For SpectatorS
Best College Athlete
What’s long been missing from Seattle Weekly is a heavy reliance on golf references. We will now rectify the omission in this encomium for star UW golfer Cheng-Tsung Pan. The backswing of Pan’s life takes us to Taiwan, where he learned the game because his mom was a caddy at a local course. Pan cleared the water hazard that is the Pacific Ocean at age 15, coming to the U.S. to walk the links for Florida’s sports-focused IMG Academy, and now for UW. Pan just finished his sophomore season, and he surely won’t be taking a mulligan. For the second consecutive year, Pan shot his way onto the All-America team. At the U.S. Open, Pan made the pros look like duffers, rising as high as third place before heading to the clubhouse with the best score among amateurs. Then, in late June, Pan claimed the #1 spot in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. If Pan can stay atop the leaderboard through the end of the summer, he’ll earn tee times in both the 2014 U.S. Open and British Open. SETH KOLLOEN
Best High-School Athlete
Washington’s high-school football heartland starts in downtown Bellevue and stretches to the Sammamish Plateau. It’s no West Texas, but you’ll still find wealthy boosters, high-profile coaches, star recruits, and standing-room-only crowds under the Friday-night lights. And last season, quarterback Max Browne
Best Coach
If Michael Callahan were the Husky football coach, there’d be a 50-foot-high statue of him on campus. Callahan’s UW crew team won their third consecutive national championship in June, making four in Callahan’s six years as coach. The Husky varsity eight hasn’t lost on American soil in three years. In July the Huskies beat the Polish national team and finished just one length back of the British national team at the Henley Regatta in London, rowing’s most prestigious event. (The 2004 race, in which the Winklevoss twins competed for Harvard, was re-enacted in The Social Network.) Imagine the Husky basketball team beating Argentina and losing to Spain on a buzzer-beater. That’s the equivalent. Callahan was a star rower for UW in the mid-’90s, later competing internationally and making the 2004 Olympics. He’s only the ninth coach in the 104-year history of UW crew, and at just 39 seems likely to continue delivering championships well into the program’s second century. Maybe that statue will eventually get built. SK
Best Sports Venue
Honestly, what were we going to pick here? KeyArena? That’s cute. Safeco? Sure, maybe, if the Red Sox are in town and the place is actually filled past half capacity. The obvious choice is CenturyLink Field, or The Clink, as it’s been affectionately nicknamed. Home to 67,000 slobbering Seahawks fans on fall Sundays, CenturyLink is one of the NFL’s most intimidating venues, thanks to the incessant drunken roar of the 12th Man. But the legion that’s really lifted CenturyLink to the next level has been the scarved Seattle soccer fans who arrive en masse to cheer on their beloved Sounders at every available chance and have succeeded in creating an atmosphere unmatched in the annals of U.S. pro soccer. Even during the occasional nil-nil futbol snooze-fests, the fans at CenturyLink keep things entertaining. MATT DRISCOLL
Best Young Mariner
Any excitement surrounding the Seattle Mariners is focused on the future. With the present mired in tepid mediocrity—aside from the occasional Felix Hernandez gem or geriatric long ball from Ibanez—pretty much the only thing M’s fans have to cling to is the hope that some day the team won’t be so miserable. Luckily, there are a number of young players stoking the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel outlook, and perhaps none are as exciting as second basemen Nick Franklin. “A skinny 22-year-old from an Orlando suburb, Franklin has surprised Mariners fans in his first two months in the bigs with remarkable power: 10 home runs and 32 RBIs through his first 54 games,” longtime Seattle sports scribe Art Thiel tells Seattle Weekly. “It’s the most production from a Mariners second baseman since Bret Boone in 2001. He still needs work on his defense and he strikes out too much, but those deficiencies can be fixed with experience. The power-starved M’s are thrilled with the 2009 draftee’s fast transition to the majors.” Thiel’s right; as long as Franklin doesn’t suddenly go Ackley on us, the future at second base looks bright for the M’s. MD
Best Storm Player
