F15: This year will assuredly mark the third time in the last four years that I will complain about Roger Federer's not winning SI's Sportsman of the Year (2008 was Phelps' year, granted). In describing his greatness, I defer to the late David Foster Wallace, from a 2006 essay for the NYT:

Roger Federer is one of those rare, preternatural athletes who appear to be exempt, at least in part, from certain physical laws. Good analogues here include Michael Jordan, who could not only jump inhumanly high but actually hang there a beat or two longer than gravity allows, and Muhammad Ali, who really could “float” across the canvas and land two or three jabs in the clock-time required for one. There are probably a half-dozen other examples since 1960. And Federer is of this type — a type that one could call genius, or mutant, or avatar. He is never hurried or off-balance. The approaching ball hangs, for him, a split-second longer than it ought to. His movements are lithe rather than athletic. Like Ali, Jordan, Maradona, and Gretzky, he seems both less and more substantial than the men he faces. Particularly in the all-white that Wimbledon enjoys getting away with still requiring, he looks like what he may well (I think) be: a creature whose body is both flesh and, somehow, light.

OKAY, GRANTED, THERE'S STILL THE SMALL DETAIL OF HIS NEEDING TO WIN ON MONDAY: But should he indeed become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win the French Open, Wimbledom and the U.S. Open in the same year, this one shot ought to ensure Roger Federer finally wins SI's Sportsman of the Year award, right?

[Recognizing, granted, that the World Series result could give Albert Pujols or Derek Jeter a legitimate claim as well.]

added. Joe Posnanski on The Shot. (HT: Tony H.)

SI.com - 2007 Sportsman of the Year - 2007 Sportsman of the Year: Brett Favre - Tuesday December 4, 2007 12:14AM

NO, PETER KING DIDN'T WRITE IT: Brett Favre is your 2007 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.

As I said last year, it probably should have been Roger Federer. Three more Grand Slam titles, including his fifth straight at Wimbledon and fourth straight at the U.S. Open. A record 201 straight weeks as the #1 ranked men's player in the world. Just a stunning level of performance in a sport from which Americans have drifted away.

Alternately, it should have been Barry Bonds or The Needle, as that has been the dominant story across so many sports this year.

A TRUE TRIBUTE, TO BE SURE, WOULD BE HEAVILY FOOTNOTED: But for the moment I'm too stunned: the Associated Press is reporting that author David Foster Wallace (Amherst '85) has been found dead in his home. It is being reported as a suicide.

He was -- I can't believe I'm saying "was" -- a fiction writer with a journalist's attention to detail, a sprawling mind willing to explore the full potential of the page. Infinite Jest remains the heaviest piece of fiction I've ever finished, and I'm just gobsmacked right now. Go ahead, read his essay for Harper's about his seven-night cruise, his August 2004 piece for Gourmet on the morality of eating lobster (PDF), or this piece on the sport he played and loved, "Roger Federer As Religious Experience". What a shame.

I HAVE ONE JOB ON THIS LOUSY SHIP: Man, it's been a long time since I've taken inventory of the state of the nation's celebrity baby names. Finally jolting me into action is the fact that not only did Amazing Survivor übersupercouple Rob and Ambuh (no offense to Ethan and Jenna, and we here at ALOTT5MA wish Ethan well on his road to a full physical and tonsorial recovery, but until Ethan starts convincing Racers to throw challenges, the title goes to Boston Rob) have their first baby almost a full month ago -- a little girl charmingly named Lucia Rose -- but I didn't even know that Amber was expecting. So clearly I'm way, way behind.

So, what else we got? Gratist tennis playir evir Roger Federer is now the daddy of twin girls Charlene "Yes, Dammit, I Cried When Eddings Died" Riva and Myla "I'm Home Again" Rose. (And if you think I'm Bermanizing any more of these names, you'd be wrong.) Tobey Maguire and Jennifer Meyer gave Ruby (resisting . . . urge . . . . ) Sweetheart a little brother -- Otis Tobias Maguire feels like they were trying just a leetle too hard to come up with something less trendy than Owen.

Matt already posted about little Tabitha and Marion Broderick -- proof positive that someone really liked to watch TV back when we were kids. Grey's Chyler Leigh is more of a 90s TV gal, naming her third baby Anniston Kae after dubbing her son Noah Wilde. (Yes, there's another daughter, Taelyn Leigh, which I realize kind of kills my effort at a TV theme.) There are other names we haven't discussed -- we could talk about Adele Georgiana and Roman Stylianos Gianopoulos (not to mention their big sister Mathilda Ereni Gianopoulos), but my lung capacity is insufficient to permit me to recite all of Molly Ringwald's kids' names at once, so I'm putting that one on hold.

But here's an odd new trend -- what's with people announcing baby names to the press months before said names will be attached to actual babies? Some woman who had the good fortune to hook up with Jude Law will be naming a baby Sophia come sometime around October. Um, ok. And the first Duggar grandchild will be getting an "M" name instead of a "J" name in October, giving me as long as three months to wonder why, with all the resources of a brand new initial at their disposal, the inaugural niece of John-David (cheating!), Jana, Jill, Jessa, Jinger (I've always felt bad for Jinger, who so clearly lost the J-naming lottery) Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna (cheating again!), Jedidiah, Jeremiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah, Jennifer, and Jordyn-Grace (still more cheating!) couldn't get something a little less fakey-spelly than Mackynzie. Just think of the possibilities! Ah, never fear, they'll get through all of them.

I WANT YOU TO REMEMBER THAT WHEN I STARTED LIKING YOU, I DIDN'T STOP LIKING TENNIS: The 2007 US Open begins Monday morning in Flushing Meadows, and as little attention as I may pay to the sport during the rest of the year, there's always something cool about being able to turn on the tv at night at the end of summer and seeing some of the best-conditioned athletes in the world gut it out in one-on-one combat, and then have SI's Jon Wertheim explain to me what I just saw.

My Open love was probably cemented by Sampras-Corretja 1996, and then by attending for sessions in 1999 and 2001, and I'm hoping for an exciting draw this year. On the women's side, anyway -- the men's circuit is just so Federer-dominated, and there's only so much ridiculous perfection one can stomach. You?

THE QUIET WARRIOR: You may have seen by now the Associated Press vote naming Tiger Woods the Athlete of the Decade, followed by Lance Armstrong, Roger Federer and Michael Phelps, and it's hard to argue with those four being named in that order.

Note, however, that they're all athletes in individual sports. (Okay, cycling has team elements, but it's not the same.) If the question is narrowed to Best Team Sports Athlete of the Aughts, the AP poll is unrevealing -- Tom Brady was the only such athlete to receive multiple votes at all, with Peyton Manning, Shaquille O'Neal and Albert Pujols each mentioned once. Yet if we're really going to answer the question, isn't there a name glaringly missing from the conversation? I am speaking of Tim Duncan -- during this decade a two-time MVP, ten-time All Star and three-time NBA champion, an fierce competitor of consummate grace, someone who clearly understands The Secret. (And, I might add, drama-free.)

Whether the ultimate answer is Duncan or Brady, I'm not sure, but I think it's where the debate ultimately ends up. (For purposes of this particular honor, I'll take Brady's three rings over Manning's one, and leave Pujols v. ARod unsettled.) Your mileage, no doubt, may vary.

AT LEAST IT WASN'T BARBARO: While I might have gone with the always-remarkable Roger Federer, Tiger Woods or Albert Pujols, or even fellow emerging star Vince Young, I see little wrong with Sports Illustrated's selection of Dwyane Wade as its 2006 Sportsman of the Year.