Tuesday, November 30, 2004
KEEP REACHING
Welcome to Tuesday. Those that can get the CBC and who are half-hockey inclined or going through puck withdrawal can see Making the Cut tonight at 8pm. It's seriously the only televised hockey I've seen since the World Cup ended last September.
It's a light slate this morning. It's the aftermath at Camp Seahawk in Kirkland, the Sonics were off yesterday and have Portland tonight, and hockey was off yesterday as well and resumes tonight. I can't cleverly sneak in a joke right here about the Seahawks taking Sunday off, so I'll just move on...
BASEBALL
I'm not sure what you think, but to me, Wade Boggs looks like the only lock on this year's Hall of Fame ballot. The remaining names are Strawberry, Langston, Sandberg, Sutter, Rice, Dawson, Gossage, McGee, Davis, McDowell, and Montgomery. As the years go by, more names of players that played in my childhood start appearing, making me feel incredibly old. Jeff Montgomery and Jack McDowell? That's like yesterday to me.
Apparently some people thought the Mariners might have had a chance to be sold, which didn't even cross my mind upon the revelation of Hiroshi Yamauchi's turnover of his Mariners shares to Nintendo of America. This must have been generated by pure rumor or something (or the pen of Bob Finnigan), but no outside Paul Allen-like entity is going to buy the team or anything like that. One interesting thing about the article is that MLB had seen the Yamauchi/Nintendo stake as one and the same, hence needing no leaguewide owners' vote when the shares were reallocated. Though estate planning for Yamauchi is mentioned in the article, the mention of the word "death" by Howard Lincoln did strike me as a little bit morbid. I would have preferred "passing" or something a bit softer, but oh well.
SEAHAWKS
We're really reaching now. Logs were being thrown onto the fire and s'mores were being made in Kirkland on Monday as Coach Holmgren told the tall tales of the San Francisco 49ers of years gone by. This was enough to get articles out of both Clare Farnsworth and J-M Romero. It's pretty much the same quotes in both articles, involving the 1988 49ers who were 6-5 and finished 10-6 and won Super Bowl XXIII. Now I know that 49er team was 13-2 the year before, and the expectations were higher, and they'd lost 9-3 to the Raiders before that final run, but these Seahawks do not have Joe Montana, Roger Craig, or a much younger Jerry Rice (though they do have Jerry Rice). To even think that a couple of the players for these Seahawks can step up and save the season the way those 49ers did...right now, that thought seems impossible. It's possible, sure, but it seems extremely lofty.
SONICS
The Marvin Williams Watch
Marvin Williams and the North Carolina Tar Heels will face the Indiana Hoosiers at Assembly Hall in Bloomington tomorrow night.
Huskies
I'd have to say that losing Brandon Roy for 4 to 6 weeks with a lateral meniscus tear in the right knee would be the Huskies' first true test of their run this year. Tre Simmons will be getting much of Roy's playing time. The Huskies square off against Gonzaga tomorrow night. The Huskies will be lucky to have Roy back by the new year. More likely, they'll get him back in mid-January, just after the start of conference play.
Sonics
It's a Percy Allen piece on Nate McMillan and the 13-2 start. Though I know we all let a lot more stuff slide when things are going good, I think the fact that Nate is an obsessive perfectionist is exactly the attitude that this team needs in their coach. McMillan as coach of this team is letting his players know that although they're 13-2, there is still a lot of work to be done, a lot of fine-tuning and refining left to do, etc. I think his attitude can only help this team, even when things get rough. I guess the one scary thing about the article is that it notes the 14-1 and 20-2 starts of the 1993-94 team of Sonics. Of course, the bad thing about that team was the whole thing where they were the first #1 seed ever to lose a series to the #8 seed in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Of course, it'd be different now with all of the series being best-of-7, but that'd be an even more gargantuan collapse.
Consider Nate McMillan at least a partial disciple in the Hubie Brown school of coaching. Basically, make the team play hard and produce, then bench the players who don't. Seems simple enough, right? One fun part in the article is the statistical comparison between Calvin Booth in Dallas this year and Danny Fortson. Calvin Booth is averaging 2.6 points and 1.9 rebounds a game. Danny Fortson is averaging 9.5 points and 6.6 boards a game. That's more than triple in both categories. Even if Fortson got injured right now and missed a few weeks (we can't forget about his bouts with the injury bug in years past), Rick Sund absolutely took Mark Cuban to the cleaners.
Upcoming...
Tonight at Portland
Tomorrow vs. Utah
Saturday vs. Portland
HOCKEY
No games occurred in the usual rotation, so I guess this one will be a standings post. Teams followed on this page are in italics.