Don’t let Camille Little’s last name fool you. The impact she’s had on the Seattle Storm this year has been anything but small. With Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson sidelined for the season due to injuries, Little was forced to pick up the slack and play center. The eight-year veteran is posting career-high stats for scoring, three-point shooting, and free-throw percentage, all while playing an unfamiliar position. The 6´2˝ player leads the Storm in points, rebounds, and minutes played. You’d think that having a forward like Little playing center would cause troubles in frontcourt defense, but she has thrived while matching up with the tallest player on opposing teams, proving her stuff (and stuffs) against none other than rookie phenom Britney Griner of the Phoenix Mercury. Perhaps the most remarkable stat: Little boasts the highest three-point percentage of any Storm starter—did we mention she was playing center? That’s lethal. JUSTIN LESTER
Best Seahawk
Since the arrival of “Beast Mode” three years ago, the Seahawks went from a five-win club to one of the best in the NFL. Russell Wilson is getting his due credit for this (see Best Seahawk, readers’ pick), but overlooked is Marshawn Lynch’s huge role in helping the rookie quarterback come into his own by forcing defenses to guard against the run at all times. Since coming to Seattle, Lynch has run for more than 3,000 yards, scored 31 touchdowns, and broke nine tackles during one of the biggest plays in Seahawks history against New Orleans in 2011. He’s also eaten more than 25,000 skittles. Early last season, coach Pete Carroll was reticent to have Wilson throw too much, lest his rookie get banged up and lose confidence early in his pro career. So it was Lynch who took the shots; with Wilson now running on all cylinders and providing a serious pass threat, we can only imagine the nasty things Lynch will be able to do this year. The Beast will get his due. JL
Best New Sounder
Several of this season’s new Seattle Sounders have made a major impact, but almost all were known quantities with established careers overseas (Djimi Traore, Obafemi Martins, and, as of this past weekend, Clint Dempsey) or elsewhere in MLS (Shalrie Joseph). But one, defender DeAndre Yedlin, 20, came as a complete surprise—except to those who had seen him play for O’Dea High School or the Sounders’ U-23 development-league squad, from where he leapt to the team as its first homegrown player. After stunning everyone with an amazing goal in the March 12 CONCACAF match against Mexico’s heavily favored Tigres, Yedlin soon became a fan favorite for his enthusiasm and speed—seeing him power past some ancient, doddering 25-year-old always sends a jolt of excitement through the crowd. He’s earning recognition beyond Seattle too, being named to the U.S. under-20 squad and even tapped to play in the MLS All-Star game on July 31. Already, speculation on his playing in Europe centers on when, not if. Says Sounders Assistant Coach Ezra Hendrickson (a former MLS right back, like Yedlin): “DeAndre has come on a lot faster 3 than we thought he would. We thought maybe five–10 games in we’d be able to put him in, but from the way he played in preseason, we realized we could put him in from the start. He’s done well for us. He made the All-Star team, which is a testament to how well he’s been playing. He’s been lined up as a starter every time he’s been available for selection. He’s doing well, he’s got so much potential, he’s got so much more to grow. It’s amazing to see a young player like that with all that potential that’s willing to learn—he’s a sponge. I expect great things from him.” GAVIN BORCHERT
Best Sports Broadcast Personality
There’s a new voice in the Mariners’ broadcast booth this year—young Aaron Goldsmith, who arrived in the big leagues after scaling the minor league ranks in impressive fashion. Having done time behind the mike in outposts like the Cape Cod League before seasons with the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs in Maine and the Frisco (Texas) RoughRiders, Goldsmith manned the broadcast booth for the the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox last year, a coveted gig with a history of launching golden voices like Goldsmith’s into the majors. When the Mariners decided to permanently fill the broadcast void left by the passing of Dave Niehaus, it was the unknown Goldsmith—out of some 160 applicants—whom they chose to sit next to Rick Rizzs. So far the results have been impressive. Relying on a crisp voice that sounds old beyond its years—not to mention a knowledge and appreciation for the game that few can match—Goldsmith has won over M’s fans and skeptics alike. What’s one thing fans may not realize about Seattle’s newest broadcast personality? “Aaron is obsessed with his hair,” says friend and former Frisco intern Brian Boesch, who remembers Goldsmith spending $45 or $50 every three weeks on a haircut while working Double-A ball in Texas. “When he got the Pawtucket job, he was very worried about finding a comparable place. . . . He didn’t want to have Double-A hair in Triple-A.” Now that Goldsmith has made the big leagues, rest assured that his hair is getting the major league treatment—and, based on his debut-season performance, will be for years to come. MD
