Recent Stories with tag ken griffey jr.

When I tell you that the highlight of the Seattle sports weekend was giving a standing ovation to a third-place team, you may think it wasn't much of a weekend. But it was epic, notably for our sports teams getting the worst Indiana lambasting since the Kerry campaign.

Notre Dame 37, Washington 30 (OT)

As I headed to Teddy's to watch Washington vs. Notre Dame (live from South Bend, Indiana), I wondered exactly how empty the bandwagon would be. Coming off the USC win, the bar was packed for Stanford. But after losing that game, how would it look? Let's let pictures tell the story:

Crowd at Teddy's for UW/Stanford

Crowd at Teddy's for UW/Notre Dame

So--yeah, Seattle sports fans, you are some fairweather sons of bitches. And you missed an amazing game, one that will always be remembered for the stunning inability of the Huskies to score one touchdown from twelve tries inside the one-yard-line. If you have a Husky fan at your office, I recommend putting his morning coffee three feet behind a white line and see...

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The Mariners have secured the 12th winning season in franchise history thanks to three-run homers on consecutive nights by Ken Griffey Jr. Both homers were no-doubters that had Griffey adopting his familiar slow walk toward first base. Here's video of Tuesday's and video of Wednesday's.

Griffey now has 18 homers for the year--and if he's wanting to leave a positive impression in his bosses' minds when they draw up 2010 contracts, he's picked the right time to get hot.

Statswise, Griffey hasn't made the case. His .408 slugging percentage places him 11th among AL DHs (didja ever think you'd see the day that Carlos Guillen outslugged Griffey?).

Personality-wise, he has. Last year's Mariners' clubhouse was full of backbiting whiners, this year Griffey has helped turn the "office" into a joyous ticklefest.

And 100-loss Mariners of last season now have an outside chance of capturing second place in the AL West. They are three games behind Texas with four to play--three of them against the Rangers.

Our brain says...

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Mariner personnel news from the weekend:

--Brandon Morrow will pitch against the Rangers this week; unclear yet who's spot he'll take in the rotation. Could be Luke French (0-2, 12.46 ERA, .436 BAA in his last two starts), could be Doug Fister who has a blister problem.

Morrow in Tacoma: 10 starts, 5-3, 3.60 ERA, 40K, 23BB, .242 BAA.

--Griffey's knee is still bugging him and he's not going to play again until Wednesday.

--Sean White has recurring shoulder soreness and is going back to Seattle to see M's docs about it. He could be shut down for the year--a very successful one for the UW grad, who compiled a 2.50 ERA in 52 games and recorded his first MLB save.

Ken Griffey was supposed to start Friday but didn't because of recurring knee soreness. Supposedly this latest knee tweak came from Thursday's game, when Griffey ran out a groundball and landed on the base funny.

M's beat the A's 7-4, getting their runs on mammoth two-run homers by Gooters, Bill Hall, and Johjima, respectively, and then a very rare bases-loaded suicide squeeze by Gooters in the ninth. Snell was uninspiring (5 IP, 3 ER, and it's against Oakland) but got the win.

Griffey says he wants to come back. Sort of. Read for yourself. (Hey, I'd like to play for the Mariners next year too--I can tickle really well I promise--but I don't think they're going to offer me a contract just to be nice.)

Seahawks demolished the Raiders. Final was 31-21, but only because of two late Raider TDs. The big story was Seahawks QB Mike Teel, the rookie out of Rutgers. Teel's stats: 11-19, 148 yards, 2 TDs. Have we finally found a third-string QB decent enough to allow Seneca Wallace to play some receiver? If not now, when? Wallace is 29 years old now--he's not getting any faster.

Storm lost, snapping a six-game winning streak. Lauren Jackson's still sitting out with her back injury.

High school football started last night--...

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