Seattle Baseball on the Road to Recovery; Are We There Yet?

In Seattle, fans are languishing through another long summer of baseball. It’s been a rough decade for the Seattle Mariners, having finished below .500 five times in the last eight years, twice with more than 100 losses. These are the numbers prior to the onset of the 2011 season, which itself fell apart rather abruptly for the Mariners as they entered a (team record) 17 game skid after the All-Star Break.

Now, things aren’t completely bleak in the Emerald City. The fruit of several years far from playoff contention has quite literally ripened in the form a thriving farm system. As the Mariners took a nosedive in the standings this July, management began to unload under producing and often overpaid talent. In several situations this summer, the powers-at-be within the Mariner Organization opted to trade for prospects and draft-picks; rather than the veteran bat or two the team may have sought had they not fallen from contention so abruptly. With the recent exodus of several Mariner starters many of these prospects are getting the chance to play regularly at the Major League level.

From their entry into the American League in 1977 through 1990, the Mariners did not complete a single season with a winning record. They shared a Seattle arena, dubbed The Kingdome, with the city’s equally abysmal NFL team, The Seahawks. However, in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s a series of decisions were made in the Mariner’s front office that would come to change the face of the team and ultimately the city of Seattle itself.

Throughout the late 1970’s and the early 1980’s the Mariners brought in “over-the-hill” free-agents, hero forty-something’s on their way out of the game in an effort to fill seats. This strategy resulted in smiles and beautiful memories, but rarely translated into wins. In the late 1980’s, the team gradually came to be under new, more aggressive ownership. The new owners, affiliated with Nintendo Corp. of Japan, saw young, homegrown talent as the pathway to success. One of the most promising young players was a kid by the name of Ken Griffey Jr.

The name Griffey is now synonymous with Seattle baseball. Yet the early 1990’s were tumultuous times for the Mariners, as there were those within the Organization who sought to move the team elsewhere. These desires, coupled with league restructuring and the season-ending Player’s Strike in 1994, almost put an end to Major League Baseball in Seattle.

However, a group of guys with names like Junior, Randy Johnson, Edgar Martinez and Alex Rodriguez put together a few pretty good years up in the Pacific Northwest. Not just good enough to keep baseball around, but good and exciting enough to get Washington taxpayers to sign on off on a shiny new Stadium for the twice A.L. West Champions (1995, 1997).

As the big names of the 1990’s exited the Seattle Baseball scene, new ones would arrive. A new right fielder arrived from Japan in 2001 with much fanfare and an armada of Japanese press. His name was Ichiro Suzuki.

Above: Safeco Field; The House that Griffey Built. The 516 Million Dollar stadium opened its doors in 1999 and boasts one of the only retractable roofs of its magnitude operating anywhere on the planet.

The Mariners, who fell just two wins short of an American League Championship in 2000, would go on to win 116 games in 2001, tying the record set by the 1906 Chicago Cubs. Yet it would be bittersweet, as the Seattle club again fell two games short; defeated by the New York Yankees in 6 games for the second year in a row. The 2002 and 2003 clubs were talented and played sound baseball, but fell short within the A.L. West itself.

From 2004 on, the teams have been exciting at times, but never quite fired on all six cylinders. With two finishes over .500, it hasn’t been all bad news, but the flavor of the last eight years of Seattle Baseball has definitely been disappointment. Disappointment as year after year, the team seems to bite and claw, kicking and screaming to within sight of contention; only to fall, often violently back into the wilderness from whence they came.

This year began with great promise, yet without the ideal mix of talent and team chemistry, playing 9 innings, 162 times in a summer can begin to drag. When a team begins to drag, they stop winning. When the Mariners stopped winning this year, they did so in dramatic fashion. The gravity of the fall resulted in management conducting a series of trades for young talent. These new acquisitions fall into an existing farm system already busting at the seams with talent and a Major League club full of recent vacancies.

