Steve began his journalistic career in an era in which social networking mainly occurred in saloons.
In the years since, he has been a reporter and columnist (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), a magazine founder and editor (The National Sports Review), the Director of Research at ESPN (once had the chore of looking up the history of rain delays in major league baseball), a radio talk show host (fired by KIRO because stupid people need radio stations, too, according to the program director), and the producer of a syndicated sports statistical feature (titled Wow!Stats), distributed by Universal Press Syndicate (quick, name three countries in which athletes are eaten when they fail to perform).
He wrote (with Karen Chave) 100 Years of Husky Football, Who The Hell is Bob? (one of Seattles more remarkable people) and collaborated with Art Thiel (Sports Press Northwest) and Mike Gastineau (KJR-AM) on The Great Book of Seattle Sports Lists, a ribald compendium of Seattle sports exotica that should be made into a movie (Brad Pitt playing Steve).
He gained everlasting infamy in 1985 (at least in Corvallis, Ore.), when, in a column in the Post-Intelligencer, he called the Oregon State Beavers The Barney Fife of College Football, then sat stupefied as the 37-point underdog Beavers cast aside a 28-year slump and beat the Huskies.
As of this writing, that game (which resulted in an official, Oregon State-issued game ball for Steve) still generates 314,000 Google pages, most of them from unenlightened (and presumably salt pillar-licking) OSU fans. Steve has yet to issue an apology on Facebook or Twitter and has no plans to do so.
The Mariners opened the week with a brutal loss and ended it with a lame one, falling to Tampa Bay 3-0 Sunday at Tropicana Field (box). In between, they strung together four impressive victories as Nelson Cruz continued his almost-daily assault on the franchise record book and newcomers Andrew Albers, Yonder Alonso and Erasmo Ramirez helped keep Seattle in the AL wild card race.
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What started off as a good week -- the Mariners swept a two-game series in Oakland -- ended embarrassingly with four consecutive losses to the Los Angeles Angels at Safeco Field, including Sunday's 4-1 setback (box). Seattle rose to a season-high three games above .500 (59-56) and held sole possession of the AL's second wild card at mid-week, but ended it underwater (59-60) after dropping the quartet to the Halos.
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When Edgar Martinez in January landed on 58.6 percent of Baseball Hall of Fame ballots, a major increase of 15.2 percent over his showing in 2016, he set in motion a process that will play out Saturday at Safeco Field: The club will, for the second time in more than 40 years, retire Saturday night the jersey of a former player, Martinez’s No. 11.
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The Mariners (57-56) split a doubleheader in Kansas City Sunday, winning 8-7 in the opener (box) and losing 9-1 in the nightcap (box) to finish a 4-3 week in which they remained competitive for a wild card berth. The good news: Seattle opened the week 2½ games in arrears of a playoff spot, but ended it a scant 1½ behind. The disconcerting news: Felix Hernandez went on the disabled list (biceps tendinitis) for the second time this season, and new reliever David Phelps may be headed that way (elbow).
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On Saturday afternoon in Canton, OH., Kenny Easley becomes, according to official chroniclers, “Hall of Famer #306," referring to the Pro Football Hall of Fame's numerical order of induction. Easley also becomes the fourth former career Seahawk to be enshrined, joining WR Steve Largent (1995), DT Cortez Kennedy (2012) and OT Walter Jones (2014).
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James Paxton won twice during the week, becoming the most successful pitcher in franchise history for a calendar month, and rookie OF Ben Gamel extended his hitting streak to 16 games Sunday in a 9-1 romp over the New York Mets (box), Despite those superlatives, the Mariners did nothing over the past seven days to improve their position in the American League wild card race.
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The Mariners followed a 5-1 road trip through Chicago (3-0 sweep) and AL West leader Houston (2-1) Wednesday looking as if they were on the verge of making a playoff move. Wrong. Seattle dropped three of four to the New York Yankees at Safeco Field, including Sunday's 6-4 setback (box), in which the locals erased a 3-0 deficit with a four-run fourth but couldn't hold it.
Even with the week-long wheel-spinning, the Mariners (17 games back of Houston in the AL West) ended only 2½ games in arrears in the wild card race.
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The Mariners came out of the All-Star break knowing they would need more effective starting pitching in order to remain wild-card worthy. Except for Sunday, when they fell into a 5-0 hole after three innings against the White Sox, yet rallied to win 7-6 (box), making for a rare sweep in Chicago and a hot start to the second half.
