Category: Sports (Page 14 of 18)

Remembering The Tuba Man

November 6, 2008 / Andy Boyer

To answer a question many Seattle fans have asked lately, “Yes, apparently it can get worse.”

Losing a lot of games is one thing. But the inexplicable murder of a Seattle sports icon is just downright nauseating.

He was’t an athlete, owner or executive. He never threw a picth or wrote a scathing article. But chances are high that if you attended a Seattle sporting event, you passed Edward McMichael – though you only knew him as, “The Tuba Man.”

He was a harmless street musician who sat outside stadiums and played a rusty tuba. You didn’t know he was a classically trained musician. Sometimes you threw him a quarter, sometimes you didn’t, but you always noticed him. But unlike some of the unsavory characters walking around that area, he was not someone you ever feared. Instead, the people you usually do fear, packs of street thugs wandering aimlessly through the night, proved why you should stay frightened.

According to reports, 5 people described as “gang members” attacked the Tuba Man for no reason at about midnight on Oct 25.. They beat him mercilessly, and he died about a week later. Speculation is that they did it to take whatever change he had in his tuba case.

It’s senseless. Horrific. It makes me sick. No one took the Tuba Man to another town, and he wasn’t arrested and sent to Walla Walla. Stupid little punks beat him to death. They’ve caught two of them, but three are still at large.

There’s talk on some comment boards about erecting a statue of a Tuba in front of one of the stadiums. I think it’s a fabulous idea. I’ll donate.

I never formally met the Tuba Man. But it makes me sad that one more piece of Seattle history and tradition has suddenly disappeared.

Added Notes:

The PI reports that Ian Newhall and his wife, Ailisa, set up a Web site Tuesday to announce a brass memorial for McMichael. It will be held outside McCaw Hall at 11 a.m. Saturday. The repertoire: Taps, Tequila and the University of Washington Fight Song.

There is also a Memorial fund to help cover teh costs of the funeral. If you want to help, you can visit any Bank of America branch, Box said, or send donations to:

Edward the Tuba Man McMichael Memorial Fund
P.O. Box 4985
Federal Way 98063

Insult to Injury

November 1, 2008 / Andy Boyer

I’m not telling anyone anything they don’t already know about Seattle Sports 2008.

One of worst teams in the NBA….
….which then gets stolen by Oklahoma City guys.
2nd worst team in baseball……
….featuring the worst trade in Major League Baseball in the last 10 years (The Seattle farm system for a guy who only wants to picth 80 pitches a game, for 3 months a season.)
A 1-7 WSU football team.
An 0-7 UW football team.
A 2-5 Seahawks team…..
….where the first 7 receivers on the Seattle depth chart were on the injured list at the same time.
….where An All-Pro QB has a back injury that affects his leg strength

You might think, “Well, that certainly couldn’t get worse.” And a little insult gets thrown on for flavor.

1) The GM who the Mariners couldn’t get along with, wins teh World Series with the Phillies, thanks in part to a 45 year old pitcher that the Mariners didn’t think could compete as well as guys like, well, it’s just too depressing to name names.

2) This weekend the Huskies, Cougars and Seahawks are getting 83 and a half points. EIGTHY-THREE AND A HALF. Huskies are getting 46 1/2, Cougars 30, and Hawks 7.

Let the pain end….

Comparing the World Series to the US Presidential Election

October 23, 2008 / Andy Boyer

I’m sad to say, I have no allegiance to either team in the World Series this year. Which really kind of stinks, since I am desperate for something to root for. (BTW, thank you Arizona Wildcats for pulling together a respectable football season and keeping me from sports harakare.)

So here I am, trying to decide who to support. I mean, it’s 7 stupid games. It shouldn’t be that hard to pick a team. And through my logical analysis and emotional introspection I’ve used to try to pick a team, it suddenly dawned on me that this World Series is a microcosm of the US Presidential election.

Let’s look at the Phillies. They have been a part of Major League Baseball forever, but yet have never quite been a team that everyone likes – or hates. They aren’t the Cubs, Yankees or Red Sox, even though they’ve been around just as long. They have produced some great players (Mike Schmidt, Larry Bowa, Tug McGraw), but also have some “not so special moments” (like Pete Rose crushing Ray Fosse in an All-Star game.) And even when doing well, they’ve managed to annoy the press (Steve Carlton). Basically, they’ve been around forever, and have gone through both good and bad years. A few years ago, it looked like they had the big prize won, but then suffered an unexpected defeat to a team who ultimatley proved to not be worth supporting (Blue Jays). Now they have a new squad with new people (Howard, Utley, Rollins, Hamill) but are still perceived as that “old” franchise with the ornery fans.

