Wednesday, November 10, 2004
BAYLOR AND MORE BOOM
The day after a surprising win by Sonics in Denver, there's amounts of news that accumulate in areas other than minor-league hockey. There is also news for the Mariners, who added a new addition to the coaching staff...
BASEBALL
The base-coaching slots are all that remain, as beanball king Don Baylor has been named Mike Hargrove's hitting coach for the Mariners. Andriesen uses the words "feisty" and "outspoken" to describe Baylor, words which surely couldn't be used to describe his predecessor Paul Molitor. I'm just glad that Hargrove was hired first as the manager so that I didn't have to see Baylor take the head post. Luckily, he'll be in here as a hitting coach, and I haven't seen anyone provide an adamant case against his hiring as a hitting coach (almost the opposite, in fact), so I think I tentatively like this hiring. At the very least, he's been teaching the game longer (post-playing career) than Molitor.
Bob Brenly is now in the Chicago Cubs' play-by-play chair for the departed Steve Stone. I never liked Brenly as a manager, but I said during the NLCS that one guy out of the three in the Fox booth sounded out of place, and it was Steve Lyons. I thought Brenly brought a lot to the broadcast, and...you know when someone's just got a voice that sounds like at home it belongs over a broadcast when you're hearing it? I thought Brenly had that in spades over Lyons.
SEAHAWKS
Clare Farnsworth brings up what I pertained to the morning after the game against the 49ers. The team just needs to take care of business and they'll have their 10 wins and a likely playoff appearance. Of course, that business entails a win in Saint Louis on Sunday (they absolutely cannot let the Rams have the head-to-head tiebreaker) before running the table on the home schedule so they don't have to depend on a sketchy possibility of a road win at Minnesota, the Meadowlands (J-E-T-S), or Atlanta. Read the rest of that article, too, because it covers a lot.
Also, Greg Bishop throws a few questions at Kris Richard, now getting playing time thanks to Ken Lucas' bruised lung (he's questionable for Sunday).
Shaun Alexander is a mere 13 yards short of the NFL's rushing lead (Priest Holmes, 892). Just think how much he would have if the playcallers had their heads on straight about two to three games earlier? Alexander naturally does some brown-nosing toward his offensive line and lauds "Coach Holmgren's secret play" for the 3rd-and-10 play from the Seattle 6 that was converted for a first down.
Steve Kelley describes the plight of Eagle fans and Red Sox fans in comparison to what we Seattle fans are going through. He also says Matt Hasselbeck has a chance to be Seattle's David Ortiz (interesting because Ortiz could have been Seattle's David Ortiz), and says that "[r]eal sports fans ignore the rational voices in their heads telling them their optimism is useless. Real sports fans forget all the disappointments from all their yesterdays. Real sports fans always believe in the irrational magic of tomorrow."
BASKETBALL
The Huskies went on a 21-0 run out of the locker room at halftime to bury puny NAIA Westmont College. Westmont's head coach praised the halftime speech of Lorenzo Romar (whatever it was) after the Huskies' most anticipated preseason game in recent memory.
According to the 26th annual Long Beach Press-Telegram's Best in the West poll, the Huskies should be landing the top two recruits on the west coast today when Jon Brockman of Snohomish and Martell Webster of Seattle Prep put in their written commitments to the U. As bad as it is right now if you're a Husky football fan, it's an exponentially better time to be a Husky basketball fan.
For my take on the Sonics tonight, scroll down or click here.
Hard work. That's what's gotten the Sonics their three straight victories, two of which they had no business getting, according to preseason conventional wisdom. The scoring was a little less balanced and more centered on Lewis and Allen, but the Sonics cleaned the glass against Denver. Danny Fortson outrebounded Kenyon Martin 8-7. Martin played 36 minutes; Fortson played 14. It's very early, I know, but these three Sonic wins have looked great. The team is rebounding!! They absolutely killed the Nuggets on the boards by a 45-29 margin. On the offensive glass, they outrebounded the Nuggs 15-9 and got 9 second-chance points. Of course, the last two seasons, the Sonics have started out 6-2 and 8-2, so at the very least, enjoy this while it lasts.
