The Stark Truth

Going to Reno this weekend?

If so, stop by Aces Ballpark in downtown Reno and say hello to Willie Bloomquist, who will begin his rehab process with the Reno Aces, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Triple-A club.

Reno opens a four-game home series against Tacoma on Friday, and Bloomquist, a South Kitsap grad, will be in uniform. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Bloomquist’s last minor-league game was with the Rainiers in 2002. He was called up in September, hit .455 and he’s been a big leaguer ever since.

Bloomquist, 35, started the season on the DL with a strained oblique muscle suffered at the end of spring training. He’s coming off a year he which he hit a career-best .302 for the Diamondbacks.

Art Thiel of Sportspressnw.com writes about the SeaAdderal Seahawks suddenly perceived by many as the bad boys of the NFL.

You’ve probably heard by now that the Mariners have sent catcher Jesus Montero to Triple-A Tacoma. Interesting move. Makes you think more moves are coming. Robert Andino, it’s been nice to know you, but isn’t it time to give Carlos Triunfel a long look? And how long do you keep running Dustin Ackley out there? The Rainiers, by the way, close out a homestand Thursday night at 7 o’clock against Nashville, then  hit the road. Next home stand will be June 1-9.

There’s no excuses for Sergio Garcia for his joke about inviting Tiger Woods over to eat some “fried chicken.”

How will Michael Crabtree’s injury impact the 49ers? Read this Grantland.com piece by Bill Barnwell.

Legendary short-track driver Dick Trickle recently took his life. Trickle competed in 303 NASCAR races, and never won one, but he’s considered by many to be one of the greatest drivers of all time. He never reached the Winston Cup level until he was 48. According to a Sports Illustrated article, he won more than 1,200 feature races in his career.

I helped out as a volunteer softball coach at Olympic College this spring, and it turned out to be a really rewarding experience. I’d played fastpitch for years, and had managed teams at times, and I coached youth baseball, but I’d never coached girls. Anyway, just thought this was a cool story about how one of our division rivals, Bellevue, supported another division rival during the championship game in Portland on Monday of this week. Not sure if a male team would have ever shown this kind of support for a rival. Check it out. (go down to the second headline, THE BIGGEST BUZZ OF ALL). Bellevue, by the way, is coached by former Sun Female Athlete of the Year, Leah Francis, a North Mason grad.

Some final updates on local college athletes:

Nate Roberts, a senior shortstop from Central Kitsap, earned first-eam All-Western Athletic Conference honors for Seattle University (21-33, 10-16 WAC).

Roberts hit .298 (.327 in conference games) and led the Redhawks in hits (61), doubles (17), home runs (5), RBI (45) and total bases (95). He was third on the squad with 30 runs scored, and a perfect 9-for-9 in stolen base attempts.

Freshman outfielder Landon Cray from Chimacum led Seattle U with a .313 batting average. Cray had three triples, three homers, and 24 RBI.

Central Kitsap grad Tyler Baumgartner goes into the final regular-season series at Utah with a .244 batting average. The junior transfer from Bellevue CC tailed off a bit at the end of the year. He’s made 31 starts, mostly at DH, and played in 44 games for the Ducks (41-13, 20-7 Pac-12). Oregon is ranked No. 8 nationally and tied for second in the Pac-12.  FYI: Washington (22-31, 13-14 Pac-12) has moved up to sixth and is playing its best baseball late. WSU (22-30, 8-19) is having a disappointing year and is buried in 10th place in the 11-team league.

Bainbridge pitcher Colin Feldtman, a red-shirt junior, was 2-2 with two saves for the University of Portland (18-36, 8-16 West Coast Conference). The former Kitsap BlueJacket had a 2.91 ERA in 19 appearance, all in relief. He pitched 34 innings, allowed 34 hits, struck out 22 and walked eight. Ben Grubb, a senior catcher from Sequim and Lower Columbia, hit .287 with five homers and 23 RBI for the Pilots.

