Raul Ibanez Wins Hutch Award

Once again, I joined friends in attending the Fred Hutchinson Award ceremony at Safeco Field.  Three time Mariner Raul Ibanez (Pictured below) was this year's recipient.  Baseball legend Rod Carew  (pictured above) was keynote speaker.
 Carew is a former Minnesota Twin and California Angel,  He is an 18 time All Star and over 3,000 hits.  He spoke about losing a daughter to leukemia and why it was his life mission to find a cure for the disease.
Ibanez came up as a catcher in the Mariner organization, he is now an outfielder. He left the M's in 2001, to go to Kansas City, after starring with the Royals, he returned to the Mariners in 2004. He left again to go to the Philadelphia Phillies, then to the Yankees.  Last year, he signed a one year agreement with the Mariners, where he hit 29 home runs to tie Ted Williams for most hit by a player over 40, this coming season,  he will play for the LA Angels. Ibanez makes his home in the area and is active in the community.  He said that it was important to be, above all, a great role model.

Go Seahawks!

Leonard Barokas, producer of the Kent and Alan Show on Star 101.5, joins the Sea Gals in rooting on the Seahawks.

12th Man Shows Up In Maple Valley

Blue and Green lights adorn the yard of this Maple Valley Seahawk fan.

Seattle Rap Artist Macklemore Wins Big

Seattle Hip-Hop artist Mackelmore, along with bandmate Ryan Lewis, won 4 Grammys last night, a record number for a local musician  according to the Seattle Times.   Maclemore, whose, real name is Ben Haggerty, won for Best New Artist, Best Rap Album (The Heist), Best Rap Song (Thrift Shop), and Best Rap Performance (Thrift Shop).  Also winning was the surviving members of Seattle's  Nirvana, who teamed up with Paul McCartney for Best Rock Song "Cut Me Some Slack".   The Record Of The Year went to Daft Punk for "Get Lucky"   

The What Bowl?

The Pro Bowl will be played today.  The Pro Bowl is the only all star game of the major sports that gets lower ratings than the regular seasons games.  One reason is that until 2010, it was played after the Super Bowl, an impossible act to follow.  Other sports have all-star games in the middle of their seasons, when interest in that sport is high.  When the Pro Bowl took place, most spectators have finished about six months of professional football and are in the middle of the NBA season, many are looking forward to the oncoming baseball season.  
In 2010 the game was moved to the week after the NFC and AFC championships, but that only assured that any star playing in the Super Bowl would not be available for the Pro Bowl. 
This year, instead the conferences playing each other, two of the NFL's all time greats, Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders have drafted sides just like on the playground.  There will also be no kickoffs and will have a 2 minute warning in each quarter.  Will this version of the Pro Bowl succeed?  NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had wanted to cancel the game, but the players wanted it to continue.  If today's game is not a success, the game will become a footnote in NFL history.

Piniella To Be Inducted

Lou Piniella, not only the Seattle's most successful manager, but arguably it's only successful manager, will be inducted into the team's hall of fame this summer.  Piniella guided the club to 7 winning seasons and 4 play-off appearances.  To look at the Mariners history with Piniella compared to other managers of the team, it is like looking at 2 separate ball clubs.  The induction ceremony will take place on August 9th  when the Mariners play the Chicago White Sox.

Ann Wilson--Singing National Anthem At Seahawks Game

Heart's Ann Wilson, the daughter of a US serviceman, belted out a rousing rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.

Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr

Seahawks Are Going To The Super Bowl

The Seattle Seahawks are NFC champs and will be going to the Super Bowl to face the Denver Broncos on Febuary 2nd in New York.  The 'Hawks made a stunning comeback in the second half to beat the San Francisco 49ers 23-17.

Go Seahawks!

Ann Wilson Singing National Anthem

For the second week in a row, a locally based national recording artist will be performing the National Anthem at Century Link Field.  Ann Wilson, lead singer of  the Roll Hall Of Fame group Heart, will sing the Star Spangled Banner when the 'Hawks host the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game this Sunday.

The Professor From Gilligan's Island Dies

Russell Johnson, who played  Professor Roy Hinkley on the classic TV show, Gilligan's Island has died.  A resident of the Pacific Northwest for over two decades, Johnson played a character that was really the antithesis of Gilligan, intelligent and competent.  Referred to only as "The Professsor, he was the straight man on the show, which also featured exaggerated caricatures of a sea captain, a bumbling first mate, a millionaire couple, a movie star, and a midwest farm girl.
Critics were not amused at the show and it's inplausable plot of the castaways settling on an uncharted island after a tour boat was lost in a storm, but America found it a great escape and a barrel of laughs.  The show lasted 4 seasons.
Tina Louise, who played Ginger and Dawn Wells who played Mary Ann, ironically the 2 single women characters in the show are the last survivors of the Gilligans Island cast.

Seahawks To Face 49ers

This Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks will face the San Francisco 49ers for the third time of the season. The game will be in the Clink, but the stakes will be raised, the winner goes to the Super Bowl, the loser goes home.  The 2 teams play twice each year, but this will be the first time they have face one another in the conference championship.   The key is that the game is here and if there ever was a time when the 12th Man was needed it's NOW.

Taking In The Golden Globes

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Lauren Parsekian, whose mom hails from Walla Walla with her husband Aaron Paul arrive at the 2014 Golden Globes.  Paul's TV series Breaking Bad, which has finished it's run on TV, won its first Golden Globe award for Best Dramatic Series.  Paul's co star Bryan Cranston won best actor in a dramatic series.

