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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (July 15, 2015)
S PORTS Hermiston A8 WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 2015 Martinez makes a mark on Mariners SAM BARBEE FROM THE SIDELINES I t was a little more than a month ago that the Seattle Mariners hired local legend Edgar Martinez as its new batting coach. It came at a time when the Mari- ners were swatting at baseballs like the\ were À ies and like À ies the balls seemed to know the bats were coming and avoided them. It made for some rather frustrating baseball to watch. But days after Martinez was an- nounced I said that the M¶s offense is going to look better and hoSeful- ly the Mariners win some games be- cause of it. This was fully realized in my head at a wedding this week- end when my dad turned to me and said ³<ou know it¶s getting to the Soint where you can¶t Must dismiss Edgar¶s Sresence as an aberration.´ +e¶s right. The baseball has looked better. But the wins still aren¶t coming. <et. The ¿ rst maMor sign is the emer- gence of Mark Trumbo. When he came over from the Arizona Dia- mondbacks -une he was batting .259 with nine home runs. After he got to Seattle his numbers droSSed signi¿ cantly. +e stoSSed Slaying. +e was À ailing wilding at outside Sitches. +e was at his worst when swinging at Sitches a foot outside. But then Edgar came. Trumbo started staying with Sitches better. +e started seeing the ball batter. +is weak À y balls to left or double-Slay balls turned into line drives uS the middle. Since -uly when his season average was at a season-low .22 Trumbo has batted a sweltering . 2-for- with an on-base Sercentage of .52 and an 23S of .. Maybe Trumbo who is a good Big /eague hitter ¿ nally got going. But he had been in Seattle a month before Martinez showed uS and his bat caught ¿ re with Martinez as his tutor. &orrelation doesn¶t eTual causation but I see some of the Ed- gar Effect in Trumbo. But it¶s more than Must what Mar- tinez can do to one hitter. Martinez has changed the whole mentality. I was at the ¿ rst two games of the De- troit series last week and it was dif- ferent watching the Mariners hitters. They¶ve Tuickly become better still not great though at situational hit- ting: driving in the runner from third with fewer than two outs; hitting be- hind a runner at second to move him to third; not striking out when you need to Sut the ball in Slay. These are things we watched the Mariners do for three months and they¶re starting to break those habits. They also don¶t care when they¶re down. 2n Monday the Mariners were down 3-0 early until Logan Morrison tied things with a three-run shot. The ne[t night the Mariners were again down 3-0 until Austin Jackson lined one off the vis- itor¶s bullSen roof for a grand slam. I¶m not ready to say that these aren¶t the Mariners of old that they aren¶t going to come uS short yet again. But at least they¶re fun to watch again. That has a lot to do with Martinez. Any Slayer will say he¶s been a godsend with his talent for teaching. We¶ll see what the longterm bene¿ ts are because they¶ve been wonderful in the short term. — Sam Barbee is a sports reporter for the Hermiston Herald and East Oregonian based in Hermiston. He can be reached by phone at 541-564-4542 or by email at sbarbee@hermistonherald. com. Follow him on Twitter @ SamBarbee1 and follow Herald Sports @HHeraldSports. HERMISTONHERALD.COM 3-on-3 to the 10th power Spokane’s Hoopfest instrumental in success of local event By SAM BARBEE Staff Writer Starting in 990 SSokane Washington has hosted a 3-on- 3 basketball tournament called +ooSfest that has blossomed into a 000-team e[Serience that describes itself as the big- gest basketball event in the country if not the world. Ten years ago a small grouS of Hermiston residents decid- ed to try its luck with a 3-on-3 tournament. In the fall of 200 in conMunction with the &ham- ber of &ommerce Larry 8sher Joe ThomSson Mike .ay and about 10 others met with the chamber to Slan a tournament to take Slace that July. They settled on the third weekend of the month to avoid HooSfest but the chamber decided to go another route by winter and droSSed out. FILE PHOTO So a small grouS of si[ or eight stayed Two adult men’s teams battle it out on the street courts last summer during the ninth-annual Takin’ it to the with the Streets three-on-three basketball tournament on Main Street in Hermiston. BASKETBALL SroMect. 8sh- er¶s wife .arissa came uS with the tourney¶s name ² Takin¶ It to the Streets ² after the famous track by The Doobie Brothers of the same name. This year Takin¶ It to the Streets invades downtown Hermiston Friday and Saturday By SAM BARBEE for the 10th annual 3-on-3 bas- Staff Writer ketball tournament. To tell the origin story That small grouS since the of Takin¶ It to the Streets idea was hatched has been in Hermiston¶s three-on- contact with HooSfest. And three basketball tour- ThomSson said their helS has nament you must first been a huge Sart of their suc- start 20 years ago with a cess and he couldn¶t say enough now-defunct town-wide about the generosity and wel- event called SSudFest. comeness they received from If you recall SSudFest the giants of outdoor 3-on-3 was a weekend in Herm- basketball. iston that included a car ³We reached out to them show face Sainting en- on our ¿ rst day and they were FILE PHOTO graving and three-on- e[tremely helSful and gener- ous´ ThomSson said. ³They Hundreds of people lined Main Street last summer to watch teams compete in the ninth-annual Takin’ It to the Streets 3-on-3 basketball See STREETS, A9 tournament. See BASKETBALL, A9 Takin’ It to the Streets is not a revival Softball team reps Hermiston at state By SAM BARBEE Staff Writer The 10/11-year-old team is the only Hermiston soft- ball sTuad to advance Sast districts and that has them looking ahead to comSete in the 10/11-year-old state tournament this weekend in Gresham. ³It¶s Must that we¶re the only Hermiston softball team going which makes me even more motivated to win´ shortstoS .ayleigh Billsborough said. SimSson wouldn¶t sin- gle out any of the 11 Slay- ers on the roster saying that they¶ve bonded as a team and ³we hold onto each See SOFTBALL, A9 STAFF PHOTO BY SAM BARBEE STAFF PHOTO BY SAM BARBEE Akira Pierson of the Hermiston 10/11-year-old softball team headed to the state tournament this weekend À elds a ball at third base while shortstop .ayleigh Billsborough backs up Tuesday at Field of Dreams in Hermiston. Breanna Simpson center À elder for the Hermiston 10/11-year- old softball team headed to their state tournament this week- end, makes a catch in shallow center in front of teammate Abigail Findley at Tuesday’s practice at Field of Dreams in Hermiston.