A few stories to start your day:
Willie Bloomquist’s two-run single in the ninth inning gave the Arizona Diamondbacks the lead in a game the D’backs won 5-4 over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday night. Bloomquist, a Port Orchard native, is hitting .467 since returning from the disabled list.
Do the Seahawks have a problem with Adderall? “It does seem that way,” says Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman in an interview with ESPN The Magazine.
Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports writes that Tim Tebow landed in the perfect spot after signing with the New England Patriots. Tebow’s never sought the limelight and coach Bill Belichick is the right guy to keep the media hounds away from the oft-criticized quarterback. Belichick, during a press conference on Tuesday, reiterated over and over that the Pats “will do what’s best for the team,” when it comes to Tebow.
There’s a lot of golfers to root for this week at the U.S. Open. Mike Tanner from the relatively new Sports On Earth blog, which features some of the best writers on the planet, mentions a lot of them, including Jordan Spieth, who won the U.S. Junior Amateur at Gold Mountain a couple summers ago.
U.S. Soccer has come a long way since 1976. Joel Petterson of the Seattle Times chronicles just how far in this well-done piece, writing about the state of U.S. men’s soccer the last time the team played in Seattle. The year was 1976, the opponent was Canada and the U.S. coach was Walt Chyzowych. I remember covering the Sounders’ game vs. the New York Cosmos and Pele earlier that year. It was the first event played in the Kingdome.
Still can’t get LeBron James’ epic block of Tiago Splitter’s shot during Game 2 of the NBA Finals out of my head. Adrian Wojnarowski writes about it for Yahoo! Sports.
Another story from the Sports on Earth blog: Minor League baseball hasn’t been the same since “Bull Durham” — the movie classic that celebrates its 25th anniversary on June 15. Thom Loverro writes the story.
In case you missed it, here’s the complete list of the Mariners’ 40 picks in the recent amateur baseball draft. And here’s a list of the 34 players with Washington state ties selected in the draft. Lower Columbia’s Easton Napiontek, a freshman pitcher from Port Angeles, was selected in the 34th round by the Texas Rangers. The 6-foot-8 Napiontek played a lot of shortstop at PA, but was turned into a hard-throwing, full-time closer at LCC. He’s already signed with the Rangers.
