Thursday, January 20, 2005
TITLE OF POST
With apologies to Filter, I just totally ripped them off. Call it a copout.
Some news in all sports today, and I don't even have to grasp for too many straws.
On TV tonight -- Gonzaga at San Francisco (7p, KONG 6/16 Seattle, Fox 28 KAYU Spokane)
MARINERS
Sele returns. Three things are keeping me from being really angry about this: (1) it's only a minor-league deal with an invite to spring training, (2) I don't see the Mariners making the playoffs this year, so he won't have to make any postseason starts, and (3) if he's 5th in the rotation or doing any spot starting, that works great because his five innings can mix with Villone's three or four every fifth day -- that's about where those two max out inningswise. Of course, this depends on one of Moyer/Pineiro/Meche/Franklin/Madritsch popping out of the equation. If I see Sele in the rotation instead of Madritsch when the team comes north, there better be a really good reason for it.
As for the other non-roster invitees, I'm pleased to see that Rett Johnson is on the list after the undisclosed stuff he's gone through, and I hope he does well. As pleased as I am with Johnson, I'm just as displeased to see Masao Kida on the invites list. Come on. Did anybody out there see anything at all encouraging about him last year? I think I gave him one game ball in the recaps last year, but that's about it. In a purely observational note, I had to read through the list three times before I realized that Ryan Christiansen was even on the list.
Fellow blogospherian Derek has his assertions on the upcoming reign of Mike Hargrove as manager of the Seattle Mariners. It's a good read. If Derek's right, we should all places bets right now on who the inexplicably-too-much-playing-time guy will be.
Once again, Edgar will have to dust off another piece of the mantle, this time to make room for the P-I Publisher's Award. He won the P-I Sports Star of the Year award way back in 1992, when the Mariners were 64-98. The team's record last year was only one game off of that (63-99). Eerie.
Congrats to 2004 Hutch Award winner Trevor Hoffman. He's not much of a giver of runs when on the field, but gives a lot of smiles off of it.
SEAHAWKS
A new president of the Seahawks should be hired next week. The names of Randy Mueller and Mike Reinfeldt are in the article. If both of those guys are brought back into the organization, I don't care what role either one has when it comes to president or VP of football operations. Just as long as they're back.
Also, center Robbie Tobeck says Seattle is his first choice this offseason. He's one of the bevy of unrestricted free agents for the Seahawks.
BASKETBALL
The Marvin Williams Watch
In the Tar Heels' 77-58 win at Clemson, Marvin Williams had 12 points and 8 rebounds (perfect in six attempts from the free-throw line) in 24 minutes, shooting 3-for-5 from the field. He is averaging 10.7 points and 6.6 rebounds in 21.9 minutes per game. Just to inflate his stats, if you carry them out to 40 minutes (full game), he'd be averaging 19.5 points and 12 rebounds.
The Tar Heels are home against Miami on Saturday.
Huskies
The 10th-ranked Huskies are home against Washington State on Sunday (FSNNW).
Bulldogs
There's a bit of a blurb on USF coach Jessie Evans. In relation to the Dons, I'd have to say the best thing about the Bulls' title runs was hearing then-Bulls PA man Ray Clay introducing "Billlll CARTwright!!" Bill Cartwright had one of the weirdest shots I've seen in my life. I have this image in my mind of him shooting, and it only looks like he's sort of passing the ball toward the basket -- a sort of low-arc shot where the hands follow through horizontally and the arms are about 45 degrees from vertical. I'm crazy.
To those that didn't know, the Bulls' intro music was "Sirius" by the Alan Parsons Project (sample). I didn't know that beforehand, but I wish I was making this up.
The 11th-ranked Zags are in the Bay Area to face the Dons of USF tonight (KONG 6/16 broadcast).
Sonics
Living and dying by the three. Obviously, they have to find ways to win in the three-pointer starts going cold. Naturally, my knee-jerk reaction to this is to say that if the threes go cold, every play should run straight to the basket, whether it be a Ray Allen drive, an Antonio Daniels drive, a Luke Ridnour drive, or a couple of passes before finding Danny Fortson down low -- just anything that results in free throws because the Sonics are really good at hitting shots, as Kevin Calabro says, "from 15 feet away with nobody guarding you." Well, everybody but Reggie Evans, but anyone else can hit the shots with regularity. I know it's more than likely not that simple, but I like the strategy too much.
