Sadness in Seattle

Posted by Adrienne on October 23, 2008 under Arsenal, Baseball, Basketball, Football, Mariners, Seahawks, Soccer, Sounders | Be the First to Comment

What did we do to anger the sports gods?

It must have been something major, because the city of Seattle is on pace for the worst ever calendar year for sports. Consider:

• Husky men’s basketball went 8-10 in the 2007-2008 season
• the Supersonics went 20-62, the second worst record in the NBA 
• the Mariners ended the season with a 61-101 record while ranking 9th in Major League Baseball in payroll 
• the Supersonics were brutally ripped from the city, and moved to oklahoma
• the Mariners didn’t finish last in the league, but instead finished second-to-last, ensuring that they wouldn’t get the first pick in the 2009 draft
• the Seahawks lost all of their first string WRs to injury in the first two weeks of the season, then QB Matt Hasselbeck suffered an injury that put him out for at least three weeks
• Husky football QB Jake Locker injured his hand and has missed/will miss 6-8 weeks of the season
• the Seahawks are currently 1-5, in last place in the NFC West (yes, even behind the Rams) and unlikely to catch either the 49ers or the Cardinals
• the Huskies are currently 0-6 and will maybe get 1 win, against the hapless Cougars in the Apple Cup

Has there ever been another city that has had bad horrific seasons by every single one of its major sports teams* all at the same time? If you know of one, I’d love to hear about it. It might ease my pain somewhat.

I do have a few things keeping me from jumping off the Smith Tower observation deck, though:

1. Arsenal are in the top 4 in the Premiereship table and are tops of their group in Champions League, although the fact that my best team doesn’t even play on this continent brings me back down a bit
2. Next spring sees the introduction of Seattle Sounders FC to MLS. Let’s Go Sounders!!! UPDATE: And now with Freddie Ljungberg goodness! Whoo!
3. The M’s have a new GM and will hopefully get a new attitude for next season (preferably an attitude that doesn’t feature a bunch of terribly overpaid vetrans – yeah, you, Carlos Silva!)
4. Matt Hasselbeck has many months to recover and should be ready for the Seahawks’ next season and all of this year’s rookie wide receivers will have had some game experience that they can build on next year. Oh, and there’s John Carlson, he’s been pretty good so far this year – just imagine what he will do on a not-sucking team.
5. Every four years brings a complete turnover in the personnel of the UW teams, so there’s got to be somebody good coming up, right?

My daddy says that sports are cyclical, so this Year of Purgatory ought to set us up nicely for a World Series run, a successful trip to the Super Bowl, a BCS bowl/NCAA tourney berth and a hoisting of the MLS Cup, along with several championship banners in the SODO and University districts. At least, if the sports gods have any sense of decency, it will. What will it take, sports gods? I’m dying over here! And if not for me, do it for my poor dad. He’s a good person, and deserves to see his teams win. Please, sports gods, please.

*Yes, yes, I know the Storm are still in Seattle and made the playoffs this year…but really, there aren’t that many people who follow the WNBA, so my point stands.