2008: A little of everything

Pavlik and Hopkins Youngstown rally

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Ursuline Vs. Liberty Benton

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Tony Jameson

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By Joe Scalzo

Kelly Pavlik won two fights, but lost to Bernard Hopkins, and that defined the up-and-down sports year in the Valley.

“The day after I lost to Ali, people came by and put a hand on my shoulder and said, ‘It’s OK, George. You’ll have another chance.’ That was pity. From being feared to being pitied. Brother, that’s a long fall.”

— George Foreman,

on losing his heavyweight title to Muhammad Ali in 1974’s “Rumble in the Jungle”

Among the things we learned in 2008:

-That putting Ursuline’s football team in Division V is like putting Kelly Pavlik’s trainer, Jack Loew, in a cussing contest.

-That a semi-pro hockey team in Youngstown has an only slightly greater chance of making money as investing in an IRA.

-That Tony Jameson could out-wrestle a rabid bear, provided you were able to find a singlet big enough.

And, probably the most disappointing but least surprising, was this: Kelly Pavlik did not save boxing.

Now, 2008 wasn’t a disaster for Pavlik. He won two fights — a 12-round decision over former champ Jermain Taylor and a three-round knockout of Welshman Gary “I haven’t taken this many knees since Christmas mass” Lockett — married his longtime girlfriend, got nominated for an ESPY, is expecting his first son in the next few weeks, made several million dollars and, naturally, moved to Canfield.

Pavlik’s first nine months of 2008 were just peachy. Then he hit a slight snag. On Oct. 18 in Atlantic City, the 26-year-old Pavlik entered the ring at significantly less than 100 percent and got his brains beat in by a 43-year-old loudmouth named Bernard Hopkins, who will now punish us all by staying in the sport for several more years, fighting boring bouts and delivering 20-minute monologues about the virtues of “B-Hop.” Afterward, Pavlik admitted he had battled an elbow injury during training camp and a bout with bronchitis in the days leading up to the fight, prompting several members of his camp to seriously discuss postponing the bout.

They didn’t. Let’s call it a learning experience.

His major ups — and that major downer — made Pavlik the biggest sports story in Youngstown this year.

The Hopkins loss wasn’t the only crummy story — 2008 had no shortage of those, sports or otherwise — as the Indians and Ohio State stumbled, the Browns bumbled and the Pittsburgh Steelers did nothing to improve their suspect offensive line in the offseason, got nothing from their draft picks and somehow managed to get a first-round bye despite playing the league’s most difficult schedule. And how did they do this? By getting every conceivable lucky break. (Indisputable evidence, my eye. There’s no way that Santonio Holmes catch should have been called a touchdown. And I don’t even like the Ravens.)

Oh, and we’ve also been greeted with 1,537 stories about how LeBron James is planning to join CC Sabathia in New York just as soon as the clock strikes midnight on his expiring 2010 contract.

Sigh.

To be sure, there were a few good stories, especially locally. Four Valley football players got drafted, a couple area teams won state titles (Ursuline in football, Canfield in softball and Poland in girls golf) and a couple others got close enough (Poland in boys basketball, Boardman in girls basketball). Fitch senior Tony Jameson won his fourth state wrestling title — an area first — and Mineral Ridge senior Nicole Honsake won three state track titles. For more details, please visit Vindy.com.

(Wait. Scratch that. Please subscribe to the paper and buy lots of ads. Pretty please.)

Speaking of needing help, the Buckeyes’ football team got it from QB Terrelle Pryor, who chose OSU over several other schools, bringing a dose of joy and meaning to hundreds of bloggers who spent the winter breathlessly posting updates from the computers in their mothers’ basements. To be sure, it didn’t quite atone for two straight BCS title game losses, but then the Buckeyes won a men’s NIT basketball title and everything was forgotten.

(What? You’re waiting for a joke here?)

Speaking of college football, Ursuline High graduate Daryll Clark led Penn State to the Rose Bowl in his first year as a starter and made Nittany Lion fans everywhere wonder if former quarterback Anthony Morelli had incriminating photos of Joe Paterno the past two years. (If so, we do NOT want to see them.)

So, it was so-so year, at least sports-wise. Some good, some bad. And no one exemplified that more than Pavlik.

A year after being hailed as the savior of boxing – contrary to predictions, youngsters didn’t flock to boxing gyms, most likely because they’d rather catch a ball than a punch in the face – Kelly Pavlik enters 2009 at a crossroads, with many observers wondering whether he truly is the next great middleweight champ or just an overhyped white kid in a dying sport.

His first chance at redemption comes in February at the Chevy Centre against a Mexican fighter named Marco Antonio Rubio, who isn’t even a household name in his own household.

But so what? It’s a Pavlik fight, it’s downtown and there’s going to beer.

And if the economy in 2009 is anything like 2008, we’re going to need it.

scalzo@vindy.com

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