darin
12-25-2008, 12:19 AM
VERY VERY VERY Well-written article discussing how bad the fans of Seattle's teams have had it.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=seattle2008
Highlights:
...The Mariners aren't even halfway to becoming the first team to lose 100 games with a payroll of more than $100 million, nor have they fired their first manager of the season, let alone their second. The Washington Huskies have yet to suffer a single one of their historic 12 losses or fire their coach or get called for delay of game on their first play from scrimmage. (Delay of game on your first offensive play of a game -- how is that possible? What, did Kenny G play the national anthem?) The preseason magazines hitting the newsstands are picking the Seahawks to win the NFC West for the fifth straight year, not lose 11 games (and counting) on the way to saying goodbye to their coach, Mike Holmgren. And most importantly, the SuperSonics trial over their lease has yet to begin, so there still is hope they will remain in Seattle rather than move to Oklahoma @$&%ing City.
What was the year's lowest moment? Was it when the Mariners -- picked by some to win the World Series -- used a third-string catcher as a pitcher with the game tied (or when he was nearly as effective as Carlos Silva, the pitcher they signed for $44 million)? Was it when the Cowboys sacked Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck seven times on Thanksgiving Day? Was it when an e-mail from Clay Bennett was made public in which the new Sonics owner wrote he was "a man possessed" with moving the team to Oklahoma? Was it when the refs flagged Husky quarterback Jake Locker 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct after he tossed the football in the air to celebrate a last-second touchdown against BYU in early September and the arthritic UW kicker missed the subsequent extra-point attempt that would've tied the game?
The absolute lowest moment? Hell, Barry Erickson, aka, Captain Husky, says he's had four or five absolute lowest moments -- and that's just with UW football.
"It is strange to think how spoiled we were when we were winning," says Erickson, who has performed a team spell-out while wearing his Captain Husky superhero costume at every UW home football game for the past 23 years. "Maybe I took it for granted then, too. Now, if we beat Oregon State or Arizona, I'm going to relish that win. ... Did you ever think you would relish a win over Oregon State or Arizona?"
And bear in mind, Erickson was saying that before the Huskies somehow blew a lead with the ball and a minute remaining and lost to 1-10 Washington State in the annual Apple Cup, the one game Husky fans had felt confident they would win.
"It's a mystifying year for Seattle," Big Lo says.
That's the problem with professional sports, though. You can root for a team all your life, miss so few home games you can count them on your fingers, greet the team at the airport and shovel snow from their cars, but the team isn't really yours. Oh, the team relies on your loyalty; in fact, it demands your loyalty, reaps staggering profits from your loyalty -- $149 for a Jose Vidro alternate jersey? -- but it is always owned by some billionaire who seems to have forgotten the Sonics' 1979 championship parade through downtown (say, Starbucks owner Howard Schultz) but buys the team only to sell it a couple years later for a fantastic $150 million profit to some other billionaire with absolutely no attachment to the team or the city (say, Clay Bennett) who immediately demands taxpayers build him a new $500 million arena even though the city already has rebuilt the current arena to a previous owner's exact specifications barely a decade ago. He and the league's commissioner (say, David Stern) argue the team is so important to the city's image, its citizens and its livelihood that the new owner deserves a half-billion dollar arena to keep the franchise in the city where it won a championship, where it played Michael Jordan's Bulls in another NBA Finals, where it has called home your entire existence. And when the new owner doesn't get the new arena, he'll go to court to break his lease, testifying that what he really meant before is that the team doesn't mean much to the city or you at all, that your quality of life doesn't hinge on a dozen basketball players and that he should be able to move the team to Oklahoma despite a contract he signed that specifically states he cannot. And the city's mayor (say, Greg Nickels), who admits during the trial over the lease that he has attended only one game in his seven years in office, works out some incomprehensible settlement that allows the owner to move the team for $45 million, not one cent of which goes to you or any of the other fans who invested your money and your hearts into the franchise under the naive idea that doing so made it yours.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=seattle2008
Highlights:
...The Mariners aren't even halfway to becoming the first team to lose 100 games with a payroll of more than $100 million, nor have they fired their first manager of the season, let alone their second. The Washington Huskies have yet to suffer a single one of their historic 12 losses or fire their coach or get called for delay of game on their first play from scrimmage. (Delay of game on your first offensive play of a game -- how is that possible? What, did Kenny G play the national anthem?) The preseason magazines hitting the newsstands are picking the Seahawks to win the NFC West for the fifth straight year, not lose 11 games (and counting) on the way to saying goodbye to their coach, Mike Holmgren. And most importantly, the SuperSonics trial over their lease has yet to begin, so there still is hope they will remain in Seattle rather than move to Oklahoma @$&%ing City.
