A year for the aged

By Kostya Kennedy, Sports Illustrated

Americans are living longer than ever before, to a wonderful, palindromic average age of 77, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. And according to our nation's center for sports statistics, the inimitable Elias Sports Bureau, our athletes are older, too. Baseball, football and basketball players are all, on average, half a year to a year older than they were in 1982. In the NHL, the leap would make a Howe proud -- a nearly three-year jump from the '82 mean to today's 28.3.

At age 40, and in his eighteenth NFL season, Jerry Rice still ranks among the league's most dangerous receivers. David Bergman

Remember, these are all averages, that gorgeous 77 bolstered by those who live long past Willard Scott's centurial birthday greeting, and the ages of our athletes are buoyed by those graying warriors still thrilling us to the edge of our seats. Players such as Jerry Rice and Randy Johnson and Karl Malone and Ron Francis and all the rest who made 2002 a year for the aged.

Sports stars are doing what we're all doing, eating right and exercising and reaping the spoils of medical research. Athletes have their own little secrets, too. Red Wings center Igor Larionov, the NHL's oldest player at 42, has this Ponce de Leonism: he drinks two glasses of wine every night. In June, Larionov's goal 14:47 into the third overtime against the Hurricanes won the third game of the Stanley Cup final and put the Wings en route to the title. Carolina's white-templed captain, the 39-year-old Francis, had met his match. Larionov is known as The Professor, or, alternately, as "The Dick Clark of hockey" (his teammate Brendan Shanahan dubbed him the latter), yet in Detroit he was almost one of the crowd. The champion Red Wings had seven players older than 35, and 12 older than 30.

"Age has zero to do with anything!" exclaimed 37-year-old left wing Brett Hull, who led the league with 10 playoff goals. "Age has become irrelevant!" said 37-year-old captain Steve Yzerman. Then there was Chris Chelios, 40, who nearly won his fourth Norris Trophy this year (he was the runner-up) and who covered great swaths of ice and intimidated opponents of every age, even while tutoring 21-year-old Wings defenseman Jiri Fischer. "I have my kids at home and my kids at the rink," Chelios said.

There were old winners in other sports too, such as Barry Bonds, who played in the World Series just a few weeks before fondling his fifth MVP trophy. There was little suspense in that award voting because Bonds had set a single-season record for walks (198) and had batted .370 and swatted 46 home runs in just 403 at-bats. "I don't know how a 38-year-old is playing like this," Bonds said in October. "I don't feel old."

It's no wonder, for Bonds could look to the on-deck circle and see the craggy face of Benito Santiago, the Giants' No. 5 hitter for much of the postseason. The weathered Santiago is 37, and that's in catcher's years, which makes him 111 to you and me.

The Giants didn't have baseball's old-age market cornered, though. You might have bet that the left arm of the Diamondbacks' towering ace Randy Johnson, with his wild, all-out delivery, would have fallen off years ago. But there he was, age 39, winning the Cy Young award for the fourth straight year. His statistics -- a 24-5 won-lost record, 334 strikeouts, a 2.32 ERA -- hardly seem to befit a man his age. "I work hard," said Johnson. "And this is my reward." The hard-throwing southpaw is still a little green next to left-handed reliever Jesse Orosco, who pitched in 56 games and had a 3.00 ERA last year. In November, he signed with the Padres. Yes, it's a one-year deal, but we can forgive San Diego's caution ... Orosco turns 46 in April.

The NBA is also a place where old legends live on. We're still treated to Michael Jordan, and see that if his playing magic is not what it once was, at 39 he remains peerless in his ability to carry a team. And near year's end we also saw the resurgence of the Utah Jazz's enduring duo, Karl Malone and John Stockton, both 40. "They haven't lost nothin'," said the Timberwolves' Kevin Garnett, who was 9 when Malone broke into the league. "It's all mental when it comes to those two and I don't see either one catching Alzheimer's any time soon."

There was guile on the football field too, most conspicuously on the Oakland Raiders, the class of the AFC and the team that relies most on the middle-aged. On offense they are led by Rice, who at 40 has been putting up 100-yard games and breaking off 50-yard touchdown runs. Tim Brown, 36, has also caught his share of passes for Oakland this year, and the person throwing these guys the ball is 37-year-old quarterback Rich Gannon. Plus, the Raiders defense has found its big-play king in Rod Woodson, 37, who has been picking off passes like it's 1999.

In this year of the old athlete, some of the coaches are ancient, too. Scotty Bowman won his ninth Stanley Cup at age 68. Don Nelson, 64, is guiding the Mavericks, the NBA's hottest team. During one week in November, the Memphis Grizzlies hired a 69-year-old coach, Hubie Brown, and those age-adoring baseball Giants brought in a 68-year-old manager, Felipe Alou. "I don't think you'd want to arm wrestle him," says San Francisco general manager Brain Sabean of Alou.

And what of Mario Lemieux, age 37, leading the NHL in scoring? What of heavyweight maestro Evander Holyfield still punching at 40? What of Norton Davey, who beat back prostate cancer and finished the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii -- at age 83! Our list could go on and on, but now we must stop. The hour's drawing late, the year has long since gotten old. Soon we will be in the infancy of 2003, awaiting new surprises. For the nonce, bring us a plate of Gouda, a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape and let us toast 2002, the year in which so many of our sports heroes got better with age.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Kostya Kennedy takes sides every Wednesday at CNNSI.com.