Steve Kelley: Seattle needs some sports sizzle

Seattle sports need some sizzle.

As we enter the season of darkness, the more than 100 days of rain and wind and cold we expect from winter in the Northwest, sports fans need something to lighten their moods and brighten their days.

Lately it has felt, just a little, as if the city were slipping back into its 2008 doldrums.

After shocking all of college football and refilling the lungs of a gasping program with its remarkable win over USC, Washington has lost six of its past seven games, including Saturday's Oregon State Beavers beatdown.

Last Sunday the Seahawks fell behind 17-0 in the first quarter to the Detroit Lions — THE LIONS — while Qwest Field began to feel as sad as it did last season.

The Hawks rescued the game and, for at least a week, the season, with their come-from-behind win. But they are 3-5 and one loss from falling out of the playoff chase.

It's going to be raining hard here, streets are going to look like lakes, people are going to be hunkering hunchbacked against the storms — and there won't be any Gary Payton or Shawn Kemp, Ray Allen or Kevin Durant to make it feel warmer or drier.

We need a buzz. We need a celebration. We need a change.

After feeling as if they were part of the team from March through October, Sounders FC fans are going through soccer withdrawal after the team's first-round playoff knockout by Houston. Now next year feels a long way away.

The Mariners stunned us with their 85-win season, but that was then and this is ... well, let's just say there is anxiety about the future.

Can they sign Felix Hernandez to a long-term deal? Will they re-sign Russell Branyan? Whither Adrian Beltre? And who will fill the holes in the rotation?

Seattle needs some answers. We need a little snap and crackle, a little pop.

The Storm, which gave Seattle its last professional championship, hasn't won a playoff series since that 2004 title. And, once again, it ended this season with its MVP, Lauren Jackson, injured, in street clothes on the bench.

It's creeping toward Thanksgiving and Seattle is looking for a lift.

As they enter the second half of the season, the Seahawks need to give the city a gift. Their performances this season at San Francisco, Indianapolis and Dallas have been futile.

They need to find a way to beat the Cardinals in Glendale, Ariz., on this must-win Sunday. Lose that game, as they are likely to do, and they turn the second half of the season into a second consecutive slog to nowhere.

Do you believe in miracles?

The Huskies could help lift the city out of the doldrums by winning their last two home games against Washington State and California — both very winnable games.

First-year coach Steve Sarkisian already has turned the program in the right direction. The Huskies are three close losses away from being a bowl team this year.

The Mariners re-signed Ken Griffey Jr., a move that resonated with much of the city. Right fielder Ichiro won another Gold Glove. (Center fielder Franklin Gutierrez was robbed.) Shortstop Jack Wilson has re-upped for two more years.

But the city is looking for a little more Jack Z. magic. Seattle is expecting general manager Jack Zduriencik to bust a move like last winter's trade that brought Gutierrez here. It wants Hernandez staying in town and not moving in trade to Boston.

And even though it is likely Angels free-agent pitcher John Lackey will wind up somewhere else, wouldn't signing him to a Mariners contract warm this winter?

If not Lackey, will the M's make a run at Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman and his 100 mph fastball? Don't you believe that if the Mariners want to play with the big boys, they have to deal like the big boys?

Of course, it isn't all bad in Seattle. There are sun breaks in our winter.

The city is hosting the MLS Cup next week. It's about time Seattle got back into the big-event mix. It's been a long time since Cameron Dollar, Lorenzo Romar and UCLA celebrated a Final Four victory inside the Kingdome.

Speaking of Romar, his Washington team might be overvalued, ranked No. 14 this early in the season, but the defending Pac-10 regular-season champions are poised for another run at the conference championship and beyond.

And speaking of Dollar, he begins his first season as a head coach, as Seattle University returns to Division I basketball. It won't be the NBA playing in KeyArena, but the lights will be on in the gym again. That's a start.

It's another winter without the NBA in town, another winter with a struggling NFL team and a still-rebuilding baseball team.

The city needs some big-league sizzle. From where will it come?

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com