The Stark Truth

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.

If Chris Hansen is going to lose his battle to bring the Sacramento Kings to Seattle, he’s going to go down fighting.

Despite an unfavorable 7-0 vote from the NBA’s relocation committee on Monday, Hansen wrote the following on his sonicsarena.com site:

“While we are disappointed with the relocation committee’s recommendation, we just wanted to let you all know that we remain fully committed to seeing this transaction through.

“As you are all well aware, we have a binding transaction to purchase the Kings for what would be a record price for an NBA franchise, have one of the best ownership groups ever assembled to purchase a professional sports team in the U.S., have clearly demonstrated that we have a much more solid arena plan, have offered a much higher price than the yet to be finalized Sacramento group, and have placed all of the funds to close the transaction into escrow.

“As such, we plan to unequivocally state our case for both relocation and our plan to move forward with the transaction to the league and owners at the upcoming Board of Governors meeting in mid-May.”

The odds don’t look good, but Sacramento still has some hoops to jump through, and Hansen still has a binding agreement with the Maloof family to buy the Kings. And the Board of Governors, comprised of league owners, could vote in Hansen’s favor.

Hansen said the odds aren’t impossible of turning the Kings into the Seattle SuperSonics. He wrote on his site:

“When we started this process everyone thought it was impossible. While this represents yet another obstacle to achieving our goal, I just wanted to reassure all of you that we have numerous options at our disposal and have absolutely no plans to give up. Impossible is nothing but a state of mind.”

All along, I’ve felt the NBA should keep the Kings in Sacramento and award Seattle an expansion team. There’s been no talk of expansion and it likely won’t happen until David Stern, the commissioner, steps down 2014 in Feb ruary of 2014. I’m still holding out hope that it will happen. If you have two wealthy ownership groups — and both are willing to build new arenas — it seems like it would be a win-win situation for every owner in the league. It will only drive up the value of existing franchises. Hansen and his ownership group, which includes Steve Ballmer, have ponied up a league-record $550,000 million to purchase the Kings’ franchise. Money, as they say, talks, doesn’t it?

Charlie Pierce, of Esquire and the Boston Glove, nails it again, this time as a contributing writer for Grantland.

Oh, dear God, couldn’t SI have come up with a better cover headline than “The Gay Athlete”? There literally are thousands of gay athletes, at every level of sports, from Legion baseball all the way to the majors and back again, from high school football teams in west Texas all the way to the NFL. We just don’t know who they are yet, and it would be considerably more dangerous for a center on a Christian academy basketball team in Kansas to come out than it was for Collins, which is the truest measure of how far we really have to go. When one of those kids comes out, and when he is supported by as many people as are now congratulating themselves for supporting Collins, then you can come talk to me about our day of jubilee.

That’s a paragraph lifted from his story on Jason Collins’ decision to come out.

There has never been a doubt, and now there’s absolutely no debate: Poulsbo’s Ryan Villopoto ranks among THE very best AMA Supercross riders in the history of the sport.

Villopoto joined Bob Hannah, Ricky Carmichael and Jeremy McGrath as the only riders to win three straight 450cc class titles in a row when he won his ninth race of the season on Saturday night at Salt Lake City.

I caught a recent airing of the CBS special: “Ryan Villopoto: A Champion” and it not only gives you a lot of insight into the sport, but into his personal life, where he spent three years estranged from his Poulsbo family. If you get a chance to see it, I recommend it.

In the meantime, congrats to RV and his crew. He finishes the regular supercross season at Las Vegas on May 4, then it’s off to the motocross season, which he missed a year ago after blowing out a knee in his race in Seattle.