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After winning a season-high six consecutive games from June 18-23, the Mariners went 4-10 heading into the All-Star break to finish the first half 43-47. That left a them light year-ish 17.5 games behind AL West-leading Houston (60-29), Seattle's largest deficit at midseason since the 1992 team lagged by 18. But the wild card game remains reachable -- four games in arrears with 72 to play.
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The Tacoma Rainiers and Benjamin Bradbury Cheney’s namesake ballpark, Cheney Stadium, host the 30th anniversary Triple-A All-Star Game -- Pacific Coast League vs. International League -- Wednesday night (MLB Network, 6:05 p.m.). Neither Tacoma, the longest-tenured PCL city, nor the Rainiers, the Mariners' AAA affiliate since 1995, have been involved with an event quite on the scale of this one.
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With Felix Hernandez finally pitching like an ace and All-Star Nelson Cruz bashing another home run, the Mariners defeated Oakland 4-0 Sunday (box) to avoid what would have been their nadir week of the season. As it was, they went 2-5 on a seven-game home stand, reaching the All-Star break with a 43-47 record. More important: Seattle lost 2.5 games in the wild card race and will need to leapfrog five teams over the final 72 to make the playoffs for the first time in 16 years. Doable, not likely.
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After getting swept by baseball's worst team, Philadelphia, at Safeco Field, the Mariners took two out of three over the weekend against the Angels in Anaheim, including Sunday's 5-3 triumph (box) to close within a game of .500 (41-42). The 2-3 week, interrupted by rare days off Monday and Thursday, did nothing to improve Seattle's status in the AL West (15 games behind Houston), but it kept the Mariners squarely in the wild card conversation, only 1½ games out.
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The All-Star break July 10-13 is the traditional divide between baseball’s first and second halves, but the schedule midpoint for the Mariners is Friday against the Angels in Anaheim, where Seattle takes a 39-41 record and four-game losing streak into No. 81 of 162. Although a season-high 14½ games behind Houston in the AL West after gagging twice to the lowly Phillies earlier this week, the Mariners remain one of seven teams within range (3½ games or less) of an American League wild card spot.
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Sidelined for nearly two months, Felix Hernandez made a successful return to Seattle's rotation. C Mike Zunino did something only seven other players in club history had done. The Mariners (39-39) ran their winning streak to a season-high six games. Then the reality of the 2017 campaign became evident Sunday with an 8-2 loss to the Houston Astros at Safeco Field (box):
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After spending nearly two months on the shelf due to inflammation in his right shoulder (the longest forced absence of his 13-year career), Felix Hernandez Friday at Safeco Field rejoins the Mariners (38-37), above .500 for the first time this season. After a 9-6 win over Detoit Thursday extended a winning streak to five games, Seattle faces the team with MLB's best record, the 50-24 Houston Astros.
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The Mariners spent a grim part of the past week circling the drain (surrendering 46 runs in the road trip's four losses), but Sunday snapped a three-game losing streak with a 7-3 win over Texas (box). The club had other good news: Felix Hernandez and Hisashi Iwakuma, both missing most of the year with shoulder injuries, will return for the weekend against AL West-leading Houston. According to manager Scott Servais, King Felix is firm to pitch Friday. The Mariners need him.
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The Mariners had three chances in the past week to climb above .500 for the first time in 2017, but failed each time before losing to Toronto 4-0 Sunday at Safeco Field (box). Seattle was 3-3 over the past seven days but 7-4 for the homestand and 31-33 for the season -- not great, but not that bad, considering the injuries.
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The Mariners put together one of their best weeks of the season, going 6-1 and ending it with a 7-1 win and sweep of Tampa Bay Sunday at Safeco Field (box). Not that the week did them much good in the standings.
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The Mariners reached the .500 mark (17-17) for the first time in 2017 when they twice beat the Philadelphia Phillies, but then dropped four in a row at Toronto, including a 3-2 walk-off loss Sunday (box) to finish the week 17-21 and nine games out in the AL West. Part of Seattle's collapse in Toronto: An avalanche of injuries to the pitching staff, leaving Seattle with the AL's second-worst team ERA (4.67). Another part: Leaving 32 runners on base, a consequence of going 4-for-35 (.114) with runners in scoring position.
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The Mariners delivered their highest-scoring game (Thursday) and highest-scoring inning (Saturday) of the season in the week that ended Sunday with a 4-3 win over the Texas Rangers (box). Marring a 4-2 week that included series wins over the Angels and Rangers, the club lost two more pitchers to injury and made almost no dent in Houston’s lead in the AL West. How it all unfolded:
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