Seattle SPORTs Now 3/31

 

Hopes are high for the Seattle Mariners as the 2026 baseball season begins. The Mariners came within eight outs of a World Series trip a year ago and are a popular pick to make their first-ever Fall Classic appearance in 2026.

Here’s how Seattle SPORTs Now looks at the season.

AL West

The Mariners should take the division this season anchored by arguably the best- starting rotations in baseball. Logan Gilbert and Bryan Woo are probably co-aces, but the back end of the rotation, Luis Castillo and Emerson Hancock were dominant in their first starts of the season.

Emerson threw six no-hit innings on a nationally televised game against the Cleveland Guardians but in 21^st century baseball it was no surprise that Hancock was pulled after six innings. George Kirby and Bryan Miller, currently on the disabled list round out the starting rotation when Andre Munoz, the Mariners stud out of the bullpen.

The Mariners big guns have yet to start hitting- outfielder Julio Rodrigues traditionally gets off to a slow start as in pouring ketchup out of a container slow- but his bat warms up as the weather gets warmer.

Mariner fans were thrilled when Cal Ralegh, their MVP if not baseball’s MVP, drove in the game winning run against the hated Yankees Monday night. Now Seattle needs to get their lovable first baseman Josh Naylor to start hitting and all will be right in the Emerald City.

Kudos go out to the Mariner newcomers- third baseman Brendan Donovan and young second baseman Cole Young. Donovan made Mariner history when he became the first player to homer leading off the season (technically he was leading off the bottom of the first inning but he was the first Seattle player to go yard to begin the season).

Young, who had 224 at bats a season ago, takes over as the M’s regular second baseman. He had three hits and scored the game winner in Monday’s big win against the Yankees.

Here are our baseball picks. We didn’t go too far out on a limb this season. Molly Knight of The Athletic picked the Sacramento, some day Las Vegas, Athletics to make the playoffs. We won’t go that far. The A’s and White Sox do have some good young players making the Colorado Rockies the only real disaster area this season.

AL West- 1. Seattle 2. Houston 3. Sacramento 4. Texas 5. Angels.

Other AL playoff teams: Toronto, Boston, Yankees, Detroit, Kansas City.

NL playoff teams: Philadelphia, Mets, Cubs, Dodgers, San Diego, Arizona.

Championship Series: Seattle over Boston, Dodgers over Philadelphia.

World Series: Dodgers over Seattle.

 

The Sonics Are Coming, The Sonics Are Coming

 

The return of the Seattle Sonics took one step closer to reality last week when NBA owners announced that they were officially looking into adding two more teams in Seattle and Las Vegas.

The league would now have 32 teams similar to the NFL and the NHL and according to those who follow the NBA, the would bring in more TV revenue as the league would expand to 32 teams just like the NFL and NHL

Currently, Netflix is running the documentary `Who Killed The Montreal Expos?, ‘which might have Seattle sports knowingly shaking their heads.

The movie chronicles how an American, Jeffrey Loria, purchased the Expos from local ownership. Smuylan, along with his sidekick David Samson, proceeded to trade away the Expos best players, attendance dwindled, and the team was eventually relocated to Washington.

Loria and Samson claimed they purchased the Canadian team figuring that the city of Montreal would build the team a new stadium `like cities in the United States.’ However, the reason local ownership sold the team was partly because they couldn’t get a new stadium built. (There’s also speculation that Loria might have worked behind the scenes to squash new stadium plans).

Samson is quoted in the doc as saying that Montreal just wasn’t a baseball town. However (another however) the team did draw in the early 90’s when they had an exciting young team with players like Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Marquis Grissom and Moises Alou, the son of manager Felipe Alou.

The Expos had the best record in baseball when a work stoppage curtailed the 1994 season. (A Seattle note: the Expos did get a serviceable pitcher in Mark Langston when they traded Johnson to the Mariners. Of course, Montreal eventually traded him away as well).

Expo fans believe that Loria bought the team to move them; a precursor to Clay Bennett, the Oklahoma City businessman who purchased the Sonics in the early 2000’s from Howard Schultz. And of course, Seattle was one city that wouldn’t build a new arena for a sports team.

While there’s deserved cynicism towards the rich, Seattle was fortunate to have people like Todd Liewicke and Jerry Bruckheimer who morphed Key Arena into Climate Pledge Arena and brought pro hockey to the city.

Maybe there are some cosmic forces out there rewarding Seattle for standing up to rich NBA owners, perhaps too decades too late. Maybe Montreal will get lucky and someday the Expos will return just like the Sonics.