The Monday Morning Wash
by John Berkowitz on May 4, 2009 8:14 AM PDT
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PrintThe big story last week was the demise of the swimming team and the Steve Kelley column in the Seattle Times lambasting the decision. To me, it seemed that Kelley spent about two minutes researching this one. He placed the focus and blame on Scott Woodward, a step I feel is unwarranted.
While we all feel for the kids and the coaches, without an adeqaute facility on campus the program was on life support.
The story would have been far more interesting had Kelly gone back 20 years--before the Goodwill Games--to place the blame clearly where it belongs. The Goodwill Games organizers wanted the facility on campus, but the UW turned it down.
Steve succeeded the legendary Georg N. Meyers, whom to me was the best sports columnist I have ever read. I actually learned to read using Georg's columns. To be fair, Steve does write some good material and he does know basketball, but in my opinion this wasn't one of his strongest efforts.
Coaches Tour
The annual coaches tour starts in Bellingham today and will feature QB Jake Locker. Stave Sarkisian will be missing this first stop due to prior obligations, but will attend the remaining dates. It will be interesting to compare the contrast of Sarkisian to Willingham out on the links this year. Willingham was a pretty good golfer and Sarkisian reportedly has some work to do on his game.
Willingham got a lot of flack last year for blowing off quite a few stops to play in a tournament back in home state of North Carolina last season.
Rowing
Washington Crew is rounding into shape at the right time after defeating #1 Cal last weekend and sweeping opening day this past weekend. The Huskies have the Pac 10 championships and the IRA still ahead of them. The #2 Water Dawgs are in great shape to claim there second national championship in three years.
Softball
The #4 Huskies are with striking distance of first place in the Pac 10 with three games remaining. Washington is looking for its first national championship in the sport this season. How pitcher Danielle Lawrie goes, so go the Huskies. She was dominating this week.
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Not sure what's up with Steve Rudman
I’ve always respected him as a writer, but on his radio show last week with Elise, he was ranting (literally) about how the UW didn’t deserve any better on the stadium issue, while seeming to put his fingers in his ears when she tried to counter.
Yes, he makes his living giving opinions. But this isn’t the calm, considered stuff he’s built his reputation on.
Kelley
I think Steve Rudman is very near retirement age guaging from the recent photo’s I have seen of him.
As far as the stadium goes everyone has an opinion. From the start of the stadium process I have felt UW has been a bit out of touch with how they have handled things. No public fund raising campaign is one thing that has always lifted my eyebrows. Who knows they might have already raised the extra $150 million they were seeking from the state by now privately.
I wish I could have heard Kelley’s rant so I could comment on it further.
Kelley is from Philadelphia and his heart has always been in Philadelphia. From the beginning he has been an odd fit as the featured columnist at the Seattle Times. I would really like to see Bob Condotta get that job. Bob is a better writer and he is very meticulous in his research. I noticed that Bob Condotta is helping out with the Mariners a bit this spring. Bob is much better equipped to handle multiple sports commentary in my opinion.
I will say this…Kelley is a very good NBA guy. When he crosses over to other sports he sometimes is lacking.
Why would anyone expect support for the stadium from Kelley? I think he blames the UW for not getting SB-6116 passed because they piggybacked on Key Arena. He could be right on that one too. It wasn’t like the UW was trying to form a coalition to get the thing passed.
The swim team column on Woodward was a hack job and a cheap shot. What did he expect Scott to do…hand out some juice cups while making the announcement?
Steve Kelley is Impulsive
He is an impulsive writer and writes whatever is on his mind. Sometimes without the necessary research. At times I think he is lazy, like a Jim Moore, and his article on Crabtree is another recent example of his impulsive nature.
To his credit, he was the only writer to say Willingham should be fired during Year three and that was after the Arizona debacle. No other big time writers had the balls or insight to call out Willingham as a fraud, so I respect Steve for that.
Kelley II
Columnists get paid for their personal opinions. So I guess we just don’t agree with Steve’s opinions most of the time. For example I always hated the Jim Ratt series. I thought it was stupid. I imagine there were others who thought it was brilliant.
For example I love Art Thiel and others just love to hate him. I think that is part of the trick of being a columnist.
Like you said I will give anyone credit though who suggested firing Willingham.
Some things that Steve wrote that I really enjoyed reading were actually about himself and how he got started in the newspaper buisness. Like any writer the stuff you do the best job on is the stuff you really know. I also liked the golf in Afghanistan story.
I have never met Steve and I have never conversed with him through email.
As for the swim story I think he just doesn’t like Woodward and this was an opportunity to nail him. To be fair if you believe what Steve wrote their was a lack of sensitivity going on there. I think that was the point Steve was trying to address.
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