Great performances in sports in 2014, by the numbers

The situation: The Miami Marlins, looking to legitimize a ballclub known more for fire sales than its two championships, locked in Giancarlo Stanton to a 13-year deal

The situation: Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray broke Jim Brown’s 56-year-old record Oct. 19 against the Giants when he rushed for at least 100 yards his seventh-consecutive game to start a season. He extended the record one more week to eight games when he rushed for 141 yards against Washington, before failing to reach the mark the following week against the Cardinals.

The situation: San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner was a one-man show in October, finishing with a 1.03 ERA in 52 2/3 innings of playoff work. He earned NLCS and World Series MVP honors on his way to leading the Giants to their third world championship in five years.

The situation: Gabby Douglas, a 17-year-old from Spring, Texas, became only the sixth woman, and first in 11 years, to win consecutive all-around titles at the World Gymnastics Championships. Shannon Miller is the only other American to win two world titles in a row.

The situation: Mikaela Shiffrin became the youngest skier, man or woman, to win an Olympic gold medal in slalom. She’s the first American woman to win the slalom at the Winter Games since Barbara Cochran took the gold at the 1972 Games.

The situation: Martin Kaymer destroyed the field and Pinehurst No. 2 to win his second major by eight shots over Rickie Fowler and Eric Compton, the margin of victory only surpassed by Tiger Woods (15 shots in 2000) and Willie Smith (9 shots in 1899). With his wire-to-wire tour de force, Kaymer joined Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Raymond Floyd and Lee Trevino as the only players to win a U.S. Open, PGA Championship and Players Championship in their careers.

A year after the tragic bombing at the finish line, Meb Keflezighi completed one of the most memorable victories in the Boston Marathon’s 118-year history. He did it with the backdrop of so much tragedy, in front of those gravely wounded in the previous year’s attacks and in memory of the four killed.

Situation: Mike Babcock is in the last year of his contract as the coach of the Detroit Red Wings, and all he does is keep on winning. The Red Wings beat the Rangers 3-2 on Dec. 6. Babcock is in his 12th season coaching in the NHL.

The situation: With three touchdowns in a 42-40 win over South Alabama on Nov. 28, Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds moved past Nebraksa’s Eric Crouch and nevada’s Colin Kaepernick who finished their careers with 59. A junior, Reynolds is aiming at the major college career record for any position of 77 set by running back Monte Ball of Wisconsin in 2009-2012.

Quarterback Marcus Mariota became the first Hawaiian and first Oregon player to win the Heisman Trophy.

Erica Enders-Stevens became the first female driver to win a Pro Stock championship in the history of the NHRA. Her win in the Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., on Nov. 16 clinched it.

The situation:Paula Creamer, who had not won since capturing the U.S. Women’s Open in 2010, was on the second hole of a playoff with Azahara Munoz when she faced a 75-foot putt for eagle. Trying to get it close, she instead knocked it in to end a four-year drought on the LPGA Tour. The putt last 32 seconds.

The situation: At the Pan-Pacific Championships in August, Katie Ledecky broke two records in two days. First, she lowered her own record in the 400m. The next day, in the final race of the meet, she broke her own record in the 1500m by more than six seconds. In all, she took home five gold medals from the Pan-Pacifics.

The situation: Washington State Cougars signal-caller Connor Halliday had a record day against the Cal Golden Bears on Oct. 4, but his team still came up short. After breaking former Houston quarterback David Klinger’s single-game mark on Washington State’s final drive, Halliday could only watch kicker Quentin Breshears miss a 19-yard field goal attempt to wrap up Cal’s 60-59 win.

The situation: Chase Elliott, the son of Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, was crowned with the Nationwide Series title at 18 years, 11 months, 18 days. He also became the first rookie to win NASCAR national series championship and joined his dad (the 1988 Sprint Cup champion) as the fifth father-son duo to capture NACAR national series titles (the others: Ned and Dale Jarrett; David and Larry Pearson; Lee and Richard Petty; Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr.).

The situation: Twenty years after winning the first stock-car race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Jeff Gordon bookended it with his fifth victory in NASCAR’s midsummer classic. In notching his 90th Sprint Cup win, he also joined Michael Schumacher (five Formula One victories) and Jimmie Johnson (four Cup wins and an IROC triumph) as the only five-time winners at Indy and became the first to lead 500 career laps at the Brickyard.

The situation: Rory McIlroy, the world’s No. 1 player, started his streak with a win in the British Open, then won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. A week later, he won the PGA Championship to bump his major total to 4 at age 25.

The situation: Though Serena Williams had a strong season overall, the US Open win salvaged a Grand Slam season that had been sub-par (she did not advance past the fourth round in the previous three), and it came 15 years after her first major win (also in New York), the longest span between Grand Slam titles in history.

The situation: In consecutive weeks, both on the 17th hole, both using a TaylorMade ball marked No. 17, Danielle Kang made an ace to win a car in each tournament. Her two aces traveled a combined 307 yards – the first coming using an 8-iron from 151 yards in the Blue Bay LPGA event in China, the second using a 7-iron from 156 yards at the Fubon LPGA Taiwan Championship. National Hole in One Registry officials deemed the feat a 350,000-1 shot. She won a Buick LaCrosse and an Audi A6 T2.0.

The situation: Emphatically snapping a 13-race winless streak (an eternity by a six-time series champion’s standards), JimmieJohnson’s seventh career victory at Charlotte had myriad layers of significance. It was his first on the 1.5-mile oval since 2009 and fourth in the prestigious Coke 600 (which he last won in 2005), and it occurred in 2014’s 12th race – the latest Johnson had gone in a season without a win since entering Cup in 2002.