Ichiro Almost Wore Pinstripes

This is an older story by apparently Ichiro was almost a Yankee. He had the teams narrowed down to the Mariners and Yankees, his wife then persuaded him to stay in Seattle.

The thought of Ichiro in pinstripes makes us sick, not as sick as if he was a Red Sox, but we digress. We aren't huge Ichiro fans, but we like him on the team. The Yankees and Red Sox are the worst so if we had to watch him slap singles for them it would have caused us to drink like Richie Sexson on his way to a Blazers game.

If the Mariners can pull off some sort of miracle, like trade for Johan Santana, then they have an opportunity to make a playoff push. Of course the Angels signing Torri Hunter doesn't help Seattle's cause.

If Not For His Wife, Ichiro Might be A Yankee [Enjoy the Enjoyment]
The Angels sign Hunter to a $90 million deal [NY Times]

High School Football - Championship Version

This weekend is Championship Weekend in the state of Washington. The two big classifications, 4A and 3A, play Saturday and Friday night respectively. In the 3A game Skyline plays O'Dea and in 4A Bothell takes on Lewis & Clark from across the mountains.

Skyline is coached by Steve Gervais, maybe the best high school coach is Washington state history. He has won 3 1A titles with Eatonville, took Gig Harbor to the championship game, and won the 3A title in 2000 and the 4A title in 2005, both with Skyline. He has the Spartans in position to win their 3rd title in 8 years. It will be very interesting to see what happens to Skyline when Gervais leaves, something that will most likely happen in 2 years when sophomore QB Jake Heaps graduates.

In the 4A game, Bothell makes it second straight appearance in the championship game. They have been the best team in 4A this season and if a team ever deserved to win they would be it. The Tigers from Lewis & Clark are making their first appearance in the title game. They are a big underdog to Bothell, but they have surprised a lot of teams in the playoffs so we wouldn't be shocked if they somehow pulled out the win.

Both games should be very entertaining and will display the quality of high school football that Washington state offers year-in and year-out.

Photo Courtesy of The Seattle Times

Potential Cougar Football Coaches

Now that the Cougars have to hire a new football coach we though we'd look at the possible hires who would take over at Wazzu.

-Mike Price: The choice everyone and the mom has been talking about. He hasn't done well at UTEP the last two years, 5-7 and 4-8. He would have considerably better talent at WSU and has proven he can recruit and win in Pullman. He is 61 years old, something that could hurt in recruiting.

-Paul Wulff: The head coach at Eastern Washington University. Wulff is a former Coug who is familiar with recruiting in Washington. He would probably keep some of the staff the same. Negative, he's never been a Division 1 coach, something that AD Jim Sterk said was something they were looking for.

-Bob Gregory: He is a former Coug as well, now the D-coordinator at California. He has coached Division 1 football before albeit as an assistant. He could keep Levenseller around to work with the offense and concentrate on the defense.

-Under no circumstance should WSU hire or even interview UW offense coordinator Tim Lappano. That would be a lateral, if not backwards, move. He has never been a HC and frankly we are not to impressed with his offense at UW.

Those seem to be the most logical choices. Washington State needs a Cougar to coach the Cougars. All three of the above guys are Cougars and understand what it takes to play in a town like Pullman.

Cougar News

Lots of Cougar news today.

Football coach Bill Doba was fired. Just two days after winning the Apple Cup he is let go. The Mike-Price-back-to-Washington-State stories are already out, including this one by the El Paso Times. We have been on the Bring Back Mike Price Bandwagon for a long time. We like Doba as a guy, so much so that we feel for him today, but football wise this was the right move. The best part of Price coming back would be he would most likely keep some of the staff. We like that fact that the Cougars are coached by Cougars. Levenseller, Yarno, Broussard, Rypien; those guys care about Washington State.

In other WSU news, the basketball team moved up to #6 in the nation. This is the new highest ranking for the Cougars. They won the inaugural Hispanic College Fund Tournament this past weekend in Spokane. They play at Baylor on Friday then travel to the Kennel for a big game with Gonzaga on December 5th. Unfortunetly, both of those games are televised on ESPNU, a channel that we don't get.

Doba fired as WSU football coach [Tacoma News Tribune]
Washington St., coach part ways; Price could return [El Paso Times]

What's Up With...

