Recent Stories in Sports

Among the adjectives The SunBreak commenters have used to assess NBC's 2010 Olympics coverage: "unacceptable," "boring," "pathetic," "incompetent," "horrible," "terrible," "disgraceful,"  and "awful." People are mad that the coverage is tape-delayed. They are mad about the number of commercials. They are mad that the network shows too many U.S. athletes. Or not enough.

KING 5, presumably inundated with complaints, has posted an apology about the tape delay. 90 percent of Seattlepi.com readers call the tape delaying "ridiculous." (And not in the good way the Sasquatch lineup is.)

But--people are watching. In an age where practically all network TV programming is losing ratings, Winter Olympics ratings are up 15 percent over 2006. Those annoying tape delays? They aren't turning off viewers. Four of the five cities where NBC had the highest ratings Saturday night were outside the Eastern time zone. (Seattle ranked fifth, but had the highest share: 40 percent of Seattle TVs that were on Saturday night were tuned to the Olympics--thanks in part to CBC-less competition--even though they were watching something that was at least three hours old.)

The haters, I suspect, are the true Olympic diehards. The people who want to see all the competitors, who want to see everything live, who can't help themselves from checking online to see who's won. These people are ill-served by NBC's coverage. I wish that NBC had at least given such people an option--some sort of pay site or channel--where their need for coverage could be sated.... (more)

When Garfield High grad Will Conroy joined the Houston Rockets last month, he became the ninth player from a Seattle high school to play for an NBA team this season. This from the 25th largest city in America. Started me wondering--where does Seattle rank as far as sending players to the NBA? The answer: second. Only Chicago (13) has had more players go from city high schools to the League. Amazing in itself, but even more striking when you look at the numbers by population. There, 206 fertility becomes even more clear. Graph!

 

That's right--among large cities, Seattle is the best NBA breeding ground in the nation. (I mapped the top 50 U.S. cities by population.) We're well ahead of second-place Miami, and absolutely housing such supposed basketball meccas as Philadelphia, Los Angeles and New York. Some larger cities, like San Francisco, Jacksonville, and Austin, haven't sent a single guy from a city high school to the league.

Now. A word about the data, which comes from Basketball Reference. What's available is high school and city. So this doesn't take into account someone like Carmelo Anthony, a Baltimore kid who went to prep school in Virginia. Also, "city" is narrowly defined by actual city boundaries. So Los Angeles, for example, is only L.A. proper, not cities within L.A. County like Compton and Inglemoor. Metro areas aren't considered, so Seattle doesn't get credit for Jon Brockman of Snohomish High or Marvin Williams of Bremerton High, only those guys who went to in-city high schools. ... (more)

I watched an hour of NBC's Vancouver Winter Olympics coverage on KING 5 this afternoon, and I saw about 90 seconds of actual sports action. I'm not exaggerating. I'm actually being generous.

What I did see was amazing. In covering the normal hill ski jumping from Whistler, NBC showed close-ups of every liftoff, then showed a tense and entertaining series of angles as the jumper flew to the bottom of the hill.

After the jump, analyst Jeff Hastings narrated slo-mo closeups of each take-off, providing smart and insightful commentary on each. We got reaction shots of every jumper, as well as of his coach. And, most interesting to me, a close up of the coach who signals the jumper to start--very tense coaches, these, as they are trying to choose the exact time within a seconds-long window when the wind will be the most propitious. See for yourself: Here's their coverage of Swissman (?) Simon Ammann's gold-medal-winning jump.

Great stuff. But there was so little of it. NBC would show two jumps, then pause for a long commercial break. The jumps themselves are about ten seconds long, with surrounding chatter lasting about a minute for each. So for every four minutes of coverage, with only about 20 seconds of action, I'd see three minutes of ads.

The ski jumping lasted about 30 minutes, in which I saw about nine actual jumps. They did show the last four or so without a break, which was nice.

Once Ammann finished off the competition, Al Michaels let us know that speed skating would be next. Awesome! Can't wait! Too bad, because I'd have to.

First, a commercial break. Then we got an update on how luge qualifying was going. Then, another commercial break.

Back: Speed skating time? Nope, a long piece by NBC sports reporter Mary Carillo, who traveled to The Netherlands to give us a sense of the Dutch passion for speed skating. A neat piece, really, and I wouldn't mind it sprinkled into some actual coverage of actual speed skating. Hadn't seen any yet. And it was time for another commercial break.

