My Sportsman Choice: Michael Schumacher

By Lars Anderson

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The fans lined up 20 deep in the darkness outside the interview room at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was June 20, two hours after the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix had finished, and the mostly European crowd stood and pressed against a chain-link fence. In full-throated admiration, the fans yelled and screamed in the direction of a tall, skinny race car driver dressed in a red racing suit who was briskly walking by. A few of the men in the crowd (middle-aged men, mind you) began crying at the sight of the highest paid athlete in the world not named Tiger Woods.

Minutes later, after Michael Schumacher, the winner of the race, had disappeared into the bowels of the Brickyard grandstands, I asked one of the misty-eyed fans why he was so enamored with Schumi. "You Americans just don't understand," the German fan told me in perfect English. "Michael Schumacher is having the greatest season in the history of sport. Not just in Formula One. Not just in all of racing history. The greatest season ever. In all sports. To me, seeing him is like being in heaven."

In 2004 Schumacher could do that to you, make you feel like you were witnessing something too good to be true. Indeed, his season on the F1 flat tracks was downright otherworldly, which is why the 35-year-old from Hürth-Hermülheim, Germany is my pick for Sportsman of the Year. Consider his accomplishments:

*He won 13 of the 18 F1 races in 2004, a series record. (Schumacher broke his own mark of 12 victories in a season, which he set in 2000.)

*He won his seventh season points title in 2004, a series record.

*He now holds F1 records for most career victories, most points in a career, and most consecutive wins in a season (7).

Like Tiger Woods a few years ago, Schumacher was so ruthlessly dominating in 2004 that it spawned talk that he wasn't good for the sport. I don't buy it. To watch Schumacher pilot his 10-cylinder, 853-horsepower red Ferrari on the F1 road courses at 220 mph is to behold perfection. Or as close to perfection as one may ever witness in auto racing. The way his Ferrari improbably sticks to the track as it buzzes around a turn, his ability to avoid an accident in a blink of the eye with an unimaginable move, is as finger-licking satisfying as seeing Michael Jordan float to the rim in his prime or watching John Elway direct a fourth quarter comeback. In other words, there's beauty in what Schumacher does. Non-race fans will have to look a little harder than others to see it, but it is surely there. And it is why the man gets $75 million a year to drive a car.

What makes Schumacher so special, you ask? For starters, his hand-eye-foot coordination is simply freakish, one in a gazillion. Like virtually all professional drivers, Schumacher developed his skills at a young age; he started racing go-karts at four and by 15 he was a German national championship. And once he got a chance to drive on the F1 circuit in 1991, his talent blossomed like an April garden. Sure, it helps that his Ferrari team is the New York Yankees of F1, spending far more money ($450 million) on its racing program than any other. But to attribute Schumacher's success solely to his equipment is folly. Listen to those who know the sport best and it's clear that Schumacher is much more vital than the machine. "Without question, Michael is the best race car driver in the world," Sir Jackie Stewart, a three-time F1 champion and the 1973 SI Sportsman of the year, told me earlier this year. "He's got more skill than maybe any driver who has ever lived. He's incredible. A bit of an old shoe, but incredible."

Sounds like the Sportsman of the Year to me.

Sports Illustrated will announce the 2004 Sportsman of the Year winner on FOX on November 28. Check back every weekday until then to read more Sportsman picks from SI writers.