I forgot to mention that the Sonics went 10-for-23 from downtown, and didn't let the altitude get to them, which it seemed like quite a few recent Sonic teams have. I'm not referencing the Sonics' first-seed team that lost to the eighth-seed Nuggets, either, though they did lose two games in Denver after having that 2-0 lead, then they came back to Seattle. You know, Dikembe Mutombo lying in the paint holding the ball with glee, etc.
I watched NBA Nation on ESPN last night (not sure how this is any different from NBA Fast Break), but Marc Stein picked the Boston Celtics to win the Atlantic Division in the Put Up or Shut Up segment. I'm speechless. My head also exploded during a shouting match between Stein, Greg Anthony, and Stephen A. Smith. ESPN getting NBA television rights is the best and worst thing to happen for NBA coverage since NBC lost the rights to it.
HOCKEY
Luckily there's a good news item about the Everett Silvertips on this night before we get to the game results. In a trend spanning their existence (i.e., since last year), the Silvertips have been playing just as well or better on the road as they do at home. Also in that article is the outcome of a WHL writers' poll, which ranked the top 5 teams in the league as Medicine Hat, Saskatoon, Seattle, Calgary, and Red Deer.
Moose Jaw beat Everett, 3-1. Well, you can only hold down a winless team for so long. The Warriors snapped their season-opening 19-game winless streak (now 1-14-4-1) against the Silvertips, who no doubt assisted in the victory by going 0-for-6 on the power play. Brady Calla scored the only Everett goal in the third period, and Mike Wall stopped 18 of 20. The 'Tips have two games left to go on the five-game Eastern Division road swing, on which they are 2-1.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Seattle at Vancouver
Thursday: Everett at Brandon, Manitoba at Cleveland
Friday: Everett at Regina, Seattle at Spokane, Portland at Vancouver, Manitoba at Cincinnati, Puget Sound at Tri-City
Saturday: Vancouver at Seattle, Portland at Spokane, Manitoba at Cincinnati, Puget Sound at Tri-City
Sunday: Vancouver at Kootenay
---
Relax, everyone, you're halfway through the work week.
BASEBALL
The base-coaching slots are all that remain, as beanball king Don Baylor has been named Mike Hargrove's hitting coach for the Mariners. Andriesen uses the words "feisty" and "outspoken" to describe Baylor, words which surely couldn't be used to describe his predecessor Paul Molitor. I'm just glad that Hargrove was hired first as the manager so that I didn't have to see Baylor take the head post. Luckily, he'll be in here as a hitting coach, and I haven't seen anyone provide an adamant case against his hiring as a hitting coach (almost the opposite, in fact), so I think I tentatively like this hiring. At the very least, he's been teaching the game longer (post-playing career) than Molitor.
Bob Brenly is now in the Chicago Cubs' play-by-play chair for the departed Steve Stone. I never liked Brenly as a manager, but I said during the NLCS that one guy out of the three in the Fox booth sounded out of place, and it was Steve Lyons. I thought Brenly brought a lot to the broadcast, and...you know when someone's just got a voice that sounds like at home it belongs over a broadcast when you're hearing it? I thought Brenly had that in spades over Lyons.
SEAHAWKS
Clare Farnsworth brings up what I pertained to the morning after the game against the 49ers. The team just needs to take care of business and they'll have their 10 wins and a likely playoff appearance. Of course, that business entails a win in Saint Louis on Sunday (they absolutely cannot let the Rams have the head-to-head tiebreaker) before running the table on the home schedule so they don't have to depend on a sketchy possibility of a road win at Minnesota, the Meadowlands (J-E-T-S), or Atlanta. Read the rest of that article, too, because it covers a lot.
Also, Greg Bishop throws a few questions at Kris Richard, now getting playing time thanks to Ken Lucas' bruised lung (he's questionable for Sunday).
Shaun Alexander is a mere 13 yards short of the NFL's rushing lead (Priest Holmes, 892). Just think how much he would have if the playcallers had their heads on straight about two to three games earlier? Alexander naturally does some brown-nosing toward his offensive line and lauds "Coach Holmgren's secret play" for the 3rd-and-10 play from the Seattle 6 that was converted for a first down.
