Seahawks place kicker Josh Brown has declared that he will be doing something a bit unusual to keep himself warm in between kicks during the NFC Divisional Playoff game at Lambeau Field the day after tomorrow.

What could that be, you might well ask? 

He will be wearing battery powered heaters inside of the down lined rain pants that he wears over his uniform when not needed on the field..... so that he can keep his kicking leg warm.  They are part of his hunting gear during the off season.

Upon further reflection, I guess that the team is paying him enough for the use of that leg (not to mention the occasional use of his tackling skills) that maybe he SHOULD keep it plenty warm, because 3 points might make the difference between winning and losing in Green Bay--it has before on quite a number of occasions.

On hearing about Mr. Brown's plans, my usually staid 27 year old daughter said, "Well, good luck with that.  He had better hope that he doesn't go getting an electric shock in any part of his anatomy where he might find it excrutiatingly painful."

And, insofar as anyone can tell, this is not a violation of the rules.

This in contrast to Julian Peterson, who says that he will be out on the field in short sleeves (brrrrrrr).  I know that he will be busy running after Brett Favre most of the early afternoon, but here is hoping that he won't be getting any frostbite whilst doing it.

(Note to male readers:  OK, so what iis it with you men that you feel you have to prove your manliness in such a way?  Thanks for your kind attention to this matter).

And, just for the record:  The cartoon at this URL shows what will be this year's version of "We want the ball and we're gonna score..."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/seahawks/2004117494_hawkcartoon10.html

As I sit here thinking about taking Ultra up on his challenge from a week or so ago, and possibly writing a retroactive letter to Santa Claus about all of our local sports needs for the next year, I realize that I can sum my predictions for the year up in one great big word.......

Now, let's take it from the top, and you will see what I mean:

Basketball:  I don't care how much he and his lackies deny it, "Cash Us" Clay Bennett very clearly came into town and demolished what little bit of good there was to the Seattle Supersonics, just as a means of making Seattlites reach a point where they barely give a flying flip about the team and the fact that he has the moving vans almost packed and ready to take off to OKC as soon as the NBA's board of governors gives him permission to do so.

The Sonics can barely win their way out of a paper bag any more after trading Ray Allen to the suddenly resurgent Boston Celtics, and letting Rashard Lewis get away to the Orlando Magic.  About the only good thing about this team is Kevin Durant, and he should be the league's Rookie of the Year for the way he is trying to carry the team on his back.  Can you say "deliberate tanking" everyone?

The Federal Court hasn't even started to hear motions on the city of Seattle's litigation against Bennett and the Sonics ownership for trying to bail out on the last two years of their lease for the Key Arena, and the other two class action suits that have been filed against them for ticket fraud (he DID, after all, make some promises to season ticket holders that he didn't really have much of an intention of fulfilling), and already Mr. Bennett has convinced the City of OKC that they need to raise $100MM to upgrade the nearly brand new Ford Center against the POSSIBILITY that the team might be relocating there, for which the city will be holding a referendum vote on an additional city sales tax to support the renovation.  (Note to OKC:  If you approve it, he isn't going to spend any of the team's money for that renovation; and will be back in less than five years asking for $500MM more (again none of the team's money to be added) for a totally brand new arena.

Pfooey, Clay.  The people of OKC really want the Hornets back anyway.  Hopefully, while you are tied up in court, Mr. Shinn will bring them back, since the league is not happy with their attendance in NOLA since their return, and you won't have any place in OK to put the OKC whatever their names will be.  There are people here who want to buy the team back to keep it here.  Get off the dime and sell to them.

Baseball:  Carlos Silva??  Carlos Silva???  OK, so we got a pitcher from the Twins.  Note to Silly Billy Bavasi--WRONG PITCHER, DUDE!!!!  You were supposed to be dealing for Carlos' best friend, Johan, remember?  What's up with that?  (Note to Carlos:  Please go and have a talk with your best friend and convince him to tell the Twinkies management that he would like to be reunited with you.)  The only thing good about this offseason is that the Angels didn't get a whole heck of a lot better.  Yes, they got Torii Hunter and Jon Garland, but Vlad is getting a little brittle lately, and sending Orlando Cabrera off to Chicago isn't going to do a whole lot for Vlad's protection in the line up.  (Torii isn't exactly getting any younger or faster or better with the bat, you know; and Jon Garland is a solid middle of the rotation pitcher  more or less).

