Seattle: Sports’ New Heartbreak City
By Derik Hettinger
Love of Sports Correspondent
As a Seattle sports fan and proud native of Washington State, I feel it is necessary to draw attention to the suffering and injustice that the region is experiencing.
Whether you are Seattle advocates or not, anyone can appreciate the fact that this is not happening to your city’s sports landscape. The affects are devastating, and while they may not be felt outside of the Pacific Northwest, they sadden those who do live in the area and have come to care passionately about their teams.
The absence of the Sonics, a franchise that had stood for forty-one years and represented Seattle’s only major championship is the centerpiece of Seattle’s sports crisis.
There is permanence to the Seattle Sonics moving to Oklahoma City. They are not coming back. Despite coming off consecutive fifty loss seasons, the future appeared bright with rising stars Kevin Durant and Jeff Green on a team that should still be in Seattle.
It all started with a billionaire owner who replaced his love of basketball with a coffee obsession, Howard Schultz, the true definition of the word “sell out.” He took the first offer he got, knowing full well that Clay Bennett would try his very hardest to move the team to Oklahoma City within the parameters of the lease agreement. At the very least, a man who overpays for a Sonics team that is losing money and just happens to be from Oklahoma City, a region that has recently campaigned for an NBA franchise, appears just a little bit suspicious.
As it turns out, the lease agreement might as well have not existed at all, since the city of Seattle made a deal that allowed the team to leave. The fight in court was merely a public relations front to make the city look better, like it cared for the Sonics, when nothing could be further from the truth.
The Seattle Mariners are still here, but what consolation is there in rooting for a team that is on pace to lose over a hundred games? The Mariners had slowly improved since their appalling 2004 campaign in which they lost 99 games, to win a respectable 88 games in 2007. The preseason predictions of 90 wins and playoff aspirations feel like they were directed at a different team. This team deserves none of that.
Most struggling teams have clear cut reasons why they are not performing at an adequate level. Not this team. The causes for the team’s inferiority are so numerous and jumbled that there is no one reason. Seattle fails miserably on all fronts.
The team has no clear leader. Ichiro, the longest tenured current Mariner and future Hall of Famer, should be the Mariners team leader both on the field and in the clubhouse. Unfortunately, he garners impressive statistics that are empty of significance other than they look good on the back of a baseball card. 2008 has seen his numbers drop off tremendously, so that they are barely worthy of mentioning. In the clubhouse, he does not mesh with the players or take it upon himself to inspire winning. He is the invisible superstar whose impact is left to question; despite his $17 million salary.
Seattle has no clear path to regain dominance over the American League West. With no general manager in place, the Mariners are a ship without a sail. Although, I would rather be a lost ship at sea than let Bill Bavasi anywhere near my boat.
The Mariners have a beautiful ballpark, staggeringly impressive attendance despite their struggles and a payroll in the excess of $110 million. The powers that be need to take their focus away from merely making money to creating a contender. The contenders that happened by accident in 2000 and 2001 were pleasant surprises. Now, they have realized the hard way just how rare those kinds of accidents are. Any team that makes the long suffering Royals look good is one that desperately needs a good old house cleaning from top to bottom.
I have refrained from mentioning the Washington Husky football program. I am going to give them this upcoming season as their chance of redemption. Otherwise, I will be harping on them just as much as I am on everybody else.
For those of you who are like me, mired in depression and emanating irate emotions towards people like Clay Bennett and Howard Lincoln, I have words of hope for all of you ....
Seahawks training camp starts soon.
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Comments
pantophobia on 07/25 at 05:06 AM
Seattle is also the first American city to win the Stanley Cup over 90 years ago, but it’s been nearly that long since the city has had a top level team, Seattle needs a new arena to fix this whole Key Arena thing, and in doing so should try to attract a hockey expansion team
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