The other day I watched one of my favorite videos of all time, "My Oh My". Recently, the Mariners have been depressing and every once in awhile I need to remind myself that the Mariners were good at one moment in time. Here's a quick breakdown on the season that forever changed the direction of this franchise.
Talent
No player matched the performance of Ken Griffey Jr. in the 90's. His signature swing and infectious smile transformed the "Kid" into a living legend.
While Griffey impressed at the plate and in center field, Randy Johnson became one of the game's best pitchers. "The Big Unit" 's mustache and trend setting mullet instilled fear into opposing batters.
I could go on and on about all the talent; Edgar Martinez, Tino Martinez, Joey Cora, and Jay Buhner are just a couple of another names to mention. With the best player in baseball and the best pitcher, expectations were high for this team going into the season. However, 27 games in, on May 26, Griffey injured himself while making a highlight catch, breaking two bones in his left wrist. On August 15 Griffey returned to a team that was clinging to a 51-50 record and 12.5 games back of the California Angels.
The Comeback
Over the next 33 games, the Mariners slowly chipped away at the Angels' lead. And on September 6th, the Mariners had a 73-63 record, seizing the lead over the California Angels. They stayed on top of the division for ten days, and on September 30th the California Angels were able to tie the Mariners for the division lead. The two teams were forced to play an extra play-in game in Seattle to decide who would play in the playoffs.
Playoffs
The Mariners won the game and the AL West title, the first ever in franchise history. They moved on to play the mighty New York Yankees in a best of five divisonal series. This division pitted the Yankees, who haven't made the playoffs since 1981 and the Mariners who had never made the playoffs. Many baseball fans consider the '95 American League Division Series the best playoff series of all time. Coming from two games down, the Mariners tied the series at 2-2, forcing a decisive game five to be played in the Kingdome.
At this time, Mariner fever swept the city and the region with the slogan "Refuse to Lose" became the defining line of this '95 team. Over the season, the team would come from behind in many games, and they ended up coming from 13.5 games down to securing a spot in the playoffs. Game five produced one of the most memorable games in any Mariners fan's heart.
The Double
With the game tied, 4-4, the teams moved onto extra innings. In the top of the 11th, Randy Velarde singled to drive in pinch runner Pat Kelly to seize a 5-4 lead.
But the Mariners refused to lose.
Joey Cora started things off by drag bunting and safely reaching 1st base, then Griffey singled and Cora advanced to third base. With no outs and runners on first and third, Edgar Martinez stepped to the plate, and the rest is history...
Legacy
The Mariners ended up losing in six games to the Cleveland Indians in the American League Championship Series. Although the magical ride ended, the fans in Seattle finally knew what it was like to have a successful baseball team, and the Mariners were no longer a subpar expansion team but a permamnent part of Seattle culture.
Edgar's in game five of the ALDS is known for how it sent the M's into the ALCS, but it is also the hit that built Safeco Field. The buzz created by this team's success increased support in the political arena to provide funding for a new stadium.
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If you haven't heard yet, Antoine Hosley has joined the UW basketball team as a walk-on. Hosley played at Jefferson high school in Oregon with he-who-must-not-be-named. I don't think he'll get much playing time with an already guard-heavy lineup, but he does add some depth to the Huskies.
The highlight tape really doesn't tell us much of his skill-set, but if you want to take anything out of it, it does look like he has a decent jump-shot and he looks pretty athletic. Don't expect him to be a game-changer, but overall it's nice to have another athletic guard on this team.
no commentsNeither of us ever knew what exactly Sabermetrics was until we read books like Baseball Between the Numbers. Before that, the lingo and the content on websites like Lookout Landing and USS Mariner seemed like a foreign language. But after reading and learning about the concepts that make up Sabermetrics, our whole view of the game of baseball changed for the better, and we think that yours might as well.
It's important to at least be acquainted with these terms and concepts as we might reference or use them as reasoning in the future (and the past). So, according to our trusty Wikipedia guide, Sabermetrics is defined as:
the search for objective knowledge about baseball." Thus, sabermetrics attempts to answer objective questions about baseball, such as "which player on the Red Sox contributed the most to the team's offense?" or "How many home runs will Ken Griffey, Jr. hit next year?" It cannot deal with the subjective judgments which are also important to the game, such as "Who is your favorite player?
Evaluating Pitchers:
W-L record, ERA, and WHIP are flawed statistics because they take into account things that are not within the pitcher's control, such as defense, and in the case of W-L, offense. A pitcher can't help it if his defense is terrible or amazing.
