It was an American sporting year when records were broken, rules were broken and, considering that Giacomo, at 50-1 the second longest shot in the 131-year history of the Kentucky Derby, came flying home a winner, the hearts of many betters were broken.
It was a year where little changed, Tiger Woods gaining PGA Tour Player of the Year a seventh time. A year when a great deal changed, the Chicago White Sox taking the World Series for the first time since 1917. And a year baseball, the so-called national pastime, finally came to terms with a problem it blithely had ignored, steroids.
A year when Mike Tyson probably fought for the last time and Michelle Wie definitely played golf as a professional for the first time.
A year in which a woman college professor from Colorado, Becky Zerlentes, no Million Dollar Baby, died in a boxing ring, and a male golfer, Fred Funk, slipped on a skirt after he was outdriven in the Skins Game by Annika Sorenstam. And a year when pro ice hockey disappeared because of a labour dispute and then just as it seemed beyond resuscitation, made a comeback of remarkable proportions.
Lance Armstrong won his unprecedented seventh straight Tour de France and then pedalled off into retirement in Texas.
Rafael Palmeiro of the Baltimore Orioles became only the fourth person to get 3,000 hits and 500 home runs and then six months after telling Congress he never took steroids, was sent off into presumed retirement for using them.
The Black Sox finally turned into the White Sox, ending decades of embarrassment and frustration in Chicago only one season after the Red Sox ended decades of frustration in Boston.
It was in 1919 the White Sox were accused of taking bribes to throw the Series to the Cincinnati Reds and thus nicknamed the "Black Sox." It was in 2005 the White Sox clean swept the Houston Astros, four games to nil, and won their first Series in 87 years - 12 months after the Red Sox won their first Series in 86 years.
On the campus of San Jose State University, 50 miles south of San Francisco, a statue was erected to the two sprinters, John Carlos and Tommie Smith, who as protest to the treatment of African-Americans in the US wore black gloves on the victory stand in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
But another sprinter, Tim Montgomery, for a while the world record holder in the 100 metres, was suspended for two years because of steroids, stripped of his medals and marks and then declaring, "I don't want to be looked upon as a cheat," announced his retirement.
Montgomery was one of the many involved directly or peripherally with the notorious Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, Balco, the firm 15 miles south of San Francisco created by Victor Conte which developed so-called designer drugs.
In October, Conte and Greg Anderson, the trainer for home run hitter Barry Bonds, were handed remarkably light sentences for scheming to give athletes performance-enhancing drugs. Conte got four months in prison, four of home detention, Anderson three and three. A federal judge scolded prosecutors for bringing to so large a case so small a result.
The result from the 89th Indianapolis 500 race was a victory by Britain's Dan Wheldon, but Danica Patrick, only the fourth woman ever in the event, and leader until slipping back to fourth, got all the attention, including the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine.
Jack Nicklaus waved farewell at the Masters for what he said would be the final time and then three months later did the same thing from the bridge over Swilcan Burn during the Open. Both those tournaments were won by Tiger of course, the Masters after that historic chip-in for a birdie at Augusta's 16th, the Open after another runaway at St Andrews.
The National Hockey League in October 2004, due to a labour dispute, became the first North American sports organisation to cancel a season without playing a game. Some thought it would be the end for a sport with low television ratings, but it returned in the fall with rules modifications designed to improve attacking play.
Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants outfielder mired in the Balco controversy, as well as into the record books, had his own vanishing act. Accused of steroid use, and in full denial, Bonds missed all but the last three weeks of the season due to knee surgery.
Some conspiracy theorists suggested it was an easy way to avoid suspension, but Bonds' return in September, and his five home runs that left him six behind Babe Ruth's total of 714 disproved that idea.
The idea baseball had been ineffective in dealing with drugs finally became a realisation. Former player Jose Canseco's autobiography claimed he not only took steroids but injected them into others, including former home run king Mark McGwire.
Subpoenas were issued by Congress. Commissioner Bud Selig imposed a 10-day suspension for first offenders and after threats from the government to take control, expanded that penalty to 50 days. The hypocrisy was at an end.
Also at another sort of end was the unbeaten streak of the NFL Indianapolis Colts. They won their first 13 games and were trying to become the second team to win 14 in a row and to go through a season unbeaten, as the 1972 Miami Dolphins. But in December, the Colts were upset, at home no less, by the San Diego Chargers.
Earlier, the Colts beat the New England Patriots for the first time in a while, an indication maybe the Patriots' dynasty was at an end.
New England's 24-21 victory over Philadelphia in the Super Bowl last February was the Pats' third in four years and gave quarterback Tom Brady a record of 9-0 in the post-season. Patriots owner Robert Kraft offered one of the team's championship rings to Russian president Vladimir Putin who quickly pocketed it.
The San Antonio Spurs, with a centre from the Bahamas, Tim Duncan, a guard from France, Tony Parker, and a forward from Argentina, Manu Ginobli, took the NBA Championship in seven games over the Detroit Pistons, the previous year's winners.
The San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals played the first NFL league game outside the United States, in Mexico City in October before 103,000 people at Estadio Azteca. There's supposed to be another game in 2006. In England.
Tyson's erratic and controversial career ended when he refused to come out for the seventh round against journeyman Kevin McBride in a June bout at MCI Center in Washington.
"You're smart too late and old too soon," Tyson mused. "I just caught up in that suction cup. I feel like Rip Van Winkle right now." The rest of us feel the sporting year of 2005 was here and gone in an instant.
