You know the best fans sit in the cheapest seats. I sit in cheap seats, and I'm one of the best fans. Now you'll hear about it. From Seattle sports to The East Coast Bias. Say word.
Here's the deal. Kevin Durant just bolted OKC for Golden State in his first real chance at Free Agency, and that cheer you heard was from the great Pacific Northwest. For nearly a decade we've winced and recoiled at every 50 win season for the Thunder, at every deep playoff run for the Thunder because we knew that it should have been OUR team having that success. It should have been the Seattle Supersonics third run as a dominant NBA franchise. But alas, thanks to a group of deceitful snake oil salesmen it happened in Oklahoma fucking City.
Guess what, OKC? You wanted to be a Big League city? You wanted to be nationally relevant and show the rest of the country you have arrived? This is what happens. This is what happens when you FIND A STRANGER IN THE ALPS. This is the business of pro sports, as Seattle knows all too well. Your esteemed owners understood this in 2006 when they played the game to perfection and stole the Sonics. Now their greed has backfired in the form of KD's abandonment.
Here is the difference; Seattle will continue to be a World Class city. OKC now will be relegated back to the podunk cow town in the middle of the country that nobody gives a shit about. Oh sure, you have Russell Westbrook - but for how long? He's got one year left on his deal and do you honestly expect that THIS GUY wants to stay in your economically depressed shit hole town? No, neither do I. A year from now, after Russ finishes up a 39-43 season and misses the playoffs he's off like a prom dress. Chicago, LA or New York - big markets with a chance to actually win a title.
While this doesn't erase the pain of the theft of our Supersonics, it certainly provides a respite from seemingly never ending nut punches Seattle has taken in this process.
In closing, offer one last mature and well thought out response to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
I mean, that is the perfect picture of him, isn't it? The swing. It all started with the swing. The sweetest of his generation and arguably of all time - I'll put Ted Williams right up here with Junior.
Today, what has long been a formality will become a reality and Ken Griffey, Jr. will be announced as the newest member of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. On a national perspective, Junior is revered as the greatest player of the last thirty years and one of the best all around players in the games storied history. The feather in his cap is that he cleanly put up staggering career numbers in an era tarnished by cheaters, goons and liars. While other players miraculously got BETTER as they aged, Junior sadly broke down in his 30's, you know, like a normal human. From the outside, Ken Griffey, Jr. is the perfect Hall of Fame candidate.
For anybody who grew up in Seattle in the late 80's and 90's however, Ken Griffey is something far more important and special. Seattle in the 80's was a football town, and even that was on the downtrend. After the Seahawks nearly went to the Super Bowl in 1984 and won a division championship in 1988, their star was fading. Largent was on the back end of his storied career and Ken Behring was just beginning his systematic destruction of the franchise. The Sonics were mired in mediocrity and were two years away from pairing Payton and Kemp together. The Mariners were a Triple A team playing in the Majors and called a football stadium their home. The M's were such a mess that they nearly passed on picking Junior 1st overall in 1987 for some schmuck named Mike Harkey . Thank God for Chuck Armstrong (at that point, anyway) and his people who were able to convince ownership that Junior was a once in a generation talent.
Until Junior joined the Mariners in 1989, nobody cared about the M's. For me, my favorite team was the Oakland Athletics. The Bash Brothers were the epitome of cool, and they were winners. Hell, I cried like a baby when Kirk Gibson walked off on Eck in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
That's how much I loved baseball and the A's. My family had season tickets to the Mariners but I only wanted to go when the A's were in town. Since the Mariners were so terrible, there was really never an issue with me getting to go.
Everything changed on April 3rd, 1989. Ken Griffey made his Major League debut and promptly took Dave Stewart off the wall in left center field for a double. Five days later, Junior made his home debut against the California/Anaheim/Disney Angels, and I was lucky enough to be in attendance with my Grandfather. I will never forget the exchange that he and I had thirty seconds before the at bat began:
Boppa: Paul, do you see this guy coming up to bat?
Me: Yes. It's Ken Griffey.
Boppa: Remember today - one day you'll tell your kids that you saw Ken Griffey's first at bat in Seattle.
As soon as Boppa finished talking, this happened....