I'm here to predict that, barring a miracle like the one that happened in NYC in 1969, I will have quit watching local baseball games on TV by the middle of July, and probably won't have attended one in person after opening day.

Football:  *sigh*  Methinks Mike Holmgren retireth after the Hawks get knocked out of the playoffs (hopefully in the second round, not the first), and we have son of "Playoffs? Playoffs?  Don't even talk about the playoffs!" as the new head coach (at least until Ty Willingham gets the axe at the UW, and Mora the Younger goes off to  take over that gig).  He's done a great job with the defensive secondary this year, but is he ready to be a head coach again?  I dunno, but something deep within me says that the Hawks window of opportunity is about to slam shut with a resounding bang, and they go back to being the Hawks of old for a few years (translation:  not so hot).

 Now that I have totally depressed myself about the state of professional sports in Seattle, I think I will go off and watch a T'Birds game.  At least they are playoff bound, and stand a pretty good chance of winning the American Division of the WHL again this year.

Personally, I would NOT.

What scares me, though, is the fact that there are about 29 other General Managers that are going to try to SELL him several of the aforementioned commodity before the MLB Winter Meetings end on Thursday of this week.

Why my trepidation, you might well ask?  Let me see, there is last year's perfectly awful Horacio Ramirez for Rafael Soriano deal.  The Braves get one of the better setup men in the League, and the M's get--you guessed it--an oft injured pitcher who can never win on the road, and only occasionally at home, with a 7+ ERA.  Then there was the mostly failed Jeff Weaver experiment--who is going to benefit from that this year, now that he is no longer in Seattle blue?  (Of course, I would be more than happy if someone just kind of sent his brother up here, but we all know that ain't gonna happen either).

Then there is the fact that he/the M's front office did absolutely NOTHING at the trade deadline--a time at which the M's were actually in contention for the AL West, and after which they slid back down to second, never to recover. (Yes, I know that they won more games last year than they have since 2003 but that is really beside the point, now, isn't it?)

Rumors/leaks went out over the past week or so that the Mariners had discussed a Johan Santana trade with the Twins.  And they probably did, but they had to have known what everyone else seems to know--Santana has a full no trade clause, and he wants to go to the AL East, not West.  Besides, who were they going to give up to the Twins for Santana?  Felix Hernandez?  I think NOT. So that was a pretty useless conversation, especially if it lasted more than two minutes. (And don't get me wrong here, I can salivate over the prospect of a Santana/Hernandez one two in the rotation as much as the next person, but I'm also sane enough to know that it wasn't going to happen).

Kuroda, anyone?  Those who are in the know say that the soon to be 32 year old Japanese pitcher projects to be no better than a middle of the rotation starter, and would probably be better of in the NL than the AL (see Matsuzaka, Daisuke under the subheading "not quite as good as advertised for the monies paid out").  So the M's offer him 4 years/$45MM.  I say they would be better off giving (and I do mean GIVING) Richie Sexson to the Giants, along with maybe Wladimir Balientien and Rob Johnson, and bringing Tim Lincecum home to pitch.  Less salary, younger, hometown boy, and the probability of being able to fix those funky mechanics under the stern tutelage of new pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre.

Eric Bedard is not going to come cheap, and I'm not sure Andy McPhail wants much, if anything, that good ole Bill could/would offer him in return.  Same for the former Seattle Pilots and Ben Sheets.

The Cubs are said to be interested in left fielder Raul Ibanez, but only to convert him to a right fielder (see Soriano, Alfonso under the subheading large contract and "heck, no, I ain't moving out of left field").  What would the M's get in return?  I'm hearing Mark Prior.  Doesn't he have a glass arm?  Raul may be losing a step or two with his bad back and bad hammy from last season and he doesn't have the strongest arm from left field, but he is a left handed batter who can still more or less hit, particularly with the short right field porch at the Safe.