This year wasn’t “the year” for the Mariners, but there is both promise, and change in the breeze blowing into Safeco Field off of Elliott Bay these days. This November, Seattle will be battening down the hatches for what promises to be another hard Pacific Northwest Winter. But, as has gone on for quite some years now, folks will be sitting at the bar on brisk Sunday mornings watching another Seattle team. When the topic of Baseball comes up, somebody inevitable says, “The Mariners? Well, there’s always next year.”

Wolves Making Strides in Central Washington

By the 1930’s, breeding wolf populations had been all but extinguished within Washington State. Throughout the following decades, intermittent reports and alleged sightings of wolves suggest that animals from neighboring states and British Columbia may have maintained at least a transitory presence in Washington. However, the successful documentation of a breeding population of wolves within the State’s borders would not again take place until 2008.

Reports of increasing wolf activity began as early as 2004, but the 2008 discovery of a successful pack in Okanogan County made it official. The reemergence of North America’s most successful predator in the woods of Washington comes on the heels of reintroduction efforts in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. Efforts resulting in thriving wolf populations, along with significant political rumbling between advocacy groups representing hunters, ranchers and environmentalists. By the time that the Okanogan Pack was identified, the debate over wolf management in Washington had already begun.

By the end of 2009, two more packs had been confirmed, totaling three distinct units in far northeastern Washington. January of 2010, an active pack was discovered in north-central Washington, near Omak. The mere existence of a pack in the Cascade Mountains’ eastern foothills, more than 120 miles from another breeding population, suggests that wolves may be moving in from Canada, or already exist within Washington in much greater numbers than we’ve yet been able to confirm.

By the summer of 2010, the new north-central Washington wolf population, dubbed “The Lookout Pack,” had been nearly eradicated by poaching. Bill and Tom White, ranchers out of the Twisp, WA area, were convicted of killing 9 wolves over the course of an 18 month span. In addition, Bill White—the elder of the father/son combo, was convicted along with his wife of attempting to smuggle wolf-pelts across the border to Canada. The three White’s were convicted to a combined 14 years in prison and ordered $600,000 in fines.

Despite the apparent slaughter of the Lookout Pack, reported wolf sightings continued to occur with increasing regularity. Inhabitants of the numerous towns dotting the eastern flank of the Cascades insisted on the presence of regional wolves; from Mazama-- near the Canadian border, to Naches in the south-- along highway 12 outside of Yakima. As reports began to stack up, many regional biologists came to agree that wolves must be more active within the state than they had been able to document.

In July of 2011 a breeding pack of Grey Wolves was confirmed along the upper reaches of the Teanaway River, not far from Cle-Elum. The sub-alpine valleys roamed by the Teanaway Pack are less than 20 miles north of Interstate 90 and only an hour and a half’s travel from Seattle.

Above: Image captured by a motion-sensing camera high in the Teanaway River drainage near Cle-Elum, WA; June 2011.

It is unlikely wolves will set up shop near the Seattle metro-area within the foreseeable future. However, it does appear that the animals are here to stay. Given that the Teanaway pack appears to be fairing quite well, experts agree that it is only a matter of time until wolves set up shop somewhere south of Interstate 90; in areas where farming has stretched into the periphery of the mountains and livestock are much more prevalent.

A panel of state officials, biologists and recreational hunting advocates are set to meet in Olympia this August in an attempt to mete out an effective wolf-management plan, to be put into action as soon as possible. Residents in neighboring Idaho voted to open up nearly 50% of their wolf population to public hunting this fall, a prospect that could have disastrous implications on the regional ecosystem. Proponents of wolf hunting in Idaho and Washington preach a concern of the potential effects that wild wolves could have on regional deer and elk herds. Most reputable biologists agree that wolves actually have a positive effect on wild bovine populations by culling weak or sick animals from the herd. The initial impact of wolves on these populations is notable, but given time research elsewhere shows that the herds ultimately recover; growing stronger as the healthy genes of animals able to evade wolves are passed down the genetic line.

