TERRY MOSHER
LLOYD MCCLENDON
I’ll say it again, the Mariners need to send Jackie Z and Lloyd McClendon packing. I have not seen improvement on the baseball side since Jackie Z arrived seven seasons ago and if the Mariners are to become relevant they need to find a general manger that can restock the farm system and interject some life into the major league roster.
As I said before, I don’t believe players give their best for McClendon. He seems to be a guy who can’t inspire the fire necessary to turn close games into wins. Players need to know if they don’t perform under fire they either sit on the bench or are gone and as talented as the Mariners are at some of the positions they don’t appear to me to be playing their best all the time.
It didn’t help, of course, that the bullpen that was the best in baseball a year ago suddenly fell flat and became one of baseball’s worse. That should never happen. You don’t go from first to last so suddenly. There has to be some responsibility for that, and again I blame McClendon and Jackie Z.
There also isn’t a clear team leader and that doesn’t help. The season is a month from being over and can you name for me the leader in the clubhouse? I didn’t think so. And you need that guy who can rally the players, who the players will follow. It doesn’t have to be the highest paid player (Robinson Cano), but it has to be someone.
It’s disappointing to see perennial losers like Kansas City and Pittsburgh come alive and be serious contenders and watch once again the Mariners fall flat despite pre-season predictions that they would be a World Series contender. When things go wrong like that somebody has to pay.
I don’t see the other famed Seattle team have as much success as it has the past two seasons. That would be the Seahawks, who have been in two straight Super Bowls, winning one and probably should have won the other.
There are two good reasons for that prediction. One, is that the NFL is now setup with this salary cap that it’s extremely difficult for one franchise to dominate as the New England Patriots have done. The Patriots have done it with one of the better coaches of all-time in Bill Belichick, although his certain Hall of Fame future will also be a little tarnished because of the suspicion he has at the very least walked a fine line with NFL rules.
Whatever we think he may or may not have done, Belichick has to be recognized for keeping the Patriots on the top or near the top in the NFL for 15 seasons. That is an almost improbable feat considering the NFL rules make it difficult to have that kind of run, that kind of success.
The second reason is that the style that Pete Carroll has brought to the Seahawks – more run than pass with a defense first attitude that is built around big cornerbacks and tenacious linebackers – is now being copied and unless he can spring some other surprise other teams will have caught up with and on what he is doing and it will be tougher for the Seahawks to pull off the close victories that has been a hallmark of the last two seasons.
I would look for the Seahawks to go 9-7 or 10-6 and if they make the playoffs depart soon after. Another part of my reasoning on that is that I saw signs late last year that teams had started to figure out diminutive quarterback Russell Wilson. The idea is to keep Wilson in the pocket and force him to make plays downfield over bigger defensive players. I think we will see much more of that this year.
Also, how much longer do you think Marshawn Lynch can be the Beast Mode? The average life span of NFL running backs is just under three seasons. Lynch is bucking the odds as the great running backs usually do. But how much longer can he buck those odds, especially the way he takes tremendous hits and keeps on ticking?
If Lynch goes down, the Seahawks whole style of play takes a big hit. And if Wilson goes down, the whole thing falls apart. I may be looking at it as a glass half-empty, but you have to take the view that the longer those two – Lynch and Wilson – stay unharmed the more the odds increase that they will at some point get hurt.
Having said that, I would like to see them, like you would also, reach the Super Bowl again this season, face the Patriots and this time erase all doubt and the stink of that last play in the last Super Bowl by winning easily.
I won’t like others second guess Carroll’s decision to pass instead of running Lynch on that last play. I learned from being a MLB official scorer that you can’t assume outs (like the back end of the traditional short to second to first play) and just as you can’t assume outs in baseball you can’t assume Lynch would have scored on a run play.
You just got to tip your cap to Malcolm Butler for recognizing the play and breaking on it soon enough to make the interception. Then you go on with life and try to get better and forget the past.
As for whom I think will win this year’s Super Bowl, I have no clue. Dallas looks primed to get back in the big show and I like what Chip Kelly is doing with the Eagles. And I like Jeff Fisher, so the St. Louis Rams may be a factor. But in the end the NFL is a crap shoot because the possibility of injuries is so great that it impacts what happens to teams. And besides we all know you can’t predict the roll of the dice in a craps game.
On the local high school football front, I would think without really giving it a lot of thought that North Kitsap is primed to make a long run in the state playoffs. As you all know, our high school football teams traditionally have a tough time competing at the state level (if you throw out South Kitsap during the Ed Fisher era when the biggest school in the state had it going good), so it won’t be easy for coach Jeff Weible’s team, but they are loaded for bear and maybe the Vikings will break through and win it all in class 2A.
That’s it for today.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.