Best Seattle Sports Twitter Follow
Whatever he’s going off about, Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin isn’t shy about letting the 12th Man know what’s on his mind. Behind the keyboard or on his phone, Baldwin this offseason has been almost as loud as his teammate Richard Sherman—ranting about the league, decrying the Zimmerman verdict, and issuing a treatise on consumerism and corporate America’s toxic role in society that ran 19 tweets long (it’s worth a read). John Moffitt came close to contending for the title before abandoning his account in June. His hilarious tweets solidified a cult-hero status that had begun with his appearances on the YouTube TV series Real Rob Report. But things went off the rails when he started slamming his followers for being unoriginal with their jabs about his public-urination citation. KJ HIRAMOTO
Best Performance-Enhancing Drug
There once was a team that had it all
And that included some Adderall
They snorted some lines
Then paid some fines
And now are the jacked for some football. —DP
Best Letdown
It felt so close you could almost taste it. Hell, it felt so close that hedge-funder and local hero Chris Hansen bought celebrating Sonics fans a beer at F.X. McRory’s after the Memorandum of Understanding for his proposed SoDo arena was approved by the Seattle and King County Councils—a victory you really could taste. And that was just the beginning. After Hansen, Steve Ballmer, and their assembled group of local billionaires entered into an agreement to purchase the Sacramento Kings from the bumbling Maloof brothers, it felt so close that we put Shawn Kemp kissing a basketball on our cover, proclaiming “It’s Reigning Again!” Trouble was, the return of the Sonics’ reign was not yet to be. After some last-minute mayoral heroics from Sacramento’s Kevin Johnson and some predictable douchey-ness from outgoing NBA commissioner David Stern, Seattle was once again crapped on by the pro basketball league it wants so desperately to get back into. For Sonics fans, disappointment has become the name of the game, but this latest letdown stung more than most. Surely the NBA will eventually return to Seattle. But it didn’t this year. And it totally sucked. MD
For Participants
Best Bowling Alley
A little luxe, a little retro, one side of Lucky
Strike is a huge room full of driver-simulation games and the like—basically a casino for kids; the other, all low lights and lower couches, is a bar, lounge, and 16 lanes ($30 an hour early evening, $40 later on, $50 Fridays and Saturdays). The menu is standard (small plates $8–$10; tacos, salads, pizzas, and burgers $10–$12), but the quality is a cut above: Belgian frites in a paper cone, crispy outside and lushly fluffy inside, with a choice of five sauces, are $5.75 and quite worth it. They’re going for upscale, and this is more a place for a special-event splurge than for your once-a-week bowling outing—its website, for example, does specify a dress code (“No gang colors”). If the atmosphere can seem a little bro-ey, I celebrated my last birthday there, and had a fantastic time with my five weird friends. GB
700 Bellevue Way N.E., #250, Bellevue, 425-453-5137, bowlluckystrike.com
Best Semi Secret/Obscure Urban Bike Ride That Is Not the Burke-Gilman Trail
Never mind Ballard’s “Missing Link” or the carved-in-stone yet unfunded promise of the Seattle Bicycle Master Plan. Part of the pleasure of being a regular cyclist in Seattle is the accidental discovery, the new route from A to B that saves you a few traffic lights or spares you a hill. Though it opened in late 2011, the $6.5 million, ¾-mile Ship Canal Trail Link was a belated find for me, as it joins the Fremont Bridge to the path past SPU and cleverly, safely slaloms beneath the Ballard Bridge—that continual source of terror for all cyclists—to Fisherman’s Terminal. From there, you can head west into Magnolia or south to join the bike/pedestrian path through Interbay that hooks up with Myrtle Edwards Park. From the Olympic Sculpture Park to Fremont, this now becomes a sheltered and secluded loop for cyclists (or runners or walkers) who want to stay away from cars. It may not have the commuter utility of the popular BGT, but its meandering marine route is part of the charm. BRM