Central Washington’s Kasey Bielec, a sophomore second baseman from North Mason, earned second-team All-Great Northwest Athletic Conference honors. Bielec hit .320 with two homers and 25 RBI for the Wildcats (30-24, 19-13 GNAC), who lost the title game of the GNAC Tournament to Western Oregon. Randy Button, a senior pitcher from North Mason and Big Bend CC, was 2-3 in 39.1 innings for CWU. Button’s appeared in 17 games, 15 as a reliever.

Pacific Lutheran catcher Curtis Wildung, a sophomore from North Kitsap, shared first-team All-Northwest Conference honors. Wildung hit .275 and led the Lutes (22-18, 12-12 NWC) with 25 RBI and 14 doubles… A.J. Konopaski, a sophomore reliever from Port Angeles, finished with a 1-1 record, five saves and a 0.97 earned run average. In 37 innings he struck out 38 opposing batters. Konopaski was also a first-team pick.

Also

Josh Sontag of St. Martin’s, a freshman infielder from Central Kitsap, hit .200 in part-time duty for the Saints (9-39, 7-24 GNAC). Sontag played in 31 games, making 14  starts.

North Kitsap grad Daniel Jewett, who will play for the Kitsap BlueJackets this summer, had to sit out a year after transferring to Nebraska-Omaha. He will be a junior in eligibility next year.

Daniel Orr, a sophomore first baseman at Everett CC from Kingston, hit .348 with three homers and a team-high 45 RBI for the Trojans, who won the NWAACC North regular-season title and go into this weekend’s NWAACC Championships in Longview as the No. 2 seed out of the conference. Orr will play for the Kitsap BlueJackets this summer. … Tanner Romo, a sophomore infielder from South Kitsap, hit .290 for Everett and drove in 20 runs.

Olympic College third baseman Vince Sablan, a freshman from South Kitsap, hit .290 for the Rangers and will also play for the BlueJackets this summer. … Ryan Taylor, a pitcher/first baseman from OC, will also play for the BlueJackets. Taylor, from Salt Lake City, hit .250 and was 3-6 with a 3.22 ERA.

For a look at more of the 2013 BlueJackets, click here.

SOFTBALL

Shortstop Haylee Baker, a junior transfer from Bainbridge and Bellevue CC, hit .228 for Western Washington (23-23, 12-12 GNAC). Baker’s started every game even though she was playing with a heavy brace on her knee. … Shortstop Meagan Rancier, from South Kitsap, helped Bellevue CC to a fourth-place finish at the NWAACC Championships. Rancier hit .310 for the Bulldogs four homers and 37 RBI.

GOLF

UCLA’s Erynne Lee, sophomore from Central Kitap, was tied for second at the NCAA Championship after the second round. She shot 71-70 the first two days.

UNLV’s Carl Jonson, sophomore from Bainbridge, tied for seventh at the NCAA regional in Columbus, Ohio, and helped the Rebels qualify for next week’s NCAA Championships.

Aaron Cunningham and Drew Vettleson, a couple of minor-league outfielders, appear to have gotten untracked after slow starts.

Cunningham, from South Kitsap and Everett CC, is playing for the  Round Rock Express, Texas Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate that plays in the Pacific Coast League. He has hit .302 (13 for 43) with six RBI over his last 10 games going into Monday night’s game at Tucson. He was 4 for  6 with a home run at Las Vegas on May 10. Cunningham, now hitting No. 5 in the order, is hitting .272 for the season with a .373 on-base percentage and .395 slugging percentage.

Vettleson, an outfielder from Central Kitsap, is hitting .308 (12 for 39) over the his last 10 games for the Charlotte Stone Crabs of the advanced Class A Florida State League. Vettleson was 2 for 4 with an RBI double on Monday and has hit two homers in that stretch to boost his average to .233. He’s now batting No. 3 for the Stone Crabs after  seeing his average flirt with the Mendoza Line for most of April. He’s got a .270 on-base percentage and .380 slugging percentage.