When the commercials are over, we're at the actual speed skating venue! (Richmond Olympic Oval, about ten miles south of Vancouver proper). Finally! The NBC speed skating announcers give us a little preview of the event, showing the top US contenders and then...we get another commercial break.

By the time they come back from this commercial break, it's been 30 minutes since the ski jumping ended, and I have to be somewhere. No speed skating for me, although I would've loved to see what NBC did with it. (Although, by this time, I already knew who won, NBC delays the coverage three hours and I'd accidentally spotted the winner on ESPN's crawl.)

I love what NBC is doing coverage-wise, and I understand why they have so many ads. Nice production costs money; they probably budgeted out what they were going to spend long before the advertising market went to hell. Plus they paid $2.2 billion to for rights to these and the 2012 Games; and this was back in 2003 when advertisers paid a lot more for network TV ads. So NBC has to run so many ads to make up what they've spent. I get it.

So I'm going to watch NBC's coverage, but I think, for the first time ever when watching live sports on TV, I'm going to make sure I have a book nearby when I do.

Celebrations Banned: Are Cheerleaders Next?

Since intercollegiate athletics are contested between college students, you'd think it would make sense for college students to determine what standards of sportsmanship are appropriate on the field, right? Oh, you are so naive. 

No, it's a bunch of middle-aged men--the NCAA Rules Committee--who are slowly imprinting their anachronistic, unrealistic standards on college football players. Recent rules committee proposals would stiffen the penalty for "taunting," a nebulous concept that the middle-aged men who serve as college referees have proven incapable of assessing fairly. You'll remember how Jake Locker's celebratory toss of a ball after scoring a last-second touchdown against BYU was deemed "taunting," costing the Huskies a chance at overtime.

Now, any behavior deemed taunting-y on the way into the end zone would also be penalized, as a 15-yard personal foul from the spot of the taunt. So the overexcited player who breaks a long run and points at the camera during his last five yards to the end zone? He'll find himself lining up again at the 20. 

Another idiotic repression of utterly harmless behavior: students will be banned from writing messages in their eye black. Players usually will write in their home area code as a shout out to where they're from. Or, in the case of Christian hero Tim Tebow, Bible verses. Pretty harmless stuff, but apparently too much self-expression. And self-expression apparently...is bad?... (more)

From the group Manther (myspace!), comes this lament about the Sonics. It's true, we do still miss them. Part of the reason I avoid NBA basketball is that watching it makes me miss them more. Even looking at the box scores sends me into a funk, especially when former Sonic Kevin Durant records another 25-point game. Anyhoo, here's what Manther--appearing along with a guy in a replica Squatch costume--has to say.

Via True Hoop

ASU's Derek Glasser Gets the Dawgpack Treatment (Photo via Twitter, @UWDawgPack)

At Hec Edmundson Pavilion, with a full student section behind them, the Washington Husky basketballers are as dominant as John Wooden's UCLA teams. In Seattle, the Dawgs bombed Pac-10 leaders Cal by 15 points. They crushed Pac-10 second placers Arizona State by 23. They dropped a 56-point second half on cross-state rivals Wazzu, and a 123-point game on crosstowners Seattle U.

Washington has won 16 of 17 games at home this year. But something happens on the road. Away from Hec Ed, the Dawgs are winless in six games. That ASU team the Huskies crushed here Saturday? Lost to 'em by 17 in Tempe.

Why the difference? On the road, the Huskies start the same guys, have the same coaches, play by the same rules--and flop. The one principle difference, it would seem, is the Washington fans--specifically the rowdy student section that goes by the name "The Dawgpack." Pac-10 players generally agree that Washington has the best crowd in the league. Oregon coach Ernie Kent has called The Dawgpack the best student section in the country.

The Dawgpack stands the entire game. When the opposing team is on offense, they keep up a constant shout, unnerving players and making it hard for them to communicate. When opposing coaches attempt to shout out instructions, they yell to drown him out. They pick on opposing players, like when they chanted "Mich-ael Cera!" at Cal's Nikola Knezevic (who does sorta look like him). A sign at Saturday's game had a photoshopped image of Husky guard Venoy Overton with his arm around the mother of hated ASU guard Derek Glasser. The sign read "Mr. and Mrs. Overton." With Glasser scoreless midway through the second half, UW fans held their hands in the shape of a zero and derisively chanted "Der-ek, Der-ek."... (more)

Teenagers Run Amok!

