Happy Day in Sports

The Mariners experienced baseball's happiest moment last night, a game winning walk-off home run.

Carl Everett provided the heroics, crushing a ball off the facade of the leftfield upper deck (and almost into that KOMO glove thing) to give the Mariners a 9-6 win. Everett, a man who speaks with the brevity of a Hemingway aficionado, relived his homerun from the pitcher's perspective, "He tried to throw a slider in. It didn't get in."

(Unfortunately, after Everett touched home plate the umpires consulted his VORP and determined that the home run was the byproduct of a small sample size. They declared Everett out, the season over, and the St. Louis Cardinals world champions forever.)

Still, the home run thrilled Ichiro, according to MLB.com:

"The past two years, we didn't have a win like this,'' Ichiro said. "During this past two years, this is the most excited I've been. I hope it results in a better mood for the future.''

The future, unfortunately, begins with Joel Piniero on the mound. He faces Vicente Padilla at 7:05.

There is no future for the 2005-2006 Sonics, but they won their final game last night, and Ray Allen set the all-time record for three-pointers in a season. Also, every fan got a free ticket to a game next season. Nice gesture. Sort of pales, however, on a night when every fan at last night's Mavs game got a free ticket on American Airlines. Not the best week for Howard Schultz.