A few more things for the holiday list

With only a few shopping days remaining, there’s a few things on the list of the Northwest sports fan that might have been missed this year.

IT MIGHT be a little much to ask, but if possible, could the Seattle Mariners hang onto a few players from last year’s team?

After missing the playoffs once again, the team appears in full-blown rebuild mode, trading Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz and Jean Segura — so far — to save some money.

Acquiring guys like Edwin Encarnacion (in a trade for Carlos Santana, who was with the team for a short time) and Jay Bruce (acquired in the Cano deal) might help, if they stick with the team into spring training.

Chances are, neither will make it to opening day for Seattle. If they do, they’ll be shipped before the trade deadline to get a little younger and talented down the road.

Seattle still has Felix Hernandez, Kyle Seager and Dee Gordon, guys that will likely have to carry the load during the season. Hernandez has already made a career of it for the Mariners, so asking him to at least be that again won’t come as much of a surprise.

In the process of writing this, Seattle made another move, sending Ben Gamel to Milwaukee for another outfielder.

It’s hard to imagine the Mariners without guys like Hernandez and Seager, but you never know, if they do start showing signs of turning things around, they could find themselves somewhere else as well.

Maybe the biggest wish for Mariner fans in the next month might be seeing Edgar Martinez selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

He’s been really close in the past, coming just a few votes away in last January’s vote.

If Edgar gets selected, it might be just enough to ease some of the pain from what might be a long baseball season in Seattle.

WHILE WE are asking, maybe a national title for that football team in Cheney in a few weeks, or the men’s basketball team in Spokane might make a nice gift.

Eastern Washington has been on quite a run through the FCS playoffs, which concludes when the Eagles face North Dakota State on Jan. 5 in Frisco, Texas.

After watching the Frisco Bowl, one of countless bowl games over the holidays, if weather is a factor, it could favor the Eags anyway. North Dakota State, for everything the Bison have done this year, plays its home games inside, whereas Eastern has to deal with the elements. If weather is a problem, maybe Eastern wins another national title.

Sure, Gonzaga took a tough loss at North Carolina last Saturday, but those could be few and far between until March.

This year’s Gonzaga team has a lot more depth than the one that came up short in the national title game in Arizona a few years ago.

And Gonzaga appears to be getting healthy at just the right time before West Coast Conference play begins next week.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.com.