I don't know if you are familiar with the psyche of the average teenager, but in my experience, telling a pre-adult not to do something is an accelerant like Aquanet to fire. Don't you think Henry V's parents were all like, "Don't fight Harry Hotspur at Shrewsbury!" But he did anyway, and took an arrow to the face.

Garfield's administration probably wished they had a full archery set Tuesday night, when their anti-floor-storming warnings went unheeded.

To set the scene: After watching their school's basketball team fall behind 21-6 to rival Roosevelt, enduring a 15-minute delay after a scoreboard malfunction, and sweating through an overtime period, Garfield's students sensed that victory was finally near. Their Bulldogs led by two points, and Roosevelt had just 2.7 seconds to get off a desperation shot. Security guard Joe--a Garfield employee since my years at the school--edged through the twenty or so GHS cheerleaders and addressed the section. "If they win, don't rush the court," Joe told the front few rows. He pointed a little further back and shouted. "Don't rush the court, okay?"... (more)

First, a word about Seattle Prep's DJ Fenner. If you haven't seen him, make haste to your local high school gymnasium. Late in Prep's 77-56 win over O'Dea Tuesday, Fenner took his defender off the dribble with a crossover, drove the lane, elevated around another defender, switched hands in mid-air and finished at the rim with his left hand. Wow.

With two top-ten teams playing (Prep's #6, O'Dea #10), a capacity crowd filled Prep's gym Tuesday. I was thigh-to-thigh with my friend's girlfriend on my left, which was awkward enough, but also with a nine-year-old boy on my right, which is I think possibly illegal.

Though we'd squeezed in to watch basketball, what we saw actually resembled hockey. You didn't hear the expression "let 'em play" shouted at this game, as the referees--including former Seattle Times photographer Rod Mar--permitted Prep and O'Dea to settle matters with minimal supervisory interference. Or as my friend Mark put it: "They're beating each other bad out there."

Early on, the physical style played to O'Dea's strengths. The speedy Irish applied heavy pressure to Panther ballhanders, forcing steals and bad shots. O'Dea raced to a 20-point first quarter and an early six-point lead.

But the stress of defending Prep's bigger, taller players began to wear on O'Dea. The Irish don't give substantial minutes to any player who's taller than 6'3". Prep's point guard is 6'3". Prep scored inside and on putbacks, slowly catching, surpassing, and eventually blowing out the Irish. Mitch Brewe, Prep's 6'7" sophomore center, led the way with 24 points, most from point-blank range.... (more)

Dollar's Redhawks Must Win Tonight to Reach His Goal

Both Washington and Seattle University's men's basketball teams had lofty goals for the season.

"We can make it to the Final Four," Washington's star guard Isaiah Thomas told reporters in October. "We're that good. That's our goal."

Seattle U coach Cameron Dollar, whose team isn't eligible for the NCAA tournament, set his sights on the finals of the second-tier National Invitational Tournament, held in New York City. "We will be playing and competing at a high level to get to Madison Square Garden," said Dollar when he was hired in April.

But as things stand in January, neither team would even make the field of their targeted tournaments.

So while the "storylines" of this game are rather interesting--an in-city rivalry, Dollar coaching against former boss Lorenzo Romar, Seattle U star Charles Garcia facing the school that rejected his admissions application--the simple truth is that the team that loses this game can forget about reaching their goal once and for all.

For Washington, a home loss to the D1 transitioning Redhawks (ranked #224 in the all-important RPI) would read like a felony conviction on their NCAA tournament resume. All hopes of an at-large bid would be dashed, and even if they made the tourney by winning the Pac-10, they'd have an unattractive seed and a difficult road to the Final Four.... (more)

In an earlier story on The Sunbreak ("The Little Sonics Lawsuit that Could"), I referenced the progress of a little class-action lawsuit between former Seattle Supersonic season ticket holders and Oklahoma’s own version of Valdemort, Clay Bennett and his cronies in the Professional Basketball Club, the owners of the Oklahoma Thunder.

According to a story on Seattlepi.com, Bennett and the other Thunder owners have settled the lawsuit and agreed to pay $1.6 million in damages, to be split among the ticketholders represented in the class action. (This outcome pleases me, I should add, because I'm a former Sonics ticketholder.)

The presiding judge in the case, the Honorable Richard A. Jones, has not yet signed off on the joint agreement to settle. There is no timetable for his ruling and the documents contained in the joint motion for approval of a settlement stipulate that members of the class action must be notified of the settlement details before the agreement is final.

