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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 20, 2019)
A8 THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, AuguST 20, 2019 CONTACT US FOLLOW US Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com facebook.com/ DailyAstorianSports Inspirational Griffin on bubble to make Seahawks roster Vicki O’Brien Astoria volleyball players Hailey O’Brien, left, and Julia Norris are conducting their senior project volleyball camp. North Coast volleyball camp starts next week The Astorian The annual North Coast Volleyball Camp is scheduled for Aug. 26-28 at Astoria High School. Students entering grades 2-8 at any school can partici- pate in the camp, which costs $35 per player and includes a camp T-shirt. The camp runs each day from 9-11 a.m. for second- through fourth-graders, and from noon to 3 p.m. for fifth- through eighth-grade students. Registration forms are available at Lewis & Clark Elementary, Astoria Mid- dle School and Astoria High School. The fee and registra- tion forms are due Aug. 26 at the camp. The camp is the senior project for Astoria play- ers Julia Norris and Hailey O’Brien. For more information or for a registration form, con- tact Norris at jnorris20@ astoria.12.org or O’Brien at hobrien20@astoria.k12.org. AP Photo/Elaine Thompson DeShawn Shead (35) and Shaquem Griffin celebrate a play against the Denver Broncos. Crawford has slowed down after a torrid Mariners debut By RYAN DIVISH Seattle Times TORONTO — While J.P. Crawford has cemented him- self as the Mariners’ everyday shortstop, he’s still far from a finished product in many ways. He’s going to play more games in the 2019 season than he has played in the previous two seasons. There’s still six weeks and 37 games remain- ing in the 162-game marathon. The Mariners want Craw- ford to finish his first season with them in a strong fash- ion. It’s part of the reason he was out of the starting lineup for the Sunday series finale against the Blue Jays. “When we play in stretches where we play 10, 11, 12 days in a row, I’m not going to play him in all of them,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “We’ve had a lot of off days here recently, so he’s been getting kind of a (rest) off his feet here and there. Today was a good day for it. I thought about it coming into the series that we would give him one of these days off. We’ll continue to do that the rest of the year.” Crawford came into the game with a .238/.321/.383 slash line, 18 doubles, three tri- ples, five homers and 38 RBI. He got off to a torrid start after being called up May 9, slash- ing .319/.383/.496 with 11 doubles, two triples, two hom- ers and 21 RBI in his first 31 games. Since then, he’s slash- ing .165/.266/.301 with seven doubles, a triple, three hom- ers, 17 RBI and 35 strikeouts in the past 37 games. “Offensively, teams have made a few adjustments on him and are pitching him dif- ferently,” Servais said. “He’s grinding through it.” Crawford is seeing fewer early fastballs while getting a steady diet of breaking balls in fastball counts. Even with his struggles at the plate, he’s still been a solidifying presence for an infield defense that was awful with Tim Beckham as short- stop early in the season. “He’s doing great,” Ser- vais said. “He really is. The defense has been phenomenal. He’s learning. It’s been a really good first year with us and I want him to end it strong.” While Crawford had a day off from playing, he still had other work to do, including a lengthy meeting with Ser- vais and performance coach Jimmy Van Ostrand. “We went through some things we want to focus on in the last five-six weeks with him,” Servais said. “It’s about getting a consistent program and routine with him. You can talk about the minor leagues all you want, but there is noth- ing like the big leagues. You travel different. You have dif- ferent things that are on your mind, different worries and things you have to take care of at the big-league level than you do at the minor-league By LARRY STONE Seattle Times S EATTLE — It was one of the feel-good stories of the sports world in 2018 when the Seahawks drafted Shaquem Griffin in the fifth round out of Central Florida. It satisfied on multiple lev- els, reuniting Shaquem with his soul mate twin brother, Shaquill, while giving a deserved NFL opportunity to a player who had excelled in college without his left hand. It had inspiration and pathos. It had enough heartwarming elements to make the younger Shaquem (younger by less than two minutes, technically) the sentimental favorite of fans of all stripes, and the role model for those trying to overcome their own adversity. It was a made-for-Hollywood true tale that inspired a book as well as interview requests from UP NEXT: SEAHAWKS PRESEASON • Seattle Seahawks (1-1) at Los Angeles Chargers (0-2) • Saturday, 7 p.m. TV: NFLN around the networks and around the world. It hardly seemed to matter that Shaquem’s sea- son never took off. Inserted as a starter at weakside linebacker in the opener against Denver when K.J. Wright was hurt, Griffin struggled at the unfamiliar posi- tion. Other than special teams, where he shined, Shaquem barely saw the field again, playing just nine defensive snaps the rest of the way. Now the Shaquem Griffin story has taken a new dimen- sion in Year Two. While his abil- ity to play at the sport’s highest level with such a disability is no less inspiring, this year it’s more about production than sentimen- tality. In fact, Griffin may well be on the bubble for making the Sea- hawks’ 53-man roster, a circum- stance that would severely punc- ture the fairy-tale nature of the twins’ tale. But Griffin is determined to forge his way onto the roster and remain embedded in Seattle with Shaquill, a mainstay in the Sea- hawks’ secondary as their starter at left cornerback — Richard Sherman’s old spot. How close are the two? On Shaquill’s birthday last month, Shaquem tweeted: “Happy BDay to my brother, my best friend, my left hand everyone thought I was missing, it’s truly an honor and a blessing to call you my twin.” Shaquem’s quest has been complicated by a bruised knee suffered in the preseason opener against Denver. It may come down to Griffin or Ben Burr-Kir- ven, a fifth-round pick in 2019 See Griffin, Page A7 See Crawford, Page A7 I got screened. Now, I’m talking about it. Screening can prevent colorectal cancer or catch the #2 cancer killer early when it’s highly treatable. Most people get screened because they’re encouraged by someone they know and trust. So if you’ve been screened, please talk about your experience. And encourage others to get screened too. COLORECTAL CANCER The cancer you can prevent. TheCancerYouCanPrevent.org Gretchen Darnell Seaside, Oregon A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded campaign