That was it. I was hooked, and so was Seattle. We'd never had our own legitimate star - a guy who was our own, who came up through our system and was actually the best player in any particular sport. The legend would only grow from there.
As the years went on, Junior did things that made us simply shake our head and say "wow." He was so good, and made it look so easy that we didn't realize just how special he was. If it's possible, the generation's greatest player was under appreciated and his own teammate got more attention. We all know how that turned out....
Junior made us want to wear our hat backwards, made us want to play outfield and made the Kingdome the place to be, even when the M's were shitty - you just never knew what you were going to see. Great catches, majestic homers, laser throws, or just overall greatness. Every single kid in the neighborhood could mimic the swing; it was just so damn cool looking.
I am not even going to dive in to what he meant to Seattle in 1995, it's been well documented. I will just say that without him and that team, there would be no Safeco Field and there would be no Mariner team in Seattle at this point in time. So, just for the nostalgia and chill factor, here it is.
Just like any long term relationship, there was drama and heartbreak.
Griffey dumped Seattle for Cincinnati, and was never the same player. When he returned to Seattle in 2007, all of the hurt and heartbreak gave way to respect and admiration - a classic case of not knowing what you've got until it's gone.
Even with his less than stellar swan song with the Mariners in 2009 and 2010, we've been counting down until today for 26 years. The day when the world recognizes the first Seattle Superstar as a true legend. It's also a chance for an entire generation of fans to share with their children - just like parents who grew up watching Mantle and Mays shared with us so many years ago. I can't wait to sit down with my boys and show them Ken Griffey Jr. highlights and say to them, "I watched him play. I saw him when he was just starting. He was like nobody else." I can't wait for them to slowly grasp how special Junior was and how special the game of baseball truly is.
For all that he's done and all that he continues to do, thank you Junior. Thank you for everything, and congratulations on your election to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. No player deserves it more.
First of all, I've obviously been away from this blog for a long time. Life seems to get in the way of everything, including writing a completely subjective sports blog that very few people read and provides me with no financial support.
On top of that, I have now become the stereotypical writer that people love to make fun of. I am writing in a Starbucks so people can see me writing.
Not that I particularly care that people see me, but still.
So much has gone on since the last time I wrote anything, it doesn't make sense to try to recap it all - the last time I put something up here was December of 2012.
Instead of rehashing the past two and a half years, I'll do something different and focus on the future. In particular, the future of our beloved Seattle Mariners.
Right now, the team that was a chic pick to win the division and play in a World Series is seven games under .500. The $240 million man is hitting less than .250 and has hit for about as much power as Kevin Mitchell did in his one season in Seattle.
Only one position player on the roster is living up to expectations, and it's Nelson Cruz. Kyle Seager has been average at best this year, and is in the midst of a 25 game streak where he is hitting .200.
We have no leadoff hitter, no clutch hitting, no corner outfielders (the trio of Seth Smith, Mark Trumbo and Dustin Ackley is fucking terrible.), a bullpen that has completely regressed and a catcher who is going to have his line replace the Mendoza Line. Soon it's going to be the Zunino Line, and the benchmark will be .150.
I am certain that no bar in Pioneer Square will replicate the Swannies Dave Valle batting average beer price promotion for Mike Z, mainly because it's not even funny. It's just sad.
All of the other pieces on this roster are fringe Major Leaguers.
Which brings us to The King.
Felix Hernandez is in his 11th big league season. He's the most marketable player on the Mariners, and he's the closest thing this city has had to a true baseball superstar since the 2001 version of Ichiro. He's been extremely loyal to the only franchise he's ever known - he's signed to a long term deal that, as TV revenue increases and teams start spending more and more money on players, looks to be a freakin' steal. He's 29 years old and arguably the most dominant pitcher in baseball.
The Mariners are such a poorly run organization that they are now left only one option, if they ever want to truly succeed again. They have to trade Felix now. I've been against this for as long as I can remember, but there is no point in fighting it anymore.
Looking around Major League Baseball, teams are bringing up their stud prospects left and right - but there is no help in Tacoma for Seattle. Top prospect DJ Peterson isn't nearly close to being ready, and after that, the cupboard is once again bare. The only way that this team will be able to replenish the coffers with young talent is by parting with King Felix.