Despite my early thoughts to the contrary, both Jose Guillen and Jose Vidro were good pickups for the M's last season, but Guillen is now gone, so that takes 20+ HR's and 100+ RBI off of the game for this year.  Vidro is not exactly comfortable in the DH role, and his knees won't let him play the field consistently.  So, I guess that I have to give Herr Bavasi credit for those.

In short, Bill, wise up this winter.  DON'T come home with a bunch of broken down vets who probably can't get it done at Safeco Field.  If you can't come home with at least one good, young top of the rotation pitcher, then don't come home with anyone.  Start using those good young arms that are waiting in the wings.  Brandon Morrow, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Sean Green and the other 20 somethings will be ready in another year.  Don't mortgage or trade away the future for someone(s) that are not going to put a winning product on the field come spring.

I don't like the team not winning, but there are young players in the system who will get better if allowed to develop here and not be traded away for player or players who really aren't going to help.

Restrain yourself this year, OK?  (Fukudome, though, you could come home with and we would be at least a little happy about that).

Hot on the heels of Daniel Stern's latest anti-Seattle diatribe comes this little piece of information.

Major League Soccer is on the verge of announcing an expansion team into Seattle in time for the 2009 season.  Now, I am not a soccer fan per se, though I find it interesting to watch as a change of pace when the other local sports are not going well, and worked the Sounders games at the Q when it was first opened.  This team will also share playing space at the Q with the Seahawks and the concerts and other events that take place there.

Seahawks owner Paul Allen will also own part of the MLS team, as well, garnering more income (does he really need it??) for both the venue and himself; making him a three sport owner (NBA, NFL and MLS).

This cannot be BAD for Seattle, as there is quite a lively soccer community here, what with our very diverse population.

There is also talk of trying to lure an NHL team into town to become natural rivals with the Canucks a few hours north, be it an expansion team or one that already exists and is struggling in its current venue.  Few people know that the Seattle Metropolitans won the Stanley Cup some seventy-ish years ago, and that we have two good WHL hockey teams within 30 miles of each other in the Seattle Metro area now, both of which enjoy good fan support, and both of which usually  make it into the playoffs at season's end. The T-Birds will be playing in their new arena next season, as well, down in Kent (south of Seattle).

In short, will we miss the Sonics when "Cash Us Clay" (copyright Jim Caple of ESPN's Second Page....) and the commish drag them off to Oklahoma City?  Well, yes, at least I and some of my friends will, but.......don't write Seattle off as a sports town just because they go to a smaller venue where Herr Bennett already says that the Ford Center needs to be refurbished and/or another new arena built Sooner than later (pun intended.

In the immortal words of Gloria Gaynor from the disco era "I (We) Will Survive.  And quite nicely, too.

2007 has been thus far, and promises to continue to be, a year of the good, the bad and the colossally ugly in terms of Seattle sports.    And a little bit laughable, too.

This, for example, is just plain laughable.  Tony LaRussa to be the next manager of the Mariners, and bring Walt Jocketty with him as GM in a package deal?  Not gonna happen.

On the other hand, this is almost too painful to imagine, so maybe the previous paragraph is not so far fetched after all.

THE GOOD:

The Mariners when they were on their hot streak.  The starting rotation was going fairly deep into games and doing a good job of keeping opponents off balance; the bullpen was sterling; the hitters all seemed to be clicking at once; and the defense was superb.  For the first time in nearly six years, the team was in contention deep into August, hopes were high--if they couldn't catch the Angels for the division, surely they could take the wild card (which might have been preferable anyway, given the WS winning habits of wild card teams the past several years). Mariners games were popular again, people were talking about them on the streets and in the buses.

The Seattle Sounders have advanced to the USL Championship Round after convincing series victories in both the divisional round and the semi-finals. I'm not a soccer fan but, hey, it's a good thing for Seattle sports, no?

