Seattle

It happened on Friday night in New York, and now the police are calling it an apparent hate crime: The police say that Elliot Morales, 33, trailed and taunted two men, yelling antigay slurs and asking one of them, “You want to die ...
It happened on Friday night in New York, and now the police are calling it an apparent hate crime: The police say that Elliot Morales, 33, trailed and taunted two men, yelling antigay slurs and asking one of them, “You want to die tonight?” The police say it was the other man, Mark Carson, 32, who died after Mr. Morales fired a single bullet from a revolver. On Sunday, the police filed murder and weapons charges against Mr. Morales, and several lesbian and gay groups made plans for a march on Monday to the scene of the shooting. According to The New York Times, Morales's sister says "he was under the influence" on Friday. According to police, in addition to the revolver, a Serbian-made assault weapon was found in the home Morales had been staying in. [ Comment on this story ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]
22 minutes ago
Holy crap, brand new week, gang. Patrick Peterson: The Numbers, The Tape, The Verdict | Pre Snap ReadsAfter being selected with the fifth pick of the 2011 NFL Draft, Patrick Peterson quickly made an impression on the league as a mem...
Holy crap, brand new week, gang. Patrick Peterson: The Numbers, The Tape, The Verdict | Pre Snap ReadsAfter being selected with the fifth pick of the 2011 NFL Draft, Patrick Peterson quickly made an impression on the league as a member of the Arizona Cardinals. The former LSU cornerback was a Week 1 starter on defense, but would become famous(or infamous if you’re a fan of certain teams) for his work on special teams. Idzik’s 0-for-2 start has others taking shots already | ProFootballTalkNew Jets General Manager John Idzik hasn’t even gotten his team to training camp yet, but folks around the league are already poking at his 0-for-2 start to free agency. Super Bowls L and LI to be awarded this week | ProFootballTalkNFL owners will be gathering in Boston this week for a meeting that has one primary item on the agenda: Awarding two Super Bowls. First, it's Miami versus San Francisco for Super Bowl L. Then, the loser takes on Houston for Super Bowl LI. The votes will happen on Tuesday. Twenty-nine NFL teams holding OTAs this week | ProFootballTalkIn news that will no doubt please NFL fans eager for the regular season to just get here already, the vast majority of teams will be holding on-field workouts this week. Broncos QB Peyton Manning’s renegotiated contract cleared $2.5 million in cap space in 2013 | Shutdown Corner - Yahoo! SportsWith $2.5 million in additional cap space from the Manning renegotiation, the Broncos are now $9.9 million under their 2013 adjusted cap number of $139.76 million. That leaves plenty of room to land defensive back Charles Woodson, whose other suitors — the Oakland Raiders and Detroit Lions — each have less than $3 million in 2013 cap space remaining. Every NFL Team's Dream Scenario for 2013 | Bleacher Report Every year, each NFL team has one goal: to finish as the NFL's best team by hoisting the Lombardi Trophy in February. Unfortunately, that goal is unrealistic for a majority of the organizations... NFP Sunday Blitz | National Football Post*The use of GPS systems and heart rate monitors during practice to monitor biomechanics and recovery continues to grow in the NFL. Among the latest teams to join the trend are the Eagles and Jaguars. New Eagles coach Chip Kelly is very much into using technology and thinking outside of the box. Jaguars coach Gus Bradley was familiar with GPS monitoring because the Seahawks did it when he was in Seattle. The system is particularly helpful in terms of monitoring recovery of athletes and helping to gauge players who are rehabbing. Roster hopeful Lockette is learning from Kaepernick - 49ers - The Sacramento BeeRicardo Lockette is so intent on landing a spot on the 49ers' roster that he bought a white board and markers so he could chart and study plays on his own time. What's missing without Chris Clemons, Bruce Irvin - ESPNBruce Irvin's suspension from the Seattle Seahawks for the first four games of the 2013 NFL season will force additional shuffling early in the season. The team was already expected to be without starting defensive end Chris Clemons, who is recovering from knee surgery and could miss part of the season. Backup defensive end Greg Scruggs could miss the full season after suffering a knee injury more recently. Sunday Conversation: Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians - ESPN"Christmas Eve, we had our normal game-plan meetings and I was walking out of the building and all of a sudden I looked and the light was off," Arians recalled. "I had to get in the car and dry up some tears before I could drive home. It was an extremely emotional night -- the best Christmas I've ever had." Hey, Pete, it’s time you talked about Seahawks’ drug-test failures | Seattle Seahawks - The News TribuneBruce Irvin’s four-game suspension, presumably for testing positive for the banned substance Adderall, finds Seattle Seahawks fans taking extreme sides on the i
about 2 hours ago
Stopping thru Dave Magadan City? . Sizzler:  Justin Smoak Drago axs, What if Smoak can run a .400 OBP with a .400 SLG?  Would that be good? Spectator comps him, right now, to Dave Magadan, and Bat chimes in with Sean Casey.  Would you wa...