So here's what we do. The M's won't want Felix in the American League, but Felix is now a 10 and 5 guy - meaning he's played 10 seasons at the Major League level and at least five with the same team. So he can control where he goes. He'll want to go to a winner where he'll have a chance to pitch in October this season. He'll want to be in a place where he and his family will be comfortable, and he'll need to go to a team with the pockets to afford his contract both now and in the future.
The answer lies 1000 miles to the south in Los Angeles. Trade Felix to the Dodgers for Joc Pederson, Corey Seager and the expiring contract of Zach Grienke.
Immediately you have your center fielder of the future who also happens to be under club control for another six years. Corey Seager is Kyle Seager's brother and has the makings of a future star either at Shortstop or a corner outfield position. Grienke would be a rent a player, but the Dodgers would need to unload his contract for the remainder of the year to pay Felix.
Even without Felix, there is talent in the M's rotation. Paxton and Walker are starting to show that the hype was real (although Paxton can't stay healthy), Mike Montgomery has been a revelation and Danny Hultzen is getting healthy. Pitching seems to be the only thing the M's can evaluate, anyway.
I realize that this is never going to happen - The Mariners would never part with their most marketable players, nor would the Dodgers ever part with both Seager and Pederson.
I'm just saying, if there was ever a time to do something brash to shake things up, this is it. Felix is the only piece the Mariners have that would bring the level of young talent this team sorely needs.
Admittedly, I have never been an over the top Seahawks fan. To me, they have always come a distant like....fifth...behind the Dawgs (both football and basketball), Mariners and Sonics. Even in 2005 when they went to the Super Bowl, as exciting as it was, I wasn't living and dying with every single play like I did during the 2000 UW Rose Bowl season or 2001 M's 116 win season.
Even during their finest year, the Seahawks didn't seem like a team that I could buy in to 100%. They had nice pieces, no doubt. Shaun Alexander had a record breaking season, Matt Hasselbeck was incredibly smooth and efficient in running the offense, and they had one of the best Offensive Line's in recent history.
That 2005 team went 13-3. But I didn't love them. Their offense was pure finesse, even with Big Walt and Hutch on the O Line. Shaun Alexander wasn't running anybody over for extra yards. Who was our deep threat? D Jack? Maybe. Joe Jurevicius? Probably not. Bobby Engram was as sure handed as they come, but he wasn't putting the fear of God into any secondary. He could move the chains for sure, but that was it. The Defense was built with a "bend but don't break" mentality. They actually gave up more passing yards than they threw for. Bryce Fisher led the team with nine sacks. Lock down corners? Nope. Sorry Tru....Hard hitting safety? Yes, Ken Hamlin could lay the wood - but he only played in six games that year because of the Stop Sign Incident.
Look - that season was phenomenal - we played in a Super Bowl! But...I didn't love that team.
For the first time, I am obsessed with a Seahawks team. The 2012 Pete Carroll edition has everything you could possibly want from an NFL team. Let's go down the list.
1. Clear cut leader. Is there any question?
So much has already been written about RWIII, so I don't need to dive too deeply here, but I will say this - The guy oozes moneyness (quote attributed to Kevin Hinton who was, at the time, referring to our friend Travis Duty). He exudes confidence, and when he has the ball in his hands, I just expect good things to happen. Case in point - yesterday against the Niners...tied at 13 with 5:11 left and starting the drive on their own 10 yard line, I had no doubt that we were going to score. With RWIII at the controls, I no longer have to hope something good will happen, I expect it to. If it doesn't, then I'm surprised.
2. Smash mouth football AKA Beast Mode. People can talk all they want about how it's a passing league. Being able to run the ball and control the clock wins in the post season. It also helps if you can do this.
3. Punch you in the mouth take no prisoners NASTY defense. Yeah.
Want to throw to that side? Go for it.
No wait...throw to the other side! Oh yeah, that guy....
Fine - we'll go over the top!
Wait....shit....ok, how about underneath? Oh....damnit.
Ok...ok. Let's just run the football. Simple enough...
