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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Among the notable attendees at Wednesday's announcement about the winner of the KeyArena fixer-upper derby was Francesco Aquilini. Since 2004, he and his family have owned Rogers Arena and the NHL Vancouver Canucks, a franchise that has pined almost since inception in 1970 for an NHL team in Seattle, a loathsome rival from which money could be mined.

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For a man whom everyone figured was home beating on the figurative chest of his inert arena project, waiting for a heartbeat, Chris Hansen was remarkably serene Wednesday after a rival arena project was celebrated by the mayor and his staffers as a deliverance on a righteous crusade.

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Not sure yet what is the most remarkable thing in the young career of George Fant, The Power Forward Who Plays Left Tackle in the NFL After 7-8 Snaps in College (big title, big man, big upside). For now, I'm going with the fact that when he played hoops at Western Kentucky, he weighed 250. Now he weighs 320, and he can still dunk.

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Jawanza Brown recalled the time Seahawks RB Thomas Rawls spoke to the Boys & Girls Club in their hometown of Flint, Mich. Rawls was playing football at the University of Michigan, Brown was a star-struck kid.

"I remember he talked about pushing through adversity by saying, 'I was built for this,'" Brown said by phone the past week. "That quote stuck in my head. I'm keeping that in mind this summer."

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The plan to remodel KeyArena into a world-class concert and sports venue took a hit Sunday when Seattle Partners unexpectedly pulled out of the project, blaming the city of Seattle for "unrealistic" financial expectations and an absence of thoroughness and transparency.

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Pete Carroll has always been a defensive coach. But in some rare moments of genuine dismay Friday, he was a coach that was defensive. Speaking for the first time since a recent, detailed ESPN.com story described fractures within the Seahawks, he called it "an old story revisited," saying, "I’m proud of where we are and how we’ve handled our past."

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The Mariners are a meteorological phenomenon. On an afternoon rich in sunshine and promise, they conjure up a dark cloud and affix it above the heads of all.

This team needs more injuries like President Trump needs a Russian ambassador wedged under his bed. All Seattle lost Thursday were the American League's leading hitter and the AL's top RBI man.

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The intense resolve of the University of Washington's women's rowing team was expressed by sophomore Elise Beuke, when she and her varsity eight teammates crossed the finish line first the past weekend to complete a Huskies sweep on New Jersey's Mercer Lake of all three races in the national rowing championships, a first in NCAA history.

"OK," she recalled thinking Wednesday, "What's next?"

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For a man whose political career was abruptly scuttled by scandal, Ed Murray was beaming three weeks ago when the competing bids for remodeling KeyArena were unveiled at a public open house. The Seattle mayor answered questions, shook hands and seemed to take on an air of prideful ownership.

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Until Sunday in Boston, the Mariners went a week with just one significant swing of a bat in the first five games of a tough road trip, a three-run homer by Nelson Cruz Thursday. But at Fenway Park, Seattle had a season-high-tying 16 hits to back seven innings of shutout ball by Christian Bergman for a 5-0 triumph, the fourth win in 13 games for a temporarily broken team.

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Perhaps by now you have read Seth Wickersham's intriguing story on ESPN.com about the drama that enveloped CB Richard Sherman's season, which was sufficiently disruptive to lead the Seahawks to entertain trading one of the NFL's most valuable players. If you don't have time for the magnum opus, I will share a central point of the story, then explain why the story misses a greater point.

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Former Huskies and Trail Blazers star Brandon Roy, who in one freaky season at Nathan Hale High School was named national coach of the year, will take his coaching talents to the south end of Seattle and his alma mater, Garfield High. On its sports Twitter account, the school confirmed Thursday earlier media reports.

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As he often did, Cortez Kennedy said it best, in his own self-deprecating, yet honest way, when he was drafted in by the Seahawks with the third pick in the 1990 NFL draft.

"I may be the fattest player in the draft," he said after his selection, "but I'm a helluva player."

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Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy, one of best and most popular players in Seahawks history died at 48 in Orlando Tuesday.  Police confirmed his death and said "nothing suspicious" was found, although no cause of death was offered.

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A 3-4 homestand that included a 16-1 loss Saturday to the Chicago White Sox laid out the Mariners' woes in grim relief -- a patchwork rotation, an overworked bullpen and a hobbled lineup is no way to stay in contention. The 20-25 Mariners fell into last place in the AL West by a half-game after an 8-1 defeat Sunday that was their eighth loss in the past 11 games.

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As of Friday's deadline for filing, 21 candidates are in the race to be Seattle's next mayor. None of them are among the 11 people who have been a starting pitcher for the Mariners through 45 games. That could change.

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When a guy gets called out for being too fat in a place where haute cuisine consists of PBR, bratwurst and cheese curds, the shame figures to run thick as poutine. Which is why Eddie Lacy is shaping up as the most intriguing training camp story for the Seahawks in July.

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After a harrowing 6-5 home win over Oakland Monday broke a four-game losing streak, the Mariners (18-21) couldn't wait long for more dramatic news: Edwin Diaz has temporarily lost the closer's job to a bullpen committee, and 2B Robinson Cano went on the disabled list to rest a nagging quadriceps injury.

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