Old Walla Walla Radio Remembered Part 4

Ex radio personality Hank Unck was kind enough to send airchecks (recording of shows) from when he worked at KALE (Hank Simon) and before that, KTEL (Lee Michaels).  You can click here to hear both his KALE audio which I have previously posted and his KTEL, which is special in the fact that it was done in 1971 and has features commercial spots from familiar voices as Bevan Roth, Dave Dirks, Singing Restaraunt owner Joe Denny, and Rockin' Dave Cochran (doing Pantorium Cleaners spot about 8 minutes in).   Hank also worked for KXLY radio in Spokane as well as some other radio stations.

Maple Valley Native Carlile Sings National Anthem

Brandi Carlile, the local talent made good, sang the national anthem at today's Seahawk game.  In a tough battle the Hawks outlasted the Saints 22-15.    The weather was rainy and windy.  Power outages throughout the region may have caused many to miss the game.

Go Seahawks!

Old Radio Remembered Part III

Walla Walla native Hank Unck previously who worked at KTEL as Lee Michaels, sent this aircheck of his last show on KALE.  KALE was popular with young people in Walla Walla because the local stations didn't play contemporary hit radio during the day.  Unck used the name "Hank Simon" during his Tri Cities stint and also did the evening newscast at KNDU.

Well Known Walla Walla Merchant Dies

Scotty Cummins,  a Walla  Walla star athlete whose Sporting goods store became a local institution in that town, has passed away at 98.  Cummins grew up in Touchet, a nearby farming community where he starred in baseball and football.  He continued on to Whitman College, where he also played on Coach Borleske's great baseball and football teams. 
After serving in World War II, he started Scotty Cummins Athletic Supply in which he ran until his retirement. The store still bears his name. He was a driving force in driving force in the building of Walla Walla's Borleske Stadium, which was named of his legendary college coach.  Walla Walla's Jim Buchan wrote this column about Cummins, click here

East Coast Sports Columnist Calls Out Carroll

National  sports columnists Norman Chad has angered Seattle Seahawks fans with a surprisingly bitter column on the Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll and the style of play of the team eminating from his leadership.  Beginning the column with praise for quarterback Russell Wilson, the column goes off on a misguided rant of everything related to the team.  The genesis of the column seems to have been a gesture made by Carroll in his early days as an assisted coach, something that could easily have been done by an immature upstart caught in the heat of the moment.

"It was a Jets-at-Dolphins contest on Dec. 20, 1992. After a Tony Martin touchdown catch with 2 minutes 30 seconds to go in the fourth quarter, Dolphins place kicker Pete Stoyanovich missed an extra point that would’ve tied the game, and the TV cameras caught Carroll — then defensive coordinator of the Jets — gleefully putting his hands around his neck in a choke sign"

The article pokes the 'Hawks for drug suspensions, something that the team should address, but then goes down the low road by saying that the "12th Man"  provides drugs for the team.  An unfair swipe at the fans.  He also criticises Carrolls boundless energy, which fans here find a refreshing divergence from 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh's perpetual glare.
His shot at Richard Sherman, the Seahawks cornerback was nastier still.  Sherman is one of sport's great stories with a degree from Stanford,  Chad writes that "he is the only Stanford graduate to ever earn a degree in trash talking"  The column says that Carroll does not deserve Russell Wilson, when it was in fact Coach Carroll that played Wilson when no one else thought it was

Saints Come Marching Into Seattle This Saturday

The Seahawks found out this weekend that their first playoff game will take place against the New Orleans Saints.   The Saints have been one of the most successful NFL teams of the last 5 years, winning the 2010 Super Bowl.  Although the 'Hawks throttled the Saints earlier this season, when it comes to playoff, you can throw previous records out.  The match up will take place this Saturday (January 11th) at 1:35 at Century Link Field.

Rock Music Giant Phil Everly Dies

Rock And Roll Heaven added Phil Everly to it's growing roster last week.  Phil was half of the Everly Brothers who scored hits in the 1960s and were called by Rolling Stone magazine, "the most important  vocal duo in rock",  really saying something from a genre that has seen Simon And Garfunkle and Seals And Crofts.  The duo which was one of many American acts seemingly swept aside by the British invasion of the mid-1960s, was an influence on the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the previously mentioned Simon And Garfunkle.  Their songs included such standards as "Bye Bye Love" and "All I Have To Do Is Dream". 

Boeing Machinists Narrowly Accepts Contract Offer

Boeing Machinists voted to accept a contract offer to allow building the 777X in Washington.  It was perhaps the most polarizing vote in company history.  Many feel the contract ratification was necessary to keep aerospace production jobs in the area and sustain our economy.  Others think that workers gave away hard earned gains to save their own jobs.  

Adam Kline Leaving State Senate

Adam Kline, who has represented the 37th District in the Washington State Senate for 17 years, has announced his upcoming retirement according to the Seattle Times.  The South Seattle Democrat has been an outspoken advocate in the senate and has famously taken on anti tax initiative promoter Tim Eyman and fellow Democrats Gary Locke and Christine Gregoire, both ex governors.  He has also been a supporter of tougher drunk driving laws.  He may be known more recently for a blow up with popular afternoon talk show co-host Don O'Neill.  After being called to talk about an impending bill, O'Neill tried to get into a shouting match with the senator, who simply hung up.  The phone conversation was played frequently during the broadcast,  trying to demonstrate how out of touch government was or something.

Have A Great Year!