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2008 predictions

Bulking up for a big year

Now that my personal trainer has injected me with lidocaine and vitamin B-12, I feel like I can continue to throw high heat into my mid 40s. Since that sounds so unbelievable, here are some more plausible predictions for the months and years ahead in the Seattle sports scene:

1. The Mariners trade Felix Hernandez and Jeff Clement to the Boston Red Sox for an aging, over-the-hill reliever (who reminds some observers of Heathcliff Slocum). It is later revealed that Bill Bavasi, like his predecessor, Woody Woodward, holds Red Sox season tickets.

2. Five years from now, as the Sonics play in a half-empty arena, owner Clay Bennett demands that Oklahoma City build the team a better arena. Otherwise, he threatens to sell the team to an out-of-town buyer who would move the team to the thriving sports metropolis of Bismark, S.D.

3. In an unrelated story, it is revealed that NBA commissioner David Stern owns a moving-van company that has sole rights to moving the league's franchises.

4. In a daring move, UW president Mark Emmert attempts to trade the entire Huskies football team for the entire LSU team. The deal falls through when competing Pac-10 coach Rick Neuheisel reveals in a tear-filled news conference that he once participated in a water-polo betting pool with the LSU coaching staff.

— Raymond S. Wilson, Bellevue

High-school sports

Coach should have taken responsibility

Just once, when a high-school coach is asked to be accountable for clearly unacceptable behavior, I would love to hear a response of "it shouldn't have happened and won't happen again." Period. I guess that's too much to ask of Kennedy High School coach Tom Mummert, who instead offered excuse after excuse for the latest girls basketball blowout (112-16 over Evergreen.)

His lamest among many lame comments? He kept his starters and key substitutes in longer than usual (and presumably pressed for at least half the game) because he wanted to "sharpen them for a big game tonight against Mount Rainier."

Since when does this kind of blowout "sharpen" a team? Why stop at this? Maybe he could really sharpen them for the district and state tournaments by finding an eighth-grade team they could play and beat by 150!

— Carole Antoncich, Seattle

Hope Solo

A necessary voice of dissent

I would like to respond to the letter last Sunday about Hope Solo, where the writer said: "... and the truth was that Solo was one of the worst examples of sportsmanship in the past year."

Hope Solo represents the voice of dissent, missing in our society's collective trance in accepting everything, even if it is wrong. The truth of the matter is, the decision by the U.S. soccer coach — to change the momentum of the team by changing up the personnel at the last minute in its most important game — was idiotic. This will go down as the worst coaching decision in the history of any high-level competition.

She spoke the truth. And this is a crime and she should be vilified forever?

Hope Solo symbolizes the "hope" for returning America back to its true form of truth and disclosure, not lies, concealment and corruption. She's one of my heroes.

— David Martin, Lynnwood

Roger Clemens

The lesson: Always tell the truth

Steve Kelley had a good column ("Clemens' denials don't get to the truth we are seeking," Seattle Times, Jan. 7) on the "60 Minutes" interview with Roger Clemens.

I want to believe Clemens, but I can't get the images of Rafael Palmero defiantly pointing his finger at Congress denying steroid use, and Marion Jones' denials, and then admissions three years later, out of my mind. These were two good role models for kids who are now nothing more than tragic sports figures.

There is an easy lesson to kids and all people in this: Do the right thing and tell the truth from the start. Don't wait until the truth, or a lie, finds you.

— Jeff Steele, Seattle

Storm

New owners are a major force

We applaud and thank the group of four successful women who have secured an exclusive option to purchase our Seattle Storm. This is a moment of celebration for our city, Storm fans and our youth as we witness this selfless gift to our community.

Our heroes — Anne Levinson, Ginny Gilder, Lisa Brummel and Dawn Trudeau — picked an appropriate name for their group: Force 10 Hoops. The nautical term "Force 10" describes a wind velocity equivalent to a gale or storm; it is a force that has the direction and magnitude to blow the Storm away from Oklahoma.

We look forward to seeing children, girls and boys, wearing the jerseys of Lauren Jackson, Betty Lennox, Sue Bird and other outstanding Storm athletes. We watch in amazement as youngsters emulate their basketball heroes. As female fans who grew up before the passage of Title IX, watching girls stand with a basketball in the Lauren Jackson pose is revolutionary, because most of us didn't have women athletes to emulate as children.

Because a Force 10 has arrived, we live in a wonderful time in the ascension of women's professional sports. We look forward to the day a "6th Woman" flag is raised over the Space Needle heralding a new day in Seattle's team spirit. Force 10 Hoops, LLC has made this vision possible.

Anne, Ginny, Lisa and Dawn, you are the MVOs (Most Valuable Owners) in the WNBA. We hope the same girls emulating Jackson and Lennox choose to emulate these successful community-minded women as well.

— Ann Carey & Linda Lillevik, Seattle