Better statistics to use: FIP (available at fangraphs.com) or tRA (available at statcorner.com)
These stats take out things that are outside the pitcher's control and properly weigh stats like line drive percentage, strikeout percentage, ground ball percentage, home run percentage, and other batted ball or "raw" statistics in order to provide a clear picture of how that pitcher has done regardless of the defense behind him.
Before we move onto good methods, we should discuss OBP, SLG, OPS, and VORP. OBP was brought into the baseball forefront by the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis, a fantastic book whose point was badly misunderstood. OBP is the percentage of how often the hitter gets on base. SLG is the average amount of bases the batter accumulates per plate appearance.
OPS is the two stats combined. For a long time this was the best way to evaluate a hitter. However, it is flawed. OPS is flawed because it sees OBP as equal to SLG, which it isn't (OBP is almost four times as important). Another reason is that all these stats are prone to luck, both good and bad. We could go on for hours about luck's role in baseball, but suffice to say, it exists, it matters, and it must be accounted for.
VORP is a stat made by Baseball Prospectus a couple of years ago. At the time it was revolutionary. It introduced the important concept of replacement level, which in theory is the performance one would receive from a theoretical AAA guy (more info here). It has been made fun of by stupid people because of its name. It is now outdated. It's not terrible, but there are better stats to use.
Good stats to use: wOBA, wRAA
These are essentially the same stat in different forms. wOBA properly weighs possible outcomes by a hitter to evaluate hitting (more info here).wOBA is modeled to look a little like OBP. .300 is bad, .340 is average, .400 is really good. wRAA is the same thing but in the form of runs above an average player.
Ten runs = 1 win contributed or lost by the hitter. If a player has a wRAA of 20, he has contributed two wins more at the plate than the average hitter. If he has a wRAA of -14, it means he has contributed 1.4 wins less than the average hitters would have.
Defense is the one facet of the game that has been truly underrated for a long time. Very few realize its importance outside of Major League front offices, and they just started realizing it a few years ago (and some still don't get it).
There are three "true outcomes" of a plate appearance which are not affected by the defense. These are the K, the BB, and the HR. Any other outcome is affected by the defense. Defense makes up a very large part of what is commonly recognized as pitching.
They are totally worthless, built on reputation and lies. Need proof? Rafael Palmeiro won a gold glove in 1999 despite playing 135 games at DH.
The problem is that these stats don't always agree with each other, and they can vary based on the batted ball statistics they take their info from. The results can often be inconsistent (mainly because players are inconsistent). They also do not take into account positioning and the angle of the ball.
However, that doesn't mean that they are worthless, and it doesn't mean that one shouldn't use them in evaluating talent. How to do it is to look at different years to find a good range for how good a player is.
Instead of saying a player is ten runs above average at defense, we will often say that a player is between 5 and 15 runs above average and split the difference. This provides a more accurate depiction of the player.
When determining total value compared to players at other positions, the UZR must be modified to include an adjustment for that position. Naturally some positions are harder to play than others and the run value must reflect that.
It is harder to be a league average shortstop than it is to be a league average first baseman. Dave Cameron wrote a good article about positional adjustments, including the adjustments themselves on fangraphs.
To get WAR for a position player (pitchers are a little different), simply combine the hitter's WRAA, defensive value in runs (any advanced metric works but UZR is great because it's already in runs format), add a positional adjustment, and then add 20 (This makes it so that the player is being compared to replacement level. If you want to compare a player to the average player, then do not add 20). Divide that number by 10 (10 runs = 1 win), and that's WAR.
WAR is the number of wins that player is worth compared to a replacement level player. A player with a WAR of 3 is worth two more wins to a team over a player with a WAR of 1 with the same amount of playing time. Here is a sample calculation:
It's vital to understand that learning more about the game of baseball results in a greater understanding and appreciation of the game. Not that these stats are everything there is to know. Here, we had to rush through everything to introduce key concepts, but there is still so much else to see.
Baseball's little intricacies are part of what make it different from any other popular sport in America, and are what make the game so appealing. Sabermetrics don't take away from enjoyment of the game as some have argued, they enhance it.
Here are today's links:
- There is a movement to get UW president Mark Emmert to take a stand against Nike before he leaves [The Big Blog]
- Justin Dentmon has found himself on an NBA summer league team. Hopefully he'll still be in the league in October. [GoHuskies]
- Meanwhile, two-time NBA champion Adam Morrison is jobless right now. [SB Nation Seattle]
- Former Bellevue high school stand out, Julious Moore, will be playing at Portland St. next season. [Seattle Times]
- My favorite Gonzaga player, Bol Kong, will be transferring schools. [Slipper Still Fits]
After losing 3-2 to the DC United, the Sounders were craving for a chance to make up for that loss. That chance came last night as the Sounders played rough and scratched out a 1-0 victory over DC with an 87th minute goal from Roger Levesque. From the first whistle the game was open and physical.