Back to the threes though, O'Neil does point out that threes are shot from a longer distance and therefore can clang longer distances, possibly out of the reach of Evans, Fortson, or James. We saw the results against Denver the other night -- fast breaks. I get ticked most of the time when I see a Sonic opponent getting an open shot without a hand in his face. I noticed this was happening a few times with Reggie Evans, who would put his hand out, but not up, at the shooter, but I think I'll cut Reggie some slack because right after the shot he's racing back toward the paint looking for the rebound -- rebounding is what Reggie does. I can't use this logic to argue Ray Allen's defense, but he usually scores a bunch of points, so I'll lighten up for now.
Swifty! He's sitting a lot. He's not suiting up lately, probably due to an "injury," and he's definitely a project. But hey, if he eventually gets more minutes than Darko Milicic, I think it might be worth the wait. I'd like to see the Sonics pound an opponent into submission so I could see three minutes of this guy on the floor again.
It just occurred to me that the Sonic deal I'll be doing on Friday night will be a pretty detached thing because I won't be in front of the television for it. Sad.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow vs. Minnesota
Sunday vs. Utah
Tuesday at Lakers
Wednesday at Utah
HOCKEY
No games by the usual teams tonight, but there is some hockey news nonetheless...
Representatives of the NHL owners and players are having yet another meeting today in Toronto. It's not known how the first meeting went other than that there was indeed dialogue, and that neither side was angry enough to the point where they didn't want to meet today. NHLPA president and Vancouver Canuck Trevor Linden got the session together, using a novel and smart approach -- take Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow out of the room and see what happens. It bought them another session of talks, at least. It's something.
With Sidney Crosby absent, Gilbert Brule of the Vancouver Giants tore up the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game with a hat trick to catapult Team Cherry to an 8-4 win in front of 16331 at the still-serviceable Pacific Coliseum.
In the movie Happy Gilmore, Adam Sandler mentions many times that he once stabbed a guy with his skate. Though only a one-man job, Ryan Gibbons came close, and instead sliced his right ankle with the blade of his left skate. Then his third-period goal later in the game got the T-Birds a 1-0 win in Vancouver. Crazy.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Seattle at Prince George, Wilkes-Barre Scranton at Manitoba
Tomorrow: Portland at Kelowna, Everett at Spokane, Vancouver at Tri-City, Manitoba at Edmonton
Saturday: Portland at Seattle, Everett at Kootenay
Sunday: Vancouver at Portland, Manitoba at Edmonton
---
Just hang in there, because tomorrow's Friday.
Some news in all sports today, and I don't even have to grasp for too many straws.
On TV tonight -- Gonzaga at San Francisco (7p, KONG 6/16 Seattle, Fox 28 KAYU Spokane)
MARINERS
Sele returns. Three things are keeping me from being really angry about this: (1) it's only a minor-league deal with an invite to spring training, (2) I don't see the Mariners making the playoffs this year, so he won't have to make any postseason starts, and (3) if he's 5th in the rotation or doing any spot starting, that works great because his five innings can mix with Villone's three or four every fifth day -- that's about where those two max out inningswise. Of course, this depends on one of Moyer/Pineiro/Meche/Franklin/Madritsch popping out of the equation. If I see Sele in the rotation instead of Madritsch when the team comes north, there better be a really good reason for it.
As for the other non-roster invitees, I'm pleased to see that Rett Johnson is on the list after the undisclosed stuff he's gone through, and I hope he does well. As pleased as I am with Johnson, I'm just as displeased to see Masao Kida on the invites list. Come on. Did anybody out there see anything at all encouraging about him last year? I think I gave him one game ball in the recaps last year, but that's about it. In a purely observational note, I had to read through the list three times before I realized that Ryan Christiansen was even on the list.
Fellow blogospherian Derek has his assertions on the upcoming reign of Mike Hargrove as manager of the Seattle Mariners. It's a good read. If Derek's right, we should all places bets right now on who the inexplicably-too-much-playing-time guy will be.
Once again, Edgar will have to dust off another piece of the mantle, this time to make room for the P-I Publisher's Award. He won the P-I Sports Star of the Year award way back in 1992, when the Mariners were 64-98. The team's record last year was only one game off of that (63-99). Eerie.
Congrats to 2004 Hutch Award winner Trevor Hoffman. He's not much of a giver of runs when on the field, but gives a lot of smiles off of it.
SEAHAWKS
A new president of the Seahawks should be hired next week. The names of Randy Mueller and Mike Reinfeldt are in the article. If both of those guys are brought back into the organization, I don't care what role either one has when it comes to president or VP of football operations. Just as long as they're back.
Also, center Robbie Tobeck says Seattle is his first choice this offseason. He's one of the bevy of unrestricted free agents for the Seahawks.
