On Montlake, A Ray of Sun in a Troubled Sports World
We know that in general it's hard to be a Seattle sports fan, and the past few days have been a particularly rough patch in a perpetually dejected, "We'll get 'em next time" sort of existence.
Our teams are giving fans money back for humiliating play. Once invincible childhood heroes can't even fight off sleep anymore. Mike Sweeney wants to beat the shit out of teammates. We think we saw four horsemen galloping down Occidental the other day.
Writing about it makes us want to move to Boston, but we'd never be able to function because we can't understand the accents there.
But alas, there is hope. A light in the darkness, like a scented candle in a just-used, unholy bathroom.
Ray of sunshine, thy name is Lawrie. Danielle Lawrie.
Pitcher for the 45-3 Pac-10 Champion UW softball team, she just nabbed a trifecta of awards -- conference Pitcher of the Week for the seventh time this season, USA Softball National Player of the Week for the third time, and National Fastpitch Coaches Association National Player of the Week for the second time.
Oh, and it's the second time she's swept those honors this season -- a well deserved repeat, as she led the Huskies to their first conference title in a decade, pitched a no-hitter, and hit a walk-off home run all in the span of last weekend. Yeah, bitches. (And don't even try to say softball is easy. We play in a Saturday slowpitch league and can't even ground a 10mph lob past the shortstop half the time.)
The Huskies have indeed found the T-1000 of softball, beamed in from the future, (the press releases say Langley, B.C. but we know the truth), composed of liquid metal and striking out batters with impunity. If provoked, we're certain she is capable of transforming her arm into a blade, though she generally needs only a stare to make opponents cower.
We have a feeling she could fan half the Mariners lineup.
In other Husky news:
-Add two more nationally-televised games to the upcoming football season: ABC/ESPN have picked up the September 18 home game against Nebraska, and the USC away game on October 2. This is on top of the September 4 BYU game that CBS is taking, and the November 18 home game against UCLA on ESPN.
They'd better rename a building on campus after Jake Locker this year. Like Benson Hall. Everytime we walked by that building in our college days, the only thing we could think of was some '80s TV butler.
