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It was one year ago today that Seattle Sportsnet was born. In the world of sports blogs and the internet, that’s a lifetime.
On the day I created this site, 11 months of pent-up emotion was released onto the world wide web after we, as fans, were forced to endure the worst year in the history of Seattle sports. You might have managed to repress the events of 2008, but thanks to our very first post you can hastily relive them. Thankfully, there are no pictures.
In just one year, the city of Seattle and its sports teams have managed to rebound quite nicely from the tragedy of ‘08.
Ken Griffey, Jr. is re-returning to the Mariners, this time with much less hype and fanfare than the initial go-round.
Last year, we waited, we hoped, we prayed, and finally — FINALLY — Griffey and the M’s reached an agreement on a one-year deal. This time, it only took a matter of days to bring him back.
Credit The Seattle Times’ Larry Stone as the first to report the move earlier today. The deal is rumored to be very similar to the one that Junior and the team agreed upon a year ago. Griffey earned a base salary of $2 million in 2009, plus incentives.
The team’s primary designated hitter in 2009, Griffey turns 40 on Nov. 21 and will likely assume a reduced role in 2010. Entering his 22nd major league season, Griffey is not nearly the player he once was, but still commands a presence in the locker room. The veteran was the unquestioned team leader of the Mariners in 2009.
Though many expected Griffey’s initial return to the Mariners a season ago to be his final foray in Major League Baseball, Griffey himself had every desire to continue playing baseball in 2010.
Here at Seattle Sportsnet, we like to think of ourselves as almost famous, kind of like the kid from that movie, Almost Famous. People know us, we’re kind of a big deal…almost. That’s us.
Anyways, we’re cool enough to know people who know people and that sort of thing, all of which leads me to these free passes that we’ve received for the 12th Man Appreciation Event this coming Monday. If you’re interested in attending, we can get you in for free for a night of bowling with Seahawks and celebrities at Bellevue’s Lucky Strike Lanes.
Simultaneously, we’re going to use this opportunity to pimp ourselves a little bit in exchange for the free passes we will gladly bestow upon you. So if you want to attend this event at no cost, here’s what you need to do:
1. Comment on this post with a good reason why you’re a worthy member of the 12th Man, thenemail us with your name and the number of passes you desire (keep it reasonable, folks).
2. Refer 10 readers to the site (I’ll admit, we have no real way of tracking this, but consider it a goodwill gesture on your part). Or maybe just tell people how much you love us. That would be nice.
3. Add us as your friend on Facebook (if you use Facebook) and when you receive the free passes, simply update your status to read, “I won free passes to the Seahawks 12th Man Appreciation Night thanks to SeattleSportsnet.com! Go Hawks!” Also, you’ll need to add a link in your status bar to our main home page at SeattleSportsnet.com.
That’s it! If you can accomplish all three of these tasks, the passes are yours and you’ll be attending the Seahawks’ 12th Man Appreciation Night absolutely free!
You’re not doing anything on Monday night. I mean, come on. It’s Monday night. The networks don’t even broadcast their good shows until Wednesday, so your excuses are futile.
Anyways, for those of you (most of you, if not all of you) who happen to be free this coming Monday (November 16th, for the temporally-challenged), why not head over to Lucky Strike Lanes in Bellevue’s Lincoln Square for the Seahawks’ 12th Man Appreciation Night. That’s right, it’s all about you, 12th Man.
The event is hosted by Deion Branch and Nate Burleson (who are pretty much joined at the hip these days, am I right?) and sponsored, naturally, by the Hawks. It gets started at 6:00 PM and runs until 10:00 PM. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, there are a number of restaurants and bars to unwind at before or after the event if you want to extend the evening.
The cost to attend is $40 for adults and $20 for kids, but here’s the good part: ALL of the proceeds from the event go to benefit families in need this holiday season. Not some of the proceeds, but all of them (and we all know that some charities out there like to pocket a little on the side).
Trade Lofa Tatupu? That’s just crazy talk. He’s a Pro Bowler, a captain, and seemingly every fan (myself included) wears his jersey on gameday. All things included, from his on-field leadership to his marketing capabilities, this is a bonehead move. Right?
Wrong.
In just five seasons, Tatupu has established himself as one of the greatest defensive players in Seattle Seahawks history. A three-time Pro Bowl selection (2005, 2006, 2007) and an All-Pro (2007), the team’s middle linebacker is one of the faces of this franchise, along with Matt Hasselbeck.
Why trade him then?
Three reasons:
1) Because he’s valuable.
2) Because a worthy replacement is already on the roster.
3) Because the Seahawks are two years away from seriously contending.