Bryce Fisher!!!

The former Seahawks starting DE was traded to the Titans on Sept. 11th this season for an undisclosed draft pick. We haven't read or heard anything about Fisher lately so we wanted to see how he's been performing this season.

Fisher has played in 6 games this season recording 0 sacks and 5 tackles. It doesn't look like Fisher is getting the playing time he needs to be really effective but he wouldn't have got that here in Seattle either.

Fisher was a great off-the-field guy who was mildly entertaining on his weekly-radio spot with Softy on KJR. The Seahawks made the right decision trading him and allowing Darryl Tapp to start. Tapp has been great this season, 6.5 sacks, 1 INT, and 2 FF. Not to mention he recovered the fumble Sunday that allowed the Seahawks to hold off the Bears.

Photo Courtesy of The Seattle Times

Catching Up!

We have had a very busy week so there has been no posting since Thursday, which is not what we want but it had to happen.

It's Apple Cup week and the birds are already chirping. Jordan Reffett, the Husky DT, had a lot to say about the Cougs. We hope the Cougs shove it to the dawgs, but it isn't looking good.

*Update: Locker is going to start for UW, meaning the Cougar defense needs to play its ass off.

The Seahawks beat a mediocre Bears team on Sunday. They have the Rams this week, which should be a win. That would put them at 7-4 with probably still a 1-game division lead.

The state football playoffs semifinal round is this weekend. In the 4A game across the mountain, Bothell visits Ferris with the winner being the favorite to win the whole thing. In the other game, Lewis & Clark plays Edmonds-Woodway at the Tacoma Dome.

In 3A Skyline and Bellevue both play but in opposite sides of the bracket. This could potentially be a huge championship game if they both win.

Dawg has plenty of yap in him [Seattle PI]

What Happened Last Night...

The Huskies are headed to NYC, the Sonics get off the crapper, and Tony Bennett signs a solid class for the Cougs.

UW beat Utah 83-77 to advance to the NIT semifinals in Madison Square Garden. Johnny Brockman had a monster game: 31 points and 18 rebounds and the other cast of characters contributed when needed. Now the dawgs get set to play Texas A&M next week.

Kiss that 0-82 season good-bye because the Sonics winners. They beat the Dwyane Wade-led Heat 104-95, notching the first victory on Kevin Durant's belt. Durant had 18 points on 6 for 16 shooting. Good thing Pat Riley didn't suit up for the game or we may be talking about a different outcome this morning.

Washington State signed five new basketball players yesterday. The class included 3 guards and 2 forwards. The first player listed, Marcus Capers, is the one that Tayler Rochestie gave up his scholarship for. The class received an "honorable mention" from Scout.com, whatever that means. Tony Bennett knows that he must get players that want to be part of a team, can live in a smalltown atmosphere, and are willing to give up things for the benefit of the team and the program.

Brockman has career game against Utah [Seattle Times]
Sonics finally break through [Seattle PI]
Cougars reloading at guard [Seattle Times]

Is Harrington Better Than Vick?

Michael David Smith of Fanhouse thinks so. He compares Harrington to the other QBs he has split time with: Byron Leftwich, Daunte Culpepper, and Jeff Garcia. It looks like Smith handpicked the stats he used in the argument, but the stats don't lie.

As life-long Vick haters we don't have any arguments that someone plays the QB position better than him. The only bad thing about Vick not playing this season is we don't get to watch him humiliate himself every Sunday. The guy is a joke, was always a joke, and will always be a joke.

Is Joey Harrington a better QB than Michael Vick? That is a debatable question. Is Joey Harrington a better person, teammate, and leader than Micheal Vick? That's like asking if Tony Dungy is a better person than Bill Belichick. It's no contest.

Joey Harrington Is Better Than Michael Vick [FanHouse]

Photo from The Onion

What Happened Last Night...

A whole lot of basketball, that's what happened.

0-82 here Seattle comes!!! Not really, but the Sonics did lose again last night. This time to the Orlando Magic and our good friend Rashard Lewis. Lewis went for 22 pts. against his former team while Durant was 4 for 13 with 10 points. The Sonics play the Heat tonight in Miami, getting another chance to pick up that elusive first victory.