After a 75 year hiatus, Canis-Lupus has returned to the woods of central Washington, bringing with them varying degrees of both excitement and controversy. The meetings to take place this August are a key point in the ongoing saga of Washington’s wolves. Whatever is agreed upon behind those doors will inevitably declare what, if any role wolves will be allowed to play within the state.

2011: The Year Without a Summer?

Here in the Pacific Northwest June has given way to July, but judging by the chill outside this morning it could have been April. The calendar shows us that it is clearly summer; technically this cannot be denied. Yet, for a region recently gripped by an icy La Nina winter, followed by one of the coldest, wettest springs on record, summer, and the typically warmer, drier weather associated with it could not arrive soon enough.

After much La Nina related fanfare, the winter of 2011 started not with a bang, but a whistle. The Cascades, although having caught some early winter weather late in October, would not sustain a snowpack until December. The weeks preceding the Christmas Holiday were fairly average for a Washington winter; some snow in the mountains, rain near the deck around Puget Sound and a mix of wintery bleh east of mountains. Then came “June-uary.”

At 11:50 PM, as 2010 prepared to turn the corner into 2011, precipitation atop Stevens Pass, one of the highest anywhere in the Cascades abruptly turned from snow, into torrential freezing rain. Warm, moist air travelling along an atmospheric current known as “The Jet Stream” had overrun a stubborn mass of cold air which had been perched east of the Cascade crest for days. The warm and productively wet weather systems associated with this sort of atmospheric activity are referred to as “Pineapple Express” events. These events are capable of producing immense amounts of precipitation, and when passing over an existing pocket of colder air can produce hours, or even days of the heavy mixed precipitation that our cute and cuddly weather-folks have recently taking to calling a “wintery mix.”

In a normal Pacific Northwest winter, let alone one where strong La Nina conditions exist, Pineapple Express events are few and far between. January 2011 saw four such events and more than 20 inches of rain falling in the Cascades.

In Late February, things changed abruptly. The current of warm, moist air that had persisted since early January was suddenly blocked by high pressure ridging, allowing cooler systems-- often associated with an Arctic boundary front, to enter the region from the north. These systems were wet and very cold, often producing lowland snow events, and are more characteristic of La Nina conditions. March and April shattered cold weather records throughout the state of Washington.

In May, cool and wet weather persisted ever on. Seattle was having one of the more dismal spring seasons that anyone could remember. In the Cascades, ski resorts already closed for the summer watched helplessly as they accumulated more snow in the month of May than in December or January.

June brought more of the same, as many locations throughout Western Washington had yet to record a 70 degree afternoon. The southwest Washington town of Chehalis tallied only 8 precip-free days between March 22^nd and June 14^th, a period perfectly capable of providing summeresque weather. Things were wet west of the crest, but the Eastern portion of the state was not spared.

Above: Temperature data out of Ellensburg, WA for the month of June 2011. Shown are daily high and low temperatures and their relationship to statistical mean temps. The red line is the mean high temp, the blue line the mean low.

-Graphic courtesy Cliff Mass Blog

 Statistically speaking the most likely time of year to see warm, sunny weather around Northwest is the second part of July and the first three weeks in August. The persistence of northwesterly flow aloft deep into the summer is very unusual. Chief regional meteorologists agree that this weather can’t last forever and that we will inevitably see some summer, at some point. Today, as Washingtonians hustle to make their 4^th of July preparations, the weekend forecast calls for some rain, wind and chilly evenings throughout the state. That sort of weather is not conducive to forest fires; music to the ears of the numerous Eastern Washington communities plagued by flames each summer.

