Seattle sports teams and I have had a tempestuous past.  The Seahawks were cool until, needing a scapegoat for their disappointing loss in Super Bowl, their ENTIRE fanbase took a personal vendetta against my Steelers.  So yeah, make the playoffs with a losing record this year, see if I care.  Go Black & Yellow!

On the other hand, the only “real” professional team to win a national championship for Seattle, The Sonics, bailed on Seattle for the Midwest.  This has left Key Arena largely empty for the past several years, although our WNBA team, the Storm, have recently done rather well for themselves there.

Then there are the Mariners.  Although they have been mis-rib since I’ve come to town in 2005, managing only one winning season, still falling short of making the playoffs (69-93, 78-84, 88-74, 61-101, 85-77, 61-101), I’ve still had some amazing times at Mariners games with the besties.  I love it when their eyes glaze over as they transport themselves back to a better time – 1995, when Griffey was young (which did not, unfortunately, preclude him from being hurt) the Mariners were the talk of the town and Dave Niehaus was electrically, emphatically and emotionally describing the games to a rapt Seattle audience.  

Unfortunately those days are over, and Dave Niehaus recently passed away, marking a sad day for a lot of my own close friends, and a morose nail in the coffin for that era of Mariner baseball.  Thankfully, another local Seattle-ite, hip-hop artist Ben Haggerty, aka Macklemore, teamed up with Ryan Lewis to release a tribute song to the announcing legend.  I heard it and couldn’t help but feel like it’s fitting.  Brother, Dirty Curty, Timbo, Yoshida, Drewseph (edit: and Jascha) and to all the Seattle Mariner and Niehaus fans…this post is for you.

Merry Christmas a day early from the Dowkstar…