"This is what I expected to happen," said Michael A. Maxwell, a Seattle attorney and the SunBreak’s legal correspondent. "All along, Bennett thought the judge would throw out this case. When he didn’t, he was caught in a very bad position."

Early in 2009, both sides asked Judge Jones for a summary judgment, which he did in February. The judgment, which can be read online at www.sonicsclassaction.com, threw out many of the complaints of both parties, but left intact the plaintiffs’ claim that the Sonics entered into a contract with ticketholders and then broke that contract.... (more)

Pete Carroll becomes the first Seahawks head coach to star in a "Funny or Die" video, as the folks who brought you Baby Pearl make this skit with Rob Riggle as a psycho USC fan trying to convince Carroll to stay.

It's been 20 years since I started high school, and while beepers, baggy sweatshirts and parachute pants are no longer quite as sought after among young people, at least one object retains its allure: Weed!

Walking past the Garfield baseball field on the way to see the basketball team play Bothell, four dudes are hanging out in the dugout, smoking a prodigious amount of marijuana. We're fifteen feet past and my friend blurts out "I can still smell it!"

Mary Jane isn't the only familiar sight. Outside the gym entrance, Joe the security guard still sits in his folding chair, as he did when I was a Bulldog.

Inside the new gym, the Garfield band plays the same songs: Theme from "Peter Gunn," "I'm So Glad," some others I don't know the titles of. Rick, the developmentally disabled fellow who liked to faux-conduct the band when I was a Garfield student, faux-conducts the band.

And the ethnic makeups of the respective teams haven't changed. Garfield predominately black, Bothell...well, as my other friend said: "Bothell doesn't look like a basketball team, they look like a beer pong team."

Bothell didn't play like a beer pong team, not at first. Dominic Ballard drove the lane and scored with a nice lefty finish, a subsequent Garfield turnover led to an Oliver Hardin basket, and the Cougars had an early 6-0 lead.

Some of us weren't watching the game as much as the sidelines, where Garfield's coaches were putting on a fashion show. "Every man over there is very attractive," says friend #1. She preferred the coach in the brown suit with a lavender shirt. "Not everyone can pull off a brown suit," she said, "but he's making it work." She also had high marks for the guy in the gray suit. I have to say, I preferred Garfield head coach Ed Haskins' navy blue jacket, tan pants combo.... (more)

At halftime of Washington's blowout hoops win over Cal on Saturday, fans were treated to what we were told was the 13th annual mascot basketball game. Participants included the Red Robin Restaurant Robin, "Doppler" of the Seattle Storm, the Ivar's Clam (rather handicapped as it has no arms), and UW's own Harry the Husky. Words cannot do this event justice. To the slideshow!

In the most shocking and yet outstanding news Mariner fans have received maybe ever, star pitcher Felix Hernandez has agreed to a five-year contract. Hernandez could've left the Mariners to sign with another team after the 2011 season, and would've have been possibly the most sought after free agent in baseball history. Now the M's have locked him up through the middle of Sarah Palin's first presidential term.

Why is Hernandez so sought after? The same reason Mariner fans will have silly grins on their faces all morning. Felix Hernandez is one of the best pitchers in baseball, and he's only 23 years old--an age at which some of the all-time greats were still struggling to break into baseball.

Randy Johnson didn't have a single major league win at 23. Bob Gibson had 3. Sandy Koufax, despite having logged five major leagues seasons by age 23, had just 28 wins. Felix Hernandez already has 58.

With his high-90s fastball and knee-buckling curve, Hernandez can be nearly unhittable. And given the current state of medical science, and the fact that fireballing pitchers now seem to be able to pitch into their mid-40s, Hernandez would seem to have an outside shot at equaling Roger Clemens' modern day record of 354 wins (for pitchers in the era of five-man rotations).

The Mariners and general manager Jack Zduriencik (who I could kiss right now) have locked up at least five more seasons of this excellence. I'm shocked that they managed it.... (more)

Been a tough year for British national Matthew Bryan-Amaning. Expected to fill the rebounding and scoring void left by Jon Brockman (who scored a career-high nine points Tuesday night vs. Orlando), "MBA" has struggled, losing his starting job.

But last night in the Huskies' blowout win over Stanford he provided what will likely be the most thrilling moment of this season, when he unleashed a monster fast-break dunk, posterizing Stanford guard Drew Shiller. The dunk brought Hec Ed fans, including this one, leaping out of our seats in celebration.

