Friday, November 28, 2003
JAZZ 98, SONICS 81...AND SOME OTHER STUFF
First off, so people don't just skip the post altogether...
THE "OTHER STUFF" IS -- the birthday experience in Port Orchard, some stuff about my North Kitsap knowledge, my stint at Okanogan Baseball Camp, ripping on Aaron Sele, and my conclusion about Barbara Hedges at UW.
Well, after my birthday semi-festivities with the 'rents (i.e., Godfather's Pizza in Port Orchard, more on that later), I came home and saw most of the second half. I saw the Sonics absolutely melt down in the 3rd quarter. Then I saw the Sonics show some signs of life in the form of Antonio Daniels (who needs MANY MANY more minutes) and Luke Ridnour raining down threes. The Sonics got a Jazz 21-pt lead whittled down to eight with about eight minutes left in the 4th quarter. Then the Sonics melted down again.
Some of the stuff is aided by the Sonics postgame show on KJR with David Locke...
To the coaching staff: what the hell happened to run-and-gun?! The team seems to be trying to play on the level of the other teams, and when you have no center, you can't play a half-court set too well. That's been the story of the Sonics even before the Sonics had those playoff runs in the early 90s and the Finals run. But why the hell have the coaches strayed away from run-and-gun? They come out and have some balls at the beginning of the season and they have one bad game where the jumpers don't fall, then they try to play half-court with these teams...stupid.
The Sonics had 22 turnovers and 14 assists tonight. Billy McKinney thought they didn't move with or without the ball. The Sonics were outscored by 17 pts at the free-throw line. The Sonics were outrebounded again, this time by 14. Lately the Sonics have had no interior defense as Dwyane Wade, Kirilenko, Harpring, and everyone else has running at the Sonics, and they're not afraid to do it. Even Lamar Odom, who was toasted, wasn't afraid to run at the Sonics.
In the Seattle sports moment of the night, we have the latest trend in Seattle sports -- getting beat by no-names. The Seahawks have had Rudi Johnson run all over them and have had Marcus Robinson have a career receiving day against them this year. The Mariners ate out of the palms of such luminaries as Mark Hendrickson, Doug Waechter, Jorge Sosa, and Billy Traber, et. al. last year. Tonight, the Sonics carry on the tradition, as the Jazz got a career-best night for RAJA FRIGGIN' BELL, who had 25 pts.
A Nate quote: "I wanna see some fight. Our starting guards need to play better defense." Nate vowed to play the guys who play hard. He said Antonio Daniels provided leadership and was showing some fight, along with Frahm, Vitaly, and Ansu.
One could say that the Sonics had no Lewis, no Allen, and no Collison. But the Jazz were missing their starting PG and C (Ostertag).
From a TV graphic, the Sonics in their first 6 games averaged 85 shots and had a record of 5-1. In the next 6 games, they averaged 77 shots and went 2-4. Tonight, they put up 70 jumpshots and lost.
As for the night at Godfather's, I stuffed my face with pizza and it was good. The people at the South Kitsap Mall branch of Godfather's have always been good to be, so I won't slam them. There was a trading card store in the SK Mall with a little Bloomquist shrine that took every ounce of my restraint to not rip down and stomp on, but I once collected baseball cards and knew it'd be rude to stomp on an enterpreneur's merch like that. There was a Todd Linden card in another display, so I'll give him that.
But the whole time at Godfather's, I was wondering what kind of reaction I would get if I just screamed "Willie Bloomquist SUUUUUUUCKSSSSS!!!" at the top of my lungs. I'm sure that would have went over well, then I would have run over to the card shop and let the owner know how I felt. Then it would have been a short jaunt over to the A&W joint in the parking lot and shaking all the SK trophies, uniforms, and garb from the shelves and the ceiling with my incessant yelling. The entire A&W place is such a SK High ego stroke it's not even funny. The strawberry milkshakes are great, though, so it's a tug of war for me sometimes.
