John Blanchette

Carolee Gutierrez threw everything but a tantrum Friday afternoon – though if she'd wanted, surely she could have won that, too. Because everything she threw, flew.

SEATTLE – Is it too early to bring back Felix Hernandez already? Wherever the Seattle Mariners are going this season, the growing consensus is that the starting rotation retooled by general manager Bill Bavasi will take them there.

PORTLAND – Just call it the many faces of David Pendergraft. For two years now, he's been the abridged version of a power forward for the Gonzaga Bulldogs, a dirty-work grinder inside using a big reservoir of want-to to battle bigger opponents.

Did this year's West Coast Conference men's basketball awards merit a recount? One of the winners wondered as much Tuesday.

Now this was a great idea. Put the area's two junior college teams on the best basketball stage in the city. Mix in a crowd of 1,821 – or more than double what they usually draw for their annual game in Spokane. And watch a six-point game with 10 seconds to play come down to an unlikely last shot.

Matt Bouldin's first start for the Gonzaga Bulldogs was impressive enough Saturday night. But just imagine if it's only the start.

Few football teams seem to get as much out of halftime as Saint John's University. Just what the Johnnies concocted Saturday to pull away from Whitworth College for a 21-3 victory at the Pine Bowl and a berth in the NCAA Division III playoff quarterfinals depends on who you ask.

Do the math. If 170 or 180 players turn out for football every fall at Saint John's University – and they do – that's enough for a first string and second string … and a seventh string and an eighth string. And early on as a Johnnie, Phil Giesen sometimes felt he was at the end of the string – or hanging on by a thread.

It didn't take long for Adam Morrison to find the bright side of the National Basketball Association preseason. "At least these games don't count," he sighed.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – It is 10:15 a.m. and the city of Charlotte knows where its children are – a free-admission National Basketball Association preseason game called the "Cool School Field Trip" for 17,000 area middle scholars. The building, maybe even the whole banking district, could run on their juice, if only scientists could harness the preteen hormone. On the scoreboard video screen of Charlotte Bobcats Arena during an early timeout is Adam Morrison in a "Read to Achieve" T-shirt, instructing the kids to open their workbooks for a question about the state in which he was born.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Injuries are a part of the game, but the Cougars may find themselves in a sticky situation in the weeks to come at tight end. Senior starter Cody Boyd, who had played this season with barely a scratch after an injury-filled career, sprained an ankle in the first quarter and head coach Bill Doba said he thought it was a high ankle sprain that could cost Boyd three to four weeks.

SEATTLE – A week of anticipation and angst after the Seattle Seahawks acquired wide receiver Deion Branch proved highly unnecessary. Coach Mike Holmgren decided not to activate his new $39 million pass catcher ("I was getting a lot of pressure at home – my daughters wanted to see him play," he said), and the player likely to be most impacted by the new guy's arrival came up as big as ever Sunday afternoon.

The weakest opponent on the schedule – San Jose State – is up first, yet you'd think it's the Apple Cup to Tyrone Willingham. "I see it as critical," he said of the season opener, "if you want to win them all."

HATO REY, Puerto Rico – Unbelievable. And, in the end, unbeatable. The Spokane Shock completed a magical first year of existence Saturday night with yet another performance that lived up to their name – a stunning rout of the Green Bay Blizzard 57-34 in ArenaCup 2006 without their most decorated player and a roster that seemed to be running out of bodies.

Dreary as the drive to Spokane was for the Amarillo Dusters, the trip home is going to be dreadful. The Dusters get two days and 1,500 miles to reflect on a 67-24 drilling laid on them Saturday night, in which the Spokane Shock introduced 9,550 customers to an often uncultivated aspect of arenafootball2: defense.

Back atop the arenafootball2 rankings, Spokane Shock coach Chris Siegfried acknowledged one unassailable truth: "Everything's good when you're winning," he said.

The consolation prize for a player not selected in the National Basketball Association draft is that he gets to be the one doing the picking. J.P. Batista, the brawny Brazilian center who concluded his Gonzaga University career last spring, has agreed to join the Minnesota Timberwolves' entry in the Vegas Summer League which begins play Thursday at the Cox Pavilion on the UNLV campus.