2012 ESPYs Biggest Losers: LeBron James Wins 3, Roger Federer Loses to Novak Djokovic

Culture

Wednesday night marked the 20th anniversary of the ESPY Awards, an annual celebration of the best in sports. Although many of the results were predictable (e.g. LeBron James taking home “Best Male Athlete,” “Best Championship Performance,” and “Best NBA Player of the Year”), there were definitely a couple of upsets that few people predicted.

Below are the 5 biggest losers of the 2012 ESPYs:

1) The MLB

Other than the baseball specific categories, the MLB brought home zero awards as it was completely overshadowed by the NBA, NFL, and even the NHL. You would have thought that one of David Freese's performance in the World Series, Mariano Rivera all-time record breaking save, or game 6 of the Rangers-Cardinals World Series would have won. Instead, the latter two lost to NFL performances, while the former lost to LeBron and the NBA.

2) Anybody in the same category as LeBron James

Sorry, sports. there is a new sheriff in town and his name is LeBron James. Silencing all the haters, LeBron finally won his first championship with the Miami Heat earlier this summer, proving that he deserves to be compared to basketball's greatest. Unfortunately, nobody in a category with LeBron -- regardless of their athletic prowess -- had any chance.

3) Roger Federer

You would have thought that a 17th Grand Slam championship, a crushing defeat of Novak Djokovic in the semis at this year's Wimbledon, and ranking  #1in the world would have earned Federer a win in the category of "Best Tennis Player." Instead, Djokovic, who was also nominated for "Best Male Athlete," took home the award. For the record, although Djokovic has beaten Federer before, he is 0-1 against him in Grand Slam finals, earning him five championships against Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. 

4) Horses

I have always had the philosophy that when it comes to horse racing, the jockeys get way too much credit. Why do the jockeys get the gold medal for equestrian at the Olympics when the horses do all the work? Why are the jockeys nominated at the ESPYs, while the horses, who might I add, carry the jockeys the entire length of the course, get no credit? Mario Gutierrez took home the "Best Jockey" award for his performance with I'll Have Another, but I'll Have Another is who I give the gold medal to.

5) Bowlers

The fact that I, a relatively knowledgeable person when it comes to most sports, not only have never heard of any of the three bowlers considered in the "Best Bowler" category but also could not name a single bowler to you, makes bowlers a loser at this year's ESPYs. With this having been said, I, personally, love bowling and still consider it a real sport. My hope is that during the next year of sports, a bowler some way, somehow makes a name for his/herself.