The Safeco Field electronic scoreboard lit up a zero under the hits category in the eighth inning Friday night, though the Mariners had two hits at the time.

After a homestand mostly consisting of plate failure, even inanimate objects think the Mariners can’t hit in Safeco.

It was a particularly frustrating return to the distant confines for Justin Smoak prior to Sunday’s game-winner. In the Padres series, he hit three would-be home runs, were he stationed in another park. They were three outs in Safeco. Smoak slammed down his helmet during the game and voiced his frustration afterward.

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After Friday's practice, it was suggested to de facto Team USA captain Diana Taurasi that ongoing international dominance of women's basketball by one country may not be good for the game.

Taurasi was a large part of Connecticut's tyrannical back-to-back-to-back college titles (2002-04). She also won two WNBA championships with the Phoenix Mercury. And, no one has beaten the U.S. women's team in the Olympics since 1992.

Presented with these facts and the theory, Taurasi was introverted, per usual.

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By midseason last year, Huskies fans wondered if Keith Price was going to get up.

Once he did, they wondered if he would go on.

Once he did, you wondered how much damage his knees suffered during his first spectacular year as Washington’s quarterback.

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The autumn roars following touchdowns have been replaced by the rumble of dump trucks and whir of cranes.

The $250 million renovation of Husky Stadium has reached the end of the first quarter. According to Washington athletic director Scott Woodward, the news is very good.

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Two damaged men entered CenturyLink Field Saturday.

Sounders speedster Steve Zakuani sat in the press box watching the man who broke his leg almost a year ago, do what he can’t.

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Adults have again colluded to short college athletes.

College coaches pushed a change the NCAA passed quietly last spring. April 10 is the new date underclassmen have to withdraw their name from draft consideration, in order to retain college eligibility.

Any surprise coaches and the NCAA wrangled April 10 into becoming D(ecision) Day for players should not exist. April 11 is the opening of the spring recruit-signing period. Hence, the self-serving alteration.

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David Estrada has reached the point where he should be thankful his name does not rhyme with insanity.

There’s no contortion of "Estrada" to link him to the puns that trailed Jeremy Lin’s week-long burst of success for the New York Knicks.

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Washington acted like a toddler in discovery much of the year.

Once upright, photos and applause resulted. Inevitably, progress was followed by a wobble and crash.

The largest flop came Selection Sunday when the Huskies were left out of the NCAA Tournament by a large margin. Washington was not rated the 69th best team in the country by the selection committee. Far from it.

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The first person to yell about David Estrada being part of the Sounders was David Estrada.

In 2010, when the Sounders plucked him from UCLA with the 11th overall pick of the MLS SuperDraft, Estrada had just walked into his Salinas, Calif., home and hopped online.

The Sounders were about to select when Estrada hit the Internet. The next thing he heard was MLS Commissioner Don Garber saying his name.

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Since being exiled to the National Invitation Tournament, Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar has told those listening it could be fun.

The players weren’t buying in at the start, and neither was the public. There was low attendance Tuesday against Texas-Arlington for a first-round win. The Huskies themselves went through the game will all the joy of test objects for an eye-poke device.

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Marketing masterminds dubbed the Sounders’ fresh third kit Super Cyan. Inspired by the color palette in a bag of gum drops, the blue and sort of green was seemed old hat compared to other fresh starts Wednesday, since it had been previously worn in a training match in Cancun.

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A party atmosphere enveloped Benaroya Hall on Wednesday night for the 77th Annual Sports Stars of the Year banquet. That fun around the games quickly turned dramatic early in the night.

Former Washington quarterback Jake Locker presented fellow Ferndale resident Jake Finkbonner with the Seattle Children’s Inspirational Youth Award. Finkbonner’s speech brought everyone to their feet, many with damp eyes.

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That’s him?

It’s a fair initial thought when seeing Jesus Montero walk into Benaroya Hall in street clothes Wednesday night for the 77th annual Sports Star of the Year awards event.

Montero looked like he could heading to a prom this spring. He’s baby-faced and laden with opposite-field power, a combination the Mariners hope grows up with the franchise.

After sending pitchers Michael Pineda and Jose Campos to the Yankees for catcher Montero and pitcher Hector Noesi, the Mariners hope they acquired the off-season bat that will help finally provide offense.

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On one knee, head bowed and arm curled, Oregon coach Dana Altman was reduced to the position often reserved for national embarrassment: Tebowing.

Altman wasn’t testing the power of prayer or performing a late-game homage to Denver’s second coming. Though, if he checked in with the Almighty, his hopes went unanswered.

Instead, he glanced at the floor after yet another of C.J. Wilcox’s angelic 3-pointers went in, then turned to smack the undeserving Alaska Airlines Eskimo.

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Tony Wroten turned the ball over on Washington’s first possession Thursday night.

Then, he thought what everyone else was thinking.

“I was like, ‘Oh, my God, here we go again Tony,’ ” Wroten said.

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By Todd Dybas

SAN DIEGO — A two-touchdown underdog to a team that beat them by five touchdowns earlier in the season came up with one of the great moments in University of Washington football history.

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The duality of a veteran choke job is always surprising.

The experienced do not relinquish a 1-0 lead in a best-of-three series. Do not surrender and 18-point advantage in the deciding game. Do not wilt against a team it dominated for two years.

But such was the case for the always achieving Seattle Storm. The WNBA’s defending champions were jettisoned into the offseason Monday night in KeyArena by a 77-75 loss to Phoenix in the Western Conference semifinals.

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Multi-quarter bullying left Diana Taurasi in a repeat position.

The Phoenix star sat stoically in darkness during the Storm’s opening hoopla in KeyArena Thursday night. She sipped from a Gatorade cup with a towel across her lap. She was calm in the noise around her prior to tip-off.

About 90 minutes later, Taurasi sat in a neighboring bench seat, sipping from a Gatorade cup with a towel across her lap. Calm while the noise around her indicated the season slipping away.

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Campers cut and dashed Monday at Lorenzo Romar’s Basketball Camp inside Hec Edmundson Pavilion. Finally, Washington point guard Abdul Gaddy doesn’t have to watch with envy.

Gaddy’s slight scar on his left knee is the pressing reminder of his anterior cruciate ligament tear from January that ended his season. Well-padded crutches aided him through Hec Ed’s back halls a week after the injury.

Monday, he sat comfortably in the team’s lounge following his coaching duties at the camp.

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Talented, soft, unmotivated, out of shape. That was the reputation of Washington running back Chris Polk at the end of abysmal 2008.

It wasn’t just message board chatter. That’s what the new Washington coaches were being told about Polk.

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