Todd Linden, another Central Kitsap grad, fouled a ball off his right foot on April 20, suffering a deep bone bruise, and he remains on the Fresno Grizzlies’ disabled list. Linden, who was hitting .286 after just 35 at bats, is targeting a mid- to late-June return, according to the Grizzlies.

At the major league level, shortstop Willie Bloomquist remains on the Arizona Diamondback’s disabled list with a strained oblique. The South Kitsap grad pulled it prior to the start of the season and recently had a small setback in extended spring training.

Bloomquist was shut down for a couple of days before resuming hitting a week ago.

“We just kind of slowed him down a little big,” Arizona manager Kirk Gibson told MLB.com. “It’s not like he totally reinjured it, it just wasn’t as good as it needed to be to start playing in games.”

Baltimore pitcher Jason Hammel has had some rocky outings, but he’s 5-1 with a 4.93 ERA and on pace for a 21-4 season. The Orioles have won six of his eight starts. The South Kitsap grad lasted just four innings in his last start, and got a no decision after allowing eight hits and six unearned runs at Minnesota on Friday. Hammel has 32 strikeouts and 18 walks in 45.2 innings. The right-hander has been getting some serious run support by his teammates.

Is Tim Tebow getting unjustly blackballed? That’s the gist of this story by Mike Silver of Yahoo! Sports.

Silver writes

Isn’t there a coach out there who can help Tebow get the most out of his abilities? Logic would suggest that someone with his level of commitment would be a strong candidate for improvement.

It may have already happened: After Tebow was released by the Jets, one of the franchise’s former quarterbacks, Vinny Testaverde, expressed his disappointment to ESPNNewYork.com’s Rich Cimini. Testaverde, who had just spent a week working with Tebow in Florida, said he and another ex-NFL quarterback, Chris Weinke, made a key footwork adjustment that produced noticeable results.

“Chris and I looked at Tim careful and we were both amazed,” Testaverde told Cimini. “Everybody has been focusing on his throwing motion, trying to fix that, but nobody had picked up his footwork. His footwork was all screwed up …

“We got his footwork fixed. His throwing motion is now a non-issue. He throws with what we call ‘effortless power.’ He doesn’t have that elongated motion anymore and his head isn’t moving two-and-a-half feet when he throws it.”

Referring to the Jets’ coaches, Testaverde added, “I think they would have been impressed if they had compared this year to last year.”

Instead, Tebow is metaphorically throwing into the wind, and it’s a cold, heartless squall.

Seahawks

Check out Eric Williams’ latest stuff on his Seahawks Insider blog at the Tacoma News Tribune. Eric worked at The Sun before joining the Trib in 2006.

NWAACC Softball

Here’s the latest NWAACC softball standings. You’ll notice that Olympic College is holding down third place in the North Division and qualified for the 16-team NWAACC Championships, which begin May 17 at Delta Park in Portland. The Rangers host Douglas of B.C. on Friday at Lions Park with the first game starting at 2 p.m., and plays a non-league twinbill at Highline on Sunday before heading to the tournament. Here’s OC’s stats. Shortstop Jenna Bartlett, a sophomore from Central Kitsap, is having a helluva year. She’s hitting .488 and should be in the conversation for division MVP honors. Of course, I’m a bit prejudiced since I’m helping out as a volunteer assistant at OC this spring. Bartlett stepped up and handled the pitching chores when OC’s top three pitchers were all out with injuries.

Baseball

You’re still disappointed in the Mariners? Imagine being an Angels’ fan about now, writes Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. The underachieving Halos have a $155 million payroll and might get swept by the Houston Lastros.

Books

The Brandon Roy Story has been written by Dan Raley, former Seattle P-I sportswriter and basketball player from Roosevelt High (class of ’72). Raley was a teammate of Peter Nielson’s, a point-guard who played at Olympic College. He’ll be at the University Book Store on Friday at 7 p.m. for a book signing. Roy’s the former Garfield and UW star whose pro career was derailed by knee injuries.

