OK to rip me, but be civil about it

Wow!

Time flies when you’re having fun.

Seems like it was just mid-summer, with picnics and lazy days on the golf course.

Now suddenly, the Seahawks face their regular-season opener this Sunday against Cincinnati.

Our regional college football teams started playing for real a week ago.

With football getting serious, I thought maybe we should just touch on a few items that hummed right on past us without much publicity.

For instance…

ITEM: The Minnesota Twins already have broken the major league record for home runs in a season.

Twinkies catcher Mitch Garver launched the record-breaking 268th long ball in late August, which makes it a cinch that they’ll whack more than an astonishing 300 bombs before it’s all over.

Minnesota broke the record set by the Yankees just last year.

And still, MLB execs insist that the baseball is not juiced.

Sorry, but when guys at the bottom of the order are hitting opposite-field home runs — balls that probably would have been routine flies a few years ago — then the argument that this homer barrage is about hitters changing launch angles and all that is just nonsense.

As Houston pitcher (and future Hall of Famer) Justin Verlander put it: “Do they think we’re stupid, and that every batter in baseball has learned to hit the ball 100 feet further than they ever could three years ago?

“Major League Baseball bought out the company that makes the balls, and now suddenly every fly ball is in the seats.

“They want us to believe that’s a coincidence. Sorry, I don’t think so.”

I agree with Verlander, and I think all these cheap home runs are damaging the game.

ITEM: If you write columns as I do, occasionally people will write to challenge my opinion.

Being called a moron isn’t exactly fun, but…

That’s occasionally part of my gig, and once in a while, I find myself re-thinking a subject — and maybe even agreeing with a reader’s argument.

But in all the years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never read such abusive reactions as some that I saw after a fairly mild criticism of Washington coach Chris Petersen.

About a dozen or so U-Dub fans went beyond passionate or logical, to something I pictured as loud screams as they were typing.

All I wrote was that Petersen was inconsistent — maybe even hypocritical — when talking about players transferring to another school.

Specifically, Petersen was the force behind denying Colson Yankoff, a quarterback and former Coeur d’Alene High star, a waiver to play for UCLA this season, giving a speech about how transferring was the soft and easy option — and that more players should “stick it out” as they did in the good old days.

Of course, Petersen is starting Georgia transfer Jacob Eason, and the coach has never suggested that Eason should have “stuck it out” down in the SEC.

Anyhow, some of the ugly emails I got after writing that column were just about the worst I’ve ever received.

Some were just silly, like the email from a guy who claimed Yankoff can’t even throw the football, and that UCLA didn’t know about how he’ll pitch all his passes into the dirt or sail them over the cheerleaders when they took Yankoff aboard.

The notion that UCLA has never scouted Yankoff was so goofy, it made me laugh.

However, I also got some seriously vicious mail — including an email from somebody who ripped my work in the harshest terms, and then said I should kill myself.

You know what?

No sport, no opinion about a quarterback, no discussion at all should provoke that kind of reaction.

Please, calm down out there.

You can disagree without sounding like a nut case.

ITEM: The Mariners did fans a huge favor on Wednesday night, televising the first game of the Texas League playoffs.

The idea was to show off some of those exciting prospects that Seattle has percolating in the farm system, and remind folks about the goal of building a genuine contending team by 2021.

It was a fun broadcast, especially since GM Jerry Dipoto flew down to serve as color commentator.

Owner John Stanton even turned up to chat for an inning or so.

Jerry provided in-depth scouting reports on all the young talent playing for the Double-A Arkansas Travelers, which was really useful since 14 of the Mariners’ top 30 prospects are on that club’s roster.

If you care about the Mariners and hope there’s help coming from the minor leagues, it was neat to actually see many of these kids — instead of simply reading about them.

As a bonus, the Travelers won a tense 2-1 game over an excellent Tulsa team that’s an affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

It was just one night, but I’ve got to say that these Mariners-to-be looked really, really good.

We might be in for a pretty neat ride at T-Mobile Park over the next few years.

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 off season.

Email: [email protected]