Even with all of those hurdles, I at least will have some time to throw the ball, right? Not like they have a borderline psychopath freak of nature athlete who is going to come at me....
Sonofabitch.....
4. They play with a chip on their shoulder. All. The. Time.
RWIII? Too short to play QB in the NFL. Richard Sherman? Fifth Round pick. Marshawn Lynch? Jettisoned from Buffalo after multiple issues. Brandon Browner? Undrafted, played in the CFL. Golden Tate? Broke in to Top Pot.
Bruce Irvin? Massive reach at #15 overall, and huge character issues. Robert Turbin? Wait, who is he? Bobby Wagner? Another guy from Utah State? Even Pete Carroll - fizzled in two previous NFL Head Coaching tries and had stumbled to two consecutive 7-9 seasons in Seattle.
Doesn't matter. Every single player, coach and member of the front office believes in what they are doing. The hell with the draft experts who universally panned the Wilson and Irvin selections in April - Pete and John Schneider knew exactly what they were doing, and weren't going to let talking heads and their "expert analysis" get in their way.
So, here we go. An 11-5 regular season is in the books, and as we turn the page to 2013, we face the excitement and uncertainty of the NFL Playoffs. The Hawks are a #5 seed and if they are going to get to the Super Bowl, they'll have to do it the hard way, playing at least two games on the road (most likely three)...but you know what? That doesn't scare me, for two reasons. First - the last two Super Bowl Champs ( Green Bay and New York Football Giants) both were wild card teams who went on the road and ran the table. Second - after what we've seen the last six weeks, is there anybody who really wants to bet against this team?
This may be the only time that a die hard Husky shows you empathy, and wishes you weren't going through what you're going through.
In 2008, as all Coug's will happily point out, the Washington Huskies went 0-12.
It was, without a doubt, the worst possible sporting experience that I have ever gone through. Ronnie Fouch? Willie Griffin? It was like the scene in Major League where the Executives are looking through the roster that Rachel Phelps has put together, and they have this exchange:
Executive 1: I never heard of half these guys, and the ones I have heard of are way past their prime
Executive 2: Most of these guys never had a prime.
Executive 3: This guy here is DEAD!
Rachel Phelps/Tyrone Willingham: Cross him off, then.
Yeah, it was that bad. So, Paint Dry Ty got canned after eight games, but then for some inexplicable reason was allowed to coach the rest of the year as a lame duck Head Coach. Then, in January of 2009, UW hired Steve Sarkisian to be the next coach of the Dawgs. There was excitement. There was passion. There was hope.
In Coach Sark's first year, we went from zero wins to five wins, including one of the most memorable games I've ever seen live.
Despite some inconsistencies, UW has steadily improved. Five wins in 2009, seven in 2010 including a Holiday Bowl victory over Nebraska, seven in 2011 including a memorable Alamo Bowl shootout with RG III, and already up to six wins in 2012 with two games remaining.
Now we journey to the other side of the state - to Pullman. In 2008, it was arguable that the Cougs were actually a worse team talent wise than UW. Of course, in the worst Apple Cup of all time, my old friend Tripper Johnson got beat deep to set up the game tying field goal that lead to WSU's overtime victory.
2008 was the first year of the Paul Wulff experience, and in all honesty, that Apple Cup win was probably the highlight of his tenure.
They guy couldn't recruit D-I talent to Pullman, and couldn't coach the talent he had to be competitive. His overall record at WSU was 9-40, and his conference record was 4-32. Dude made Ty Willingham look like a Boss. Which he most certainly was not.
So, after the 2012 season, and another Apple Cup loss, Wulff's firing was just a formality. Now, the Coug's were fired up. They had an Athletic Director in Bill Moos who wasn't afraid to take a gamble. They had more financial resources thanks to the Pac 12's new TV contract (Larry Scott actually IS a Boss). It was time to return WSU Football not only to relevance, but to prominence. People forget, as recently as 2003 this team was a Top 10 team nationally!
Bill Moos wasted no time making his splash.
Almost immediately I started getting texts, IM's, and Facebook Messages.
Cougs are back.
We're winning seven games this year.
Bowl game.
We have more talent than UW already.
You guys should be terrified.