“Reading Dan Raley writing about Brandon Roy is like watching Dwyane Wade throw a floor-length pass to LeBron James. This is more than a book, it is a breathtaking connection between two greats, an unforgettable assist that results in a rim-rattling finish. Raley is a great storyteller. Roy is an even better story. Read it and leap.”
– Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times sports columnist and panelist on ESPN’s Around the Horn

I read Cold Crossover, a mystery by Tom Kelly, earlier this spring. It’s about a former high school basketball star — Limbert “Cheese” Oliver — whose car is found abandon on the Bremerton ferry. His former high school coach, Ernie Creekmore, doesn’t believe that Cheese took his life. Kelly, a former sports writer at the Seattle Times who raised his family on Bainbridge Island, writes a compelling story. I’m looking forward to the second book in the Creekmore series.

Harshman Memorial

Just a reminder: Marv Harshman’s public memorial will be held on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Hec Edmundson Pavilion at the University of Washington. The former UW/WSU/PLU coach died April 12 at 95.

There’s Ted Williams’ baseball swing, Dan Marino’s football sling, and Ray Allen’s outside shot in basketball, but none are as sweet as Freddy Couples’ golf swing.

The Seattle native was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame on Monday. He teared up a couple times and told the story about how Lee Trevino inspired him as a 14-year-old.

A lot of people forget that Couples, who attended O’Dea High, competed against a lot of Kitsap Peninsula golfers when the Irish were part of the Olympic League.

Couples turned pro on a whim in 1980, and looking back, he called it “the dumbest decision,” he ever made. He turned pro so he could play in the Queen Mary Open in 1980.

You can see Couples’ acceptance speech here. ”Thanks for taking a kid from Seattle and putting him in the Hall of Fame. This is the coolest night of my life,” is how an emotional Couples ended his speech.

Port Orchard native Willie Bloomquist, sidelined by a strained oblique muscle on his right side, is probably “at 80 percent,” and might not be ready to be activated until the end of the month, Arizona GM Kevin Towers told the Arizona Republic on Monday.

Bloomquist opened the season on the disabled list after being injured late in spring training. The South Kitsap grad was coming off a season in which he hit a career-high .302. Pressed into the lineup on a regular basis after injuries to other players, Bloomquist  was the  Diamondbacks’ starting shortstop for much of the last two seasons. He missed most of the last two months of the 2012 season with a back injury.

Bloomquist, 35, is in the last year of a two-year $3.8 million contract, and during the offseason he talked about being a little smarter on how he prepares himself going into his 11th full-time MLB season.

The M’s are out of town, but it’s still a good day to play hooky and go watch a ball game.

Tacoma’s just a 30-minute drive away and the Rainiers (20-11) are playing the Reno Aces (10-21) in an 11:30 a.m. getaway game at Cheney Stadium. The Rainiers had a 10-game winning streak snapped Saturday, but snapped back with a 6-5 win on Sunday. Shortstop/second baseman Nick Franklin’s hitting .325. Franklin, 22, might be ready for the majors if the M’s come calling, writes Larry Stone of the Seattle Times. Shortstop/second baseman Carlos Triunfel (he and Franklin alternate at the middle infield spots) is hitting .319. Catcher Mike Zunino, after a hot start, has tailed off to .202. Monday’s pitching matchup: RHP Randall Delgado (0-3, 9.62 ERA) gets the nod for Reno, while Tacoma will counter with RHP Andrew Carraway (3-1, 3.31 ERA). Here’s a link to the Rainiers’ blog, written by announcer Mike Curto. Here’s the Q&A I did with Curto prior to the start of the season.

Links

Mommas, it’s OK to let your boys grow up to be college football coaches. The average salary for major-college football coaches exceeds $1 million, according to this report. The University of Washington’s Steve Sarkisian is making $2.550,000 million in 2013. He has two years left on his contract, which rises to $2.85 million in 2015.