And to respond to Matt at JAMB, I'll give props to most North grads not named Sele. As a Class of 2k member, I knew a few things about North. The two Bambls that came through were DAMN GOOD at wrestling. That open-door stall (whose idea was that?) in the locker room (might have been the girls') was nothing less than inconvenient and creepy, especially if you actually had to use the damn thing. Coach Frease seemed to turn out an amazing number of good pitchers, i.e., Will Fenton could bring the heat (he later went to UW...my UW spiel will come after this) though I never saw Clary Carlsen. One last thing I knew was that Snider Park (the Babe Ruth field by Highway 3) was TWENTY TIMES the ballfield that the NK High field was. Oh yeah, I was a member as a 16-year-old of the 1998 Okanogan Baseball Camp 16- to 18-year-old week where a fellow camper was a NK Viking third baseman by the name of Shawn (sp?) Harvey. Harvey, myself, and a Senior Babe Ruth team from the town of Beaver WA (near Forks, and don't laugh, that's really the name) were the only Statesiders in the camp, as we were surrounded by ~30 other Canadian ballplayers. Lemme tell ya, those Canadian kids were pretty dedicated and on-the-ball. A teammate of mine at camp by the name of Jon Martins was an aspiring centerfielder -- one I picked up the term "ZOO" from to use on every friggin error -- who was quite fast and idolized the hustle play of one Lenny Dykstra. At one point in the camp, I played catch with the son (~7 years old) of then-WSU Cougar baseball coach Steve Ferrington. At other points, it reached to about 103 degrees outside, but games were scheduled toward the late afternoons anyway. My shining moment of the camp came on the last play when I was playing right field, played a base-hit grounder, overthrew the cut-off man (not ever advisable, especially with my Randy Winn arm) and nailed a runner going to third base. You'll get a post of my bad baseball moments one day, trust me. And I've remembered many more bad moments than the good, let me tell you...
As for Sele...gutless. Oh-for his career in the postseason, and I'm firmly convinced the Angels won the World Series because Sele was on the shelf for most of the 2002 season. If the Angels trot him out in the playoffs instead of John Lackey, they're toast. Plain and simple. My convincing moment of Sele's tenure in Seattle came incidentally after my second convincing moment of Arthur Rhodes' tenure of Seattle (the first was the Justice homer from the 2000 ALCS). I know I've referred to this a bunch of times here at Sports and B's, but I gotta do it again. Game 4 of the 2001 ALCS, the Mariners are down 2-1 in the series after losing the first two at home (travesty, and Sele took the L in Game 1) then clobbering the Yanks in Game 3. Paul Abbott and Roger Clemens are in the weirdest pitching duel, walking a ton of guys and throwing a ton of pitches, but somehow not giving up runs. Bret Boone comes up in the 8th and ropes an inside pitch off Ramiro Mendoza into the screen in LCF to put the Mariners up 1-0. Given that the Mariners had won 116 friggin games that past season, and that they'd done it with an airtight bullpen. This game was sealed up. Art Rhodes came on for the bottom of the 8th. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" I screamed as Bernie Williams tattooed the ball into the night off Rhodes. It was tied 1-1 at that point, but you know what? As far as I was concerned, that series was over. Why? Momentum went the Yankees way and most importantly, AARON SELE WAS SLATED TO START GAME 5. I was SO SURE that the Mariners were going to tank Game 5 that I didn't even watch, and I'm glad I didn't watch that clunker, which ended up 12-3. Some to this day still argue that Lou should have been using Pineiro at that point instead of Sele. I wouldn't have argued with using Joel.
To the UW spiel I promised, I've come to the conclusion that UW's AD Barbara Hedges hates men. Why? The UW women's softball (possible steroid findings notwithstanding) and basketball programs have been friggin awesome for quite a while now. However, the last decade has seen all three of the baseball, men's basketball, and football programs go to crap or at least fall off a bit. The baseball program had a couple good years in the Jeff Heaverlo era, and I want to say that ended about four or five years ago (no stat proof, you might want to check me on that). The basketball program has been crap ever since Rip Hamilton (then of UConn -- he had 44 pts tonight for the Pistons) beat the Huskies on that last-second shot in the Sweet 16 back in 1998. The football team...well, you've probably heard what they're going through, especially in the post-Marques Tuiasosopo era (is he still with Megan Franza??).