And on it went - and I was scared. I just watched the worst Husky D of all time give up 240 points to Baylor in the Alamo Bowl, and now all of the sudden Mike Leach and his Air Raid Offense were coming to the Pac-12? Nervous indeed. But as they say...THAT'S why they play the games...
On National TV, the first game in College Football all year - WSU gets to go to BYU and show off their new look. Anywhere you went, the Coug passion and energy was palpable. They took the day off of work. They were sauced by noon for a 5 pm kick off. On a Thursday.
And what happened? 30-6, BYU. -5 rushing yards. Ouch.
It's only gotten worse as the year has gone on. Bad losses (again), blowouts and close games. But what's even worse is what's come to light in the past two weeks. Marquess Wilson's suspension, quitting the team, and allegations of abuse against Leach are a new low for the Cougs. I really doubt that it's true - I doubt that Leach and his staff abuse players. I think Marquess Wilson is a puss. An absurdly talented puss who could have been the best player in WSU history if he had the work ethic and drive to make it so. Mike Leach is notorious for being demanding of his players, and Marquess Wilson is notorious for skating by on sheer ability, so you could almost see this coming. The irresistible force meets the immovable object.
Here we are, 11 weeks into the Leach Regime, and we have a 2-8 WSU team with only one win against a D-I program (and they barely squeaked by Eastern Washington), and now we have pending University and Conference investigations into allegations of abuse.
I swear, I am not piling on. I feel for you, WSU. I honestly thought that Leach would turn things around very quickly this year, similar to the turnaround Washington had in 2009. I know how beaten down I was at the end of the Willingham Era. I didn't even watch the second half of the 2008 Apple Cup. I had spent so much time and money investing in the Huskies, and they were a joke. I wasn't even mad, I was completely numb as a fan, which is worse than anger (ask the Mariners)
Instead of a turnaround, instead of a breakthrough, it's been a breakdown for WSU. The most diehard Coug that I know, Mr. Anthony Ward, is over it. This guy loves his team just like I love my Huskies. It's bad, bad news when a fan like that just doesn't care because he's been smacked in the mouth so many times.
So, here you go Coug fans. I hope, for your sake, that Mike Leach gets it together. I hope that he rights the ship (yes, pun intended) and starts to get the results that he had at Texas Tech. No fans deserve to go through what you have for the past six seasons.
Tonight, I experienced real loss for the first time. My grandmother, my Nonnie died at the age of 83. In 1980, she was diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live. She looked at the doctor and told them to fuck off.
She beat cancer. She crushed it. She lived for 32 years after breast cancer tried to take her. She met her first grandson (me). She met the next four of her grandchildren. Then, she met her great grandson...my son Adam
I realize that this has very, very little to do with sports. But at this point, I really don't care. My Nonnie was a second Mother to me. If you know me, or even if you don't, you probably realize that I had an absentee Father and a mother that had to bust her ass to make ends meet. That meant that my Nonnie took us to school, took us to after school sports, and had us sleep over at her house.
I was her first grandchild. Her and I shared a special bond. Granted, she had a special bond with all of her Grandchildren, but with her and I, it was different (yes, I realize this is selfish to say). I was the first one to sleep over at her house. I was the first one to go to Mariner's Opening Day games with her in the 80's...before the game we would go to the Metropolitan Grill and have hamburgers.
How many people can say that their Grandmother never EVER missed their Little League games? How many people can say that their Grandmother showed them their first ever R rated movie? To quote my Nonnie, "It was Major League! They only said Fuck a lot! It wasn't that bad!"
When I was 13 years old, my Nonnie and Boppa took me to London and Paris as a gift to celebrate my Bar Mitzvah. I spent two weeks with them -just the three of us travelling around Europe. How many 13 year olds, let alone ANYBODY get to do that? I did - because that's how remarkable my Nonnie is and was.
The older I got - the more real she got with me. There was no bullshit. If she didn't like something, she told me. Sometimes it was mortifying. Other times, it was brilliant. But always, it was out of love. All she ever wanted was for me to be happy.
In the last six months, she simply got tired of fighting. She fought for 32 fucking years. She beat cancer, she beat radiation, she beat chemo, she beat open heart surgery, she beat countless infections, viruses and influenzas. She crushed them all. She is and was the strongest woman you would ever want to know.
