If baseball were this great all the time, Bud Selig wouldn't be trying to shrink the league. With Manhattan smoldering, the Yankees bore the city's pain and pride to the Bronx and won three games there, snatching two with midnight dramatics. No sentimental ending, though. The Arizona Diamondbacks' spectacular pitching duo of Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson numbed Yankee bats in Phoenix, while a seventh-game, bottom-of-the-ninth rally provided a classic, and deserved, triumph for the home team.
Animated actors dominated the box office, Barry Bonds hit 73 and 'It' turned out to be a scooter. TIME picks the bests and the worsts of this year...