Hello, friends, and welcome to our grand retrospective of the year 2011, and the sports happenings to which we bore witness. As we did last year, we are taking a look back through the lens of the humble animated GIF.

What is an animated GIF? Well, here's an example of a GIF I sent my associate Spencer Hall last year, and his reaction over instant message.

Spencer: oh god

Spencer: [expletive]

Spencer: I'm dying

Spencer: help

Spencer: my stomach hurts

Like him, I laughed uncontrollably. Why? I don't know! It just hits this mystical forbidden note of funny. That is what GIFs tend to do. Others document ridiculous moments, and still others are downright heartwarming. They are the silent tellers of stories, of which the world of sports has no shortage.

Here, then, I've listed the 50 greatest sports-centric animated GIFs of the year 2011. I've broken them up into a series of pages -- sorry to make you click through them, but GIFs are rather technologically inefficient, and placing too many on a single page is capable of making one's browser explode.

A note before we proceed: almost none of these GIFs were made by me. Many come by way of @bubbaprog, @jose3030, @cjzero, @LookoutLanding, and @mccoveychron. If you like sports, and you like GIFs, you should probably follow them.

Onward!