Seattle’s Acolatse and Portland’s Jordan drop the gloves on Valentine’s Day
Originally uploaded by Zee Grega.

Way back in 1998, the US and Canadian Microsoft Exchange workgroups decided to have a hockey game to build morale and turned it into a fundraiser to support their charitable giving. They had such a good time with their competition that they turned it into an annual tradition in association with the Seattle Thunderbirds and other supporters. The Seattle Ronald McDonald House is the grateful recepient of their munificence – last year alone they raised over $110K and have raised more than $3.6 million over the years.

This year’s Seattle hockey challenge is on Saturday, February 28 at the ShoWare Center in Kent. The first of six games between Hockey Challenge teams begins early in the day at 9 am with games continuing throughout the day until the Thunderbirds step on the ice to take on long-time rival Portland Winterhawks in what will inevitably be, as all Seattle/Portland games are–an exciting match-up. Knocked out of the playoffs yet again, the Hawks are playing for pride while the TBirds are jockeying for position in the upcoming playoff slotting, amping up the thrills on the ice as the two teams battle for the win.

Following that game is the special Hockey Challenge All-Star game featuring Michael Rosenbaum, best known for his role on TV’s “Smallville”, Jason Thompson from “General Hospital”, Cameron Bancroft (”24: Day 4″, “Hockeyville”), “Adam @ Home” and “Red and Rover” cartoonist Brian Basset, 2006 US Women’s Hockey Olympic medalist Kelly Tysland (nee Stephens), KCPQ news anchor Bill Wixey, and KJR radio host Ian Furness, as well as former Thunderbirds Jamie Huscroft, Al Kinisky, Regan Mueller, Blake Knox, Troy Hyatt, Lloyd Shaw, and Danny Lorenz.

The Mariners and Ken Griffey Jr. (aka the man who built Safeco Field) are thinking about getting back together. Griffey is one of the most likeable players in the game and one of the most prolific home run hitters in baseball history, but will Seattle’s love affair with him still be hot and heavy now that the 39-year-old ball player is returning after having arthroscopic surgery on his left knee?

If the M’s are in a rebuilding mode, what does it say that they are investing in an aging and surgically-repaired player who is in the twilight of his career?

Seattle’s drinking club with a biking problem (.83) is hosting its 4th-annual “FUCKING HLLS RACE” Feb. 22  on Bainbridge Island.

This premier cycling event draws cyclists from all over the region to compete for cash and  liquid prizes as well as some decent biking gear donated by top-of-the line companies.

The course is a knee-crushing, 33-mile ride around Bainbridge Island, but there’s an all-you-can eat chili feed (vegan and meat) at the end so it’s totally worth it. The race is $7 and it will also cost you $8 to ride the ferry to the starting line. Meet at Alaskan and Washington under the Viaduct at 8:30 a.m. (look for riders sporting the home-made, Elvis-themed pirate bibs).

“It’s really about the spirit of cycling and promoting unity within the community,” lied an extremely belligerent and noticeably intoxicated Derrick Ito, FHR Organizer.

“The prize lists includes cash, booze and a ton of great bike schwag from our great sponsors,” Ito said, while trying hard to maintain his balance and hide the fact that he was slurring his words.

Ito has a an expanding prize list that includes a lap dance from a local stripper, liquid prizes from Cafe Metropolitan and a complete Hammerhead 7 bicycle from Dahon. The bicycle will be raffled off with proceeds to benefit a locally-owned bike company.

For more information, visit point83.com.

Fuck the Hills Race Flyer

roller derby in key arena, bumbershoot 2006

With the Sonics blown out of town and turned into the Thunder, some of the space on the Key Arena calendar is going to be filled with another knock-down, drag-out sort of event. Starting the month, the Rat City Rollergirls are making the move from a hangar at Magnuson Park to the heart of Seattle Center:

Their first bout, scheduled for February 7, 2009, will debut all four teams including the Derby Liberation Front, Grave Danger, the Sockit Wenches and the Throttle Rockets at Key Arena.
…  
“It’s rewarding to be part of such a competitive, high-level sport with truly dedicated fans and players,” explains Maeleeke Lavin of the Rat City Rollergirls’ Derby Liberation Front team. “As part of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA), we’re an organization run by women skaters for women skaters. Roller derby is not the female version of a male sport, and that fact, along with our do-it-yourself roots, gives us an authentic quality that many other mainstream sports lack.”

Tickets will run $19 for adults and $12 for kids, with season ticket packages available [ticketma$ter]. In the new 5,500 person seating configuration, bloodthirsty fans will no longer be segregated from docile families (or vice versa) so that they can all cheer and puzzle over the rules [wiki] of lead jamming together.

It’s always good to go out with a win which is exactly what the Seattle Thunderbirds did tonight, shutting out the Chilliwack Bruins 2-0 in their final game ever at the Key Arena tonight, closing a thirteen and a half years long chapter in Seattle’s hockey history book.

The move to Kent’s new ShoWare Center is not the first relocation in Seattle hockey: Seattle’s hockey teams have played in a variety of venues since our first team, the Metropolitans (the first US team to win the Stanley Cup, way back in 1917) played at the 2,500 seat Seattle Ice Arena, located across from what is now the Olympic Hotel downtown Seattle. It may be one of the most exciting, however. The Show is the nation’s first LEED Silver certified events center, built to exacting standards that promote environmental sustainability and create a healthy building that uses water and energy efficiently. The ShoWare Center seats between 6,500 and 8,000 depending on the event and, most exciting for hockey fans, has been designed to be particularly friendly to hockey as the new home of the T-birds. It’s a beautiful new facility with comfortable seats and great views wherever you sit, perfect for both sports and concerts.

