The Stark Truth

* Aaron Cunningham’s with his fourth organization in six years, and the outfielder might start the season at Triple-A Portland, but the South Kitsap grad is OK with that. He didn’t like how the season ended last year when he was with Oakland, and San Diego’s given him a new outlook. Check out this story that published Wednesday in the San Diego Tribune.

* Jason Hammel’s yet to walk a batter as his dazzling spring continues for the right hander from Port Orchard. The Colorado pitcher struck out six in five innings against the Mariners on Thursday.

* Seattle GM Jack Zduriencik said he’s yet to see a trophy awarded for the Hot Stove League, referring to the all of the buzz the M’s created with their offseason moves. Are they ready to make the next step? That’s the theme of this USA Today preview story.

* Looks like the Mariners are committed to playing Jose Lopez at third base. Boy, are they gonna miss Adrian Beltre’s glove work. As Boston pitcher John Lackey said of the new Red Sox third baseman: “Dude can play.” Adrian Beltre’s as good a defensive player who’s ever played the position. Yeah, I’m including Brooks Robinson, Clete Boyer, Mike Schmidt and anybody else you can think of. His defense alone was worth the price of a season ticket.

* Speaking of dudes who can’t play … Yuni Betancourt seems to have already worn out his welcome in Kansas City. One blogger wrote this:

Despite GM Dayton Moore’s assertions to the contrary, Betancourt is a vortex through which the entire team will get sucked if he’s allowed onto the field too much—and “too much” could just as easily read “at all.”  With Betancourt’s already abysmal glove and brutal batsmanship, nearly any middle infielder on the roster would be an upgrade. 

Yikes!

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Thanks to freelancer Howie Stalwick, the hardest working man in the Inland Empire, here’s a note about Jud Heathcote, who grew up along the shores of Manchester near Port Orchard. Now living in Spokane, the coach who led Magic Johnson and the Spartans to an NCAA title (or did Magic lead Jud and the Spartans?) doesn’t have to travel far to watch his beloved Spartans this March.

Michigan State faces New Mexico State today in Spokane.

Here’ s a note courtesy freelance writer Howie Stalwick, who’s covering the games in Spokane for The Sporting News this weekend:

SPOKANE — Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo says team chemistry has not always been ideal this season, so he sought out the perfect remedy after arriving in Spokane on Wednesday: A team dinner with Jud Heathcote.
“That was chemically a good move,” Izzo said Thursday as the Spartans prepared for their NCAA tournament debut today against New Mexico State.
Izzo assisted Heathcote, a South Kitsap High School graduate, at Michigan State before replacing his mentor when Heathcote retired to Spokane after the 1994-95 season.
“Jud’s been to just about every one of our NCAA tournaments (since Izzo became head coach),” Izzo said. “He’s been unbelievable, going a lot of places with us.
“He’s always a quick-wit guy … I love him. He’s the best. I enjoyed being with him last night.

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Because earlier games went long, the Washington-Marquette game won’t start until about 4:55 p.m. It’s on CBS (Ch. 7 or 107 for those with HD TVs).

The tournament’s off to a great start. The first four games were decided by 12 points, with two going to overtime. That matches the number of OT games played in the entire 2009 tournament.

You had to like the way Saint Mary’s took out a very good Richmond team, 80-71. Watch out for the Gaels. I think they’ll beat Villanova, the weakest No. 2 seed in a long, long time. Maybe the Big East was overrated. Notre Dame’s already gone. ‘Nova was lucky to beat Robert Morris.

UPDATE: 5:09 p.m.

Another Big East team, Georgetown, is trailing Ohio University by a double digit margin.

Washington’s playing well. The Huskies lead 17-16 with 12:07 left in the first half. It’s a good matchup. The offenses on both sides are having their way right now.

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He’s been seen playing a round with a PGA Tour buddy.

He’s been seen working with his swing coach.

Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, now a PR gun for hire, has joined his team to deal with damage control and help re-create his public image.

Yes, Tiger Woods is coming back.

The world’s greatest golfer announced that he will return to the game he’s owned by playing in The Masters next month at Augusta, Ga. (One of my favorite writers, Joe Posnanski, wrote this about Tiger’s return.)

All eyes will be on 14-time major champion and XX-time (nobody but Tiger knows how many extra marital affairs he had) cheater. The Masters will be the most watched tournament in the history of golf.

Don’t kid yourself. Love him or loathe him, you’ll be watching. You know you will. Won’t you? (Let me know what you think).