BASKETBALL
The Marvin Williams Watch
In the Tar Heels' 77-58 win at Clemson, Marvin Williams had 12 points and 8 rebounds (perfect in six attempts from the free-throw line) in 24 minutes, shooting 3-for-5 from the field. He is averaging 10.7 points and 6.6 rebounds in 21.9 minutes per game. Just to inflate his stats, if you carry them out to 40 minutes (full game), he'd be averaging 19.5 points and 12 rebounds.
The Tar Heels are home against Miami on Saturday.
Huskies
The 10th-ranked Huskies are home against Washington State on Sunday (FSNNW).
Bulldogs
There's a bit of a blurb on USF coach Jessie Evans. In relation to the Dons, I'd have to say the best thing about the Bulls' title runs was hearing then-Bulls PA man Ray Clay introducing "Billlll CARTwright!!" Bill Cartwright had one of the weirdest shots I've seen in my life. I have this image in my mind of him shooting, and it only looks like he's sort of passing the ball toward the basket -- a sort of low-arc shot where the hands follow through horizontally and the arms are about 45 degrees from vertical. I'm crazy.
To those that didn't know, the Bulls' intro music was "Sirius" by the Alan Parsons Project (sample). I didn't know that beforehand, but I wish I was making this up.
The 11th-ranked Zags are in the Bay Area to face the Dons of USF tonight (KONG 6/16 broadcast).
Sonics
Living and dying by the three. Obviously, they have to find ways to win in the three-pointer starts going cold. Naturally, my knee-jerk reaction to this is to say that if the threes go cold, every play should run straight to the basket, whether it be a Ray Allen drive, an Antonio Daniels drive, a Luke Ridnour drive, or a couple of passes before finding Danny Fortson down low -- just anything that results in free throws because the Sonics are really good at hitting shots, as Kevin Calabro says, "from 15 feet away with nobody guarding you." Well, everybody but Reggie Evans, but anyone else can hit the shots with regularity. I know it's more than likely not that simple, but I like the strategy too much.
Back to the threes though, O'Neil does point out that threes are shot from a longer distance and therefore can clang longer distances, possibly out of the reach of Evans, Fortson, or James. We saw the results against Denver the other night -- fast breaks. I get ticked most of the time when I see a Sonic opponent getting an open shot without a hand in his face. I noticed this was happening a few times with Reggie Evans, who would put his hand out, but not up, at the shooter, but I think I'll cut Reggie some slack because right after the shot he's racing back toward the paint looking for the rebound -- rebounding is what Reggie does. I can't use this logic to argue Ray Allen's defense, but he usually scores a bunch of points, so I'll lighten up for now.
Swifty! He's sitting a lot. He's not suiting up lately, probably due to an "injury," and he's definitely a project. But hey, if he eventually gets more minutes than Darko Milicic, I think it might be worth the wait. I'd like to see the Sonics pound an opponent into submission so I could see three minutes of this guy on the floor again.
It just occurred to me that the Sonic deal I'll be doing on Friday night will be a pretty detached thing because I won't be in front of the television for it. Sad.
Upcoming...
Tomorrow vs. Minnesota
Sunday vs. Utah
Tuesday at Lakers
Wednesday at Utah
HOCKEY
No games by the usual teams tonight, but there is some hockey news nonetheless...
Representatives of the NHL owners and players are having yet another meeting today in Toronto. It's not known how the first meeting went other than that there was indeed dialogue, and that neither side was angry enough to the point where they didn't want to meet today. NHLPA president and Vancouver Canuck Trevor Linden got the session together, using a novel and smart approach -- take Gary Bettman and Bob Goodenow out of the room and see what happens. It bought them another session of talks, at least. It's something.
With Sidney Crosby absent, Gilbert Brule of the Vancouver Giants tore up the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game with a hat trick to catapult Team Cherry to an 8-4 win in front of 16331 at the still-serviceable Pacific Coliseum.
In the movie Happy Gilmore, Adam Sandler mentions many times that he once stabbed a guy with his skate. Though only a one-man job, Ryan Gibbons came close, and instead sliced his right ankle with the blade of his left skate. Then his third-period goal later in the game got the T-Birds a 1-0 win in Vancouver. Crazy.
Upcoming...
Tonight: Seattle at Prince George, Wilkes-Barre Scranton at Manitoba
Tomorrow: Portland at Kelowna, Everett at Spokane, Vancouver at Tri-City, Manitoba at Edmonton
Saturday: Portland at Seattle, Everett at Kootenay
Sunday: Vancouver at Portland, Manitoba at Edmonton
---
Just hang in there, because tomorrow's Friday.
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