Maybe he could have used a cart: Tiger Woods underwent knee surgery in 2007 that ended his season prematurely. He came back in 2008, played a few practice tournaments, and then competed in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines – basically on one leg. He defeated Rocco Mediate in a playoff, and – two days later – announced he needed knee surgery and would miss the rest of the season (including the British Open and PGA and the Ryder Cup).The record that almost wasn’t: As we all know, Michael Phelps won eight Olympic gold medals in swimming – six of them by himself and two as part of relay teams. The second of those eight almost never came to pass, and, by extension, Phelps almost didn’t overtake Mark Spitz. He has Jason Lezak to thank for that. In the 4×100 relays, Lezak had to put on a furious finish to beat his French opponent, and just got in under the wire to give his team the gold, and start Phelps on his way to immortality.Not to mention Phelps himself: There really isn’t much left to say. He won eight gold medals, had to sweat out the aforementioned relays, and then had to outmaneuver Serbia’s Milorad Cavic in the butterfly, by a half of a half of a nose, to get No. 7.That’s not what helmets are for: Any Patriots fan will forever curse the name David Tyree ? right up there with Bucky Dent and Aaron Boone. If it wasn’t for that miraculous catch – which only came after Giants quarterback Eli Manning escaped the clutches of Jarvis Green and Richard Seymour – the natural order of the universe wouldn’t have been disrupted and the Patriots would have won the Super Bowl. Alas, Tyree caught the pass Manning managed to throw, using his helmet to help haul it in and dragging Rodney Harrison down with him, and one of sports’ bigger upsets resulted. Giants 17, Patriots 14.Just how old are you??: It was a mixed bag for the US gymnastics team in Beijing. Americans Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson came away with gold medals, but there were some disappointment moments too. But the big story coming out of gymnastics involved speculation that the Chinese gymnasts were too young ? that they fell short of the minimum age requirement. But by the end of the year, their legal ages were confirmed.The Return of the Big Three: It had been 22 years since the Boston Celtics last won an NBA title, and at times, it appeared as if they’d never win another one. But led by Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen – the new Big Three – the Celtics won No. 17 in convincing fashion by routing the Lakers at the Garden in Game 6 of the finals. Then, as if to prove it wasn’t a fluke, they ran off a 19-game winning streak this season before it ended on Christmas Day.You’ve never heard of a hockey marathon?: Sure, we’ve had marathon hockey games before (does everyone still cringe at Glen Wesley missing the net??), but this one was tremendous – up and down, up and down – before the Pittsburgh Penguins finally put away the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3, almost halfway into the third overtime of Game 5 on Petr Sykora’s goal. The loss still left Detroit up in games, 3-2, and the Wings sealed the deal, 3-2 (almost blowing that one, too) in Game 6. Still, Game 5 was one for the books.Free throws, my dear Tigers: If Memphis could hit them, the Tigers – and Antonio Anderson of Lynn – would have been NCAA Division 1 national basketball champs. But they couldn’t, and Kansas overcame a nine-point deficit with two minutes to go in the title game ? tying it on Mario Chalmers’ three-pointer with two seconds left. The Jayhawks owned the overtime and won the title.The usual BCS flap: Once again, as we close 2008, college football and the BCS are the ongoing topics of discussion – especially since President-elect Obama even thinks there should be a playoff. Oklahoma – with Heisman winner Sam Bradford – will play Florida for the title, by virtue of winning the Big 12, even though Texas finished with the same league record (as did Texas Tech) and the South Division was settled on a three-way tieb