This is the week of lists having to do with anything and everything that did or did not occur in 2004. So, here is the first annual Thorns and Roses sports list.

There is no attempt to span all that happened, just a selection of those folks who added to or detracted from the world of sports during the past year.

The Thorns

5. To all the track and field athletes who succumbed to the need for drugs to compete, a prick of the thorn. Track and field struggles to maintain its place in sports and deserves a higher profile. Those who sought artificial help to compete have done the games no favor.

4. To Ron Artest and the rest of the marauding bands of athletes who shot people on the streets, fought in bar brawls, slammed opponents over the head with hockey sticks, and entered the stands to challenge drunken fans, get a grip.

3. To Barry Bonds, who is probably the most talented baseball player of his era and would have been without the steroids he says he took unknowingly, you have asterisked your career. When he breaks Hank Aaron’s all-time home run mark, it will not be pretty.

2. To baseball commissioner Bud Selig and the Major League Baseball Players Association who refused for a decade to be the leader in the fight against steroids in sports, this thorn is for you.

1. To Pedro Martinez, who helped bring roses to Red Sox Nation, why did you, after the deal with the Mets, throw the petals away and talk about how you never got the respect you deserved from the Sox? What? An entire branch of thorns for you.

The Roses

5. To Arsenal, the English soccer champion that went 38-0 this year and ran its string to 49 matches without a defeat, a bouquet for you.

4. To Anika Sorenstam, a golfer who wins often and always with dignity and carries that class off the greens into her life, this yellow rose is for you.

3. To Marcus Spears, an All-America defensive end for LSU, who chose to stay in college rather than go to the NFL last year, thanks for this story. He told me, “If my mother could choose between an NFL contract or college diploma, she would take the diploma.” He stayed at LSU for Mom. Take this red rose to her.

2. To the people of Greece, this dozen is for doing what everyone said couldn’t happen. You not only hosted the Olympics, you did so without a hitch and with lasting memories of both you and the games.

1. To Red Sox Nation, here are a dozen rosebushes to last forever. The monumental meaning of being a Red Sox fan is just now sinking in for the rest of the sports world. It is a story of remembering, caring, and celebrating; and that’s just how fans think of one another, never mind the team itself.

Happy New Year and may all your roses blossom year round.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.