Stopping thru Dave Magadan City? . Sizzler:  Justin Smoak Drago axs, What if Smoak can run a .400 OBP with a .400 SLG?  Would that be good? Spectator comps him, right now, to Dave Magadan, and Bat chimes in with Sean Casey.  Would you want either player, in view of the fact that we've got Romero, Liddi, Montero 1B probably, and other talented young players in the wings?  And you have to spend your FA money somewhere... Supposing that Smoak were Magadan or Casey.  First question, is that what he's going to be.  Second, what's that worth to you. ............
about 4 hours ago
Calling Mr. WBC . Fizzler:  2nd Place Standing G-Money sez in the shout box, Them's the breaks of a .500ish team. You win half and feel good, and you lose half and get grumpy. Gotta get one tomorrow. Just so.  There isn't any a...
Calling Mr. WBC . Fizzler:  2nd Place Standing G-Money sez in the shout box, Them's the breaks of a .500ish team. You win half and feel good, and you lose half and get grumpy. Gotta get one tomorrow. Just so.  There isn't any amount of prose text that would change a baseball fan's feeling after dumping the first three games of a series in baseball's most dreary city.  You know what would change the feeling?  Watching a victory or two.  Earl's Fourth Law:   Momentum is as good as that day's starting pitcher.  Iwakuma locks down the Indians, all is forgotten. There's a city the M's stayed in for a little while, between Seattle and El Paso:  they were a competitive team before they were a great team. . Sizzler:  Brandon Maurer
about 4 hours ago
Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports The Seattle Seahawks lost a player who served as a critical source of edge rushing in 2012 this past week, as Bruce Irvin was suspended for the first four games of 2013 for violating the NFL PED policy. Whi...
Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports The Seattle Seahawks lost a player who served as a critical source of edge rushing in 2012 this past week, as Bruce Irvin was suspended for the first four games of 2013 for violating the NFL PED policy. While the surprisingly inexpensive additions of prized defensive ends Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril this offseason will certainly soften the blow and leave wonder as to how much foresight the Seahawks front office had into this suspension, it still cost Seattle a first-round draft pick who played a crucial part of the defensive equation with Chris Clemons recovering. “I want to apologize to my teammates, coaches and Seahawks fans for making a mistake when I took a substance that is prohibited in the NFL without a medical exemption,” Irvin said in a statement. “I am extremely disappointed in the poor judgment I showed and take full responsibility for my actions.” Irvin will lose $191,681 in base salary for the 2013 season, and is the sixth player to receive a suspension for performance-enhancing drugs in recent years, as noted by Eric D. Williams of The News Tribune. The 2012 first-round pick joins cornerback Brandon Browner, safety Winston Guy, offensive lineman John Moffitt, offensive lineman Allen Barbre and cornerback Richard Sherman. However, the Seahawks will hit their early-season schedule undeterred, and it seems so will Vegas. I’ve seen that spot that actually bumped their Seahawks’ Super Bowl futures line up from 9-to-1 to 17-to-2 since the news broke. While Irvin did break the eight-sack mark as a rookie, the way he vastly under-performed in Chris Clemons absence during the NFC divisional round contest against the Atlanta Falcons showed that he is not one of the league’s elite edge rushers, at least yet. Thomas Emerick is a Senior Writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @ThomasEmerick, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
about 6 hours ago
Danny Farquhar is only in the majors because the Mariners needed an extra arm for the bullpen after Hector Noesi had to be used as a spot starter because of Aaron Harang‘s aching back. Noesi obviously wasn’t optioned to Taco...
