Seattle Sports Blog weekly rant: April 7th-13th edition

By Kshell

This week in my weekly rants happens to fall on Friday the 13th. Now thankfully there is no new crappy Friday the 13th movie that we all know would suck. Instead if you do decide to go to the movies this weekend I'd see American Pie Reunion if you happen to be under the age of 35 this movie will hit home to you. Now that I got my two cents on movies out of the way I'll once again rant about what is on my mind for what happened this past week in sports. The new baseball season has hit and our Seattle Mariners are 4-4 as they are about to open up their home season this year. I'll also talk a little bit about the Washington Huskies offensive line problems which had a huge hit this week with Colin Porter having to retire. So hope you enjoy yet another week of my weekly rants.

This year was different for the Mariners as opening day was taking away from us since it was started in Japan. Now the home opener this year has a special feel to it. The reason is because Felix Hernandez is starting the home opener. With the Mariners starting on the road since 2009 the following pitchers have pitched the home opener: Carlos Silva, Ryan Rowland-Smith and Jason Vargas. Not exactly top flight pitching and the last two years the Mariners have been blown out. So this year when the Mariners returned to the states they decided to have Vargas pitch the first game so Hernandez who won the 2010 Cy Young award can pitch the home opener. By having Hernandez pitch the opener the Mariners have guaranteed themselves a pack house. This will probably be the only time the Mariners have a packed house all year long not counting Yankees or Redsox games which are half of their fans anyways. The home opener is a special game and ticket prices are pretty spendy.

This year Mike Cameron will be throwing out the first pitch for the Mariners. In four years with the Mariners from 2000-2003 the Mariners won 90, 116, 93 and 93 games. Since his departure the Mariners have had just two winning seasons. Cameron who was an all-star in 2001 and won two gold gloves hit  .256/.350/.448 . With 554 hits, 87 HR's, 353 runs, 344 RBI's, 106 SB's while in Seattle. Cameron also hit four home runs in one game back in 2002 on the road in Chicago. Cameron won over the fans of Seattle despite coming over in a trade for Ken Griffey Jr. Last year I came up with my all-time Mariners team Cameron had made my 25 man roster as he was a fan favorite. I got his autograph back in the 2000 season and I'm sure plenty of fans are excited to see Cameron throw out the first pitch. That was one of the first of many terrible moves by Bill Bavasi was letting Cameron go as he obviously didn't value Cameron's defense or leadership. Bringing back Cameron was one of the few smart things that Mariners management has done. Hopefully Cameron delivers a strike to begin the Safeco season as Felix Hernandez caps it off with a win as he'll be facing the Oakland A's for the third time this year. Should be a magical night at Safeco Field as the home opener is always a special night.

Just like I had talked about earlier in the week. Huskies lost offensive lineman Porter for his career . Which was a stunning move to the Huskies program as Sarkisian enters year four. After losing out on the top three offensive lineman in his own backyard this news couldn't have came at a worst time. The Huskies football for now appears to be hurting but Sarkisian is bringing in five offensive lineman for the fall. Still if the Huskies offensive line is a mess that could spell doom for their season as they don't have an established running back and Keith Price doesn't have any experience behind him as no quarterback on the roster has thrown a pass besides him. The offensive line will make or break the Huskies. Sarkisian failing to lock down those key kids in his backyard could be his undoing.

Well that was my weekly rant for this week. That wasn't very long but don't worry I'll have more as the NBA playoffs are starting to roll around, the NFL draft is in two weeks and nobody has a clue what the Seahawks are going to do. I'm happy to see the Mariners offense is starting to actually hit which they didn't do last year and hopefully King Felix can get his King's Court friends something to cheer about. Last start Hernandez had his fastball dropping from last year and it showed as he allowed six runs. We'll find out this Friday if that is something to worry about or if that was just a bad outing for him. I love the home opener as I'll probably not be going to the game but I"ll be watching somewhere down at Pioneer Square as that should be a fun atmosphere for sure.