I think a lot of people will be pulling him for him. Before, he seemed almost too perfect. His carefully crafted persona seemed almost robot-like. He was too good. Even when his golf swing wasn’t pure, he somehow figured out ways to make seemingly impossible shots and drain clutch putt after clutch putt.

He was the face of golf with no challengers. As much as you admired his enormous talent, it was, in a way, easy to root against.

Sure, he’s probably lost a lot of his fans, especially females. Now that he’s been exposed, that he isn’t the person everybody thought he was, he’ll be viewed differently.

Do you think Tiger cares how people react to him?

I don’t think so.

Out in the public, I don’t think you’ll notice much difference in Tiger Woods. If anything, he’ll probably protect his privacy more than he did in the past. And that’s OK. I really don’t care what Tiger does when he’s not on the golf course. I don’t need or want to know details about his private life anymore than I want to know private details of Arnold Palmer’s life.

If Woods was cheating on the golf course, or using banned steroids that helped him become the golfer he is, then it would be different. But we’re talking about perhaps the most focused athlete of all time, a guy who has blocked out just about any kind of pressure imaginable to become the greatest golfer of all time.

Even in this day and age of TMZ and tabloid sleeze, I think Tiger Wood will show that he’s still the best golfer on the planet. It won’t surprise me if he wins the Masters.

Tiger’s not a Golf God on a pedestal anymore. Because of all of his issues, he’s now a bit of an underdog, and you know how America likes underdogs.

If I could give him any advice, I’d tell him to lose Ari Fleischer. Get rid of the PR flak, man. Be real this time. Be yourself.

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That’s the question we posed in this poll. As of midnight Monday, 162 people had weighed in and 47 percent said the Huskies would go the farthest, while 37 percent voted for Gonzaga. Another 14 percent said both teams would lose in the first round. What do you think?

Me? I think both face difficult first-round games, but Washington matches up well with Marquette. Gonzaga’s more talented than Florida State, but the Seminoles are huge and like to keep the score low. If the UW and Zags both surive, you have to like Washington’s chances (against either New Mexico or Montana) over Gonzaga’s chances of knocking off Syracuse …. in a game that will be played in Buffalo, N.Y. It’s been a long time since Gonzaga’s been called a Cinderella, but if they get a chance to play Syracuse, somebody better break out the slippers.

Here’s one guy who gives the Zags a shot at knocking off Syracuse.

Remember the last time Gonzaga played in Buffalo. The late Dan Fitzgerald was coaching then. Bud Withers of the Seattle Times tells the story.

Marquette, meanwhile, sees a lot of themselves in Washington. Check out this story in the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.

And don’t forget to vote in the poll.

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One of the benefits of getting hit with the flu this time of year: There’s a lot of entertaining college basketball on television to take your mind off things. Here’s 10 random thoughts from the last three days of bubbledom:

 1)    It’ll be a crime if California isn’t awarded an NCAA at-large berth. The senior-dominated Pac-10 champs are solid. Don’t know about you, but I thought the Pac-10 championship game was a classic, showcasing a couple of teams that are much better than how they’re perceived nationally. Cal’s a veteran team that’s good enough to get to a regional final. So are the Huskies if they can duplicate Saturday’s winning performance.

 2)    My No. 1 seeds: Kansas, Kentucky, Duke (if it wins Sunday) and West Virginia. Sorry Ohio State. If the Big East is the best conference – and it is – then one of the beasts from the East should be a No. 1. It could have been Syracuse, but losses in two of its last three games gives West Virginia that spot. Because of the ACC’s down year, I might even put West Virginia and Syracuse ahead of Duke.

 3)    You might not like Bob Huggins, but I sure like the way his team (West Virginia) plays. Outside of the Pac-10 championship, the Big East title-game between the Mountaineers and Georgetown Hoyas was the best game of the week. The hard-nosed coach turned into an emotional Huggy Bear after the victory.

 4)    How good is the Big East? Georgetown was eighth in the conference during the regular season and the Hoyas are good enough to get to the Final Four.

 5)    Most overrated conference this year: The Big 12. Outside of Kansas, the top team in the country,  I don’t see anybody that’s scary. When Texas was No. 1 and 17-0, they didn’t seem that good to me. Kansas State isn’t any better than Cal, Washington or Arizona State and the Wildcats are projected to be a No. 3, or even  a No. 2 seed.

 6)    San Diego State played its way into the tournament by winning the Mountain West Conference tournament. That’s a tough conference with New Mexico, BYU and UNLV all getting strong consideration for at-large berths. Do you know who’s coaching at San Diego State? Hint: Fab Five. Yeah, Steve Fisher. Yeah,  sometimes nice guys do finish first.

