Specifically, I was pondering the meaning of the presence of so many ex-Seattle Mariners on all the post season teams, and the fact that the Mariners finished with the second to worst record in the majors and one of the worst in club history. Letsee. There's Mike Cameron for the Brewers. There's Jamie Moyer for Philadelphia. Ken Griffey of the White Sox. Jason Veritek of Boston. Derek Lowe for the Dodgers who was an "up and comer" on the Mariners before being traded with Veritek in one of the all time WORST trades in history to Boston for a washed up closer. Even our best ever manager, Lou Pinella is guiding the Cubs. Tampa has Joey Cora as a bench coach. (Tell me, if Tampa Bay wins the World Series, will that be a sign of the coming Apocolypse?)
I don't know what it is about sports in Seattle. We have occasion flashes (such as the Seahawks in the Super Bowl, losing to the Steelers), but for the most part, the sports scene here is pretty grim. This year, it's beyond terrible. To recap:
- The Seattle Supersonics, the first major team to bring a national title to Seattle, got spirited away to Oklahoma, of all places, by a bunch of lying crooks. Rich, but crooks all the same. The Oklahoma City Thunder. Cripes. So, after being a major part of the NBA for decades, Seattle no longer has a team.
- The Mariners, as mentioned earlier, went through one of their worst seasons in history, losing more than 100 games for only the third time, I think. This in a season when people thought they actually had a chance to challenge the Angels.
- Washington Husky football is as lame as it has ever been. The defense has given up more points than most anyone in the country, and our star player, along with many of the best of the rest, are injured and out for quite some time. If they win a single game, it might be a major miracle. About the only consolation is that the Washington State Cougars look to be equally bad in the race to the bottom of the Pac 10.
- The Seahawks look to be very ordinary this year, which is pretty usual for the NFL. Still, after winning their division for a number of a years in a row, playing in the Super Bowl a few years back, coupled with the fact that this is Mike Holgren's last year as coach, sort of led us all to believe the team was better than it is turning out to be.
- Even the Seattle Storm of the WNBA was a major disappointment this year. After loading up on ex-all stars and MVP's, the Storm looked like a shoo-in to the finals. Then one of our star players, Lauren Jackson, went off to play for Australia in the Olympics. She decided to have ankle surgery right after the Olypmics were over and never came back to the team. Last year's MVP and the leading scorer on the team is not easily replaced. The team gave it a valiant effort, but once again got put out in the first round of the playoffs.
When you get down to it, investing a lot of emotional energy in sports is a losing proposition. It's just a meaningless diversion which becomes a lot more meaningless when there isn't any satisfaction to be had anywhere. Bread and circuses, without the circus.
UPDATE: O.K., getting waxed 44-6 by the Giants qualifies the Seahawks as something less than "average". That's more in the realm of "pretty dang poor", even if (just like the Huskies) they have had multiple injuries. That's just a reason. It doesn't change the result.
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