Danny Farquhar is only in the majors because the Mariners needed an extra arm for the bullpen after Hector Noesi had to be used as a spot starter because of Aaron Harang‘s aching back. Noesi obviously wasn’t optioned to Tacoma because they wanted to get him off the team, and he’ll likely be back as soon as he’s fulfilled the 10 day requirement that goes along with getting optioned out. However, Danny Farquhar might have shown enough in his one outing on Saturday to not be the one headed back to Tacoma when Noesi returns. No, it’s not because he struck out five of the eight guys he faced in low leverage mop-up duty; it’s because of what he was throwing. That’s a PITCHF/x plot of the 34 pitches Farquhar threw on Saturday. Forget the labels, as there’s basically three pitches there: a bunch of fastballs from 92-96, some cut fastballs from 89-92, and a few curveballs at 79. Now, here’s a PITCHF/x plot of the 43 pitches Farquhar threw in the Major Leagues back in 2011, when he was a member of the Blue Jays. There are three pitches there too, but as you can see, they are not the same three pitches. In 2011, he threw a fastball at 88-92, a slider from 80-84, and a single change-up at 79. And now, here are those two charts overlayed on top of each other, and you see the changes by moving the mouse over or off the image. Basically, the Farquhar who pitched in Cleveland on Saturday bears no resemblance to the one who pitched in the big leagues with Toronto, besides the fact that it is the same human being, anyway. That Farquhar was a garden variety sinker/slider minor leaguer, a guy who could get some ground balls against right-handers but was otherwise ill equipped to pitch in the majors. If you’ve ever watched a Triple-A game, you’ve seen 100 relievers just like him. This is the kind of pitchers that make up PCL pitching staffs. The one that pitched for the Mariners on Saturday, though? A totally different guy. The fastball averaged 95, as he’s mostly swapped out his two seam for a harder four seam fastball — note that his fastest fastball in 2011 was still slower than his slowest fastball in 2013 — while the cutter sat at 91, and he mixed in few curveballs just for fun. And the entire delivery is just completely different. You can see video of him throwing a pitch for Toronto here, then compare that to with Seattle in the second video. And here’s an overlay of his release points, both for 2011 and 2013. As you can see, the release point has gotten much, much higher, and he’s now releasing at something close to 3/4 rather than side-arm. Basically, he’s gotten more vertical, and his stuff has taken a big leap forward in the process. Not only is he throwing four or five miles per hour harder, the cut fastball is just a far better second pitch than anything he used to have, and unlike the slider, it’s not a pitch that has a huge platoon split. On Saturday, he threw eight cutters to right-handers and six of them to left-handers, and it was actually more effective against LHBs, getting two called strikes and a swinging strike. A guy throwing 95 mph four-seam fastballs, mixing in a 91 mph cutter, and throwing the odd 79 mph curve just to throw hitters timing off – that’s not the stuff of some random dude called up from Tacoma to eat some innings in a pinch. Farquhar was destroying the PCL before he got called up, and after seeing what he was throwing, his dominance down there suddenly makes a lot more sense. Basically, we can take Farquhar’s mediocre track record and almost entirely toss it out the window. You might look at him as a journeyman who pitched for four different Triple-A clubs last year, but there’s no way anyone would have tried to sneak him through waivers throwing what he’s throwing right now. What he showed on Saturday was the kind of stuff that good relief p
about 7 hours ago
In the movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, the title character, Borat Sagdiyev, imparts the story of his younger brother Bilo, a tragedy-stricken young man who lives in a cage. For y...
In the movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, the title character, Borat Sagdiyev, imparts the story of his younger brother Bilo, a tragedy-stricken young man who lives in a cage. For years Bilo is taunted by his sister, Natalya, the No. 4 prostitute in all of Kazakhstan. Natalya, […]
about 9 hours ago
CLEVELAND –  The Indians are facing the major leagues  “Ace” pitchers and beating them into submission. Justin Masterson struck out a season-high eleven in seven dominating shutout innings and Michael Brantley hit a three-run home ...