Attacks ebbed and flowed from both sides as both teams were desperate for wins to turn around their season. The game was very tight and cramped for the Sounders in the first half as they compressed play in the middle of the field. This made it easy for DC to repel Seattle’s attacks in the first half.
Zakuani appeared frustrated on the outside and began drifting into the middle of the field to get on the ball but this only added to the overcrowding of the Seattle attack. With the start of the second half however, Seattle began to open up.
But mid way through the second half, the Sounders were scared speechless as Kasey Keller darted out to stop DC’s Najar from scoring a breakaway goal. Keller delayed the play but Seattle barely stopped a lobbed shot from Quaranta but Keller was left writhing in a heap of pain as his right foot was hit during the tackle. For a few minutes it was unclear as to whether Keller would carry on, but like a true professional Keller hobbled back to the goal and managed several more stunning saves throughout the second half.
The second half continued and Osvaldo Alonso returned for the Sounders and then it was really game on for Seattle. Alonso showed what Seattle had been missing as his deft distribution opened holes in the DC defense.
This pressure on DC gave way in the 87th minute as Fredy Montero got in behind the United back line and lofted a ball to the far post for Roger Levesque to head in for the late winner. With that the Sounders snapped a four game win-less streak and left Washington DC with higher hopes for the remainder of the season.
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Kasen Williams has been on the radar of many Husky fans ever since he started his freshman football season at Skyline. Now, a couple years later, Williams is entering his senior season as one of the top football recruits in the country. He's everything you'd want in a receiver: tall, smart, athletic, freakishly-athletic, and super human-athletic.
Trust me, I've seen him play football, and more importantly, I've seen him clear 6'11" in the high jump at a track meet. It's hard to get pumped up for your own race when you are distracted by the continuous chants to support Williams trying to clear seven feet.
Kasen isn't exactly fast, I've recorded faster 100 meter times than him, but he is quick, and once he builds momentum he is hard to stop. This makes Williams a perfect fit as a possible dual-threat as a kick-returner. His 6'2" frame combined with his ability to concentrate and adjust his body accordingly to make catches, makes him a dangerous threat, especially on long routes.
I confess that I'm not a football scout, but if you can clear 6'11" on the high jump, I'd be really comfortable as a coach with my quarterback throwing up a jump ball to you.
Cal
LSU
Arkansas
Florida
Notre Dame
Alabama
Washington State
Georgia Tech
Oklahoma
Nineteen years removed from the 1991 National Championship season, some Husky fans see the 1991 team as almost mythical. For many young Husky fans it was before their time. But anyone who calls themselves a true Husky fan, or a college football fan in general is familiar with this dominant team.
In the 1991 Rose Bowl, the Huskies beat the Michigan Wolverines to share the National Championship with the University of Miami. The Dawgs went 12-0 and dominated a strong Pac-10 conference. They outscored their opponents by 380 points, and their defense only allowed 115 points.
Defensive Prowess
The Husky defense was tenacious. Led by Steve Emtman, the Lombardi Award winner, the Huskies stopped opposing offenses in their tracks. Five members of the defense were selected in the 1992 draft (Steve Emtman, Dana Hall, Donald Jones, Brett Collins, Chico Fraley ).
Offensive Powerhouse
Critics questioned the strength of the offense because of Mark Brunell’s spring injury, but back-up Billy Joe Hobert took the helm and ended up becoming the Rose Bowl's co-MVP with Steve Emtman. Hobert’s favorite target, Mario Bailey, who is the career leader in touchdown receptions at Washington, became one of the six offensive players drafted in the 1992 draft (Ed Cunningham, Siupeli Malamala, Aaron Pierce, Orlando McKay, Mario Bailey, Kris Rongen).
Leadership
Great players, though, are often just a group of individuals without a great coach. The legend and member of the College Football Hall of Fame, Don James, meshed the Huskies into one of the greatest teams in the history of college football. He won coach of the year, and eventually was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
20 Years Later...
As Head Coach Steve Sarkisian's Huskies fight to reestablish greatness of the Huskies, the coaching staff and players must look to the players of the 1991 team for inspiration. There is no doubt Jermaine Kearse looks towards Mario Bailey, or that Sark aspires to help return national attention to the UW like Don James did. When there is such a perfect model of success in UW’s own history, it is hard for current Huskies not to dream of similar greatness.
