Even at a casual glance, any review of this year in sports would have to acknowledge that 2009 was the year of the Comeback.  Some of our favorite athletes bounced back from injury, suspension, retirement or in one case, decades out of the spotlight, to make a memorable impact in their respective sports this year.  Let’s take a few minutes to highlight some of these amazing accomplishments.

“Strike 3! Yer……back?”

One of the really remarkable comeback stories of the year was Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees.  A-Rod had to deal with not one, not two, but three setbacks this year and then arguably had his most successful season ever.  The year started badly for him as off-season hip surgery meant that he was going to miss the start of the season.  Some worried that the Yankees third-baseman would not make it back before the All-Star break.  While recuperating, he was hit by the news that someone at the Players Association had leaked the story that A-Rod had been among the 120 baseball players that tested positive for performance enhancing drugs earlier in the decade when he was a member of the Texas Rangers.  An embarrassing, nationally-televised interview followed in which Rodriguez looked so uncomfortable and guilty of something, that it appeared if he was hooked up to a lie-detector, he would have broken the needle.  More bad news followed as rumors linking him to an extra-marital relationship with Madonna led to the break-up of his marriage.  Despite all this, A-Rod came back earlier than expected from injury and though he missed all of training camp and the first month of the season still put up 30 home runs and drove in 100.  More amazing still, the normal playoff-freeze didn’t happen and Rodriguez led the Yankees to their 27th World Series victory by batting .365 in October with 6 dingers and 18 knocked in.

Turning Back the Clock

Golf had its share of comebacks this year including the return that probably saved the lives of countless Network TV bosses and PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem.  Tiger came back from serious knee surgery and promptly won at Bay Hill in just his third start of the season allowing the “brain trust” of golf to breath again.  He went on to win the FedEx Cup and once again assert his dominance in the sport.  But arguably the most intriguing and unexpected comeback in any sport came at The Open Championship in July when a 59 year old Tom Watson, came within an inch of becoming the oldest Major Championship winner in the modern-era of golf.  For 4 days Watson turned back time and stayed at or near the top of the leader board.  Getting to the 18th green and needing only a par for the win, Watson missed the 6 footer breaking the hearts of millions of cheering fans around the world.  One of the great fairy-tale endings was dashed when Watson went on to lose in a playoff to Stewart Cink.  Whatever the final result though, Watson showed that his golf skills have not waned to any great extent after years away from the spotlight of championship competition and the story was one of the year’s most compelling.

Two QBs – Two Comebacks

Two of the more unlikely comebacks of the year came from a sport and a position not known for them.  Generally when football careers end, they do so because of a devastating or debilitating injury and such is the level of competition and extreme physicality of the sport that comebacks are rare indeed.  At 40 years of age, Brett Favre had retired (yet again) after an injury plagued year with the New York Jets and Michael Vick whose outrageous involvement in a dog-fighting ring had justly ended his career and resulted in a Federal prison term, were incredibly both looking at making comebacks to the NFL in early August.  That both eventually did so, Favre with the Vikings and Vick with the Eagles, is a testament only to the lack of competent quarterbacks in the league.  The Vick saga was remarkable for a number of reasons.  The outpouring of vituperation from PETA and animal lovers across the States directed at the former Falcons player was so intense that it seemed unlikely any team would take a chance on a player that brought so much baggage with him.  When Team-Dysfunction, the Raiders, announced that they had no interest in signing him, the outcome seemed assured.  If Al Davis wouldn’t touch the player, who would be crazy enough to do so?  The answer when it came seemed as unlikely as the rest of the story.  Why the Philadelphia Eagles,  with an All-Pro incumbent in Donovan McNabb at quarterback,  a community and public-relations-savvy owner in Jeffrey Lauria and a legitimate chance to reach the Super Bowl, would take such a chance seemed preposterous.  But they did and after serving a four game suspension from the league, Vick made his return in week 3 versus the Chiefs and while his stats have been modest and his playing time limited, the mere fact he has been on the field this year has been remarkable.  Favre’s return has been even more shocking.  In August, he went back and forth with Minnesota so many times that it seemed more like Favre playing a practical joke on the Vikings than anything else.  At any moment it appeared likely that Aston Kutcher would jump out of a Gatorade jug at training camp and tell coach Brad Childress that he was being “punk’d”.  But eventually, just in time for the regular season, Favre put on the purple and white of the Packers fans arch-enemy and has not looked back.  Regaining the form not seen since his MVP seasons of the mid-90’s, number 4 seems determined to lead the Vikings where they have never been before, onto the podium to accept the Vince Lombardi trophy as Super Bowl winners.  If that happens, the Year of the Comeback will be truly complete.