Mike Celizic

If years were fish, most would get thrown back as too small, not the right kind or just not interesting enough to keep. A few would be the kind you measure and take a picture of to show off to your family and friends.

There’d be others that might have been great, but they snap the line or slip the hook and get away, leaving you with nothing but stories few believe about the glory that might have been.

But once in a lifetime, if you’re lucky, you hook something that makes your pole bend in half and your heart race and your spirit soar. And when you finally haul it in, it’s the biggest and most glorious thing you’ve ever seen, the kind of prize that tops the record books and needs a mount the size of a pool table.

Fifty years later, anybody who sees it will stare at it in awe and demand to know its story. And every new monster that’s caught will be compared to yours and still be found lacking.

Such a monster is the Year in Sports 2008. Back in July, when the year was barely halfway done, we said that we had it hooked. Now, we can say it’s finally been landed, and the tale of the tape says it’s the greatest one ever.

The parts are spectacular in their own right. Start with Super Bowl XLII and Eli Manning’s escape and David Tyree’s incredible catch and the Giants’ miraculous comeback win over a Patriots’ team that hadn’t lost a game all year. Fast forward to June and Tiger Woods dueling Rocco Mediate on a wrecked knee and broken leg in a U.S. Open that went into 19 holes of Monday overtime before the world’s greatest golfer finally cemented the greatest win of his career.

There was Rafael Nadal ending Roger Federer’s string of Wimbledon championships in what might have been the greatest final the All England Club had ever witnessed. That same month the Celtics and Lakers finally met again in the NBA Finals and the Celtics won.

In Beijing, Michael Phelps became the greatest Olympic athlete ever and Usain Bolt the fastest sprinter who ever lived. The Redeem Team brought basketball gold back to the United States, reclaiming national supremacy on the court and dignity off it.

The Phillies won the World Series, beating the Rays, a worst-to-first Cinderella team for the ages. The Crimson Tide surged again in college football. Jimmie Johnson became only the second person ever to win three straight NASCAR championships. Danica Patrick became the first woman to win an Indy Car race. Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain became at 23 the youngest F1 champion ever — and also the sport’s first black champion.

You can argue with any of the individual achievements. Maybe the 1958 Colts-Giants NFL championship game was greater than the Giants win over the Pats. Maybe Ken Venturi or Ben Hogan had a greater win in an Open. Perhaps another Wimbledon final from another year was greater.

But you can’t argue with the overall greatness of 2008. No year has ever packed so many all-time thrills into one circuit of the calendar.

The Year in Review Walters: Some predictions for 2009 Celizic: What a great year it was Walters' '08 hero: Girl who saved football Curran's '08 hero: Lions' Rod Marinelli Celizic's '08 hero: Man who saved Phelps Walters' top 25 moments from the year Golf: '08 sets up the Year of Tiger NBA: Celtics top stories of the year list Help us pick 2008's Whiner of the Year Best pictures from '08  |     Soundbytes   Video: Best of the Matty Blake Show   The year in sports cartoons AP's athletes of year: Phelps |  Parker Remembering Upshaw, Haskins, McKay Slideshow: Sports deaths in 2008 Universal Sports' awards for 2008

It started with the Giants’ improbable run to the Super Bowl with three road wins in the playoff during which Eli Manning came of age and silenced all questions about his ability to win big games. The NFC Championship game took them to Green Bay and went into overtime, where Brett Favre threw an untimely interception and Manning led the winning drive.

The Giants had lost a tight game to the Patriots in the season’s final game, and New York was given little chance to beat 18-0 New England and quarterback Tom Brady in Phoenix. Brady was coming off the greatest year ever by an NFL quarterback, and the Patriots were on their way to undefeated immortality.

In a game dominated by the defenses, Brady finally got the Patriots four points ahead with time running out. And then Manning went to work. The big play was the fourth-down Hail Mary that Manning threw up after fighting his way out of what would have been a game-ending sack. David Tyree, who had scored his first touchdown of the entire season earlier in the Super Bowl, went up, and with a defender all over him, caught the ball against his helmet. The miracle catch set up the winning touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress, the exclamation mark on a game that was instantly hailed as the greatest Super Bowl ever.