Now let’s examine the Rays. On paper, this franchise is way too young to garner baseball’s greatest prize. I mean, it’s quite an achievement for them to even make it to the final two, but can someone show me anything they’ve accomplished before 2008? I know they had a lot of draft picks and a few experienced advisors, but until this year, these guys were simply idealists with a dream, and where heaven only lived on a whiteboard. They have no real history, save for a few veterans who have never achieved any similar level of success anywhere else. And yet, now Tampa Bay has die-hard, almost obsessive, fans who will shave their head and other body parts to support their team. Every young fan – plus old fans who love a fairy tale story about achieving greatness in record time – has become a loud, proud Rays fan.

Now let’s look at how they got here. While the Phillies breezed through their National League Primary, I mean Playoff, the Rays had to go to the late innings of Game 7, going toe to toe with an experienced, veteran, old school franchise that simply wouldn’t go away, even though it was apparent that they wouldn’t win. In fact, the Rays had a chance to knock the Red Sox out in Game 5 – up 7-0 in the 7th – but then inexplicably the Red Sox had one huge run, and managed to make life complicated for everyone involved, until finally succumbing.

So what do you think? Who do you vote/root for this World Series….

And You Think the Pac 10 refs are Bad…

October 19, 2008 / Andy Boyer

Here’s a clip of a ref who actually seems to be making a tackle in the South Carolina vs LSU game Saturday.

It’s Like “Halo” for Soccer Nerds

October 14, 2008 / Andy Boyer

Don’t be surprised if you can’t reach your soccer loving friends Tuesday. Just check any store that sells Xbox and PlayStation games. Oct 14 is the official U.S. Release of Fifa ’09, and anyone who can tell you what is on Channel 401 is liable to make 2 stops after work – one to the store, one to their den…

I’ll Enjoy It While I Can

October 6, 2008 / Andy Boyer

Changing the Draft Order

September 24, 2008 / Andy Boyer

Nothing about marketing here, really. But I have a simple idea for the NFL, NBA and MLB to stop teams from throwing games at the end of seasons ot get a better draft pick. Instead of making the draft based on worst to best record for the season before, why not define the draft order by worst to best record over the last THREE years.

I have a few reasons for this suggestion:

This would stop events where a great team has a few key injuries in one season, ends up with the top overall pick, and builds a dynasty out of it (see Spurs, San Antonio.
It’s hard to tank 3 straight seasons, so individual games are less important for draft order.
Teams that are that bad for so long need real help.
You can make your draft choices with some “general” idea where you may end up in next year’s draft, and make some strategic decisions on free agents based on this.
Having a ridiculous string of unjustified good luck for 1/4 season doesn’t kill you.

Anyway, that’s my big idea for the day.

Want a real longshot? Bet on Obama to Coach English Football…

September 3, 2008 / Andy Boyer

Check out this odd article from SI.com. A British bookmaker has placed odds of Barack Obama being named the manager at West Ham United, at 10,000 to 1. Proof that you really can bet on anything….

Meanwhile, we think the athletes are real

August 12, 2008 / Andy Boyer

So what have we learned about China so far thanks to year’s Olympics. Well, let’s start with some nuggets from a British paper, The Times of London, in this article.

Let’s set aside all the pre-Olympics Tom Foolery of throwing out journalists, censoring Internet sites, jailing a Japanese television crew in West China, shutting down factories, and trying to magically make the pollution go away.

But in the first week of this Games, we have:

Fake fireworks so the TV audience thinks they are seeing something spectacular
Lip-syncing of the opening song by a cute 7-year old Chinese girl, because the 7 year old girl who really sang it wans’t “cute” enough.
Oscar-style “seat fillers” who sit and watch the preliminary rounds of events, then leave when the ticket holders show up, so it doesn’t look like there are any no-shows.

I’m not exactly sure this is what drove the spirit of the games more than 100 years ago. So if the games themselves can be fake and manufactured, tell me again why the athletes aren’t allowed to use drugs that enhance their own performance? Don’t sterioids seem to fit perfectly into this charade?