Okay. Big loooooong rant there, bit it had to be done. I think I spewed well. Thank you for your time.
THE "OTHER STUFF" IS -- the birthday experience in Port Orchard, some stuff about my North Kitsap knowledge, my stint at Okanogan Baseball Camp, ripping on Aaron Sele, and my conclusion about Barbara Hedges at UW.
Well, after my birthday semi-festivities with the 'rents (i.e., Godfather's Pizza in Port Orchard, more on that later), I came home and saw most of the second half. I saw the Sonics absolutely melt down in the 3rd quarter. Then I saw the Sonics show some signs of life in the form of Antonio Daniels (who needs MANY MANY more minutes) and Luke Ridnour raining down threes. The Sonics got a Jazz 21-pt lead whittled down to eight with about eight minutes left in the 4th quarter. Then the Sonics melted down again.
Some of the stuff is aided by the Sonics postgame show on KJR with David Locke...
To the coaching staff: what the hell happened to run-and-gun?! The team seems to be trying to play on the level of the other teams, and when you have no center, you can't play a half-court set too well. That's been the story of the Sonics even before the Sonics had those playoff runs in the early 90s and the Finals run. But why the hell have the coaches strayed away from run-and-gun? They come out and have some balls at the beginning of the season and they have one bad game where the jumpers don't fall, then they try to play half-court with these teams...stupid.
The Sonics had 22 turnovers and 14 assists tonight. Billy McKinney thought they didn't move with or without the ball. The Sonics were outscored by 17 pts at the free-throw line. The Sonics were outrebounded again, this time by 14. Lately the Sonics have had no interior defense as Dwyane Wade, Kirilenko, Harpring, and everyone else has running at the Sonics, and they're not afraid to do it. Even Lamar Odom, who was toasted, wasn't afraid to run at the Sonics.
In the Seattle sports moment of the night, we have the latest trend in Seattle sports -- getting beat by no-names. The Seahawks have had Rudi Johnson run all over them and have had Marcus Robinson have a career receiving day against them this year. The Mariners ate out of the palms of such luminaries as Mark Hendrickson, Doug Waechter, Jorge Sosa, and Billy Traber, et. al. last year. Tonight, the Sonics carry on the tradition, as the Jazz got a career-best night for RAJA FRIGGIN' BELL, who had 25 pts.
A Nate quote: "I wanna see some fight. Our starting guards need to play better defense." Nate vowed to play the guys who play hard. He said Antonio Daniels provided leadership and was showing some fight, along with Frahm, Vitaly, and Ansu.
One could say that the Sonics had no Lewis, no Allen, and no Collison. But the Jazz were missing their starting PG and C (Ostertag).
From a TV graphic, the Sonics in their first 6 games averaged 85 shots and had a record of 5-1. In the next 6 games, they averaged 77 shots and went 2-4. Tonight, they put up 70 jumpshots and lost.
As for the night at Godfather's, I stuffed my face with pizza and it was good. The people at the South Kitsap Mall branch of Godfather's have always been good to be, so I won't slam them. There was a trading card store in the SK Mall with a little Bloomquist shrine that took every ounce of my restraint to not rip down and stomp on, but I once collected baseball cards and knew it'd be rude to stomp on an enterpreneur's merch like that. There was a Todd Linden card in another display, so I'll give him that.
But the whole time at Godfather's, I was wondering what kind of reaction I would get if I just screamed "Willie Bloomquist SUUUUUUUCKSSSSS!!!" at the top of my lungs. I'm sure that would have went over well, then I would have run over to the card shop and let the owner know how I felt. Then it would have been a short jaunt over to the A&W joint in the parking lot and shaking all the SK trophies, uniforms, and garb from the shelves and the ceiling with my incessant yelling. The entire A&W place is such a SK High ego stroke it's not even funny. The strawberry milkshakes are great, though, so it's a tug of war for me sometimes.
