Worst Seat In The House: Just catching up

I have a good excuse for not having a column out last week. I flew to Arizona and was with family when I usually write this column. It was nice and the weather in the Phoenix was only in the high 90s a couple of days.

I did watch the NCAA basketball final between Texas Tech and Virginia which had some pretty good story lines. Last year Virginia was the very first Number 1 seed to lose to a 16 seeded team. That was the first Tony Bennett team that I have seen play that had zero answers for what University of Maryland- Baltimore County (UMBC) was throwing at them. To beat Virginia a team has to be unconscious when shooting the ball and UMBC certainly was on that particular night.

This year Virginia was once again a 1 seed and in the first round Gardner-Webb was giving the Cavaliers fits and led at one time by 14 points. But Virginia took care of business in the second half and won the game going away.

The team that Virginia would play in the final was Texas Tech. The Red Raiders upset Gonzaga in the elite eight round knocking the Bulldogs out of contention for a chance at a National Championship.

I think a GU-Virginia game would have been fun to watch especially to see how Bennett, the former WSU Cougar coach, would match up against Bulldog head coach Mark Few. Few and Bennett’s teams clashed on several occasions and each game was a classic. I think this one would have been too.

The Seattle Mariners were on an impressive roll to start the season setting a Major League record by hitting a home run in each of their first 15 games. The M’s started out hot and were 13-2 before Houston came to town for a three game weekend series. The Astros swept the Seattle nine and left town with a nine games winning streak.

It has been said on more than one occasion that good pitching beats good hitting and the Astros have some very good pitchers. With Astro second baseman Jose Altuve hitting home runs, the Houston ball club looks tough to beat this year. The Astros left Seattle trailing the Mariners in the standings by two games. The key to this year’s success for Seattle is beating the teams they need to beat and at least picking off a few wins from the really good teams, which they failed to do over the weekend.

It looks like Seattle can hit but they need to stay consistent which they were until the Houston speed bump came to town and that certainly slowed down the Mariners. Pitching is going to be a question mark and with a couple of injuries it looks like it will be that way.

Last Saturday I got the chance to watch my great nephew Landon play soccer. He just turned eight on Tuesday and I’ve seen a lot of improvement in his game since I saw him play two years ago. He is also showing an interest in basketball. Landon, his dad Jason and I went to a nearby park that had a basketball court and we had some fun shooting baskets. I know a lot more about basketball than I do soccer so I was very happy.

Last Saturday night Jason, his mom Leslie and I went to see the Arizona State Sun Devils take on the defending NCAA baseball champion Oregon State Beavers. ASU was rated 13 and OSU was number 4 so it was bound to be a good game and it didn’t disappoint. OSU was leading in the sixth inning 4-1 when the ASU bats came to life. Three Sun Devil hitters hit consecutive home runs to tie the game at four. I’ve seen back-to-back but never three in a row until Saturday.

The score stayed tied at four until the top of the eighth when a .206 hitter stepped to the plate for the Beavers. With the bases loaded he worked the count to 3-2 and fouled off some mighty tough pitches. He finally lined a shot past the first baseman and two OSU players scored. It was a very impressive at-bat.

I missed spring training this year but I think I got to see a much better game since this one counted and will be important to both teams in a few weeks when they will be vying for chances to eventually make it to the College World Series.

So now you are caught up with my thoughts. After coming back to the great northwest I’m refreshed and invigorated. But I just may need to wear a light jacket.