Top 10 Chicago Sports Events Of The Decade
The start of the 2000s saw the Chicago sports scene in a state of disarray. The once mighty Bulls had been stripped apart and were a shell of their former selves, the Sox had just been handed a brutal playoff loss by the Mariners (turns out the kids couldn't play so well after all), Bill Wirtz was working his hardest on making sure the Hawks had the longest Stanley Cup drought in the NHL, the Bears had a potential head coach back out at the last minute and the Cubs were mired in their seemingly endless mediocrity.
This decade saw a change in that, with Chicago re-establishing itself as a premier sports city, culminating in two championships and multiple deep playoff runs.
In this slideshow, I've tried to do my best to encompass the biggest moments of the decade in Chicago sports, in both relation to the team, and the city as a whole—major league sports only.
Fire fans, I apologize, but I simply don't follow the team enough to give them a fair share here.
10: Devin Hester's 108-Yard Touchdown
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When the Bears took Devin Hester in the second round of the 2006 draft, there were a lot of questions surrounding the University of Miami cornerback/return specialist. The main question was why the Bears would spend such a high draft pick on a player with no clear role in the secondary, though that was soon answered by the Bears saying they'd use Hester solely on kick and punt returns.
Hester went on to have a seemingly magical rookie year, recording six touchdowns in his first thirteen weeks as a pro, and setting the record for the quickest score in Super Bowl history when he returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown.
However, the event I've picked is Hester's 108-yard TD return on a botched field goal by the New York Giants, which, at the time, tied a record for longest touchdown in NFL history. Not bad for a rookie.
9: Rocky Wirtz Takes Over Blackhawks
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In his final two seasons at the helm, "Dollar Bill" Wirtz had managed to steer the Hawks ship well off the deep end, and, courtesy of the NHL draft lottery, he landed the No. 3 and No. 1 picks in the 2006 and 2007 drafts, respectively. In 2006, the choice was center Jonathan Toews, and in 2007, with the first No. 1 overall pick in Blackhawks history, the selection was right winter Patrick Kane, both of whom were signed to pro contracts during the summer of 2007.
On September 26, 2007, Bill Wirtz died, initially passing the franchise to his brother, Peter Wirtz, who opted to not run the team, and Bill's son William Rockwell "Rocky" Wirtz took over. Rocky almost immediately began negotiations to start airing Blackhawks home games on TV again, brought back Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita as Team Ambassadors (both had been on very poor terms with Bill Wirtz). Lead by a new ownership, and a promising young duo on the ice, the Blackhawks revival was in full effect.
8: Carlos Zambrano's No-Hitter
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2008 saw the Cubs win 97 games, en route to what turned out to be a too-good-to-be-true breaking of the World Series drought 100 years after it began. The pinnacle of this season was Carlos Zambrano's no-hitter against the Houston Astros, which was played at Miller Park in Milwaukee due to an impending hurricane.
The crowd, mostly Cubs fans making the short commute up to Milwaukee, was fired up watching their ace mow down the "home" Astros. Zambrano's lone blemish was a walk, and he ended it by burying a two-seam fastball on a full count to Darin Erstad, which Erstad swung and missed on, despite the pitch being about six inches off the plate and almost in the dirt. The Cubs wore their alternate blue jerseys for this game.
Zambrano just wasn't the same after this game for the rest of the year, and the Cubs World Series hopes were quickly crushed by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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7: DeWayne Wise's Catch
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On July 23, 2009, Mark Buehrle threw a perfect game at home, beating every hitter in the Tampa Bay Rays lineup (less than two months after Dallas Braden's perfect game against the Rays). The key play, as there seems to be with every perfect game, was made late in the game.
In the top of the ninth inning, Rays batter Gabe Kapler hit what could have—and should have—been the end of the perfect game, launching a ball to left-center. Defensive replacement DeWayne Wise went back to the wall, jumped, and pulled Kapler's would-be home run back, preserving Buehrle's shot at immortality. Michel Hernandez struck out, and Jason Bartlett grounded out, and Buehrle had thrown his second career no-hitter, and first career perfect game.
6: 1.7 Percent
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Coming into the 2008 NBA draft, the consensus No. 1 overall pick was point guard Derrick Rose out of Memphis. The Chicago native had very little hope of landing with his hometown team, as while the Bulls were in the running to win the lottery for the first overall pick, their odds were just 1.7 percent.