And to respond to Matt at JAMB, I'll give props to most North grads not named Sele. As a Class of 2k member, I knew a few things about North. The two Bambls that came through were DAMN GOOD at wrestling. That open-door stall (whose idea was that?) in the locker room (might have been the girls') was nothing less than inconvenient and creepy, especially if you actually had to use the damn thing. Coach Frease seemed to turn out an amazing number of good pitchers, i.e., Will Fenton could bring the heat (he later went to UW...my UW spiel will come after this) though I never saw Clary Carlsen. One last thing I knew was that Snider Park (the Babe Ruth field by Highway 3) was TWENTY TIMES the ballfield that the NK High field was. Oh yeah, I was a member as a 16-year-old of the 1998 Okanogan Baseball Camp 16- to 18-year-old week where a fellow camper was a NK Viking third baseman by the name of Shawn (sp?) Harvey. Harvey, myself, and a Senior Babe Ruth team from the town of Beaver WA (near Forks, and don't laugh, that's really the name) were the only Statesiders in the camp, as we were surrounded by ~30 other Canadian ballplayers. Lemme tell ya, those Canadian kids were pretty dedicated and on-the-ball. A teammate of mine at camp by the name of Jon Martins was an aspiring centerfielder -- one I picked up the term "ZOO" from to use on every friggin error -- who was quite fast and idolized the hustle play of one Lenny Dykstra. At one point in the camp, I played catch with the son (~7 years old) of then-WSU Cougar baseball coach Steve Ferrington. At other points, it reached to about 103 degrees outside, but games were scheduled toward the late afternoons anyway. My shining moment of the camp came on the last play when I was playing right field, played a base-hit grounder, overthrew the cut-off man (not ever advisable, especially with my Randy Winn arm) and nailed a runner going to third base. You'll get a post of my bad baseball moments one day, trust me. And I've remembered many more bad moments than the good, let me tell you...
As for Sele...gutless. Oh-for his career in the postseason, and I'm firmly convinced the Angels won the World Series because Sele was on the shelf for most of the 2002 season. If the Angels trot him out in the playoffs instead of John Lackey, they're toast. Plain and simple. My convincing moment of Sele's tenure in Seattle came incidentally after my second convincing moment of Arthur Rhodes' tenure of Seattle (the first was the Justice homer from the 2000 ALCS). I know I've referred to this a bunch of times here at Sports and B's, but I gotta do it again. Game 4 of the 2001 ALCS, the Mariners are down 2-1 in the series after losing the first two at home (travesty, and Sele took the L in Game 1) then clobbering the Yanks in Game 3. Paul Abbott and Roger Clemens are in the weirdest pitching duel, walking a ton of guys and throwing a ton of pitches, but somehow not giving up runs. Bret Boone comes up in the 8th and ropes an inside pitch off Ramiro Mendoza into the screen in LCF to put the Mariners up 1-0. Given that the Mariners had won 116 friggin games that past season, and that they'd done it with an airtight bullpen. This game was sealed up. Art Rhodes came on for the bottom of the 8th. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" I screamed as Bernie Williams tattooed the ball into the night off Rhodes. It was tied 1-1 at that point, but you know what? As far as I was concerned, that series was over. Why? Momentum went the Yankees way and most importantly, AARON SELE WAS SLATED TO START GAME 5. I was SO SURE that the Mariners were going to tank Game 5 that I didn't even watch, and I'm glad I didn't watch that clunker, which ended up 12-3. Some to this day still argue that Lou should have been using Pineiro at that point instead of Sele. I wouldn't have argued with using Joel.
To the UW spiel I promised, I've come to the conclusion that UW's AD Barbara Hedges hates men. Why? The UW women's softball (possible steroid findings notwithstanding) and basketball programs have been friggin awesome for quite a while now. However, the last decade has seen all three of the baseball, men's basketball, and football programs go to crap or at least fall off a bit. The baseball program had a couple good years in the Jeff Heaverlo era, and I want to say that ended about four or five years ago (no stat proof, you might want to check me on that). The basketball program has been crap ever since Rip Hamilton (then of UConn -- he had 44 pts tonight for the Pistons) beat the Huskies on that last-second shot in the Sweet 16 back in 1998. The football team...well, you've probably heard what they're going through, especially in the post-Marques Tuiasosopo era (is he still with Megan Franza??).
Okay. Big loooooong rant there, bit it had to be done. I think I spewed well. Thank you for your time.
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