Look for the dunk at the 1:13 mark of this UW Daily video recap of the game.

As for the game, you'll note Quincy Pondexter's absurd statline--27 points on 16 shots!?--and think that he dominated the game. In fact, Q scored just 2 of the Huskies first 19 points. The catalyst for this performance was the offensive aggression of other Dawgs, especially freshman guard Abdul Gaddy. Gaddy showed the basketball smarts he's been lauded for, slicing through Stanford's zone and finding open floaters twice in the first four minutes.

Gaddy making himself a threat opened up the floor for Pondexter, who seemed to be the focus of the Husky defense.

The Husky stars can't go unnoticed, though for Isaiah Thomas it was his effort on defense that keyed the win. Matched up on Stanford's sweet-shooting Jeremy Green, who dropped 30 on UCLA last week, Thomas was fantastic. He chased Green through screens and double screens all night, and was right on Green whenever he received the ball. Green scored just 2 first-half points.

The Huskies next play Cal Saturday at 11:30 a.m. The game will be on FSN Northwest.

 

You heard a lot of talk about collaboration from Seahawks brass yesterday.

"My job is to take the football organization and make sure that there’s fantastic collaboration," said CEO Tod Leiweke. Leiweke apparently has a new favorite phrase: "working shoulder-to-shoulder."

I, for one, will believe it when I see it. I suspect the Era of Good Feelings will last exactly 99 days--the duration between now and the April 22nd NFL draft.

At said draft, the Seahawks will have a #6 pick, and a #14 pick. What they do with those two picks will in large part determine how the franchise performs this decade. The decision could well determine the destiny of Carroll's career as Seahawks coach, and by extension his legacy for all-time. Don't think Carroll won't know that.

Likewise, the pick will determine Tod Leiweke's future as a sports executive. He may have the most successful launch of an expansion franchise in U.S. pro sports history notched on his sword, but if he presides over the collapse of an NFL franchise, he can write his ticket to the unemployment line. Don't think Leiweke won't know that.

Now--when it comes to these picks, you can't really "collaborate" on a decision. You've got a draft board full of players, and you have to pick one in that slot. You can't mix and match players. It's not like buying groceries, where you can get the cheap wine but get some killer tapanade. Nor is it like college recruiting, where if you aren't sure about the blue-chip running back you can recruit two or three extras.... (more)

Pete Carroll, New Seahawks Head Coach

After one year from his unproven head coach, the team owner had seen enough. In 2010, the team is the Seahawks, the owner is Paul Allen and the coach is Jim Mora. In 1995, the team was the New York Jets, the owner was Leon Hess and the coach was new Seahawks grand poobah Pete Carroll.

Carroll's success as USC's head coach--winner of two national championships, seven Pac-10 titles, author of a 34-game winning streak--will earn him a reported $35 million of Paul Allen's Microsoft millions.

It's a package Carroll probably couldn't imagine fifteen years ago, when he was a victim of the same owner impatience that cost Jim Mora his job. After taking over an 8-8 Jets team that had barely missed the playoffs, Carroll's 1994 Jets regressed to six wins, and Carroll was let go.

"I'm 80 years old and I want results now," said Jets owner Leon Hess upon introducing Carroll's replacement. "I'm entitled to some enjoyment, and that means winning."

Let's hope Paul Allen's judgment is better than Hess's was--the replacement, Rich Kotite went 4-28 in two seasons as Jets coach.

Carroll made his way back to an NFL head coaching gig two seasons later, becoming the Patriots head coach when Bill Parcells left to replace Kotite in New York. He lead the Patriots to two consecutive playoff appearances, but when New England slid out of the playoffs in 1999, he was fired. Owner Robert Kraft later said Carroll suffered from having replaced the legendary Parcells.

Carroll worked as a consultant the next season before being hired as USC coach in December of 2001. He was the school's fourth choice after successful college coaches Dennis Erickson, Mike Bellotti, and Mike Riley turned the Trojans down. Carroll's hiring was deeply unpopular (imagine if the Huskies had hired, say, Dom Capers) but he built a decade-long dynasty at USC.

Carroll won't be able to recruit his way to success in the NFL like he did at USC. And his rah-rah style may be better suited for motivating college athletes than professional ones.... (more)

Today, Seattle lost one of the last links to its first professional sports team, and its first world championship team at the professional level. Bob Blackburn, the original play-by-play announcer for the Seattle SuperSonics, passed away on Friday. He was 86.

