Bedard / Jones Trade

Other blogs have done a great job presenting the issues and their thoughts on the proposed and soon to be finalized trade. What say you?

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Holiday Cheer

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Fans Defined

In light of the '06 Seahawks being swept away by the 49ers and subsequent freaking out by NW fans, I thought it important to define some terms to help all the ranting, slobbering-mad bloggers and armchair quarterbacks out there.

1. Fair-weather fan - A person who cheers for a team or athlete when they're doing well but wishes failure or harm on that same team or athlete when performing poorly. These "fans" are really selfish babies who say things like, "I'm done. I hope they lose the rest of their games." Pathetic.

2. Bandwagon fan - A person, previously indifferent toward a team or athlete, who begins cheering for the same team or athlete because it's popular, convenient, or fun to do so. Let's be honest about a couple things. First, we're all bandwagon fans when the Olympics roll around and we find ourselves exclaiming to our co-workers, "we got robbed in the 2-man luge!!" Second, we need bandwagon fans. Imagine how dead the Kingdome would have felt if only 10,000 people showed up to cheer for the '95 M's.

3. Average fan - A person who consistently supports the same team or athlete and follows the team or athlete regardless of performance.

4. Diehard fan - A person who supports a team or athlete regardless of popularity, convenience, or performance, attends games regularly, wears team colors and has other assorted gear (think wigs, giant foam number one fingers, jerseys, license plate covers, etc), and expresses passion about the performance or trajectory of the team or athlete.

5. Sherlock fan -A bandwagon fan (#2) who disguises himself a diehard fan (#4) but is exposed by stating obvious things about the team or athlete, often from hindsight. "We should have signed Hutch" or "Our MVP isn't as good as LaDanian Tomlinson" or "We should have called a different play on 4th down when we got stuffed" are all hidden clues Sherlock lets the rest of us in on. Thanks for putting the pieces together for us, detective.

6. Bonehead fan: These people are typically Sherlock fans with a higher degree of ignorance, adding moronic assetions to their obvious ones. I heard one bonehead fan complaining that Shaun Alexander isn't vocal enough and that if we had Jamal Lewis to fire up our offense, we'd be a better team. Nice insight on Lewis, a slightly better than average running back who had one great season.

I hope this helps. Happy ranting.

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Two Words

Braaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnndon Royyyyyyy!!!!!

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Hmmm...

There are lots of things happening in Sportstopia making me scratch my head tonight. I wonder...

If Steve Largent will be sporting Sonics gear when the club moves to Oklahoma?
How many points per game BRoy will score next season for Nate's TrailBlazers?
If the real Mariners will please stand up?
If people in Portland will make fun of people in Seattle for not having a pro basketball team?
What the future holds for Zoomstick?
If David Stern is starting to figure out why the NBA is a joke?
If the Seahawks will win a playoff game this coming season?
How soon Jake Locker will be the starting QB for the Washington Huskies?
If Alfonso Soriano in a Mariner uniform is just a pipe dream?
When it comes to stewed prunes, is three enough or are four to many?

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My Happy Place

What does my Happy Place look like? The M's are playing good baseball, the World Cup is in full-on, crazy-passion mode, the World Series of Poker is underway, and a thin ray of hope shines down on the Rose City on NBA draft day.

1. How 'bout them Mariners? The boys are on a roll, moving past .500 for the first time since it was cool to say, "whaaazzzzzaaaauuuhp" like the guys on the Budweiser commercials. Ichiro is lighting it up, Johjima is hitting the cover off the ball (5 HR in the last week), and Felix is starting to pitch like everyone thought he would. Even Sexson is getting in on the act--8 RBI over the past 4. A word to Mike Hargrove: DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING.

2. If you told me this morning that the Blazers would have both LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy on their roster AND that Sebastian Telfair would be wearing a different uni next season, I'd have said you're dreaming. This is a Happy Place indeed.



3. The World Cup field is sick, with virtually all the big names reaching the quarterfinals. France made a statement hammering Spain, Argentina looks solid, Brazil appears to have its kinks worked out, and Germany's offense has yet to be stopped. I like Brazil 2-0 over France, Portugal 1-0 versus England, Ukraine on PK's over Italy following a 0-0 draw, and Germany 3-2 against Argentina in a match for the ages.

4. Another happy Mariner note: I picked up Johjima the other day in my fantasy league. The next day, he hit 2 bombs and drove in 5. Did I mention I like my Happy Place?

5. A question completely unrelated to my Happy Place: What were the Sonics thinking about when they drafted Saer Sene with the 10th pick in today's draft? Another big-man project to join Robert Swift and Johan Petro? That ought to make ticket-holders and taxpayers excited about building the Supes a new arena.

6. The World Series of Poker is underway at Harrah's in Las Vegas. Some 8000 players are expected to participate in the main event, still a month and a half away. I can't wait.

7. Speaking of the World Series, props to the Oregon State Beavers for winning the College Baseball edition. People living in California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida now know that coffee snobs and tree huggers play baseball too.

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Fantasy World Cup

With the NBA season mercifully coming to an end, Zoomstick is proud to announce ZoomstickPremiere, the ultimate 2006 FIFA World Cup Fantasy League.

Now before you start moaning about how unfamiliar you are with international soccer, just remember how well you knew George Mason, Bradley, and Oral Roberts before March Madness went into full swing. And when you consider the fact that your next chance to do this won't roll around again until 2010, there's never been a better time to join ZoomstickPremiere. Follow the instructions below and have fun!

1. Go to sports.yahoo.com
2. Click "sign in" (if you don't have a yahoo account, click "sign up")
3. Sign in
4. Click "Fantasy"
5. Click "Fantasy FIFA World Cup"
6. Click "Sign In/Sign Up"
7. Follow instructions and then click "submit team" (be ure to join public group "Fans of United States")
8. Once your team appears, click "Group"
9. Click "join group"
10. Group # is 17627, password is pnwfootball
11. Read the rules and create your team
12. Good luck!

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