WESTERN HOCKEY LEAGUE
(rank_team, games played, record [points], streak, last 10)
Western Conference -- BC Division
1 Kootenay Ice, 27, 17-7-3-0 [37], T1, 8-1-1
2 Kelowna Rockets, 27, 16-6-5-0 [37], T2, 6-0-4
3 Vancouver Giants, 14-11-0-2 [30], W4, 5-5-0
4 Prince George Cougars, 27, 10-13-3-1 [24], W1, 4-5-1
5 Kamloops Blazers, 27, 9-15-2-1 [21], W2, 4-5-1
Western Conference -- US Division
1 Seattle Thunderbirds, 23, 17-6-0-0 [34], W1, 7-3-0
2 Everett Silvertips, 26, 14-7-3-2 [33], W1, 7-2-1
3 Portland Winter Hawks, 25, 12-10-1-2 [27], W1, 5-4-1
4 Tri-City Americans, 25, 9-12-3-1 [22], L1, 4-5-1
5 Spokane Chiefs, 24, 8-12-3-1 [20], W1, 3-4-3
AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE
(rank_team, games played, record [points])
Western Conference -- North Division
1 Edmonton Road Runners, 21, 12-4-2-3 [29]
2 Manitoba Moose, 20, 12-6-0-2 [26]
3 Saint John's Maple Leafs, 20, 12-7-0-1 [25]
4 Rochester Americans, 20, 10-6-3-1 [24]
5 Syracuse Crunch, 21, 8-8-2-3 [21]
6 Cleveland Barons, 20, 8-9-1-2 [19]
7 Hamilton Bulldogs, 22, 7-11-3-1 [18]
NORTHERN PACIFIC HOCKEY LEAGUE -- West Division
(rank_team, games played, record [points])
1 Puget Sound Tomahawks, 22, 20-2-0 [40]
2 Portland Pioneers, 19, 17-2-0 [34]
3 Tri-City Titans, 22, 8-14-0 [16]
4 River City Jaguars, 21, 3-18-0 [6]
Upcoming...
Tuesday: Portland at Tri-City, Calgary at Vancouver, Cincinnati at Manitoba
Wednesday: Kelowna at Portland, Kootenay at Everett
Thursday: Cincinnati at Manitoba
Friday: Everett at Portland, Kootenay at Seattle, Kamloops at Vancouver, Kootenai at Puget Sound
Saturday: Vancouver at Kelowna, Kootenay at Portland, Swift Current at Everett, Binghamton at Manitoba, Kootenai at Puget Sound
Sunday: Swift Current at Seattle, Binghamton at Manitoba
---
My, this one's definitely a lot shorter than yesterday's post. It was pretty easy to write, too. Or maybe I just didn't try hard enough.
Enjoy your Tuesday, and stay dry if you're in the Northwest.
It's a light slate this morning. It's the aftermath at Camp Seahawk in Kirkland, the Sonics were off yesterday and have Portland tonight, and hockey was off yesterday as well and resumes tonight. I can't cleverly sneak in a joke right here about the Seahawks taking Sunday off, so I'll just move on...
BASEBALL
I'm not sure what you think, but to me, Wade Boggs looks like the only lock on this year's Hall of Fame ballot. The remaining names are Strawberry, Langston, Sandberg, Sutter, Rice, Dawson, Gossage, McGee, Davis, McDowell, and Montgomery. As the years go by, more names of players that played in my childhood start appearing, making me feel incredibly old. Jeff Montgomery and Jack McDowell? That's like yesterday to me.
Apparently some people thought the Mariners might have had a chance to be sold, which didn't even cross my mind upon the revelation of Hiroshi Yamauchi's turnover of his Mariners shares to Nintendo of America. This must have been generated by pure rumor or something (or the pen of Bob Finnigan), but no outside Paul Allen-like entity is going to buy the team or anything like that. One interesting thing about the article is that MLB had seen the Yamauchi/Nintendo stake as one and the same, hence needing no leaguewide owners' vote when the shares were reallocated. Though estate planning for Yamauchi is mentioned in the article, the mention of the word "death" by Howard Lincoln did strike me as a little bit morbid. I would have preferred "passing" or something a bit softer, but oh well.
SEAHAWKS
We're really reaching now. Logs were being thrown onto the fire and s'mores were being made in Kirkland on Monday as Coach Holmgren told the tall tales of the San Francisco 49ers of years gone by. This was enough to get articles out of both Clare Farnsworth and J-M Romero. It's pretty much the same quotes in both articles, involving the 1988 49ers who were 6-5 and finished 10-6 and won Super Bowl XXIII. Now I know that 49er team was 13-2 the year before, and the expectations were higher, and they'd lost 9-3 to the Raiders before that final run, but these Seahawks do not have Joe Montana, Roger Craig, or a much younger Jerry Rice (though they do have Jerry Rice). To even think that a couple of the players for these Seahawks can step up and save the season the way those 49ers did...right now, that thought seems impossible. It's possible, sure, but it seems extremely lofty.