Blackburn started with the team during its first season in 1967-68 and was the team's voice for 25 years. In the early days, he was announcer, color man, and engineer. His most memorable call, and still the most important professional sports call in the city's history, was the final few minutes of the 1979 Championship clincher against the now ironically named Washington Bullets.

For fans of the team, and that team in particular, his voice was the only live memory we have of the finals that year. The NBA was a wreck in the late 1970s, the pre-Magic and Bird era, and the playoffs and finals were tape-delayed broadcast on the West Coast. And maybe we remember the '79 team so fondly because that unselfish group of oddballs, mashers, and magicians was a breath of fresh air in the midst of dark times in sports and in the nation in general.

And Bob fit right in. He was an old school announcer who wasn't beneath showing disgust for a bad call or, his pet peeve, bad sportsmanship. He was also a gutsy guy who returned to work following heart surgery in 1983.

He had a front row seat to some of the best basketball this town ever saw and made it seem so real, so urgent to a young teen listening late on a cold, rainy night. When he saw a great play, a Lenny Wilkens shimmy, a Slick Watts steal, Gus Williams slicing to the basket, X-Man beating down a rebound, he knew how to frame it so the beauty of sports danced in a listener's head.... (more)

Paul Allen: Wanted Mora Out

It makes me question the very existence of free will to note that a single person, in a single year, oversaw both one of the best seasons in Seattle sports history and one of the most disastrous.

As CEO of Sounders FC, Tod Leiweke led the most successful expansion team launch ever. Puget Sound Business Journal named Leiweke Executive of the Year--an honor previously won by the CEOs of Costco and REI.

But Leiweke won't win any awards for his performance as CEO of the Seahawks. He presided over a complete breakdown in team management, coaching, and playing.

Now Leiweke's boss, Paul Allen, has taken control of the football franchise. Leiweke wanted to keep head coach Jim Mora, reports the Times' Danny O'Neil--perhaps waving his "executive of the year" plaque around for effect during the meeting--but Allen overruled Leiweke and ordered Mora fired.

Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke: Wanted to Keep Mora

Mora's departure, and the non-renewal of GM Tim Ruskell's contract, frees the Seahawks to look for a "guru"-type candidate, one who would get to pick his players and coach them, too. Leiweke interviewed USC coach Pete Carroll earlier this week, according to the L.A. Times, and Mora's firing could be a prelude to Carroll joining the team.

The last time Allen exerted such control over the Hawks was after the 2004 season, when he, at Leiweke's urging, fired then-GM Bob Whitsitt. The next year, with Ruskell as GM, the Seahawks made their first Super Bowl.

At the time, Leiweke sang the praises of a united operation: "I don't think you get to [13-3] unless you have everyone pulling in the same direction. This isn't a widget business, it's a people business."... (more)

Someday, Venoy Overton and Derek Glasser will each be the terrors of their respective rec leagues. You know the type--feisty, cocky, obnoxious, a little bit dirty--the guys who play every game like it's their last. The guys who you want to say "It's just a game" to, but don't bother because they wouldn't agree.

For now, Overton and Glasser are the primary point guards for Washignton and Arizona State, and their similar style leads to some entertaining basketball. Last year, their rivalry led to a scuffle in last year's Pac-10 tournament.

I don't care about the scuffle, I just like seeing the speedy Overton frustrate the more deliberate Glasser.

Watch specifically when Glasser tries to bring the ball up the court. Glasser lacks the speed and handles to dribble forward while facing his man so he typically backs the ball down the court, flaring his off-ball elbow out to keep the defensive man at bay.

This is a very effective strategy against players who want to avoid getting elbowed in the face. Venoy Overton, however, lives for being elbowed in the face. The way he sticks his body into players, you get the feeling that an elbow to the face would be the crowning achievement of his day.... (more)

The following article was written last May, in response to Randy Johnson coming to Seattle one last time on the 22nd of that month, and posted to my site about the 1995 Mariners. Since we’ve just heard about his retirement, I thought I should reprint it here as an acknowledgment of his central position in Mariners’ history.

Randy Johnson's start at Safeco Field last Friday night for San Francisco was probably his last in Seattle.  I got to the game early, hoping for a Felix Hernandez bobblehead (which didn't happen), but also to see Johnson warm up before the game. I figured it was the last chance I'd have, and a lot of others figured the same way: the crowd was five or six deep all along the Giants' bullpen. 