The #9 team in the nation, the Washington State Cougars (we love typing that), went on the road into the smurf-court and beat the Boise State Broncos 86-74. Kyle Weaver played a much better game then he did in the opener and Derrick Low brought the Cougs back from a halftime deficit. Also, Daven Harmeling chipped in with 18 points, shooting 8 0f 12 from the field.

We don't know about you but when we think of basketball we think of the New Jersey Institution of Technology. And that's why the Huskies' blowout win last night was so surprising. UW is now one victory away from Madison Square Garden, where they can play the likes of Texas A&M, Syracuse, and Ohio State. Two guys who didn't play last year, Tim Morris and Joel Smith, went for 16 and 12 points respectfully. The rock in the middle, Jon Brockman threw in 12 pts. and grabbed 9 rebounds in the winning effort.

Magic extend Sonics' franchise-worst start to eight games [ESPN]
Cougars catch up, then coast [Seattle Times]
Huskies open season with runaway victory [Seattle PI]

Love the Forward Pass: Watch the Cougs on Saturday

Alex Brink already holds just about every WSU passing and QB record there is. Expect him to pad those numbers against Oregon State Saturday because 3 OSU defensive backs must sit out the 1st half.

Starting CB Brandon Hughes and reserves Bryan Payton and James Dockery were suspended for the 1st half by the NCAA for fighting with Washington players last week. Now, there's nothing wrong with kicking a little Husky ass, but you just might want to do it behind the stadium, not on the field.

With starting tailback Dwight Tardy out for the season expect Brink to be hitting Gibson, Bumpus, and hopefully Jed Collins all 1st half Saturday afternoon. This is a huge opportunity for Wazzu, added with OSU's starting QB not being able to play, for them to setup an important Apple Cup next week. If the Cougs pull off the upset, then a win in the AC means 6 wins and a chance for a bowl game. It's even bigger for Bill Doba because a bowl game is the only way he saves his job.

Cougars catch a break [Seattle PI]

M's Should Sign This Guy

There has been talk of the Mariners pursuing Hiroki Kuroda, a RHP out of Japan. He is a free agent so there is no posting fee and could come at a bargain compared to some other pitchers out there.

The Mariners could have an upperhand in signing Kuroda. He has a 103-89 career record in 11 seasons pitching in Japan. He has a career 3.69 ERA and has thrown 74 complete games. Kuroda has a 90-92 mph fastball, he throws a slider similar to Dice-K's, but he doesn't throw a curveball. His best pitch is a fork-split, which is his strikeout pitch.

Kuroda projects as a #3 starter in MLB and the Mariners have 2 openings in their rotation. Since he will come cheaper then some no-good, garbage free agent pitchers out there we think the Marines have to make a serious offer to him.

A Hernandez, Batista, Kuroda, Washburn, Rowland-Smith rotation doesn't get us jacked up over the roof, it does look better then if it had some of the other free agent pitchers out there in it. We discussed U.S.S. Mariner's offseason plan earlier, where they had the M's adding Bartolo Colon. If Seattle adds Kuroda and Colon, then it shows they are making a serious effort to improve the team, realizing that they cannot just sit on their hands because this team won 88 games last season.

Mariners in hunt for Japanese ace? [Tacoma News Tribune]
The Japanese Scouting Report [Prospect Insider]

What Happened Last Night...

The Seahawks beat a very bad 49ers team and the Cougars B-Ball team wins one game and moves up one spot.

The Seahawks threw it accurately and often in their 24-0 shutout over the 49ers. Hasselbeck threw it 40 times, completing 27 for 2 TD and 1 INT. We wonder what Shaun Alexander was thinking over on the sideline. Did he realize that Holmgren has lost his patience and he may never again get the amount of carries he wants. After losing both games to SF last season the Seahawks took it to them in both games this season.

The Cougars have matched their highest ranking ever, #9 in the AP Poll. Wazzu beat Eastern Washington and Michigan State didn't play so the Cougars moved up. They play tonight against Boise State in Boise. Since Ian Johnson doesn't play basketball and Chris Petersen isn't coaching I like the Cougars in this one.

Win comes to pass [Seattle PI]
AP Top-25 Men's College Basketball Poll [Seattle Times]