Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
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Baseball has made several changes to the ball over the game's history. Before 1876 baseballs were not uniform. Pitchers made the balls used in games, and no two were alike. In 1876 the National League was founded, and a pitcher named A.G. Spalding convinced the league to use his design with a rubber core as the model. It was the beginning of a partnership that would last for a century and create the company called Spalding Sports goods that still exists today. During the 1910 World Series, the...
Tired of watching the news, I decided to check out Pluto TV. A free internet television service owned by Paramount Steaming offers 100s of free shows and is available for Smart TVs, streaming devices, tablets, or computers. To my pleasant surprise, they have an MLB channel featuring classic baseball games, highlights and shows, and historic All-Star and World Series games. The first game of the 1977 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers was about to start on the...
After sixteen games, the Mariners have a 10-6 record and are a half-game ahead of the Los Angeles Angels for the lead in the American League West. It’s an excellent start to the season, considering the first seven games were on the road. In the first home series, Seattle defeated the Houston Astros two games out of three, with the lone loss coming against Justin Verlander, who pitched eight shutout innings. In the new collective bargaining agreement, playoff teams increased from ten to twelve. Had this system been in place last year, the M...
I’ll admit I’m not a fan of most of the changes that Major League Baseball has made to the game over the years. Expanded playoffs, Inter-league games, an additional division in each league, the luxury tax, and the unbalanced schedule are just a few of the changes I could have done without. However, while watching games this week, I was surprised by a rule change that I’d not heard about. It was approved by the players and owners two days before opening day, MLB now allows players to begin using a pitch-calling system. The change was made with...
From Left to Right: Coach Ryan Anderson, Pedro Reyes, Noel Valle, Taylor Heffington, Coach Jeff Foertsch, Salvador Ayala, Zach Foster, Morgan Lindsey. Not Pictured Violet Beckmon, Mauricio Osorio....
Prescott School District is now offering an esports program as an extracurricular activity. It is covered under Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) as an activity and may later be categorized as a sport under the organization. There has been considerable discussion about the value of esports in K-12 education. In 2018, the Pew Reseach Center reported that 97% of teen boys and 83% of teen girls played video games. Including esports as an extracurricular activity can help...
The lockout is over, and the season starts on April 7. Teams are busy signing free agents and making trades. Yesterday, the Mariners traded with the Cincinnati Reds for outfielder Jesse Winker and third baseman Eugenio Suarez. They gave up pitcher Justin Dunn, outfielder Jake Fraley, pitching prospect Brandon Williamson and a player to be named later. If Winker can stay healthy, he should be one of the Mariners’ best hitters this year. Last season, Winker hit .305/.394/.556 with twenty-four home runs in one hundred and ten games. Over his f...
The Russell Wilson era in Seattle will end pending a physical and Wilson’s approval. Wilson was traded to the Broncos on Tuesday for two first-round picks, two second-round picks, a fifth-round pick, Denver quarterback Drew Lock, tight end Noah Fant and defensive lineman Shelby Harris. In addition to Wilson, the Broncos will get a fourth-round pick from Seattle. The trade is not official until the new NFL year begins on March 16. Wilson is expected to both pass the physical and approve the trade. If the return seems a little pricey for a q...
With no new progress on major league baseball’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA), it looks like some regular-season games will be canceled this year. The owners have continued to lock out the players impacting spring training. Without a chance to prepare players for the regular season, we will lose games. After a CBA is accepted, it will take at least four weeks of spring training before the regular season can begin. It’s anyone’s guess when that will be since both sides seem to be far apart in the negotiations. But this article isn’t abou...
The women’s NCAA Division I Tournament will host sixty-eight teams with play-in games for the bottom four seeds for the first time. The number of teams that qualify for the women’s tournament has changed over the years. When the tournament started in 1982, only thirty-two teams qualified. By 1994, the field grew to sixty-four teams, matching the men’s tournament, and stayed at that level until this year. In an early tournament prediction by ESPN, the Washington State Cougars were given a #10 seed which translates to a top forty ranking. At th...
Pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training mean preseason games are only a couple of weeks away, and winter is almost over. Pitchers and catchers were scheduled to begin reporting to teams on February 15, but that hasn’t happened due to the baseball lockout. The first Spring Training games of the year are scheduled for February 25 and 26. Since tickets have already been sold for the games, the cancellation of these games will mark the start of owners losing money, which could speed up negotiations. After very little activity, p...
The hazy sky, parking meter-lined streets, and a baby pink Tesla in front of me, blinded by the sun reflecting off impeccably clean, shiny cars, with not a pick-up truck in sight. Yep, we're back in Los Angeles for our Doctors and Dentist tour. Daniel had hernia surgery, and for me, it was mammogram time (or smash & dash, as my friends call it). We landed in Los Angeles and sat on the tarmac for forty minutes, waiting for a gate to open, then another forty-five minutes in line to pick up our...
After the former Dolphins’ head coach Brian Flores accused Stephen Ross, the Miami Dolphins owner, of offering him a $100,000 bonus per game to lose, the issue of “tanking” must be addressed by sports franchises. I’m not sure when tanking became an acceptable practice. Still, if owners have begun offering coaches compensation for the practice, which is illegal, it is time to remove the incentive to lose. For those not familiar with the term, “tanking” is when a team decides it is in their best interest to lose games to secure a better draf...