Two stories about my Nonnie.
1. We were in Seaside, Oregon in November of 2005. She had stopped driving at night because her eye sight was going bad. However, because we were in Seaside, a place she had been coming to since she was a child, she decided that she wanted to drive to the movie theater.
As we were about to make the turn from Highway 101 into the Seaside theater, the light turned yellow. In most people's mind, that means "hurry up and get through the light." For Nonnie, it meant, "stop in the middle of the intersection and waver her arms and say how sorry she was for stopping in the middle of an intersection on a major highway."
2. In 2006, my wonderful cousins Ryan Sutherland and Jen (Hanan) Sutherland got married. At their wedding, the power actually went out at the venue. As our entire family sat in the darkness (eventually alleviated because somebody went and got a generator), I continued to drink beers with my cousins. Eventually, I noticed a very stern look coming from my Nonnie. I got up and walked over to her and said, "Nonnie, what's the matter?"
She tightened her lips and said, " Don't you know that your father is an alcoholic?"
"Yes," I said, "I do know that....so?
Her face contorted, "So????? You've had THREE BEERS IN THE LAST HOUR!!!!"
I was stunned....I didn't know how to reply. "Um, yes I have. But there's no need to be so negative about it," I said. "I know my Dad was an alcoholic....I'm not. I am just having beers with my cousins to celebrate Ryan and Jen. No need to be a pessimist."
She then uttered a phrase that I will never forget.
"I'm not a pessimist. I'm a realist. I just want you to be healthy and happy because I love you."
My Nonnie....I could not have been luckier to have you in my life for 30 years. You taught me so much, made me laugh, and helped make me the man I am today. You no longer have to fight and struggle...you can lay your head down and rest easy. You raised three amazing children, who in turn raised five amazing children of their own. The Hanan/Kraft legacy will live on because of you and your husband, my Boppa.
It's time for you to lay down your worries - rest in peace my Nonnie, I will love you and will think of you always.
Remember these guys? Yeah, I do too. Remember how unassumingly it started? A few wins in early August?
Well guess what; this incarnation of the Mariners - beleaguered and scrutinized for their lack of offense, lack of superstars and shoddy front office work - just won their 7th consecutive game, swept their second consecutive series, have won eight of their last nine and are 14-6 since the All Star break. Oh by the way, they are 8-2 since a certain moody and socially awkward right fielder asked to be traded....
What's the most amazing thing about this? Because of the 2nd Wild Card team introduced over the off season, the Mariners, yes THESE Mariners...are only 7.5 game out of a playoff spot.
I realize this is some serious optimism. I realize that just about every single team in the American League with the exception of the Twins and Royals is mathematically still alive for the playoffs - but because this is a franchise that has given us so little over the past decade, I'm willing to get excited.
I have been extremely critical of this team and organization for several years. Even during the 2009 season when they won 88 games with smoke and mirrors, or last year when they somehow played .500 baseball for the first half of the year, it was clear that they weren't actually getting better. This stretch of baseball has involved precisely no overpaid, over the hill veterans (Miguel Olivo has not contributed, obviously....). It has been on the shoulders of young pitchers, young position players who finally FINALLY seem to be showing signs of maturity. Dustin Ackely is starting to hit out of the leadoff spot. Jesus Montero, back from a concussion, has started to look much more comfortable at the plate. Blake Beaven has come back from AAA and gone 4-0 while averaging 7+ inning pitched per start. Jason Vargas just had one of the best month's of baseball in franchise history, going 5-0 and giving up 8 runs in 36 innings. My dear lord, Hisashi Iwakuma struck out 13 Blue Jays in his last start!!!!
I'm not even going to mention Felix, because he has done what he's always done - get stronger as the season goes on.
Again - this is still a team that runs out a shortstop that just got a beer shower because he broke the mendoza line (although, he's the best fielding and facial haired SS in baseball), and the cornerstone of the Cliff Lee trade is in Tacoma trying to find his swing. There's a long, loooooong way to go. But finally, it seems, there's some hope on the horizon.
And hey, I'm not the only one who is shocked about the recent success....Adam is pretty stunned as well.