Here’s one person’s list of the top 10 NFL games you should be looking forward to during the 2013 season. And, yes, the Week 2 matchup in San Francisco, when the Niners host the Seattle Seahawks, is one of those must-see games.

Ex-Sonics player and coach Nate McMillan and former WSU basketball coach Kelvin Sampson are reportedly going to get interviews for the vacant Milwaukee Bucks job. McMillan’s also interviewed for the Pistons’ job.

He’s 44-0, but is Floyd Mayweather Jr. the greatest boxer in history? Note even close, writes Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports. Mayweather hasn’t fought many elite fighters, writes Iole.

It’s time for the PGA Tour to start administering blood tests to catch golfers who might be trying to gain an unfair advantage. The way The Tour handled the Vijay Singh case was embarrassing, according to Robert Lusatich of MSN.com.

Congrats to Marco Malich, the retired Peninsula High baseball coach, for being voted into the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s Hall of Fame.

Malich is a bit of a legend in the Purdy/Gig Harbor area. He was one of those old-school coaches who could get down on the same level with his players, who respected the heck out of him.

A lot of local softball players remember Malich as a member of those talented Heidelberg slowpitch teams out of Tacoma.

Here’s a link that includes short bios on all of the inductees, including Keith Gilbertson Sr., who had a 61-year teaching and coaching career in Snohomish.

The induction ceremony is noon on May 8 at the Renton Pavilion Event Center. Tickets are $20.

With Willie Bloomquist on the disabled list in Arizona, Baltimore pitcher Jason Hammel is the only player with Kitsap ties now playing in the major leagues.

The Orioles’ right-hander, a 2000 grad of South Kitsap, will make his sixth start of the season Tuesday against the suddenly-hot Mariners at Safeco Field.

Hammel is 3-1 with a 3.82 ERA. He started on opening day and is considered the ace of the Orioles’ staff. He’s lasted at least six innings in all of his starts and is 3-0 with a 2.50 on the road this season.

Hammel is 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA in three career starts against the Mariners.

Rookie Brandon Mauer (2-1, 1.89 in his last three starts) will be on the hill for Seattle.

As for Bloomquist, the veteran utility player started the season the DL with a right oblique pull. He’s been playing some games at the Diamondbacks’ training site in Scottsdale, but there’s no word on when he’ll be activated. “He’s getting better, but he has a ways to go,” manager Kirk Gibson said last week.

In the minors:

Aaron Cunningham, another SK grad, is playing for Round Rock, a Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. He’s 8-f0r-34 in his last 10 games (.235) and hitting .239 overall for the Express, who are based just outside of Austin, Texas. The outfielder has one home run and 6 RBI. He was a sixth-round pick of the Chicago White Sox in 2005. He’s got 452 at bats in the big leagues, playing with Oakland (2008-09), San Diego (2010-11) and Cleveland (2012).

Todd Linden, a 32-year-0ld CK grad, is on the 7-day disabled list at Fresno. When he’s played, he’s been used at first base and as a DH. He sat a lot early as the Giants wanted to get Brent Pill a lot of at bats as Pill was coming off an injury. Linden’s hitting .286 in just 35 at bats with one home run. I asked a minor-league instructor this spring if Linden has a chance to get back to the big-league Giants, and he said it was possible, but only as a left-handed hitter. Linden’s been a switch-hitter is entire career. He’s currently hitting .320 as a lefty and .200 from the right side. He was the 41st overall pick in the 2001 MLB draft.

Drew Vettleson is off to a tough start for the Charlotte Stone Crabs, an advanced Class A club in the Florida State League. The outfielder from Central Kitsap, Tampa’s 10th-best prospect according to MLB.com, is hitting .136 in his last 10 games (6-for-44) and .202 for the season with a .220 on-base percentage. He was the 42nd overall pick in the 2010 draft.