Steve Kelley describes the plight of Eagle fans and Red Sox fans in comparison to what we Seattle fans are going through. He also says Matt Hasselbeck has a chance to be Seattle's David Ortiz (interesting because Ortiz could have been Seattle's David Ortiz), and says that "[r]eal sports fans ignore the rational voices in their heads telling them their optimism is useless. Real sports fans forget all the disappointments from all their yesterdays. Real sports fans always believe in the irrational magic of tomorrow."
BASKETBALL
The Huskies went on a 21-0 run out of the locker room at halftime to bury puny NAIA Westmont College. Westmont's head coach praised the halftime speech of Lorenzo Romar (whatever it was) after the Huskies' most anticipated preseason game in recent memory.
According to the 26th annual Long Beach Press-Telegram's Best in the West poll, the Huskies should be landing the top two recruits on the west coast today when Jon Brockman of Snohomish and Martell Webster of Seattle Prep put in their written commitments to the U. As bad as it is right now if you're a Husky football fan, it's an exponentially better time to be a Husky basketball fan.
For my take on the Sonics tonight, scroll down or click here.
Hard work. That's what's gotten the Sonics their three straight victories, two of which they had no business getting, according to preseason conventional wisdom. The scoring was a little less balanced and more centered on Lewis and Allen, but the Sonics cleaned the glass against Denver. Danny Fortson outrebounded Kenyon Martin 8-7. Martin played 36 minutes; Fortson played 14. It's very early, I know, but these three Sonic wins have looked great. The team is rebounding!! They absolutely killed the Nuggets on the boards by a 45-29 margin. On the offensive glass, they outrebounded the Nuggs 15-9 and got 9 second-chance points. Of course, the last two seasons, the Sonics have started out 6-2 and 8-2, so at the very least, enjoy this while it lasts.
I forgot to mention that the Sonics went 10-for-23 from downtown, and didn't let the altitude get to them, which it seemed like quite a few recent Sonic teams have. I'm not referencing the Sonics' first-seed team that lost to the eighth-seed Nuggets, either, though they did lose two games in Denver after having that 2-0 lead, then they came back to Seattle. You know, Dikembe Mutombo lying in the paint holding the ball with glee, etc.
I watched NBA Nation on ESPN last night (not sure how this is any different from NBA Fast Break), but Marc Stein picked the Boston Celtics to win the Atlantic Division in the Put Up or Shut Up segment. I'm speechless. My head also exploded during a shouting match between Stein, Greg Anthony, and Stephen A. Smith. ESPN getting NBA television rights is the best and worst thing to happen for NBA coverage since NBC lost the rights to it.
HOCKEY
Luckily there's a good news item about the Everett Silvertips on this night before we get to the game results. In a trend spanning their existence (i.e., since last year), the Silvertips have been playing just as well or better on the road as they do at home. Also in that article is the outcome of a WHL writers' poll, which ranked the top 5 teams in the league as Medicine Hat, Saskatoon, Seattle, Calgary, and Red Deer.
Moose Jaw beat Everett, 3-1. Well, you can only hold down a winless team for so long. The Warriors snapped their season-opening 19-game winless streak (now 1-14-4-1) against the Silvertips, who no doubt assisted in the victory by going 0-for-6 on the power play. Brady Calla scored the only Everett goal in the third period, and Mike Wall stopped 18 of 20. The 'Tips have two games left to go on the five-game Eastern Division road swing, on which they are 2-1.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Seattle at Vancouver
Thursday: Everett at Brandon, Manitoba at Cleveland
Friday: Everett at Regina, Seattle at Spokane, Portland at Vancouver, Manitoba at Cincinnati, Puget Sound at Tri-City
Saturday: Vancouver at Seattle, Portland at Spokane, Manitoba at Cincinnati, Puget Sound at Tri-City
Sunday: Vancouver at Kootenay
---
Relax, everyone, you're halfway through the work week.
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