Sober Seattle Saturday: The week in sports missed while you were intoxicated

It’s fun to make fun of the Mariners, they’re an easy target. But GM Jack Zduriencik is really making all the right moves to develop a team that is competitive at some point while keeping to the franchise mandate of having squeaky clean, clubhouse good guys with lots of fan favorite upside. Zduriencik’s work continued this week as his traded newly acquired pitcher Aaron Heilman for left-handed starter Garrett Olson and middle infielder Ronny Cedeno from the Cubs. I love this trade for the simple fact that it should - and the jury is way out on this - light a bonfire under the collective asses of Jose Lopez and Yuniesky Betancourt.

Sweeney gives it one more shot
You have to be pulling for Mike Sweeney this season. He’s a fellow 35-year-old with two bad knees and a bad back who is getting one more chance to play ball. The Mariners signed him to a minor league contract on Thursday and he is going to get an opportunity to make a team that is light on offense. Sweeney was the face of the Kansas City Royals for 13 years before moving to Oakland where his season was crushed due to injuries. Sweeney is a .299 career hitter with 849 RBIs and 199 home runs.

Goodbye ranking
The Washington Husky basketball team dropped a bummer of a game to Arizona Thursday night, 106-97. A loss tonight at ASU will most likely lead to the Dawgs dropping out of the AP Top 25. Maybe the Huskies were thinking too much about March and not enough about the end of January. It was the most points allowed by a UW team in 11 seasons when Barbara Hedges heartthrob Bob Bender was coaching.

And the rest …
Lots of fun news around town and here are the links to my thoughts:

• Leroy Hill likes weed. I like Leroy Hill. Read the post.
• I can’t watch or read Super Bowl coverage. A Steelers/Cardinals matchup is the worst case scenario for Seahawks fans. But it’s especially hard to watch the Steelers. They are such media darlings it makes me want to hang myself with a terrible towel. Here’s my one post about Ben Roethlisberger. Here’s another about the media’s coverage.
• You may have heard the Husky football coaching staff is picking up NCAA violations at a clip that would make even Rick Neuheisel proud. Here’s one take and yet another.