Archive for June, 2006

Missed this one from earlier in my vacation…

Seahawks are #1 in ESPN’s initial 2006 power poll.

And the ESPN experts think the Hawks will walk over the NFC West just as easily as they did last year. AZ is the next highest-ranked team from the division, but all the way down at #21. Ouch.

Couple quickies here….

Gary Washburn has a really good status report on the Sonics’ current situation with respect to Chris Wilcox and the team’s draft plans.

And there’s a brief note in the Morning Journal (OHIO?) about the Blazers wanting to move up to pick Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison.

With no big studs at the top of the draft, there’s a lot of uncertainty and that should make for an interesting couple days leading up to Wednesday. Don’t know how much of it I’ll be able to keep track of since I have a lot of travel ahead between now and then….

I know I’ve said before that NFL mags shouldn’t be allowed to make predictions until after baseball’s All-Star break, but ain’t nobody listening. Via USA Today comes word that five NFL mags have already posted their 2006 NFL predictions.

In a nutshell: none have the Hawks returning to the Super Bowl, but all have them winning the NFC West.

Here’s the recap:

Athlon: Indianapolis defeats Carolina. Lindy’s: Carolina defeats Denver. ProFootball Weekly: Carolina defeats Indianapolis. Sporting News: Pittsburgh defeats Carolina. Street & Smith’s: Carolina defeats Denver.

Three words: We’ll show them. 

June 22, 2006: The King

Originally uploaded by Matt McGee.

Went to see the Mariners-Dodgers game Thursday night at Dodger Stadium and thought we were in for a win after Betancourt and Ibanez hit HRs to put the Good Guys up 2-0 with Felix on the hill. But the Dodgers finally got some offense going in the middle innings and won the game 4-2.

I love Safeco Field, but Dodger Stadium is super for an older park. On-site parking is only $10, which is amazing. And the stadium staff were super cool — letting me go into any section I wanted to shoot pix. Last time I tried that at Safeco, the ushers wouldn’t let me into a section if I didn’t have a ticket to sit there. Sheesh.

More pix to come in my Flickr account, but probably not for a few days or maybe even until next weekend.

Not that you’d notice, but I’ll have irregular internet access for a while coming up, so posting may be light(er than usual).

When you’re about to be a free agent, your agent is supposed to tell you to keep things close to the vest — don’t talk about where you’d love to play next. Jason Schmidt’s agent forgot to explain all that. Schmidt tells the San Francisco Chronicle that he would love to join the Mariners next season.

“I’ll be open to look at anything, but would I like to play in Seattle? Sure I would,” Schmidt said Thursday. “Whenever I face them in spring training it’s a special time for me. I see that uniform and I see everything I identified with growing up.”

“I feel I would do my career an injustice if I didn’t play in Seattle at least one year, which would fulfill my childhood dream. It doesn’t always work out that way. I could change my mind like I did the first time, but if I look at it from my perspective as an 8-year-old, it would be exciting.”

He’s 33 (should have another couple good years in him), he’s having another very good year (hasn’t allowed more than 2 ERs in a game since April 21), and he wants to pitch in Seattle. Can Bavasi screw this up?

If anyone knows where to find this stuff out, please speak up.

1.) How many bad pitches the Mariners swing at. They must be at or near the top (bottom?) of the league, right? Or do I just notice it more because it’s bad when the Mariners do it, and good when the other guys do it? If I’m right, it could be attributed in part to the M’s having more young (and undisciplined) hitters than your average team. But in reality, guys like Sexson and Beltre seem to be swinging at as many bad pitches as Betancourt and Lopez.

2.) The correlation between a team getting out of a bases-loaded, nobody out jam and wins. When you escape that jam, it’s such a huge confidence booster — and the team that doesn’t score in that situation has its mojo go in the other direction. I’m thinking there has to be a correlation between the two.

3.) How many times a walk comes around to score vs. how many times a single comes around to score. It’s one of baseball’s great truths — don’t walk batters, because walks always come back to haunt you. Is that true, or is it myth? Do guys that walk score more often than guys who hit a single?

John Hickey blogged a couple days back about the Mariners having a different “look” these days — and you can even see that from sitting at home watching on TV.

But now comes a real test. After three days playing at Angel Stadium, their home away from home, it’s time for a visit to McAfee Coliseum, the Mariners’ personal house of horrors. From heaven to hell….

Longtime readers will know I’m not too fond of the Mariners broadcast team, but here’s one post to go against the tide. I stopped watching after the 5th inning, but Dave Henderson had a helluva broadcast on TV by that point. Anything else he says tonight is gravy.

For starters, loved his line about the Sexson grand slam calling it a “shut up home run” because it … well, shut up the home crowd. Great line.

But before that, I actually heard Dave Henderson be openly critical of a couple Mariners:

1) He was critical of Raul Ibanez’s defense in the 2nd inning, when he threw home on the Figgins single even though there was no way he was gonna throw out Rivera. The throw home let Adam Kennedy advance to 3rd, and Hendu was spot on about calling Ibanez out on that.

2) He was critical of Kenji Johjima’s baserunning in the 3rd. On the Betancourt double to the gap, Johjima held up way too long waiting for it to drop — and that meant Reed had to also hold up on the bases, and only Johjima scored on the play. Hendu correctly pointed out that Johjima should’ve seen where the OFers were stationed and known they were never gonna get to Betancourt’s drive.

What a breath off broadcasting fresh air. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard Ron Fairly or Dave Valle be so openly critical of Mariners’ mistakes.

Looks like the guys and gals with deep pockets are starting to take spots in the Maybe-I’ll-Buy-the-Blazers line.

According to the LA Times, Anaheim Mighty Ducks owner Henry Samueli is interested in buying and moving the Blazers to Anaheim. Does the L.A. area really need three teams? Well, now that the Clippers are good there is an opening for NBA doormat there.

And then this from the Journal Times (Wisconsin): Michael Jordan, who came ever-so-close to buying the Bucks a couple of summers ago, has made it clear he still wants to be an owner. And that’s why some NBA officials aren’t dismissing the possibility of Jordan and some of his deep-pocketed friends buying the Portland Trail Blazers.

Hmmm. This is coming from a small paper that covers the Milwaukee Bucks, in an article that mainly addresses the Bucks’ draft plans. So my guess is that the reporter heard some Bucks officials talking about the Blazers situation and mentioned the Jordan possibility…..