How rare is this seasonal start? In only five seasons in their 40-year franchise history did the Mariners (21-13) win at least 20 of their first 34 games.
Author: Steve Rudman
Steve Rudman
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 Seahawks continued their run on offensive players, selecting Arkansas RB Alex Collins. With a second pick in the fifth round, they moved up to acquire DT Quinton Jefferson of Maryland.
Seahawks traded up to get top Alabama nose tackle, then devoted three third-round picks to a Notre Dame running back, an Ohio State tight end and a guard from Boise State.
The Mariners’ group of minority owners, led by longtime Seattle tech executive John Stanton, announced the purchase of 45 percent of the club from Nintendo of America. Howard Lincoln will retire.
Seahawks roster has only one first-round pick, Earl Thomas, yet competes at NFL’s highest level. Chicago is next with four. The team they beat in the playoffs, Minnesota, now has 13.
The schedule highlight: Nov. 13 at the Patriots, a Sunday night rematch of the epic Super Bowl warriors. The Seahawks also realistically have a clean path to a 3-0 start.
Scott Servais brings no managerial experience to the Mariners, but that tells us nothing about his ability to run a major league club, as Seattle predecessors Bob Melvin and Maury Wills showed.
The Seahawks have scored big and fallen flat in free agency over the past two decades. Here are their five best signings, their five worst, and five memorable jilt jobs.
The Mariners head to spring training this week amid projections that they will win between 77 to 85 games and finish between second and fourth place in the AL West.
Seven former Huskies and Cougars have collected multiple Super Bowl rings, none more than a receiver from WSU who played on San Francisco’s “Team of the ’80s.”