SONICS
The Marvin Williams Watch
Marvin Williams and the North Carolina Tar Heels will face the Indiana Hoosiers at Assembly Hall in Bloomington tomorrow night.
Huskies
I'd have to say that losing Brandon Roy for 4 to 6 weeks with a lateral meniscus tear in the right knee would be the Huskies' first true test of their run this year. Tre Simmons will be getting much of Roy's playing time. The Huskies square off against Gonzaga tomorrow night. The Huskies will be lucky to have Roy back by the new year. More likely, they'll get him back in mid-January, just after the start of conference play.
Sonics
It's a Percy Allen piece on Nate McMillan and the 13-2 start. Though I know we all let a lot more stuff slide when things are going good, I think the fact that Nate is an obsessive perfectionist is exactly the attitude that this team needs in their coach. McMillan as coach of this team is letting his players know that although they're 13-2, there is still a lot of work to be done, a lot of fine-tuning and refining left to do, etc. I think his attitude can only help this team, even when things get rough. I guess the one scary thing about the article is that it notes the 14-1 and 20-2 starts of the 1993-94 team of Sonics. Of course, the bad thing about that team was the whole thing where they were the first #1 seed ever to lose a series to the #8 seed in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Of course, it'd be different now with all of the series being best-of-7, but that'd be an even more gargantuan collapse.
Consider Nate McMillan at least a partial disciple in the Hubie Brown school of coaching. Basically, make the team play hard and produce, then bench the players who don't. Seems simple enough, right? One fun part in the article is the statistical comparison between Calvin Booth in Dallas this year and Danny Fortson. Calvin Booth is averaging 2.6 points and 1.9 rebounds a game. Danny Fortson is averaging 9.5 points and 6.6 boards a game. That's more than triple in both categories. Even if Fortson got injured right now and missed a few weeks (we can't forget about his bouts with the injury bug in years past), Rick Sund absolutely took Mark Cuban to the cleaners.
Upcoming...
Tonight at Portland
Tomorrow vs. Utah
Saturday vs. Portland
HOCKEY
No games occurred in the usual rotation, so I guess this one will be a standings post. Teams followed on this page are in italics.
WESTERN HOCKEY LEAGUE
(rank_team, games played, record [points], streak, last 10)
Western Conference -- BC Division
1 Kootenay Ice, 27, 17-7-3-0 [37], T1, 8-1-1
2 Kelowna Rockets, 27, 16-6-5-0 [37], T2, 6-0-4
3 Vancouver Giants, 14-11-0-2 [30], W4, 5-5-0
4 Prince George Cougars, 27, 10-13-3-1 [24], W1, 4-5-1
5 Kamloops Blazers, 27, 9-15-2-1 [21], W2, 4-5-1
Western Conference -- US Division
1 Seattle Thunderbirds, 23, 17-6-0-0 [34], W1, 7-3-0
2 Everett Silvertips, 26, 14-7-3-2 [33], W1, 7-2-1
3 Portland Winter Hawks, 25, 12-10-1-2 [27], W1, 5-4-1
4 Tri-City Americans, 25, 9-12-3-1 [22], L1, 4-5-1
5 Spokane Chiefs, 24, 8-12-3-1 [20], W1, 3-4-3
AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE
(rank_team, games played, record [points])
Western Conference -- North Division
1 Edmonton Road Runners, 21, 12-4-2-3 [29]
2 Manitoba Moose, 20, 12-6-0-2 [26]
3 Saint John's Maple Leafs, 20, 12-7-0-1 [25]
4 Rochester Americans, 20, 10-6-3-1 [24]
5 Syracuse Crunch, 21, 8-8-2-3 [21]
6 Cleveland Barons, 20, 8-9-1-2 [19]
7 Hamilton Bulldogs, 22, 7-11-3-1 [18]
NORTHERN PACIFIC HOCKEY LEAGUE -- West Division
(rank_team, games played, record [points])
1 Puget Sound Tomahawks, 22, 20-2-0 [40]
2 Portland Pioneers, 19, 17-2-0 [34]
3 Tri-City Titans, 22, 8-14-0 [16]
4 River City Jaguars, 21, 3-18-0 [6]
Upcoming...
Tuesday: Portland at Tri-City, Calgary at Vancouver, Cincinnati at Manitoba
Wednesday: Kelowna at Portland, Kootenay at Everett
Thursday: Cincinnati at Manitoba
Friday: Everett at Portland, Kootenay at Seattle, Kamloops at Vancouver, Kootenai at Puget Sound
Saturday: Vancouver at Kelowna, Kootenay at Portland, Swift Current at Everett, Binghamton at Manitoba, Kootenai at Puget Sound
Sunday: Swift Current at Seattle, Binghamton at Manitoba
---
My, this one's definitely a lot shorter than yesterday's post. It was pretty easy to write, too. Or maybe I just didn't try hard enough.
Enjoy your Tuesday, and stay dry if you're in the Northwest.
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