Stevens Pass Bike Park

A bike-park at Stevens Pass. Now, there are those to whom this is a bigger issue. I like the idea of this beautiful part of the Cascade Mountains, which i so enjoy in the Winter months, being available for public use year round. however, for many, implementing Summer operations, in one form or another, has been a decade long struggle. Certain members of the Stevens Pass management team have fought tooth and nail, for the better part of a decade to see the Stevens Pass Bike Park become a reality.
At one point, The Sierra Club (who until very recently I carried the utmost respect for) argued that the area surrounding Stevens Pass was "prime wolverine habitat." I've spent a lot of time in these woods, in every month of the year. I have seen bears, cats of all shapes and sizes, deer, just about every bird or rodent that calls this slice of Cascadia home. In my time here, I've even seen a Pine Martin or two, but never have I heard tell of ANYONE seeing a Wolverine. Needless to say, The Sierra Club and other entities stalled and protested any progress on a bike-park at Stevens Pass for years.
All that guff aside, the bike park is soon to be a reality. Preliminary approval came through in late January, and corporate approval from the board of directors came through in early May. The bike park was happening. And it had a budget.
However, the project was purported a slim budget. In brainstorming idea's for creating additional capital, the idea of a "founder's pass" was introduced. This idea would become "The Drop In Alliance," a five-year season's pass to the Stevens Pass Bike Park. Two-hundred such passes would be sold, and the monetary gain would be put directly into the initial construction of the bike park.
Before construction could begin, however, a late-season snowpack nearing record proportions had to melt. April 2011 was ultimately the wettest and coldest on record, and as of May 23rd, it is still snowing regularly at  pass level (4061 feet in elevation).
As winter's snows have yet to recede from the slopes of Stevens Pass, I went out in the Leavenworth area with some local mountain-bikers to gather some shots for potential use with the bike park. Ultimately, the riding wasn't what i had expected of this crew, but in all fairness, it's been a wintry spring and these boys haven't quite put away their winter gear yet; they'd only been on bikes a couple of days thus far.
This summer should be exciting for Washington's large population of mountain-bikers. Stevens' operation is the first such endeavor undertaken in the State. After a lot of footwork to push the Drop-In Alliance, construction has begun (albeit mainly feature building, indoors, due to the weather thus far) its nearly time to sit back and watch the dirt-works take shape.

(Above) Leavenworth local rider, Nathan Cheyne, put his snowboard away for a few hours to come out and play in the mud.

(Above) Patrick Hennessey, Nathan Cheyne and another rider take full advantage of a few moments sunshine in what has been an abnormally wet spring here in Eastern Washington.

(Below) Nathan Cheyne proves he's no wildflower.

 

It's April and Still Snowing!

In the winter of 2009-10, things didn't really get going until March. Yet as soon as April hit, it was on. Now this year, in 2011, the snow started flying early (as is accustomed in the year of a La Nina event) but began to falter around Christmas. January would ultimately be one of the warmest and wettest ever recorded for that month.

After receiving more than 20" of rain in January, with a mean temperature of 35 degrees & average freezing levels hovering between 500' and 1000' above Pass level, moral was low and mutiny was looking imminent. Several winter weather events were forecast by the National Weather Service in early February, but none came to fruition, Most of the precipitation would eventually fall as rain as freezing-levels rose ever higher. Valentines Day came and went; things were looking bleak.

Then, as if a switch had been turned, the temperature began to plummet, and thanks to the setup of a Puget Sound Convergence Zone (A weather phenomena known to impact this part of the Cascades with large amounts of precipitation) caused a modest weather system to stall over the area, allowing a front which had been forecast to deliver just 3"-5" of snow to dump nearly 30" in a 24 hour window. It was pandemonium, after such a long hiatus from winter, the on-hill staff: Ski Patrol, Lift Operations Grooming, Etc, were slammed. As staff raced to get back into "hard-work mode," rabid powder-hounds arrived in the parking-lots. The masses had arrived!

The general mood had become that the La Nina forecast for the winter of 2010-11 had been false, and as such was the aire, it was every man, woman and child for themselves. It was mayhem out there. Everyone thought that this was a fluke event, and that it would return to the warm and wet pattern that had been prevalent for the past six weeks. But it kept snowing. It snowed for days. For a week. For two weeks! The masses gradually got there fix of "Cascade Crude," and moved on to whatever off-hill hobby could persist in the coldest, wettest Spring that Washington has experienced in the last 50 years.