 7)    Illinois has lost six of its last eight games and is still on the bubble? C’mon, that’s not right. The selection committee needs to wipe ‘em off the board early on Sunday.

Wonder where and who the Washington Huskies will play? Don’t know how you can even predict this stuff, but Joe Lunardi of ESPN.com, the bracketology guru, has the Huskies (23-9) facing Michigan State (24-8) in the Midwest sub-regional Spokane. Washington’s a 12 seed; MSU a 5 seed. Lunardi’s got Gonzaga (25-6) in the West, playing Old Dominion (26-8) at Oklahoma City. The Zags are a 7 seed; OD a 10 seed. Remember, this is purely conjecture.

 9)    Washington’s getting a lot of contributions from a lot of players right now – which is why they’re riding a seven-game winning streak – but Justin Holiday really caught my eye this week. The 6-6 junior has always been a superb defender, but he’s going to have a chance to be a special player next season when the Huskies look for somebody to replace Quincy Pondexter. Not saying he’s going to be the next Q-Pon, but don’t be surprised if he averages 14-15 points and close to 10 rebounds.

 10)    Strangest thing I saw was the heated verbal exchange between Kentucky coach John Calipari and freshman Daniel Orton. Evidently, Calipari didn’t think Orton went after a loose ball hard enough at one point during the first half of Saturday’s SEC semifinal against Tennessee, and he yanked the player. Orton never sat down and next thing you know, CBS’ cameras show the player walking off the court toward the lockerroom. Minutes later, he was back, apologizing to Calipari, who slapped his hand and put him back in the game.

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GolfWeek’s annual list of Best Courses You Can Play is out and Kitsap has two courses included in Washington State’s Top 10 list. Gold Mountain’s Olympic Course comes in at No. 5 and Trophy Lake Golf & Casting is ranked No. 8.

Note: Courses have to be open to the public to be considered.

Here’s the full state list:

Washington
1. Chambers Bay, University Place (No. 20 m)
2. Palouse Ridge, Pullman (m)
3. Wine Valley, Walla Walla (m)*
4. Loomis Trail, Blaine (m)*
5. Olympic Course at Gold Mountain, Bremerton (m)
6. Indian Canyon, Spokane (c)
7. Semiahmoo, Blaine (m)
8. Trophy Lake Golf & Casting, Port Orchard (m)
9. Suncadia (Prospector), Roslyn (m)
10. Home Course, DuPont (m)

Note: Chambers Bay is No. 20 nationally; the m is for modert courses and the c is for classic courses. The asterisk is for courses that are new to the list.

Port Ludlow Resort was dropped from the Top 10.

Here’s the GolfWeek story about the the rankings.

Here’s the link to the state-by-state listing.

Here’s the best classic courses and the best modern courses, which has Oregon’s Pacific Dunes No. 2, Bandon Dunes No. 4 and Bandon Trails No. 28. The No. 1 modern course? I let you find out for yourself.

Of course, this is all pretty subjective. How would you rank the top 10 courses in the state? I keep hearing good things about the Home Course in Steilacoom. Should it be higher? And what about McCormick Woods or the Cascade Course at Gold Mountain? Are they among the state’s top 10? Just throwing it out. Chambers Bay will host the U.S. Amateur this summer and the U.S. Open in 2015, but is it the state’s best public-access golf course?

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We’re not talking about the movie starring Robert De Niro.

Check out this story about a 1,800 pound named Hard Ball who somehow made it out of the stadium while at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.

If we could ever get Silverdale rodeo announcer Randy Corley off the golf course, I bet he’d have a few stories to tell about runaway bulls. Corley worked the San Antonio rodeo with his father-in-law, Hadley Barrett, last month. Here’s a picture of Randy Corley annnoucing into a cucumber. Hey, Randy, is that a Raging Cucumber?

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Freelancer Howie Stalwick filed this note concerning Gonzaga coach Mark Few on Sunday night. The win over Loyola Marymount tied  Hank Anderson’s school record of 290 wins.

Few is an Oregon graduate, and his name is again circulating as a possible replacement for UO coach Ernie Kent, who is not expected back.
Few has always refused to discuss jobs that are not officially open. An insider with ties to Gonzaga told The Sun that Few recently indicated to him that he plans to remain at GU indefinitely, and Bulldog athletic director Mike Roth said, “No one even calls (inquiring about Few) any more.”

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