We didn't get to see the bid for 300 wins that was supposed to make Friday's game uniquely compelling, but standing in the crowd pressed up against the pen, waiting for the Big Unit to make his appearance, that didn't really seem to matter. Most everybody was there because of what Johnson had done in Seattle, not because the cumulative digits with Houston, Arizona, etc., had turned over enough times to put him within grasp of the 300-victory club.

This wasn't the playoffs or a crucial late-season game, but the excitement around the bullpen was at that sort of level as Johnson first tossed the ball in the outfield, then slid open the gate and made his way into the pen. Really meaningful Mariner games have been scarce ever since 2001, but Randy was going to give us one even if he got ejected in the first inning. 

No matter what happened in the game, this would be our last chance to see him up close, so it's no wonder the stairs leading down to the bullpen were jammed, you saw cameras everywhere, and we craned our necks through the crowd to get a better glimpse. Not even the dour and usually efficient Safeco ushers were able to really manage this crowd.

As Randy threw, one guy who looked a bit like Jay Buhner kept yelling "Randeeee!," hoping for a wave or glance from Johnson; he didn't give it. We've all heard about the Big Unit's game face, but I'd never seen it up close.  Separated by a few rows of people, what comes across most clearly is what he doesn't do: look over at us or the field, or up at the sky, or into the stands, or say anything, sniff the air, take care of an itch, motion at anything other than the catcher. 

It's just him, the ball, the pitching motion, and a catcher's glove. The "Randeeee!" guy said as much to me when I admitted that yes, I wanted the Unit to win and leave Seattle with a bang. I think we were all hoping for at least a 10-strikeout game, and with luck, a no-hitter.  The Mariners could make up the loss sometime later: getting a game closer to .500 in late May just wasn't as important as Randy Johnson coming back and delivering something memorable for his audience.... (more)

Doing my extensive preparation for Metro League Tuesday, I noted that Franklin sophomore Anrio "Rio" Adams gets little love from the national scouting services. Scout.com calls Adams a one-star recruit, and Rivals doesn't rate him at all. I've seen Adams play a couple of times, and I remember a fast, intense, long-armed, tall guard with good skills. A superstar in the making. Was I missing something?

No. I was not. Adams was stellar in Franklin's 87-59 victory at Ingraham High. He was unstoppable in the open court on offense. He showed a deft passing touch, sometimes giving up a shot to find open teammates. And he displayed his athleticism, rising from practically a dead stop to thrown down a dunk.

And then there was his defense. Long-armed and explosive, he's a nightmare for opposing guards. And he takes instruction well. Before one Ingraham inbounds pass, Franklin coach Jason Kerr yelled to Adams, who was defending the inbounder. "C'mon, Rio, deflect a pass." Rio did just that, leading to a Franklin steal and basket. Anrio Adams is legit, and the scouting services need to get their acts together.

I'd expected a matchup between Adams and Ingraham's leading scorer, Devonte Spellman. But Spellman played sparingly. Perhaps he was in foul trouble. Or perhaps he had upset his head coach, Jeff Menday, who was upset for most of the game. Menday, a D1 head coach in the mid-90s, and more recently coach at Shoreline Community College, barked out instructions in a husky voice that resonated gym-wide.

"Malik! Stay down!" he yelled at 6'4" sophomore Malik Barnes.

"You gotta go in there harder than that," he yelled at one player after a passive drive. "That's soft!"

When the referees missed an obvious Franklin travel, Menday fired his pen on the court in frustration, then had to go retrieve it mid-play.

This is not to single out Menday for yelling. I've never seen a successful high school coach that didn't yell at his players. I'll never forget Franklin's Jason Kerr screaming "GET OFF MY COURT!" at his players after a poor defensive effort at Ballard.

Kerr was a little more relaxed in this game. After one time out, he asked the refs to check to see if his team had one second left on the shot clock. "Could you verify that? I don't really care either way." Franklin had jumped out to a healthy lead at this point.... (more)

For a few years in the mid-1990s, Randy Johnson had the power to make 60,000 Seattleites stand in unison. In the last few weeks of the magical 1995 Mariners season, fans began standing whenever strikeout master Johnson reached two strikes on a batter. The tradition continued through the next three seasons of Johnson's Mariner career, which ended prematurely when he was traded in 1998.

