Seattle Sportsnet

The 2004 Seattle Mariners finished dead last in their division and had the third-worst record (63-99) in Major League Baseball. A veteran-laden club, the ’04 Mariners opened the season with a regular on the wrong side of 30 at every position. Five of the team’s best players were 35 or older, including catcher Dan Wilson (35), first-baseman John Olerud (35), second baseman Bret Boone (35), designated hitter Edgar Martinez (41), and starting pitcher Jamie Moyer (41). Despite their quickly-closing window, the team entered the season with high expectations after winning 93 games in 2003. But of course, by the time June rolled around, the team was theoretically out of contention, having put together an 8-15 April and an 11-16 May.

The 2008 Seahawks are starting to take on the look of their next-door neighbors from 2004. Now 2-8 on the season, the Hawks are out of playoff contention and we’re only in week 11. Like the ’04 M’s, the Hawks entered the season with high hopes, coming off five straight division titles and a loss in the NFC divisional playoffs a year ago.

Similar to the Mariners, the Hawks of ’08 are also an aging bunch. Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck is 33, and plagued by a bad back. Wide receivers Deion Branch and Bobby Engram are 29 and 35, respectively, and like Hasselbeck have been bitten by the injury bug. All-Pro left tackle Walter Jones will turn 35 in January. Linebacker Julian Peterson is 30. Defensive end Patrick Kerney is a month away from 32. Left guard Mike Wahle is 31. The rest of the team, when healthy, has vastly underperformed.

Like the 2004 M’s, the Hawks brass currently see the team’s performance this season as an aberration, rather than the beginning of a trend. Following their dismal ’04 campaign, the Mariners performed a “patchwork rebuild,” essentially trying to rebuild and compete at the same time. Patchwork rebuilds are carried out by filling positional holes with stopgap veteran players, while at the same time trying to bring along young talent at any and every position. In order for patchwork rebuilds to really work out, a team needs a core nucleus of young players it believes it can build around, while at the same time bringing in adequate veterans to bridge the gap between the present and the future.

The 2005 Mariners carried out their patchwork rebuilding effort by signing power hitting vets Richie Sexson (30 years old at the time) and Adrian Beltre (26), while retaining holdover vets such as Bret Boone (36), Randy Winn (31), Ichiro Suzuki (31), Raul Ibanez (33), Dan Wilson (36), Aaron Sele (35), and Jamie Moyer (42). Additionally, the team felt they were building from within behind players who either started the year at the Major League level, or were in the high minor leagues. Those players included outfielders Jeremy Reed (24), Chris Snelling (23), and Shin-Soo Choo (22); catchers Miguel Olivo (26) and Rene Rivera (21); shortstops Yuniesky Betancourt (23) and Mike Morse (23); second baseman Jose Lopez (21); and starting pitchers Gil Meche (26), Joel Piniero (26), Clint Nageotte (24), and Felix Hernandez (19).

Of course, by mid-season 2005 the Mariners were abject failures once again and experts and fans alike saw the team for what it was: a blend of older players past their prime and younger players that weren’t nearly as talented as once thought. The Mariners finished in last place again in 2005 and are now engaged in an “overhaul rebuild,” or the total rebuilding of the organization from the minor leagues on up. Overhaul rebuilds incorporate new team philosophies, new leaders, and new players at all levels to send a franchise in a new (and hopefully winning) direction. While they usually involve up to five years of development, overhaul rebuilds have a better chance at success than patchwork rebuilds and are more apt to produce consistent, longterm results.

The Seahawks front office will be facing a dilemma regarding their rebuilding efforts in the coming offseason. Though the NFL is quite different than Major League Baseball in terms of contracts, free agency, trading, and the lack of a minor league system, rebuilding efforts are often fueled by salary cap-saving moves and the NFL Draft, which produces immediate answers for teams with questions.

With veterans abound on a Hawks team that, under its current makeup, looks hard-pressed to challenge a bourgeoning Arizona Cardinals team in 2009, the front office will have to decide whether it wants to a) move in a different direction at quarterback (not likely given Hasselbeck’s reputation), b) bring back receivers Deion Branch and Bobby Engram, c) begin the process of reconstructing the offensive line (especially the aging left side), and d) improve a young secondary that has had trouble defending the pass. In addition to all the questions regarding the product on the field, the team will also undergo a coaching change, with Mike Holmgren retiring and Jim Mora, Jr. stepping in.

No matter which direction the Hawks choose to proceed, they will undoubtedly have a tough task at hand in attempting to repair a ballclub with more questions than answers at this point.

Our number one villain is much different than the other ten villains already on this list. While villains 11-2 are generally disliked and disdained, our number one villain will now and forever be out and out hated in Seattle. On the day our number one villain meets his maker, the only tears shed by Seattleites will be those of joy. This is a man who hijacked one of our city’s landmarks. He removed forty-one years of civic history and planted it in a city so foreign to many of us that it may as well be the outer reaches of hell. He lied. He cheated. He stole. He broke the hearts of many and erased memories that future generations will never get to have. A bad guy amongst bad guys, our number one villain is Clay Bennett.