CLEVELAND –  The Indians are facing the major leagues  “Ace” pitchers and beating them into submission. Justin Masterson struck out a season-high eleven in seven dominating shutout innings and Michael Brantley hit a three-run home run and drove in four runs against the King, Felix Hernandez as Cleveland destroyed yet another big league bully on The post Masterson’s 11 K’s Help Indians Beat Mariners 6-0 appeared first on Seattle Sports Central | #1 Seattle Sports Blog - News - Forum - Rumors.
about 11 hours ago
Gothic anguish, degeneracy, nakedness, wine, and a wheat field. Also, gold leaf, honey, tar, blood, wax, flowers, leeches, pheasants, and arrows. And Jessie Smith. And Jessie Smith choreography. And Jessie Smith wearing a weird cape thin...
Gothic anguish, degeneracy, nakedness, wine, and a wheat field. Also, gold leaf, honey, tar, blood, wax, flowers, leeches, pheasants, and arrows. And Jessie Smith. And Jessie Smith choreography. And Jessie Smith wearing a weird cape thing with a very long tail with egg-carton-like shapes bulging from it. And music. And weird, beautiful acts of endurance. And gay shame and bullying. And the most perfect curtain call of all: None at all. It might be sold out. Sneak in anyway. [ Comment on this story ] [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]
about 12 hours ago
On April 24, the Mariners lost 10-3 in Houston to fall to 8-15 on the young season. This was the low point for the 2013 season, and the team knew they had to respond to have any chance of contending. They responded in earnest, winning fi...
On April 24, the Mariners lost 10-3 in Houston to fall to 8-15 on the young season. This was the low point for the 2013 season, and the team knew they had to respond to have any chance of contending. They responded in earnest, winning five of six series to get to 20-21 on May 16. They had a chance to surpass the .500 mark and make a run at Texas with a good series in Cleveland. Unfortunately, that dream scenario for the Mariners simply did not play out. They lost a nail biter in extra innings Friday, as an exhausted bullpen yielded a walk off homer to Jason Kipnis. They lost in similar fashion Saturday, on a walk off infield hit after they had stormed back with homers in innings eight and nine. When an up-and-coming team like the Mariners loses two games in devastating fashion, they need their best players to come through and dig them out of the hole. Felix Hernandez was in perfect position to do just that Sunday morning, as he took the mound against Justin Masterson. Instead, Felix put together his worst start of 2013 and Masterson dominated, sinking the Mariners even deeper in a 6-0 loss. A pair of bummed out Mariners. David Richard-USA TODAY Sports Hernandez lasted just five innings and surrendered six runs (five earned) on eight hits. He walked two and struck out eight. The big blow came off the bat of Michael Brantley, who ripped a three-run homer to centerfield in the second inning to put Cleveland up 5-0. The Mariners didn’t do anything to help themselves offensively either, as Masterson dominated for seven incredible innings. He allowed just three hits, walking two and striking out 11. At times, the Mariners had absolutely no idea against Masterson. The loss dropped the M’s to 20-24, and Cleveland can finish the sweep tomorrow. All that equates to gut check time for Seattle. They need to win tomorrow with Hisashi Iwakuma on the mound to salvage something from this series and prepare for two games against the Angels in LA. They cannot get discouraged by watching Felix get shelled today. That happens to Felix from time to time as it does to all pitchers. Felix especially struggles at Progressive Field, where he is 3-5 lifetime with a 4.50 ERA in nine starts. He had a similarly horrendous start right around this time last season (on May 16, 2012, Felix gave up eight runs on ten hits in just 3.2 innings at Progressive Field). This bad start and loss doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. But it could if the Mariners let it get them down. If they refuse to plod forward like good teams do and dwell on these three consecutive losses, they may never scrape .500 again in 2013. Iwakuma can win tomorrow, and the ship will be right back on track for the best Mariners team in a few long years.
about 14 hours ago