You’ve heard of reality television. This is reality dialogue.
The following is a real-life transcript from a fantasy football message board thread that spiraled ridiculously out of control. Going rapidly from football talk to an internet fisticuffs over a relationship gone awry, this script is the literary embodiment of a Jerry Springer episode.
The setting for our story is the Pearce Fantasy League, a fantasy football legion of 12 men in their early 20s who have spent years competing against one another in the pantheon of made-up sports, while simultaneously becoming friends in the process. I am one of the 12 members of this league, denoted in the transcript as “Alex.”
Though most of us are mutually amicable with one another, one-sixth of the group does not get along. In fact, these two people hate each other. Miserably. Why, you ask? It’s very simple. One individual, who we’ll refer to as “Gorman,” declared his love for a female acquaintance — who we’ll call “Laqueesha,” for the purposes of this exercise — who happened to be in an existing relationship with another male, “Thabo Sefelosha.”
Smitten by Gorman’s advances, Laqueesha left Thabo Sefelosha empty-handed and broken-hearted and ran off with Gorman. Ultimately, Gorman and Laqueesha would wed. Thabo Sefelosha, sadly, would never be the same.
Tim Lincecum got busted for marijuana possession. Big deal. At least he didn’t hurt anyone. Kill anyone. Cheat the game.
On top of that, the San Francisco Giants ace and Renton, Wash. native wasn’t even under the influence when he was caught.
He just committed a slight faux pas. Had his pipe sitting out during a routine traffic stop. Whoops. We’ve all been there. Not necessarily with marijuana. But other stuff.
Maybe your porn collection was discovered.
Maybe you told a fib to get out of going to the opera, then got found out.
Maybe you cheated your diet, got caught with your pants down, or let slip a four-letter word in front of your mom. We all make mistakes. We’re human.
Fact is, I’m cool with Lincecum smoking a doobie every once in a while. I don’t smoke myself, but I absolutely condone the use of marijuana by others. It doesn’t bother me. Smoking pot then getting behind the wheel bugs me a little bit. But smoking in and of itself is no big deal. Falls right in line with alcohol consumption and frivolous sex. It fails to register on my moral code.
Think about it. How many potheads do you know that have caused serious problems in our world? You never hear about a pothead committing a heinous act against society. You don’t see potheads holding up banks, kidnapping children, or murdering anyone. Crackheads, maybe. Needle junkies, maybe. Potheads, no.
If you haven’t seen this yet, you need to. It’s amazing. So amazing that we’ve embedded the video below. The linked article is simply an overview of the video via Deadspin for those of you too lazy to watch the actual video.
But trust me, you want to watch the video. Where else are you going to get basketball tips from a little Chinese kid whose parents are equally committed to the insane dream?
*Editor’s Note: Dawg Pack Dirt is the unofficially official gameday info sheet for University of Washington Men’s Basketball.
Now in its sixth year of publication, Dawg Pack Dirt was conceived during the 2004-2005 season by me, Alex Akita.
Since then, it has become an institution among fans and students of Husky Basketball, passed down from myself to current members of the Dawg Pack student section who still compile and compose the dirt for every Husky home game. All of the work is original and the information is compiled from a variety of sources, ranging from newspapers, to social networking sites, to friends of friends around the Pac-10.
Back for another year, here’s the first installment of the 2009-2010 season.
Dawg Pack Dirt: Central Washington University
Volume 6, Issue 1, November 4, 2009
Written and compiled by Nate Taggart and Molly Waldron
LT Walter Jones will miss the rest of '09 with an injury.
Remember when the St. Louis Rams were the team to beat in the NFC West? No team — not the Seahawks, 49ers, or Cardinals — could wrest the division crown from the Rams’ iron grip.
Led by the likes of Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Marc Bulger, Kurt Warner, Orlando Pace, Leonard Little, and Marshall Faulk, the Rams were a force to be reckoned with in an otherwise weak division.
And then it all blew up.
Seemingly overnight, the Rams got very, very old.
Their rock of a left tackle, Pace, became an injury-prone question mark year in and year out.
Faulk ran out of gas and retired.
Bruce and Holt both dropped from their lofty perches as two of the game’s best wideouts. Each would see a reduced role in the team’s offense before moving on to different clubs.
Warner moved on, paving the way for Bulger. Bulger, in turn, took the reins of the St. Louis offense and proved consistently inconsistent.
The defense fell apart.
Coaches came and went.
It was a carousel of problems for the former Superbowl champs as they went from contender to cellar-dwellar over the course of a matter of months.
And their biggest issue? That came in failing to acknowledge their own demise.
