Attempting to bring more voices into the prospective KeyArena renovation plan -- this is Seattle, remember? -- the city administration Thursday announced creation of a 13-member Arena Community Advisory Group, which includes at least two who have sports as a principal priority ahead of the music-first venue proposed by Oak View Group in its winning bid.

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Over the four seasons prior to 2017, the New York Yankees have 340 wins, none in the playoffs. In the same period, the Mariners have 320 wins, none in the playoffs. As the teams begin a four-game series at Safeco field Thursday night, the Yankees are 48-45, the Mariners 48-48.

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Since the Mariners are celebrating 40 years of mostly major league baseball in Seattle, we would be remiss in not joining them with a review of what happened 20 years ago, because it represented the greatest squandering for a team that traditionally squanders with the best (worst?). Are we in the historical spirit, or what?

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TACOMA -- Good crowd,  warm sun, big flies. It wasn't quite the big time, but it was a good time.

The Pacific Coast League prevailed 6-4 in the Minor League All-Star Game against the modestly hated rivals  from International League. It was the first time Tacoma hosted the event since its 1960 entry to Class AAA minor league baseball. It felt as if the Rainiers ownership and staff should do it once a year with no problem. Maybe twice a year.

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TACOMA -- The Class AAA Pacific Coast League – ahem, The Pacific Coast  -- has three baseball teams east of the Mississippi River, none in Canada and only the Tacoma Rainiers representing the four-state region of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

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Anyone expecting a complete transportation/parking explainer for the proposed remodel of KeyArena by the time a potential development deal is signed in December will be disappointed. That was the noteworthy  takeaway Monday from the first meeting of a Seattle City Council committee vetting Mayor Ed Murray's preferred development partner. 

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For a game, all was right. Felix Hernandez pitched a two-hit shutout over six innings, closer Edwin Diaz had a perfect ninth and DH Nelson Cruz homered. The 4-0 win Sunday salvaged a series split with Oakland.

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The appointments of 1B Justin Smoak and LHP Jason Vargas to the American League All-Star team bring up that favorite time of the season for Mariners cynics: The All Ex-Mariners team. For a franchise with four playoff appearances in 40 seasons, take your traditions where you find them.

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His godfather was Don Meineke of the Fort Wayne Pistons, the NBA's first rookie of the year in 1953. His dad, Chris Harris, played one year in the NBA in 1955-56, and still gets a minuscule check every month from the retired players association.

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For what it's worth, Pro Football Focus, the oft-quoted site emphasizing metrics at every position for every team, has not been impressed with the Seahawks' off-season effort to improve the offensive line. The 2017 unit ranked 32nd and last in a post published Tuesday.

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The Seattle City Council will hire an independent consultant to examine the proposed offer from Oak View Group of Los Angeles to remodel KeyArena into a music-first venue that will also accommodate pro sports, according to a letter sent Monday from the council to Mayor Ed Murray.

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The temptation is strong to go with the 20-days-in-a-row excuse, given how relatively listless the Mariners seemed Sunday in an 8-2 loss (box) to the empire-building Houston Astros. Monday is a rare off-day at home, and the Mariners seemed to be leaning into their first break in three weeks.

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Finally, the opportunity arose Thursday for the chance to ask Tod Leiweke, mastermind behind the renaissance of the Seahawks and the birth of the Sounders before leaving in 2010 for the NHL and now the NFL front office, two questions critical to the future of Seattle sports.

Will he be part of a group that brings the NHL to Seattle?

Does he still claim to be the good Leiweke brother?

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A seminal anniversary in Seattle sports history passed quietly Saturday -- the day 20 years ago that seeded the town's two most recent national pro-team championships. Newbies and youngsters, pay attention: The Seahawks and Sounders have become two of the most formidable franchises in North American sports because of what happened on June 17, 1997.

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The ever-expanding social conscience of DE Michael Bennett was on view Wednesday at Seahawks practice. Two themes emerged -- he provided shelter from the storm for two put-upon players from the position he likes least (quarterback), and he promoted the notion that he can put football second to the players he likes most (his three daughters).

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Richard Sherman apparently figured the best way forward was to back up and cover some tracks. The Seahawks' star cornerback, meeting with local media Wednesday for the first time in a gnarly off-season in which he was on the trade market and the subject of a provocative national story, was his familiar glib, loquacious self, while dismissing the controversy around him and the tensions in the locker room as just, well, no big deal.

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By the time the past season ended, the Seahawks' Legion of Boom imploded into the Legion of Gloom.

For CB Richard Sherman, you perhaps have read more this off-season-- a sore knee and a bit of a sorehead. FS Earl Thomas had been lost for the season with a broken right leg in early December. SS Kam Chancellor was playing with bone spurs in both ankles that he felt for the past two seasons. And CB DeShawn Shead tore his ACL in the final playoff game.

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The one and only name for the Mariners baseball park, Safeco Field, will be no more after the 2018 season. The 20-year deal signed in 1998 is expiring, and the insurance company notified the ballclub that would not extend the naming rights deal, according to a statement from the club Tuesday.

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The set-up Sunday looked for all the world like a pivot point for the Mariners season, and perhaps beyond. The Big Maple, unbeaten James Paxton, was on the mound, matched against a so-far-shaky J.A. Happ, the debut of a three-rookie outfield of athletes who can hit, and a chance to send 30-some charter buses full of Canadian fans -- the rowdy majority of the 120,000 who filled Safeco Field over the weekend -- back over the border to weep in their Molson's.

But no.

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The ceiling was too high. The warehouse floor was too old. The neighborhood was too seedy. The parking was too aggravating. At least that's what everyone told Mick McHugh about his new bar.

My only problem with the 11,000-square-foot joint at the corner of Pioneer Square and Sports was the walls. They needed ears, and a way to gossip back the alcohol-fueled secrets.

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