Counting sports blessings around the holidays

Enjoy the Kraken, Seahawks this December

Matt Baide | Dec 22, 20220

The end of the year is upon us with the holiday season, and it’s a time to be positive as the rest of the year is perfect for wallowing in the pain that comes with being a sports fan.

Looking at Seattle professional sports and the state as a whole, it has been a pretty solid year. Let’s go through the teams and talk about the positives.

Storm: The Seattle Storm helped Sue Bird reach the WNBA semifinals in her final season. Bird is one of the greatest basketball players ever, and she has four WNBA titles to her name with the Storm along with five Olympic gold medals.

If there was a Mount Rushmore of Seattle athletes, Sue Bird is undoubtedly on it. She brought titles to Seattle and was also an advocate for women’s and LGBTQ rights off the court. There’s something to be said for athletes who not only achieve success on the court, but make an impact on people’s lives in the community in their personal lives.

Bird also helped propel women’s sports to the status they have today. She will have her jersey in the rafters of Climate Pledge Arena soon enough.

Outside of Bird, Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd were the other two stars on the team, and it will be interesting to see how the roster looks when the 2023 season begins in May.

Reign: The OL Reign made it to the semifinals of the NWSL, falling to the Kansas City Current in October to end their season. Rose Lavelle, Megan Rapinoe and Bethany Balcer each scored five or more goals during the season. The OL Reign finished as the best team in the regular season with 11 wins and 40 points.

Rapinoe has been a staple in the national soccer scene, but like her partner Sue Bird, has also been a big advocate off the field for human rights. This advocacy earned her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in July and she was named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2020.

The roster will also be a question going into the 2023 season in April.

Seahawks: This year was supposed to be a down year as the Seahawks were projected to be bad and possibly in the running for a top five pick in next year’s draft. That has not been the case, as Geno Smith didn’t write back to the doubters and the rookies have come on strong.

I predicted them to win six games and they have seven wins with three more games in the season. Sitting at .500 is not where most expected them to be and they still have a shot at making the playoffs.

I am very happy with how this season has gone after the offseason of the Russell Wilson trade and all the speculation coming into this season. Hey, editor Justin Johnson, how is that trade working out?

Thanks for the top 10 draft pick, Denver.

There will be some questions in the offseason regardless of how the rest of the season goes, but they are set up to be better in 2023.

Mariners: The Mariners had an awesome year. There were a lot of “Good Vibes Only” and lots of postgame dancing after wins. Seattle won 90 games, broke the playoff drought on a walkoff home run by Cal Raleigh, and then won the wild card playoff series, sweeping the Blue Jays in Toronto. The Mariners were swept by the Astros in the Divisional Series, but only lost the three games by four runs total and had the lead in two of the three games.

Some friends and my brother are upset by management not spending money on free agents this offseason so far, but the trades for Teoscar Hernandez and Kolten Wong have bolstered the roster to be better than it was as a playoff team already.

Add in the extensions for Julio Rodriguez and Luis Castillo, and this team should be a contender for the foreseeable future.

I was crying after Big Dumper hit the walkoff home run to send the Mariners to the playoffs, because that is what 11-year-old me did after the Mariners tied the regular season wins record of 116 in 2001, and now the curse has been lifted.

Kraken: After ending the 2021-22 season, the Kraken used the No. 4 overall pick to draft Shane Wright, who was projected to be the No. 1 overall pick. Seattle has looked good so far in 2022-23, currently in the running for a playoff spot, although there is plenty of season left to play in 2023.

Matty Beniers is looking like a lock for the Calder Trophy (NHL’s rookie of the year) and the signing of Andre Burakovsky and the trade for Oliver Bjorkstrand have paid off so far, with Burakovsky leading the team in points.

The goaltending of Philipp Grubauer and Martin Jones has been pretty solid. If this team continues to play well into 2023, they could make its first playoff appearance in franchise history.

Sounders: The Sounders missed the MLS Cup Playoffs for the first time since joining MLS. But it wasn’t all bad for Seattle, as they were the first team to win the CONCACAF Champions League title against Pumas in May. The Sounders will represent the MLS in the FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco in February.

Speaking of the World Cup, the Sounders had four players play in Qatar. Jordan Morris and Christian Roldan played for the U.S. Men’s National Team that made it out of the group stage, but lost to the Netherlands in the round of 16. Xavier Arreaga played for Ecuador and Nouhou Tolo played for Cameroon.

Sonics: Bring them back, and until then, it’s Dame Time. On another note, Seattle-native and O’Dea High School grad Paolo Banchero was selected with the No. 1 overall pick by the Orlando Magic.

I was lucky enough to cover him while he played at O’Dea in the district championship game in 2020, a game O’Dea lost to Eastside Catholic.

And there you have it. I hope everyone has restful holidays with friends and families, Santa brings all the gifts you had on your list, and that Seattle sports 2023 is just as successful as 2022.