The Thunderbirds debut at their new arena on Saturday, January 3, taking on the Everett Silvertips, but the facility is offering fans and anyone else interested in checking out this new venue a sneak peek at Grand Opening party on Friday, January 2, from 4 to 9 pm. T-birds players will be on hand to greet visitors, as will Buckets Blazes of the Harlem Globetrotters (playing at the Show on Wednesday, February 18). Also on hand will be the Kent Meridian High School Orchestra and dance teams from Kentwood, Kentlake and Kentridge High Schools and an interactive show for kids presented by Radio Disney.

The ShoWare Center is located at 625 W. James Street, in Kent, easily accessible by car via I-5, highway 167, or I-90 to highway 18, but in keeping with the green spirit, I highly recommend taking the Sounder or one of the more than twenty bus routes that serve downtown Kent–there are no less than three major Metro stops with a block of the center. Cyclists can easily get there via the Interurban or Green River trails and take advantage of their 50 onsite bike racks.

HA HA. You were really so desperate to steal a major sports franchise that you stole one from Seattle, in a year where everything this town touches turns to rust. And now your “Thunder” are 1-12

You think firing your coach is going to solve anything? You paid your money and you took your choice, and that choice is tainted with the Seattle Contagion.

Don’t let the Thunder get too close to your precious football teams, now.

Yes, tomorrow in Pullman the “college” “football” teams based at the University of Washington and Washington State University will play a “college” “football” “game” that will determine who goes home with the Apple Cup.

And it could well be the worst college football game we’ll ever see in our lifetimes. As best as I can tell, no two teams from the so-called “BCS conferences” (Pac 10, Big 10, Big 12, SEC, ACC, Big East) have ever met in a game with both teams having tallied 10 losses already in the season. Yes, the college season was only 10 games long from WWI to the 1960s and it’s only been expanded to 12 this decade, so having two ten loss teams meet has been highly improbable to impossible for most of college football history. Still, an 0-10 Husky team facing a 1-10 Wazzu team — that one loss being against Portland State, which is in the so-called Football Championship Subdivision, one level below the level Wazzu plays at, the Football Bowl Subdivision — is a rare thing.

One we should be happy is rare, because it’s going to be an awful game.

Consider that Wazzu has lost its eight conference games by an average score of 55-8. That Washington’s season total rushing yards (842) is less than what 42 individual players have rushed for (and two of those players are on the same team). That there are four teams in college football (Texas Tech, Tulsa, Houston, Oklahoma) with more offensive yards per game than UW and Wazzu COMBINED.

We’re looking at history, folks. It’s the “OJ-in-a-Bronco” kind of history, but it’s history.

So, here’s a little poll for y’all.

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Even people who aren’t into baseball at all are aware that the Seattle Mariners weren’t exactly looking like champs in their last season. In true sports club form, this meant that it was time for a new coach.

Today the M’s announced their new coach: Hood River, Oregon, native Don Wakamatsu who now becomes the fourteenth full-time manager for the Mariners and the first ever Asian American to manage a Major League ball team.

Wakamastu’s most recent past job was bench coach for the Oakland A’s; his career history includes a stint as catcher for the 1991 White Sox and six years of coaching in the American League West. He spent seven years as a player after four years of college ball and has coached since then. [For an excellent summary of his career check out this story by Doug Miller of MLB.com.]

Wakamatsu will be wearing number 16 on his uniform but hopes to turn the M’s into a number one team.

While perusing yesterday’s USA Today, I came across this item on the front page of the Sports section:

Seattle-Tampa draws lowest NFL rating

NBC’s Seattle Seahawks-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game ended up with the lowest national rating ever — 6.3% of U.S. households — for a prime-time broadcast network NFL game

So what milesone is next for our Seahawks?

The LG Action Sports Championships is an exciting three-day blend of action sports like skateboarding, BMX, inline skating and FMX and live bands, DJs, graffitti artists, a sponsors’ expo and more and it’s happening at the Key Arena on Halloween weekend from October 31 – November 2.

Get your thrills and chills watching some of the world’s top “extreme” athletes compete in this exclusively invitational event featuring both vert and street competitions. Some of the athletes expected to scheduled to compete include Jamie Bestwick, Sean Sexton, Bob Burnquist, Ryan Sheckler and a host of other hot names from the wheeled world. Each day features a music headliner, except Saturday which has two: Bremerton’s own MXPX in the afternoon and Pennywise at night; Friday’s headliner is The Game and Sunday’s is Hoobastank, a band much better than their name.

Single-day tickets and all-weekend passes are on sale already [lgactionsports], but two lucky Metblogs readers and their friends get to go for free. Two winners will receive a prize package containing two tickets to the three-day event, an event program, a t-shirt and a pair of Maxell DHP-II headphones.

All you have to do to enter to win is send your contact information in an e-mail to seattle.metblogs@gmail.com no later than noon on Monday, October 20th. Two lucky winners will be drawn from all entries and notified in plenty of time to make plans for the weekend. It should be tons of fun.