Bulls fans crossed their fingers and prayed that they could get the highly talented hometown boy, hoping for what would be the second-biggest upset in the NBA's draft lottery history, only slightly behind Orlando's 1993 luck, when they got the first overall pick with only a 1.5 percent chance of acquiring the pick.
But, as you probably know by now, the Bulls got their miracle, and they've been a playoff team ever since Derrick Rose came to town.
5: Bulls vs. Celtics, 2009 NBA Playoffs
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The 2008-09 Bulls season saw a lot of changes occur. Lead by a rookie star in Derrick Rose and a rookie head coach in Vinny Del Negro, the Bulls rallied from a poor start, made a few good trades, and finished the season at 41-41, good for the seventh overall seed in the Eastern Conference, which matched them up with the second-seeded Boston Celtics.
In what many people thought would be a standard blowout, with the Celtics Big Three plus Rajon Rondo facing this rag-tag Bulls team, it wound up being one of the best first-round matchups ever, as the teams went back and forth, seven games with seven total overtimes. The Celtics finally won out in Game Seven in Boston, however, it was a coming out party for the young and highly talented Rose, and gave the powerhouse Celtics a serious run for their money.
4: Cubs Win First Playoff Series Since 1908
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There is no consensus amongst Cubs fans about the 2003 season. On the one hand, it was the greatest accomplishment by a Cubs team since WWII, arguably since the last World Series Championship in 1908. On the other hand, it was a season that lead to even greater heartbreak, getting within five outs of the promised land, only to watch it ever-so-slowly slip away.
Lead by young starters Mark Prior, Kerry Wood and Carlos Zambrano, the Cubs won 88 games in 2003. A good amount of help came from the divisional rival Pirates, from whom three of their vital offensive pieces came mid-season: 1B Randall Simon, 3B Aramis Ramirez and CF Kenny Lofton. Those three, bolstering a lineup that already included battle-tested veterans LF Moises Alou, RF Sammy Sosa, 2B Mark Grudzelaniek and 1B Eric Karros, formed a formidable lineup.
The Cubs matched up against the Braves in the first round of the 2003 playoffs, and in what seemed to be a passing-of-the-torch from one generation's great pitcher to the next, Mark Prior outdueled former Cub and four-time Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux, in Game Three, and the Cubs would eventually win the tight, five-game series and advance on to the NLCS to face the Florida Marlins.
3: White Sox Win World Series
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For the first time since 1917, Chicago was home to baseball's best, as the White Sox swept the Houston Astros in the World Series.
Lead by a pitching staff who all had career years, Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland, Jose Contreras, Freddy Garcia and Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, the small-ball White Sox became World Series champions.
The reason I place this as No. 3 is due to its effect as a polarizing even for the city: bandwagon fans and Sox fans were happy, while Cubs fans sat in misery, wondering why God had forsaken them, and, more importantly, the right arms of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior.
2: Bears Win NFC Championship
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The 2005 Bears seemed to get lucky when it mattered most. Lead by a devastating defense, and a special teams unit lead by the super-charged Devin Hester, the Bears marched into the Super Bowl. While Rex Grossman may not have been the best quarterback on earth, the RB tandem of Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson was world-class.
The NFC champs entered the Super Bowl as slight underdogs, however, many analysts picked the Bears to win, due to Peyton Manning's reputation as being unable to win big games. This was the game that showed that wasn't the case.
Either way, it was a great run, a good team, and it got the whole city and region excited about winning.
1: Blackhawks Win The Stanley Cup
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The 2009-10 Chicago Blackhawks came into the season with high expectations. Having come off a Western Conference final appearance against their hated rival Detroit Red Wings, the Hawks had all the pieces in place to win it all. They added former Red Wings Marian Hossa (who had lost two straight Stanley Cups, both times on the wrong side of the Red Wings/Penguins matchup), Tomas Kopecky, and two-time Stanley Cup winner John Madden.
With seemingly unheard of depth on offense, and a former all-star goalie in Cristobal Huet, the Hawks had everything in place to win a ring.
Huet gave way to a rookie fan favorite in Antii Niemi in goal down the stretch and in the playoffs, and the Hawks gave a whole city a reason to celebrate. More than two million people attended the Hawks victory parade and rally, myself included. Sure, it was hot and humid, but, it was worth every sweat-drenched second.
All we as Chicagoans can hope for is that the next decade can hold up the heightened expectations the previous one brought forth.
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