The U.S. bobsled and skeleton teams will hold their team races in Lake Placid, N.Y., this weekend, and Bremerton bobsledder and Olympian Bree Schaaf will be sliding. Schaaf, fifth at the 2010 Olympics in Whistler, B.C., competed with a bum hip last season and had surgery at the end of the year. Schaaf was expected to get on the ice this weekend, but plans have evidently changed. She will compete for a spot on the World Cup team. I hope to talk to the Olympic High grad sometime today. Look for an update later.
Tuesday links
ESPN.com released its midseason reports on Pac-12 football teams. The report on the Washington Huskies pegs Bishop Sankey as its most valuable offensive player, and cornerback Marcus Trufant as the Huskies’ top dawg on defense. The report on the Washington State Cougars points out that the Cougs’ defense, led by Travis Long, is surpassing expectations, but the WSU offense has struggled, failing to score touchdowns in two games. Moody WR Marquess Wilson is the offensive MVP to date.
*** ***
I’ve argued for years that baseball closers are overrated in the sense that it’s not that difficult to find somebody to come in and get three outs in the ninth inning. Tim Keown of ESPN.com writes a column about it. Look at the Mariners. In recent years, the M’s have had David Aardsma, Brandon League and now Tom Wilhelmsen. If something happened to Wilhelmsen, they’ll find someone else to close games. Stephen Pryor might be next in line. Closers are valuable, but they’re not hard to find.
*** ***
Everyone’s got an opinion about Russell Wilson, Seattle’s rookie QB who is turning doubters into believers. Here’s Mike Silver’s take on the undersized QB for Yahoo! Sports.
*** ***
Tim Lincecum’s starting to look like his old self again. The former Liberty High and University of Washington pitcher seems to have found his mojo again for the San Francisco Giants. After two stellar postseason outings as a reliever, it looks like Lincecum will get the start in Game 4 for the Giants. Trivia: Chris Lincecum, Tim’s dad, was once a pickup player for the Kitsap Outsiders, a semi-pro baseball team that played its home games at Bremerton’s Roosevelt Field in the early 1970s.