What was the year's lowest moment? Was it when the Mariners -- picked by some to win the World Series -- used a third-string catcher as a pitcher with the game tied (or when he was nearly as effective as Carlos Silva, the pitcher they signed for $44 million)? Was it when the Cowboys sacked Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck seven times on Thanksgiving Day? Was it when an e-mail from Clay Bennett was made public in which the new Sonics owner wrote he was "a man possessed" with moving the team to Oklahoma? Was it when the refs flagged Husky quarterback Jake Locker 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct after he tossed the football in the air to celebrate a last-second touchdown against BYU in early September and the arthritic UW kicker missed the subsequent extra-point attempt that would've tied the game?
The absolute lowest moment? Hell, Barry Erickson, aka, Captain Husky, says he's had four or five absolute lowest moments -- and that's just with UW football.
"It is strange to think how spoiled we were when we were winning," says Erickson, who has performed a team spell-out while wearing his Captain Husky superhero costume at every UW home football game for the past 23 years. "Maybe I took it for granted then, too. Now, if we beat Oregon State or Arizona, I'm going to relish that win. ... Did you ever think you would relish a win over Oregon State or Arizona?"
And bear in mind, Erickson was saying that before the Huskies somehow blew a lead with the ball and a minute remaining and lost to 1-10 Washington State in the annual Apple Cup, the one game Husky fans had felt confident they would win.
"It's a mystifying year for Seattle," Big Lo says.
That's the problem with professional sports, though. You can root for a team all your life, miss so few home games you can count them on your fingers, greet the team at the airport and shovel snow from their cars, but the team isn't really yours. Oh, the team relies on your loyalty; in fact, it demands your loyalty, reaps staggering profits from your loyalty -- $149 for a Jose Vidro alternate jersey? -- but it is always owned by some billionaire who seems to have forgotten the Sonics' 1979 championship parade through downtown (say, Starbucks owner Howard Schultz) but buys the team only to sell it a couple years later for a fantastic $150 million profit to some other billionaire with absolutely no attachment to the team or the city (say, Clay Bennett) who immediately demands taxpayers build him a new $500 million arena even though the city already has rebuilt the current arena to a previous owner's exact specifications barely a decade ago. He and the league's commissioner (say, David Stern) argue the team is so important to the city's image, its citizens and its livelihood that the new owner deserves a half-billion dollar arena to keep the franchise in the city where it won a championship, where it played Michael Jordan's Bulls in another NBA Finals, where it has called home your entire existence. And when the new owner doesn't get the new arena, he'll go to court to break his lease, testifying that what he really meant before is that the team doesn't mean much to the city or you at all, that your quality of life doesn't hinge on a dozen basketball players and that he should be able to move the team to Oklahoma despite a contract he signed that specifically states he cannot. And the city's mayor (say, Greg Nickels), who admits during the trial over the lease that he has attended only one game in his seven years in office, works out some incomprehensible settlement that allows the owner to move the team for $45 million, not one cent of which goes to you or any of the other fans who invested your money and your hearts into the franchise under the naive idea that doing so made it yours.