Twelve years after Johnson left the Mariners, he's leaving baseball. The most dominant #51 to wear an M's uniform (sorry Ichiro) announced his retirement this afternoon on a conference call with reporters.

The hard-throwing lefty, who even all-stars were afraid to face, came to the Mariners in another mid-season trade, a trade that was wildly unpopular at the time. "This is the saddest day in Mariner history," third baseman Jim Presley told the P-I after the Mariners traded ace Mark Langston to Montreal for Brian Holman, Gene Harris, and a former USC basketball player known more for being the tallest player in major league history than for his pitching prowess. Randy Johnson was 25 years old (two years older than Felix Hernandez is now), and had just three career major league wins.

"These guys have a chance to be very good," Mariner manager Jim Lefebvre said at the time. He had no idea how good.

Johnson made 22 starts for the 1989 M's, finishing with a 7-9 record. In June of 1990, he pitched the first no-hitter in Mariner history, striking out the Tigers' Mike Heath on a fastball in his eyes. The Dave Niehaus call is a classic, and some delightful soul has recorded it on YouTube.

I doubt many Seahawks fans doubted that nine-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman Walter Jones is the greatest player in team history, but if we needed confirmation we got it these past two seasons. Jones played hurt in 2008, and not at all in 2009. Without an effective Jones, the Seahawks went from one of the NFL's best teams to one of its worst.

So good news yesterday when Jones told reporters at Seahawks HQ that he's going to try to get back into playing shape:

"That's the goal... I'm going to do everything possible to get back... Hopefully I can push myself to the point that I feel better about things. [...] I still got a long way to go with the knee, but I feel good about the direction I'm going."

Jones said that he'll probably know in the next couple of months whether he's going to be back--and he thinks that the Seahawks will make that determination, with Jones set to earn $7 million next year: "I think it's going to be their decision," Jones said. "And if it's over, I can accept that."

The fan in me wants the Seahawks to give every opportunity to make it back to the team. But, realistically, the money they'll owe Jones might be put to better use somewhere else. Let's all hope for a New Year's miracle: That Jones' knee heals just enough for the Seahawks to give him a chance to return, and that he can hold down left tackle again next season.

Regardless, this is probably the year the Hawks look for Jones' replacement. With the #6 and #14 overall picks in the April 22nd draft, they'll be in position to draft (or trade up to draft) one of the top offensive tackles available. They won't find another Walter Jones, but hopefully they get close.

Two months ago when I previewed Seattle University's season, I tried to make the point that SU forward Charles Garcia was among the most athletic players in the country, let alone among D1 independents like Seattle U. In doing so, I made a throwaway joke that has inflamed passions on the Charles River, and even reached ESPN.

My comment was this: Garcia "will be the most talented player on the floor in many of SU's games this year (especially against Harvard)." Because Harvard sucks at basketball. Ha! Mmm, not my best work.

I admit that before I made that comment, I had not actually asked NBA scouts to assess the talent on Harvard's roster, or watched their game tapes, or even bothered to read anything whatsoever about the Harvard basketball program. Instead my joke relied on the fact that HARVARD HAS BEEN SO TERRIBLE AT BASKETBALL THE LAST TIME THEY PLAYED IN AN NCAA TOURNAMENT GAME IT WAS 1946 AND THEY LOST TO NYU. 

Jeremy Lin

Had I been a better blogger, I would've noted that Harvard has a player named Jeremy Lin who is a pretty talented basketball player--and at this moment a better one than Garcia, as he displayed in Saturday's blowout win at KeyArena over Seattle U.

Lin (according to the Harvard site, his "house affiliation" is Leverett, whatever the hell that means) displayed terrific body control around the basket, and was unstoppable in the open court. Garcia struggled to find rhythm on offense, and committed a silly foul on defense that staunched a Seattle U comeback.

Lin probably could be a decent pro somewhere, and he's getting extra notoriety due to the fact that he's Asian-American and even in post-racial ObamAmerica, a stellar Asian-American basketball player is pretty rare. Although if someone could point out the last decent Norwegian-American basketball player I would much appreciate feeling that despite having an 11-inch vertical I might someday get to the League.

I really would like to see Harvard make the tournament, if only to say that my alma mater--yes, I'm an NYU Violet--was their last tourney loss. But if so, will we have to hear whiny, entitled Harvarders (or whatever) complain about a lack of respect for their basketball team? If so, I suggest that the Crimson can stay home.... (more)