Mike Leach's legacy, and other stuff
So we spent a week discussing how to fix the Mariners.
How can this struggling “step-back” club become a contender?
And…
For 24 hours, it seemed the current M’s heard the message, as Mike Leake took a perfect game into the ninth inning of a 10-0 romp over the Angels.
But…
In the next 24 hours, we had first baseman Tim Beckham and pitcher Roenis Elias misplay a pop-up that should have been the third out of the eighth inning — thus handing the Angels the chance to score four runs and cruise to victory.
Sigh.
Back to working on the future.
Meanwhile, during our week of Mariners construction, there were plenty of other interesting tidbits on our radar.
Let’s have a peek…
SOMEWHERE along the way, I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned that I know Wazzu icon Mike Leach pretty well,
Mike’s brother, Tim, was a real estate wizard who sold me a home in Utah, and we ultimately became best friends.
That led to…
Oh, wait…
Some other time I’ll share the tale of Mike managing to fall over a sofa while demonstrating the proper five-step drop in my family room.
He sacked himself.
There are more Leach tales, but…
I really hope you saw the ESPN special Sunday morning, part of which was an up-close visit by journalist Jeremy Schaap into Mike Leach’s wild and crazy life.
You could pick almost any conversation or adventure from the show as the very best, but knowing Mike, my favorite occurred when Schaap touched on how Mike might want folks to view his legacy.
The pair were just walking along when Schaap said: “When people write the Mike Leach obituary, how do you want to be remembered?”
Leach responded completely in character.
“Well, that’s their problem, they’re the one writing the obituary,” he said. “What do I care, I’m dead.”
NEEDLESS TO say, Gonzaga hoops are never far from view.
The Zags heard last week that they are among the final six schools in the running to land 6-11 Walter Kessler, a five-star recruit in the class of 2020.
Kessler attends the Woodward Academy in Georgia, and is ranked No. 16 overall in the class by both ESPN and 247.
Kessler would add to Gonzaga’s apparently unending stream of big men who are targeting the NBA, but let’s not consider Spokane as his most likely destination just yet.
The other five “finalists” Kessler announced are Auburn, Cal, Michigan and…ho-hum…
Duke and North Carolina.
Some great news among Zag alums last week, too.
To the surprise of almost no one around here, Brandon Clarke was named the most valuable player in the NBA Summer League (for rookies and some transitioning vets), and he simply wowed everyone by leading the Memphis Grizzlies to the tournament title.
I’m going to buy the NBA-TV package just to watch Brandon and the Griz this year — imagine seeing our hero teamed up with Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr.
Yow!
Oh, and we’ll write more about this another time, but congrats to Nigel Williams-Goss, who signed a multi-year deal with the Utah Jazz.
Utah took him at No. 55 two years ago, and for anyone disappointed that Nigel HAD to go spend seasons in Serbia and Greece, it turns out the Jazz engineered the whole thing and planned to bring him back all along.
Great stuff.
YOU MIGHT have seen stories recently about Ron Francis, who was named as the first GM of Seattle’s as-yet-unnamed NHL franchise.
The views of the Seattle media – and league experts as told to The Athletic — seem to be that the cool, patient Francis (former general manager in Carolina) will have success with this expansion franchise.
But it will take some time.
The same phrase seemed to pop up over and over: “Francis will build a solid organization over the long term, but you won’t see the immediate lightning that happened when Vegas hit the league two years ago.”
There’s no doubt that that Golden Knights have set a high bar for any expansion team (no matter what sport), but GM George McPhee has gambled quite a bit to achieve it.
Vegas is already hard against the NHL salary cap in just its second year, so there’s little room to maneuver now.
Oh, and Vegas also got one massive break that isn’t likely to be available to Seattle…
Pittsburgh was kind enough to leave all-world goalie Marc-André Fleury off the draft protected list.
Vegas hit the jackpot.
Still, Francis is a super-bright, savvy guy and he’ll have money to spend, so Seattle will be just fine.
I just wish they’d name the damn team.
Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Steve also contributes the “Zags Tracker” package on Gonzaga basketball once monthly during the offseason.
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