When Seattle sports fans point to their finest hours, they point to every moment of this famed season. The memories bring smiles to the Husky faithful, and are source of pride for Seattle.
no comments- Will Conroy led Garfield to its second title in the Adonai Hood Classic [SB Nation Seattle]
- Abdul Gaddy is looking to regain his swagger for next season [Sports Illustrated]
- Former Husky linebacker Donald Butler has signed with the San Diego Chargers [Go Huskies]
- It looks like the highly-touted Brett Hundley has narrowed his choices down to UW and UCLA [Seattle Times]
- Taking a look at the Seahawks running back situation [Seahawk Addicts]
Update 12/23/11--This is never going to be up to date. To prevent lots of work on my end, I decided to provide links to twitter lists that are being constantly updated by other bloggers and I.
If you are into twitter and semi-stalking your favorite athletes, here is a directory of all the Seattle related athletes that are tweeting. To find these athletes simply type in their usernames into the search box on the right side of your twitter interface. You can follow us at twitter.com/seatownsports
- High School Sports (Players, Coaches, Reporters)
- Husky Football (Players, Coaches, Reporters)
- Local Athletes
- Local Journalists/Media Type
- Seattle Mariners (Players)
- National Sports
- Seahawks Football (Players)
Huskies/Former Huskies
- Ryan Appleby--@ryanappleby
- Jon Brockman--@mrjonbrockman
- Matthew Bryan-Amaning--@mbalive11
- Justin Dentmon--@justindentmon
- Abdul Gaddy--@gaddy253
- Spencer Hawes--@spencerhawes00
- Jernard Jarreau--@slimboogy_33
- Quincy Pondexter--@quincypondexter
- Aziz N'Diaye--@ziza221
- Nate Robinson--@nate_robinson
- Terrence Ross--@TRossRozay
- Steve Sarkisian--@coachsark
- Brendan Sherrer--@SherrerB
- Hikeem Stewart--@HStewart_1
- Scott Suggs--@scottro15
- Isaiah Thomas--@Isaiah_Thomas2
- Donald Watts--@donaldwatts24
- CJ Wilcox--@UCjwilcox23W
- Tony Wroten--@TWroten_LOE
- Official UW Athletics--@UWAthletics
- Official UW Men's Basketball--@UW_MBB
- The Dawg Pack--@UWDawgPack
- Montlake Madness--@MontlakeMadness
Seahawks
- Official Seahawks--@seahawks
- Pete Carroll--@PeteCarroll
- Aaron Curry--@seahawk59
- Matt Hasselbeck--@Hasselbeck
- Justin Forsett--@jforsett
- Walter Jones--@bjrth
- Darryl Tapp--@dtapp55
- Earl Thomas--@Earl_Thomas
- Dave Krieg's Strike Beard--@DKSB17
- Field Gulls--@FieldGulls
Mariners
- Felix Hernandez--@RealKingFelix
- Josh Lueke--@Josh_Lueke
- Jamie Moyer--@moyerfoundation
- Geoff Baker--@gbakermariners
- Jason Churchill--@Prospectinsider
- Dave Sims--@DSpxp
- Lookout Landing--@lookoutlanding
- Official Mariners--@Mariners
- Pro Ball Northwest--@ProBallNW
- Shannon Drayer--@shannondrayer
- USS Mariner--@d_a_cameron
If you know of any other Seattle athelete twitter accounts, please post it in the comments section or shoot us an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , so we can update this list. Tweet away!
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With the World Cup closing with Spain winning its first title and a disappointing loss to the LA Galaxy, the Sounders were looking for some inspiring play. In Sunday night’s game against FC Dallas the Sounders seemed to find that spark even without Freddie Ljungberg. With the return of Nate Jaqua, Fredy Montero was again able to find his form.
As the creative energy for the attack, Montero moved on and off the ball exceedingly well as Jaqua was able to use his size to create space for Montero. In the 14th minute Montero capitalized on this newly freed space as James Riley served in an exquisite cross to a wide open Fredy Montero who smashed home the header for his sixth goal of the season.
Qwest Field erupted in a moment of ecstasy which has been missing for much of the game. It seemed as though the Sounders were on their way to win the first game in a very long while as the half ended with Seattle leading 1-0. The second half began in very much the same manner as Seattle dominated the field. Steve Zakuani combined with Fredy Montero to get in behind Dallas’ defense but was unable to find the back of the net.
In the 56th minute the game turned on its head as 18 year old phenom Miguel Montano was ejected with a questionable red card. Seattle was left with ten men and Dallas turned on the heat. Kasey Keller responded to the adversity with superb focus as he made two fantastic goal line saves. But Keller’s heroics proved not to be enough as Sanna Nyasi left Dallas’ Ferriera open and with a man short a well organized Seattle defense was unable to stop the shot that gave Ferriera the tying goal.
The Sounders left the field disappointed as a questionable red card and a poor instance of marking ruined what could have been a turnaround for the Sounders.
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