YEAR IN REVIEW 1996: SPORTS-AND-GAMES: BASEBALL

BASEBALL: Japan. The Yakult Swallows of the Central League, based in Tokyo, defeated the Pacific League's Orix Blue Wave of Kobe four games to one in the 1995 Japan Series. The Swallow pitchers gave up only 10 earned runs in the five games and had a combined ERA of 1.76, while the ERA for the Blue Wave pitching corps was 3.28. After the Swallows won the first game, the next three went into extra innings, and each was decided by a home run: in game two, by Swallow first baseman Thomas O'Malley; in game three, by Swallow shortstop Takahiro Ikeyama; and in game four, by Blue Wave first baseman Doug Jennings. The Swallows won the fifth game 3-1. O'Malley, who hit .529--including two home runs--was voted the Most Valuable Player of the series. The Swallows, a preseason underdog, got off to a good start and by the end of April were in first place, where they remained for the rest of the season. O'Malley, with a batting average of .302, 31 home runs, and 87 runs batted in, was voted the Most Valuable Player of the Central League. Hiroshima Carp pitcher Yasuyuki Yamauchi won 14 games against 10 losses and got the Rookie of the Year award. The Blue Wave floundered during April and May but in June overtook the then league-leading defending champions Seibu Lions and led for the rest of the season. Ichiro Suzuki, an outfielder for the Blue Wave who led the league in stolen bases (49) and in four batting categories--batting average (.342), runs batted in (80), hits (179), and on-base percentage (.432)--was named the Most Valuable Player of the year in the Pacific League. Pitcher Masafumi Hirai of the Blue Wave, with a 15-5 record and 27 saves, was voted the Rookie of the Year. (TOSHIHIKO SUZUKI) BASEBALL: Latin America. The 1995 Caribbean Series was held in San Juan, P.R., on February 4-9. The tournament, in which winners of the four major winter tournaments in Latin America compete against one another, was played in a round-robin format, with every team playing each rival twice. The host team, the San Juan Senators, swept the series easily with six straight victories before an enthusiastic home crowd. In the final game the Senators defeated the Sugar Growers from Este, of the Dominican Republic, by 9-3. The Sugar Growers took second place with four wins and two defeats. Mexico's Orange Growers of Hermosillo and Venezuela's Caracas Lions, with identical records of one win and five losses, were relegated to last place. Mexico's economic crisis affected Mexican League baseball, played during the summer. The season was shortened from 132 to 116 games by eliminating contests between teams from the southern and northern divisions during the regular season. Eventually the Monterrey Sultans won the northern division by virtue of a good performance during the play-offs; they had finished far behind the Reynosa Broncos during the regular season. The Sultans then easily defeated the Mexico City Red Devils, the champions of the southern zone, in four straight games during the best-of-seven championship series. (SERGIO SARMIENTO) BASKETBALL Without Tyus Edney, it appeared that UCLA might not have one more big game left to cap a colossal 1994-95 season. But the Bruins did, even though the 1.8-m (5-ft 10-in) Edney made only a token appearance during their 89-78 victory over defending champion Arkansas in the finals of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament. Sidelined by a sprained right wrist, sustained in UCLA's 74-61 NCAA semifinal victory over Oklahoma State, Edney could only watch and hope on the bench. The senior guard had distinguished company a few rows behind in the crowd of 38,340 packing the Kingdome in Seattle, Wash., for this showdown. Legendary coach John Wooden, who had masterminded UCLA to an unprecedented string of 10 national championships, 7 of them in a row, also was there to see history re-created. The Bruins had not captured another NCAA title since Wooden retired 20 years earlier. When all hope seemed lost in the West Regional quarterfinal, Edney saved the Bruins by taking the ball and the outcome into his hands. With Missouri on the verge of a stunning upset, leading 74-73 only 4.8 seconds before the end, Edney drove the length of the court to bank in a dramatic game-winning basket at the final horn. Arkansas had been discovering all season that the road to a second straight NCAA crown would be more than twice as tough. Still, it survived some close calls to come within 40 minutes of joining Duke as the second repeat college basketball champion in 22 years. The Razorbacks defeated their first four NCAA tournament foes by a total of 15 points and then regrouped to oust North Carolina 75-68 in the semifinal. Unfortunately for Arkansas, its path to the throne room was blocked by UCLA. Led by sophomore Cameron Dollar, the Bruins jumped ahead early, repulsed a second-half Arkansas surge, and eased away at the finish. Ed O'Bannon led UCLA with a game-high 30 points and 17 rebounds. When he was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament, he showed why the Bruins had racked up a 31-2 season record. Pulling Edney onto the platform, he declared, "Yo, yo, yo, that's the real MVP right there." UCLA had won 10 of 11 previous NCAA finals with Wooden at the helm. This 11th triumph widened the Bruins' lead over Kentucky and Indiana, each with five championships, in the all-time tournament rankings. In women's basketball, Connecticut completed a storybook season by winning a ferocious NCAA tournament final from Tennessee 70-64. The Huskies' courageous second-half comeback made them the second unbeaten national champion in women's NCAA basketball history. Connecticut finished with a 35-0 record, one game better than the perfect slate turned in by Texas in 1986. In a dream matchup of the country's two top teams, Connecticut overcame a shaky start by all-American Rebecca Lobo ( see BIOGRAPHIES) and Jennifer Rizzotti to repeat a regular-season victory over the Lady Vols (34-3). Both teams peaked at the right moment. Connecticut routed Stanford 87-60, and Tennessee had little trouble beating Georgia 73-51 in the semifinals. Only one player could overshadow the entire 1995 National Basketball Association (NBA) play-off picture, even after his team was eliminated in the second round of the Eastern Conference pairings. Because Michael Jordan elected to come out of retirement near the end of the regular season, a second straight NBA title for Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets could not command full attention. Nonetheless, it was still quite a show when the Rockets swept the best-of-seven final series from the Orlando Magic, providing a somewhat anticlimactic finish to some exciting battles in earlier play-off rounds. In the last act, the 2.13-m (7-ft) Olajuwon was so overpowering that he embarrassed 2.16-m (7-ft 1-in) Magic superstar Shaquille O'Neal and his visibly nervous teammates. Adding a fourth crown to the trio that the Chicago Bulls had won in 1991-93 would have been tough enough for Jordan. But the 32-year-old guard, who went back to the Bulls after a fling in baseball's minor leagues, was not the same gravity-defying missile he had been. Jordan's shooting touch failed to come back with him, nor was he able to show fans the spectacular hang time that made him the most celebrated athlete of his generation. Houston won only 47 games during the season and was not expected to be a strong play-off factor. However, a late-season trade that reunited Olajuwon with his former University of Houston teammate Clyde Drexler turned things around for the struggling club. The champions responded by beating the Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns, and San Antonio Spurs in Western Conference preliminaries, advancing to the showdown with Orlando. There Olajuwon and Drexler provided almost all of the magic there was to see. What was supposed to be a duel of superstar centres, pitting Olajuwon's experience against O'Neal's potential, turned out to be a mismatch. The Rockets won the first two games in Orlando and went home to Houston with a stranglehold on their championship defense. Late in June seven NBA players, dissatisfied with the new labour agreement with the owners, filed a class action antitrust lawsuit against the NBA. They challenged the league's salary cap, draft, and free-agent system and invited their union to join them. The NBA responded on July 1 by locking out the players until a new collective bargaining agreement was reached. On September 13 the players voted to ratify the previous labour agreement. The dissident players did not challenge the vote, and the lockout was ended. (ROBERT G. LOGAN)