However, not everybody left...

It's now nearly May, the lifts have stopped spinning, but not everybody has gone home. There are still bands of local hellions roaming these hills, reveling in the fact that it is still snowing, and they are still here.

EVIDENCE


Below: Peder Lovold, a young grasshopper of these hills, strokes his fine-tipped pen against natures canvas. And gets waist deep in it.


Two: Rider Nathan Cheyne pops a big ollie into the late April freshies.


Three: Two-planker DJ McCracken does this sequence justice by riding away silently in the deep, fresh snow.

Totally Rad: Retro Fools Day 2011!

For the second year in a row, the first week of April brought low snow levels and ample pow-days. On April 2nd we saw the triumphant return to Stevens Pass of all your latest and greatest ski gear from the 1970's, 80's and 90's (Yes, the 90's are officially RETRO now.). At last year's Retro Fools Day we saw some interesting things and some pretty rad get-ups, but this year's event refused to disappoint. The 2011 event played host to 42 registered competitors and participants, although many more people around the mountain donned some retro gear, in one form or another, and came out to watch the festivities.

The Event itself consisted of a downhill slalom course set up on Blue Trail, accessed by Hogsback and was complete with a few banked turns and a little wedge jump at the bottom of the setup. Competitors all donned their finest retro gear, ranging from disco-clad snowlerbladers to Ski School's Ken Bailey (donning a constrictive red one piece, head-mounted devil horns and dangerously brandishing a Snurfer; a relic of snowboarding's earliest days.). Everyone who came out was stoked on this blast from times past and really seemed to enjoy themselves. If you were unable, or unwilling, to come out for Retro Fools Day 2011, perhaps you'll make the right choice and show up in 2012!

Video available in original article at: http://ridestevenspass.com/news/2011/04/03/totally-rad-retro-fools-day-2011

We hope you enjoy our steller, rad, awesome and totally tubular lil' video, and be sure to peep the results and photos below!

RESULTS!

Snowboarders	Alias	Time	. .	Snurfer	Alias	Time
1. Marcel Dolack	Bjorn Von Shredski	54 sec		1. Ken Bailey	N/A	161 sec
2. Bryce Wenker	Goodtime Video	58 sec
3. Neal Strobel	N/A	61 sec		Snowlerblades	Alias	Time
Skiers	Alias			1. Mauro Coria	Batman	83 sec
				2. Anya Chaliotis	Ruffles	91 sec
1. Kurt Westman	Hutch	49 sec
2. Craig Quarders	Woody Hardrock	54 sec		Monoski
3. Jon Mann	Jon Mann	58 sec		1. Greg Brailsford	The Gay Blade	71 sec

PHOTOS!

(Above) Straight up beyond words. Everthing about this dude, and this photo is timeless; holy parachute pants! (Below Left) Teague Keefe. That's it, that's all. (Below Right) These two roller-disco alumni went by the alias' Batman and Ruffles.

 

 


(Above) Dudes slaying it like its 1983! (Right)  Stevens Pass Ski School's own Ken Bailey getting down, and up, and down again on a vintage Snurfer, one of the earliest production model "snowboards."

 

(Above Left) Team Zissou and Team Ski School (Above Right) face off for the FINAL COUNTDOWN. Que 80's music...NOW!

 

(Above Left) Stevens' own Jules B. strutting his stuff for the 2nd Annual Retro Fools Day. (Above Right) This snowboarder continues to rack up both GNAR and STYLE points, while simultaneously quenching his thirst with the falling snow...

(Below) This is what it's all about. Elvis, Rambo, and snowboarding in its finest hour. This is glory. This is Stevens Pass' Retro Fools Day 2011.

 


As originally seen on www.ridestevenspass.com