The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT July 25, 2012

Northwest baseball fans might be the luckiest people on the planet since the Olympics are starting later this week.

At least, for the next two weeks, it will help serve as a distraction to just how bad things have gone.

WHILE THEY haven't gone on a 20-game losing streak like last season, the Seattle Mariners might be in the midst of putting together a team that can challenge that mark.

In the midst of what appears to be another losing season, Seattle traded Ichiro Suzuki - the same guy that broke the single season hits record and was the league MVP and Rookie of the Year in 2001 - to the Yankees for a couple minor league pitchers.

Suzuki, a 10-time All-Star who wasn't a part of the All-Star team the last two seasons, had a single and stole a base in his first appearance as a Yankee on Monday - ironically against the Mariners at Safeco Field.

Whatever happens next, is up to Ichiro.

His contract was expiring at the end of this season, and chances are, the team wasn't going to bring him back unless he took a pay cut.

But really, the New York Yankees - who saw that coming?

Suzuki went to team officials a few weeks ago and saw that the outfield might begin to get crowded once a few players returned from the disabled list and asked for a trade.

Considering the team is rebuilding, Ichiro knew his time was limited.

Limited to win in the playoffs, or a World Series - and that wasn't going to happen in Seattle anytime soon.

Besides, if those guys waiting to get on the field were that great - shouldn't they have a better record than 42-56 entering Tuesday's game?

Regardless, once today's game ends, Ichiro will leave Seattle and travel back to New York with the rest of his new teammates.

While his former team struggles to find someone to fill his shoes.

A LITTLE closer to home, the Spokane Indians, a short-season Class A affiliate of the Texas Rangers, have struggled since starting the season in June.

They’ve struggled a lot.

Winning 12 of 38 games doesn’t seem that great, but they’ve still got a shot at the playoffs — as strange as that might sound.

In the Northwest League, the playoffs are determined by whoever has the best record in the first half (which ended Monday) and the second half.

Stranger things have happened, and considering Monday’s events — anything is possible.

Maybe Spokane will start to bring it together, get on a win streak and play a lot better than the Indians’ record has indicated this far.

But at least for the next two weeks, the Olympics will provide a good alternative for those fans with the baseball blues.

And there’s probably a few in the Northwest right now.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected].