Party Like It's 1999

I just came back from seeing American Reunion.  While not as good as the original trilogy, it was still hilarious and did the franchise justice (unlike those incredibly bad made-for-DVD "sequels" that don't even deserve to carry the American Pie name).  Anyway, what I liked best about the movie was that the characters were all grown up and accepted that fact.  Seeing as I'm the same age as them (I'm Class of 2000, but close enough), the timing of the movie's release was pretty perfect.  My impeding age change is next week.

Anyway, American Reunion got me thinking back to my high school days.  It was a time before Apple started coming out with a new product that begins with "i-" every other month, movies came out on VHS, you needed a phone line to get online, you needed film for your camera, cell phones were fairly new and used for talking, you could fill up your car with gas without having to take out a second mortgage, people actually watched NBC, and what's HDTV?  It was also a pretty good year in sports.  So, in the words of Prince, "We're gonna party like it's 1999."

In January, John Elway led the Broncos to their second straight Super Bowl title, then retired.  Fellow Hall of Fame QBs Dan Marino and Steve Young played one final season before retiring themselves.  Current Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning was in his second season with the Colts and led them to a division title.  (Tim Tebow, for the record, was 12, and probably just as capable of running an actual NFL offense as he is today.)  The Buffalo Bills made the playoffs.  It hasn't happened since.  Meanwhile, the St. Louis Rams and the "Greatest Show On Turf" were on their way to a surprise Super Bowl title (which wouldn't officially come until 2000).

On "Yogi Berra Day" at Yankee Stadium, David Cone threw the Yankees' second perfect game in as many seasons.  The Yankees would eventually go on to sweep the Braves for their second straight World Series title.  The Red Sox were 81 years removed from their last World Series title, and would have to wait five more years for their next one, but they hosted an awesome All-Star Game that featured the introduction of the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.  The coolest part was Ted Williams coming out in a golf cart and all the All-Stars gathering around him.  And Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez made the American League his bitch that season in much the same way Justin Verlander did last year.

Wayne Gretzky played his final NHL game and one of the sport's cathedrals, Toronto's venerable Maple Leaf Gardens, closed its doors forever.  "No goal" became a rallying cry in Buffalo, as Brett Hull scored the Stanley Cup winning goal in double overtime to give the Dallas Stars a double-overtime victory over the sabres in Game 6 of the Finals.  The (second) post-Jordan NBA endured a lenghty lockout before playing an abbreviated season (wait, that sounds familiar).  The Spurs won their first title against a Knicks team that wasn't that good, yet somehow ended up in the Finals.  In the WNBA, the Houston Comets Dynasty continued, as they beat the Liberty for their third straight championship.

UConn shed its "best team to have never reached the Final Four" label.  The Huskies didn't just make the Final Four, they upset Duke to win their first national title.  In the regional final, they beat this little unknown Catholic school from the mid-major West Coast Conference called Gonzaga.  Tennessee's attempt at a four-peat on the women's side was halted by Duke in the regional finals.  The Blue Devils became the first program in history to reach both championship games, but lost both.  Purdue won the women's title.

Men's tennis was still dominated by Americans.  Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf weren't married yet.  In fact, it wasn't until they both won the 1999 French Open that they got together.  Agassi came back from 2-0 down in the final to complete a career grand slam, while Graf won her 22nd (and last) Grand Slam title.  Steffi lost to Lindsay Davenport in the Wimbledon final, then retired after the US Open.  Andre lost to rival Pete Sampras at Wimbledon (Sampras's sixth Wimbledon title), but won the US Open.  On the women's side, the US Open trophy went to a young upstart named Serena Williams, who won her first Grand Slam title.

Elsewhere in sports, Charismatic won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, but fell short of the Triple Crown with a third-place finish at the Belmont.  We're still waiting for our first Triple Crown winner since 1978.  Lance Armstrong became just the second American ever to win the Tour de France, earning the first of seven straight titles.  Jeff Gordon won Daytona and Dale Jarrett won the Winston Cup, while some guy named Kenny Brack won the Indy 500.  Payne Stewart won the golf U.S. Open, then was tragically killed in a plane crash that July.  Jean van de Velde had that historic collapse in the final round of the British Open, and Tiger won the PGA Championship.  At the track & field World Championships, Michael Johnson (the Usain Bolt of his era) set a world record in the 400 meters.

But the sports story of the year in 1999 was the Women's World Cup.  Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain, Julie Foudy and Co. became national celebrities that summer, and gigantic football stadiums were packed for every game.  More than 100,000 people were in attendance at the Rose Bowl for the final, the largest crowd ever to see a women's sporting event.  And of course, the final was a classic, capped by that timeless image of Brandi Chastain celebrating her game-winning goal in the penalty kick shootout that gave the U.S. the title.