The NBA season is underway and you know what that means. Time to determine the ugliest players in the league.
I know what you’re thinking: That’s not very nice of you to pick on the uglies. Well frankly, you’re right. But the way we see it, a lot of these homely fellows do this to themselves. They over-tat their canvas of a body, they fail to get their hair cut adequately, they refuse to shave, things like that. And if that doesn’t sway you, these guys are making millions of dollars to play a game, so there.
We’ve divided this list into three segments. Nos. 11-7 are the All-Ugly Second Team. Nos. 6-2 are the All-Ugly First Team. And of course No. 1 is the All-Ugly MVP.
For the record, we considered calling this the All-Brooke Hundley Team, but we figured some of you might not get the reference. Oh well.
The WSU basketball team is promoting their annual Hardwood Classic with this festive background image on local websites.
This rivals the Errol Knight Gonzaga Basketball commercial from back in the day for “Worst In-State Athletic Media Publication of All-Time.”
For the record, the Hardwood Classic takes place on December 22nd at that decaying facility in Lower Queen Anne that a pro basketball team used to play at. Get your tickets before this event gets rescheduled for a Miley Cyrus concert or something.
About two months ago, I wrote up a review of Safeco Field for an upstart website called StadiumJourney.com. StadiumJourney is on its way to becoming the premier destination for ballpark travelers in every major sport across America. Using accredited freelancers to visit and review pro stadiums and arenas across the country, StadiumJourney provides unique insight to the venues that sports fans frequent.
To read my review of Safeco Field and the surrounding neighborhood, click here.
Just an FYU, StadiumJourney is currently in blog format while their website undergoes construction.
I was reading thisarticle when I came across an interesting fact that turns the tables on “mainstream media.” Here’s the quote:
“One of the favored criticisms of blogs in general by “mainstream” media is that blogs lack accountability. Backing into this, the definition of “mainstream” is entirely out of whack by those who toss it around. In August, [online sports blog] Deadspin had 22 million page views. On Wednesday alone, the site had over one million. If Deadspin is not “mainstream,” then virtually every newspaper site in the country is outside the mainstream as well. So are most television shows on cable, virtually every print newspaper in the country, and just about every radio show on Earth. So Deadspin rests squarely in the middle of the stream, occasionally urinating in the water as it goes past perhaps, but squarely in that stream.”
The author of this quip is a former Deadspin.com editor who attempts to provide some insight into the debate between “mainstream” media and the blogosphere, generally thought of as the un-mainstream, if you can call it that.
It’s funny, but mainstream media is actually taking a back seat to the un-mainstream these days and it makes you wonder what we really consider to be mainstream. Do we consider the newspaper that we occasionally read mainstream? Or do we think of our favorite blogs, which we check every hour, as mainstream?
I’ve already tried like five different times to write this article and it’s next to impossible. Sometimes you just have to stop trying and speak from the heart, and that’s what I intend to do.
I miss the Sonics. The NBA season starts tomorrow and it means nothing to me. Nothing.
I could care less who wins a championship, could care less whether LeBron has an MVP-type season, could care less what happens as the season transpires.
I’ve been reading this week’s Sports Illustrated, the NBA preview edition, and everything rings hollow. The articles are empty, the words are meaningless, the pictures are gray, the entire thing barely occupies my consciousness. I read it out of habit more than anything else.
It was one year ago today that Seattle Sportsnet was born. In the world of sports blogs and the internet, that’s a lifetime.
Ken Griffey, Jr. is re-returning to the Mariners, this time with much less hype and fanfare than the initial go-round.
Here at Seattle Sportsnet, we like to think of ourselves as almost famous, kind of like the kid from that movie, Almost Famous. People know us, we’re kind of a big deal…almost. That’s us.
You’re not doing anything on Monday night. I mean, come on. It’s Monday night. The networks don’t even broadcast their good shows until Wednesday, so your excuses are futile.
Trade Lofa Tatupu? That’s just crazy talk. He’s a Pro Bowler, a captain, and seemingly every fan (myself included) wears his jersey on gameday. All things included, from his on-field leadership to his marketing capabilities, this is a bonehead move. Right?
You’ve heard of reality television. This is reality dialogue.
*Editor’s Note: Dawg Pack Dirt is the unofficially official gameday info sheet for University of Washington Men’s Basketball. 
The NBA season is underway and you know what that means. Time to determine the ugliest players in the league.
About two months ago, I wrote up a review of Safeco Field for an upstart website called 
I was reading 
I’ve already tried like five different times to write this article and it’s next to impossible. Sometimes you just have to stop trying and speak from the heart, and that’s what I intend to do.