Jan. Feb. 14-20, 2011
- Good Week — The Mariners hire franchise icon Ken Griffey Jr. as a special consultant without actually specifying what his duties will be. Team president Chuck Armstrong says Griffey’s new job was two years in the making. From our perspective, Griffey’s main job will be being Ken Griffey Jr. Don’t know why that took two years to figure out.
- Bad Week — Lorenzo Romar loses his best 3-point shooter, Scott Suggs, then loses to Arizona in Tucson, 87-86, turning the Pac-10 into a two-team race between Arizona and UCLA. The Huskies simply cannot win close games, are bad on the road and 0-3 against teams ranked in the Associated Press poll. Not a good trifecta with March approaching.
- Sunday, Feb. 20 — Fred Couples has a chance to win his first PGA Tour event of the year when he birdies the first three holes and takes the final-round lead at the Northern Trust Open, but bogeys two of the final three and finishes in a tie for seventh at Riviera CC. The Seattle native has been in the top 10 on 14 occasions at Riviera CC and still has a lot of game at age 51.
- Saturday, Feb. 19 — Arizona’s Derek Williams costs Washington a chance to win the regular-season Pac-10 title when, with 2.2 seconds remaining, he swats away Darnell Gant’s potential game-winning shot, then steals the inbounds pass to preserve a wild 87-86 AU win over the Huskies. Huskies are now 1-7 in games decided by 10 points or less, not a good omen.
- Friday, Feb. 18 — Milton Bradley shows up in spring training and, in response to a query as to whether he feels extra motivation to perform due to strong competition, says, “Not really. Nobody can compete with me when I’m Milton Bradley and I’m at my best. And they pay me a lot of money because I can play. So I’m not really concerned about that.” Our local sports franchises would be much better off if they made it a policy not to employ delusional individuals who speak of themselves in the third person.
- Thursday, Feb. 17 — Three minutes into Washington’s game at Arizona State, 3-point whiz Scott Suggs suffers a left MCL sprain. Undaunted the Huskies roll to a 79-62 win, keeping their flickering hopes alive for a regular-season Pac-10 title. UW’s sweep of the regular-season series with ASU is not all that impressive, given ASU’s status as the worst team in the conference.
- Wednesday, Feb. 16 — Scott Podsednik, who made his major league debut with the Mariners in 2001, signs a minor league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays. We report this non-event only to remind Mariner fans that he remains the only player in Seattle franchise history to whack a bases-clearing triple for his first MLB hit (2001).
- Tuesday, Feb. 15 — Basketball legend Bill Russell is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in Washington, D.C. A review of his life and career reminds us just what a special — and unique — individual resides in our midst.
- Monday. Feb. 14 — Mike Holmgren’s Cleveland Browns hire former University of Washington head football coach Keith Gilbertson as an assistant offensive coach. UW handed Gilby an impossible assignment when it asked him to replace Rick Neuheisel, then axed him when he couldn’t make it work. Although he got a raw deal, he’s much better suited to work as an assistant.
“That Was The Week That Was (TW3)” is published every Monday as part of Sportspress Northwests package of home-page features collectively titled, The Rotation.
The Rotations weekly schedule:
- Monday: That Was The Week That Was (TW3) A snarky, day-by-day review of the week just ended.
- Tuesday: Wayback Machine — Sports historian David Eskenazi’s deep dive into local sports history, replete with photo eye candy.
- Wednesday: Nobody Asks But Us — We ask, and answer, fun and quirky questions nobody else is asking.
- Thursday: Water Cooler Cool — Art Thiel takes on the weekend for the benefit of the more casual fan.
- Friday: Top 5 List — The alpha and omega of Northwest sports, at least as far as we’re concerned.