Best Park
What’s perhaps most fascinating about peaceful Discovery Park is how closely it came to becoming a display of military might. For decades, the army kept the land dormant and locked up as it contemplated whether to house troops or anti-ballistic missiles there. But by the ’70s, most of the land was declared surplus and given to the city. Thus citizens now have a massive chunk of prime real estate to enjoy, featuring both beautiful forest where pileated woodpeckers glom onto hardwoods and untamed beachfront where seal pups sun themselves on bright winter days. Even those military remnants that do remain, white and stately barracks perched on the bluff, have an eerie, deserted allure, and look much better than whatever monstrosities would have been built there if left to the free market. DP
Best Impromptu Dog Park
If you fence it, they will bark. Debate about the precious few off-leash dog runs in Seattle parks inevitably raises hackles, like talk of autism and vaccines or which bakery has the best gluten-free muffins. Yet the official sanctioning of a dog run makes it less fun, less outlaw. You, not the government’s hand, must pick up your dog’s shit. That’s why the $10 million West Thomas Street Overpass, which links Lower Queen Anne to Myrtle Edwards Park, has produced a waterfront eruption of frolicking canines before and after each workday. (It opened in late 2012.) LQA is one of the city’s most kid-free neighborhoods, but it’s full of condo- and apartment-dwellers who dote on their dogs. Now they and their pooches can walk safely across Elliott to the shore, where a grassy bank is perfect for tossing tennis balls, butt-sniffing, and lessons on “Stay” and “Come.” There’s even a little sandy pocket beach for four-legged wading. And sometimes from the water, curious seals will surface to see what all that barking’s about. BRM
Best Place to Jog
Start at Gas Works Park. Look at decrepit machinery. Look at attractive people lounging on the grass. Repeat. Catch the Burke-Gilman. Flip off an aggressive biker. Go up the stairs at the Fremont Bridge. Wait for the Fremont Bridge to come down. Cross the Fremont Bridge. Catch the Lake Union Trail. Consider whether that huge Chinese joint looks cheesy or awesome. Admit you’re out of shape. Stop and stretch at MOHAI. Look at attractive people lounging on the grass. Continue. Wave “Hi” to the S.L.U.T. Admit you’re really out of shape. Contemplate whether you belong in a houseboat. Contemplate whether you should learn to fly a seaplane. Holy shit, is Gas Works all the way over there? Cross the University Bridge. Fear for the future of this country, for it lies in the hands of its youth. Flip off another biker. Aaaaaaand rest. DP
Best City Swim
During the summer, when all the thermometers are broken and everybody’s sweating like Nixon, there’s no substitute for a good day at the beach. And though the Emerald City boasts its fair share of quality beaches, the wealth of activities at the lovely and accessible Green Lake can’t be beat. For starters, it’s got two beaches. And that’s not even counting the fact that anyone can just jump in the lake pretty much anywhere. It’s got lifeguards and wading pools for the kids, plus rentable paddle boats, kayaks, and paddleboards. There are food stands and ample restaurants for snacking when you get tired of swimming or any other of the on-land activities you can partake in. The nod for best swim spot probably goes to the Bathhouse beach: It’s far away from the crowds at the equipment rental, and it’s always proved big enough to accommodate even the largest crowd of heat-weary Seattleites. ZOSHA MILLMAN
Best Country Swim
For those who feel the confines of city swimming as strongly as they feel the mild humidity within it, our area has great spots for outdoor swimming that don’t require venturing too far out of the city limits. But if you are also deterred by the thought of hiking, look no further than Snoqualmie’s Mirror Lake. A pristine lake only two hours from Seattle, it’s as clear as crystal, surrounded by ample natural beauty. Sweet camping spots are available for both the avid outdoorsman and those who want the feeling of getting away with only the mildest of hikes.The very brief hike (about a mile) has no challenging vertical aspects, which is ridiculous for how undisturbed and secluded it feels. As beautiful as our fair city is, there’s no replacing that feeling of unzipping your tent in the morning and seeing a lake so calm it earns the name “Mirror.” ZM