This year’s Super Bowl will be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on February 13 at 3:30 p.m. on NBC. The Rams are favored to win by four points since they are playing in their home stadium. This is only the second time a team has played the Super Bowl on their home field. The first time happened last year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Cincinnati has only been in the Super Bowl twice, both times in the eighties. In Super Bowl XVI, the Bengals lost to the 49ers 26-21, and the MVP went to Joe Montana. In Super Bowl XXIII, the Benga...
This week, we will look at the career of Tony Oliva, who was just elected to the Hall of Fame by the Golden Days Era Committee. Oliva moved to the United States in 1961 from Pindar del Rio, Cuba. He played in three spring training games for the Minnesota Twins in 1961 and, despite getting seven hits in ten at-bats, was released due to his poor outfield play. Oliva spent most of the next two years playing in the Twins minor league system getting only nineteen plate appearances at the major league level. Oliva’s defense was partly to blame, but t...
This week I will review the cases of the players on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot that are in their second and ninth year of eligibility. The players are Jeff Kent, Gary Sheffield, Billy Wagner, Many Ramirez, Scott Rolen, Omar Vizquel, Andruw Jones, Todd Helton, Andy Pettitte, Bobby Abreu, Mark Buehrle, Torii Hunter, and Tim Hudson. Jeff Kent has the most home runs as a second baseman with 354 and an MVP award in 2000. His career slash line over seventeen seasons is .290/.356/.500. So why did Kent get only 32.4% of the vote in 2021 his eighth...
This week we will review the cases of the new players added to the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot. The players are Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, Mark Teixeira, Jimmy Rollins, Carl Crawford, Jake Peavy, Justin Morneau, Prince Fielder, Joe Nathan, Tim Lincecum, Jonathan Papelbon, A.J. Pierzynski, and Ryan Howard. Alex Rodriguez was a fourteen-time all-star, won the MVP award three times, has 3,115 hits, and ranks fourth on the career list for home runs and runs batted in. Does that look like a Hall of Famer? Absolutely. Does he have any chance of...
This year three groups are eligible to be included in the 2022 Hall of Fame class. The Era Committees, formerly known as the Veterans Committee, put up eligible players, managers, umpires, and executives from eras no longer eligible for election by the BBWAA. This year they will choose from the Golden Days and Early Baseball committee candidates. The Golden Days era focuses on players who played between 1950 and 1969. The Early Baseball will select candidates who played before 1950. The two...
The Seahawks (3-7) will play in another Monday night football this week, traveling to Washington D.C. to play against Washington (4-6) at 5:15 p.m. Pacific Time. At the beginning of the season, this game looked like it would be an easy game on the schedule for Seattle. This game is essentially a toss-up according to oddsmakers, with some giving a slight edge to Washington since they are playing at home. Based on the information below, which quarterback would you rather have starting for your team? Quarterback CMP ATT PCT TD INT Sacks Player A...
RICHLAND – Prescott traveled to Richland to play in the first round of the boys 1B/2B State tournament on November 13 as the home team hosting Friday Harbor. Friday Harbor scored the first goal of the game on a free kick from Carli Alden just outside the box. When the call for the free kick was made it was a surprise as the foul was not apparent. It was also not clear if Prescott's goalie was screened by his defense on the kick or just beaten to corner. Prescott came back about twelve minutes l...
PRESCOTT – The Prescott soccer team hosted Riverside Christian School in playoff game with a spot in the State tournament at stake Friday November 5th. In the first half it wasn't clear who would come out on top. Both sides had good scoring chances and Prescott's goaltender, Ivan Martinez, made a couple of nice saves in goal to keep the score tied 0-0 after the first half. Jonathan Gonzalez nearly scored in the first half with a long shot that just missed the goal banging off of the top c...
This year the Mariners finished five games behind Houston for the division title and two games out of the second wild-card spot. Since the Mariners did not pick up Kyle Seager’s option for next year, its 25-man payroll stands at around $65 million and is the fifth lowest in Major League Baseball. It is also well below the luxury tax threshold of $210 million. Seattle has a core of young players, and now is an excellent time to pick up some free agents to take this team to the next level. The starting rotation needs to be addressed first. W...
PRESCOTT – Prescott decisively won their ninth game of the season over the Umatilla Vikings 11-0 on October 19. Vicente Garcia opened the scoring early in the first half on a pass from Brandon Caro to make the score 1-0. Moments later, Adrian Rubio scored an unassisted goal to put Prescott up 2-0. From there, the Tigers kept putting pressure on their opponent's defense with scoring opportunities nearly every time they had possession near the Vikings' goal. Umatilla's goaltender made several save...
The Seahawks (2-4) will host the New Orleans Saints (3-2) on Monday night football airing on ESPN at 5:15 pm. Last week, Seattle’s loss at Pittsburgh keeps them at the bottom of the NFC West and now four games behind the division-leading Arizona (6-0). It’s too early to say the playoffs are out of reach for this team, but any playoff hopes would likely come via a wild card as the division title is quickly becoming out of reach. Geno Smith didn’t play poorly last week, but two specific possessions, one in the fourth quarter and one in overt...
Seattle (2-3) travels to Pittsburgh (2-3) this Sunday to play at 5:20 pm on NBC. This is the first game in Russell Wilson’s career that he will miss. Until now, he had played in 149 straight games to start his career. The injury is a ruptured tendon on the middle finger of his right hand, and the Seahawks don’t have a clear timetable for his return. According to ESPN, Wilson is expected to be out somewhere between four to six weeks. If it turns out to be only four weeks, Wilson will only miss three games since Seattle has a bye week in wee...
