indicate your graduating class of 2005, which means that you were probably born in the early 80s. While you were still filling your diaper I was already out of college and had attended dozens of ASU football, basketball, and baseball games. I was at the 86 Rose Bowl – were you? I have video from Fox News of me carrying the goal post off the field after the 96 Nebraska game – do you? I have video from Fox News of me handing a rose to the Fox sports reporter (her name escapes me) after ASU clenched the 96 Rose Bowl berth – do you?
Please spare me the lame “go back to sucTon” comments or people on this great blog are going to start thinking that the ’05 represents your pre-school class. The guy who runs this board is a huge Sun Devil fan but he isn’t a homer who wears Rose colored lenses. His objective takes are why I like this board and why I participate. If you want nothing but ASU propaganda then go hang out with the sycophants on the Cactus Ranch board.
Hey dudes, let’s please remain civil. Remember, we’re all on the same team here. Some of us (like me) are third-generation Sun Devils. Others (like my lovely fiance, the Karnivore) are new to the flock. But we’re all Sun Devils.
Like David said, I started this site in hopes of creating a positive but honest environment — like a virtual sports bar — for fans to come together and discuss our beloved Sun Devils. If we wouldn’t say something to a fellow Devil’s face over a beer at Casey Moore’s, let’s please not say it here.
On a side note, @05 Devil, that’s a good point on Dustin Pedroia. The seasons of Pedroia and Andre Ethier in propelling their teams to the playoffs is tough to discount.
I do find it interesting that 4 of the 5 stories they pick for ASU are either negative or are presented with a negative slant (“Baseball wins 2nd consecutive conference title and only gets knocked out by eventual national champ” could have worked too.) The one story that was impossible to count as a negative, the softball title, somehow ranked least impressively on their list. Especially considering that 2008 covers half of the most successful all-sports season in ASU history, that seems like an odd choice. Did the pro-au organizers at AZSportshub.com just slide over to the head seat at fanster?
Wow, I was kidding when I said that about Fanster sounding like AZ Sports Hub, which was run by a bunch of au homers who mainly mentioned ASU only when they could take a shot at the Devils, but in their “About” section there’s the whole story…it’s the same guys. No wonder. Glad I know that site’s not worth my time.
@beatuofa, the list is definitely a tad negative. I’d like to have seen the track championships and the Ethier/Pedroia stories added.
The baseball result was disappointing to everyone, but Fresno State turned out be pretty good. Football was a disaster, period.
The softball championship/domination is clearly the #1 ASU story of the year. Not the biggest news, but it’s bigger (in the positive sense) than any of the negative stuff is in the negative.
Baseball crapping out in the Superregional is disappointing, but at least FSU went on to win the whole darn thing.
I can’t speak for the esteemed David, who seems to be right on most things, but ASU did nothing in the NIT to show they didn’t belong in the Big Dance, and UA did nothing during the year nor the tournament to show that they did. Maybe the boys underachieved, but so did lots of teams. We earned the right to play in the NCAA tournament with our number of quality wins and halfway-decent record, and the inclusion of UA ahead or in lieu of ASU was disgraceful.
Not sure if this would make a top story list, but if we’re gonna talk about Pedroia and Ethier, can we please talk about Zach Miller???
I haven’t seen any talk at all about the breakout year The Truth had. Dude set Raiders franchise records for tight ends as a 22-year-old (he still could have been at ASU this year if not for playing as a freshman/leaving early).
Me thinks he was badly snubbed by the Pro Bowl selectors. He caught 56 passes for 778 yards — and he did it all with opposing defenses knowing he is the only reciever that actually makes catches. The next closest guy on the Raiders had like 18 receptions.
Can we talk the Truth here???!!! Pun intended
The top moment for me has to be the Softball team winning the National Championship. Let me tell you why……..
This team went from nothing to National Champions in a very short time. Just look at the home crowds this past year……..there were a lot of new faces at those games. Lisa Love, Coach Erickson, Coach Kush were all in attendance at the final home game. The team has impacted girls softball club teams throughout the valley. Now 12 year old girls want to be Sun Devils and have a goal to play softball at ASU…….instead of WhoofA. To me nothing is a bigger story than the Softball team.
[...] a week ago, we took a stab at ranking the top five Sun Devil sports stories of 2008. Fortunately, we won’t have to list Arizona State’s top non-sports accomplishments of the [...]