Seattle was first introduced to Clayton Bennett on July 18, 2006. From the moment the two parties met, mutual tension embraced the relationship. We first laid eyes on each other when Bennett emerged stage left in the midst of a Howard Schultz press conference announcing the sale of the Sonics. Schultz the seller greeted Bennett the buyer, and with a handshake to seal the changing fate of our municipality, Seattle was doomed.

As soon as Bennett entered the room it was as if Satan himself had penetrated the gates of Heaven. We knew something was very wrong. Bennett was every evildoer from every movie we’d ever seen. A two-timer, a big business man who’d made his fortune doing things that most of us with consciences could never attempt. Plus he had the southern drawl and a vernacular unfamiliar to us. Here was Yosemite Sam on steroids, minus the mustache, guns ablazing ready to loot us for one of our most prized treasures.

Over the course of the next two years, Bennett would make empty promises in print and on local radio stations. He’d attempt to put together a half-assed plan for a new arena. He’d hire legendary Sonic Lenny Wilkens in a front-office capacity as a token gesture to the fans. He’d stand in front of the state legislature and bullshit his way through a series of fabrications about a plan to keep our team in this region permanently. See, it would be one thing if Clay-Clay and his boys waltzed in and took our team quickly and, in a relative sense, painlessly. But no, instead they felt the need to lead us on when we all knew what was coming. They took our legends and our memories, put them on a pedestal, and embarrassed them for all to see. They slowly destroyed our franchise from the inside out, making the team inaccessible to fans and media, replacing local broadcasters with Oklahomans, and putting a minor-league product on the court, all as means of distancing themselves from fans.

The second Clay Bennett purchased our team, it legally became his. He could have hightailed it to Oklahoma City right then and there. But instead he felt the need to prolong his act, to torture us with promises and guarantees, before ultimately executing the fan base of Seattle after his plan of deception had been completed. He had accomplices: David Stern and Howard Schultz, to name two. He had a victim: the city of Seattle. He had a well-thought out plan and a motive: to move the team to Oklahoma City. This was murder in the first-degree from a man capable of nothing less. Clay Bennett, a liar, a thief, a con artist, a killer, and Seattle’s number one villain in sports.

We asked and you responded. We wanted to know which of our first five Seattle sports villains you despised the most and the results were overwhelming. With 78% of the vote, David Stern was voted “most despised” among our first group of villains. Erik Bedard finished a distant second with 15% (4 votes), while Shaun Alexander pulled in 5% (2 votes). Jim McIlvaine and Jeff Smulyan went vote-less.

Dear Husky Men’s Basketball players (except Jon Brockman),

I know where many of you spent last offseason, and it wasn’t in the weight room, on the track (conditioning), or scrimmaging with current NBA players. Outside of Jon Brockman, most of you could be found on any given Spring day at the IMA (for those of you unfamiliar with the University of Washington campus, the IMA is the Intramural Athletics building, or basically the student gym; on a typical afternoon, the IMA hosts up to six full-court pickup basketball games at any given time, with continuous games running for a maybe three or four hours max), playing pickup with former junior varsity superstars just happy to play on the same court as a D-I athlete.

Justin Holiday, you were there. Matthew Bryan-Amaning, you too. Darnell Gant. Venoy Overton. Justin Dentmon. Five players on a team of 13. Which isn’t a majority until you consider the fact that four freshmen had yet to set foot on campus, and one guy, Artem Wallace, was incapable of playing on an injured knee. Which leaves eight healthy, present, and able individuals to participate in offseason workouts.

But what about your leader, Jon Brockman? Most days, Brock could be found at Hec Ed running with the likes of Brandon Roy, Bobby Jones, Spencer Hawes, Will Conroy, Jamal Crawford, and more of Seattle’s elite ballers, improving his game against top competition. Back a few years ago, when Conroy, Roy, Jones and others were still playing for the Dawgs, the majority of Husky players would participate in open gyms with NBA guys, including Luke Ridnour, Jason Terry, and other local stars. Brockman still carries on the tradition, but apparently most of the rest of you don’t.

What do you get out of playing with rec-league All-Stars, intramural champions, and former prep benchwarmers? I’ve seen the way you match up in these so-called games and it’s straight bush league. You goof off until you start losing, then once panic sets in (“Oh my God, these frat boys might actually beat us!”) you forgo the dunk contest for actual basketball. You carry the cocky attitude that athletes of your caliber should have onto the court with you, only to have your egos deflated (but only very slightly) when a bunch of six-foot-and-under white boys playing their hearts out to prove something get within a few points of you. After a slight victory, your heads get big again and the laws of nature are restored to their rightful setting.

It’s a joke and it’s part of the reason why you couldn’t beat Portland Saturday night. Guess what, you haven’t done anything yet. None of you. Go out and beat somebody worth beating, then you can goof off all you want. Your lack of a personal work ethic and disrespect to a coaching staff that believes in you, a legacy of players that took the same floor as you, and a fan base that so loyally supports you is not only disappointing, it’s completely reprehensible. I only hope that a couple tough losses can help some of you get your heads on straight and realize what you need to do to become winners.

If the Mariners are serious about their rebuilding efforts, then it’s time to trade Ichiro. The outfielder just turned 35 and probably has four or five good years remaining before he really begins to see a decline in production. The Mariners are taking another crack at a five-year plan, so the element of an aging, albeit very talented, superstar on the team makes little sense.

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