The Seahawks have started the season 2-1 (though they SHOULD have been 3-0 but for that stupid little mistake in the last minute of the Cardinals game two weeks ago).  While not looking as good as they could/should, they are looking better than a lot of people have given them credit for.

THE BAD:

The last two and a half weeks of the Mariners schedule.  What was humming along well has fallen into a shambles reminiscent of the past three years---losing, losing, losing.  Everything that was hot has grown terribly, terribly cold.  Playoff hopes over, and the inevitable round of "what if's" and "what will happen in the offseason" already beginning. 

Will there be a new field manager next year?  Probably not.  John McLaren has been in the organization too long for them to dump him after just a few months (mid-season next year if things don't get better, though, is another story).  Will there be a new GM next year?  If my (and a lot of other people's) prayers are answered with a yes, there will be, but I'm not holding my breath until I turn blue.  Will there be any constructive trades, FA signings and/or rebuilding in the off-season?  Not if the answer to question number two is "no".

Shaun Alexander's wrist fracture.  It was thought to be just a sprain, suffered in the season opener.  Turns out, the team announced yesterday, that he has a fracture.  He plans to continue to play with the game day cast he has been wearing for the past three weeks, but this cannot be a good sign.  Last year it was the foot fracture, now the wrist (has anyone checked this young man for osteoporosis or Vitamin D deficiency?  If not, why not?).  He HAS to keep playing for now, because his back up Maurice Morris was also injured in the opener and may not be back for a while.  All in all, though, this is worrisome.

UW football:  After beginning with two wins, they have now lost twice (though I won't complain much about one of them, because it came at the hands of my beloved Buckeyes).  This was to be the season that the Huskies returned to decent standings.  We'll see.

THE DOWNRIGHT UGLY:

This man and his friends,

and all that they have done to turn this city and the NBA/Sonics situation into a contentious battleground.  (If you think I'm joking, head on over to the story about the city's lawsuit against the Sonics on foxsports.com's NBA section and read some of the 17 (yes, I said SEVENTEEN) pages of comments, which consist mainly of Seattlites and Oklahomians calling each other everything but nice over this issue (and I admit that I got some licks of my own in, simply because the whole thing ticks me off royally for the way it has been (mis)handled).

I used to work at the Key Arena during Sonics and Storm seasons; I support both of the teams; and I'm going to miss the heck out of Kevin Calabro's commentary when the team is no longer here (crosses fingers and hopes that he will come in to either join or replace Dave Niehaus on Mariners commentary, because he is a pretty good baseball man, too).

As I have said on numerous occasions in the past, I am against taxpayer funding for a new arena for the Sonics.  If the new owners are astute enough businessmen that they could put together the $350MM to buy the teams, then they should be astute enough to be able to put together a private financing package to get the $500+MM arena that they want with no trouble whatsoever, and minimum burden to taxpayers that are already hurting.  I'd like both of the teams to stay here, but not at the expense of another 2-3+ percent in sales tax or whatever else it might take to finance another arena.

What it could be like in OKC if the teams end up there:  Lauren Jackson has already said that she will NOT go to OKC if the Storm is moved there. The loss of a two time league MVP is never a good thing for a team.  Kevin Durant is about the only draw that the Sonics have right now, with Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis having departed for other pastures.  Sure, the NO/OKC Hornets played to frequently sold out houses during their tenure in OKC, but that was probably as much due to the novelty of having a pro franchise in town for the first time as anything else.  If this losing team goes there and continues to lose, will they continue to play to sold out houses on a consistent basis?  I hardly think so--why pay upwards of $200 per for tickets to watch a losing team in person when you can do it at home on television for free?  (Oh, wait, will the team have as good a media contract/coverage in the vastly smaller OKC media market as they do here in Seattle?  Again, one can't be too sure).  Oh, yes, by the way, if the team is relocated to OKC or anywhere else, the SuperSonics name should stay right here in Seattle where it has been for the past 40+ years--why should they be allowed to have the goodwill and history attached to that name--let them think up their own name for the new team.

There you have it, my friends, my version of the good, the bad and the ugly, early Seattle Tuesday morning style.

Drop on by any old time.