I wrote a column for the Kitsap Sun about the Seahawks’ quarterback situation yesterday morning BEFORE Pete Carroll announced that Russell Wilson has a shot to start.

Now it’s a three-man race with Wilson, the third-round draft choice from Wisconsin; Matt Flynn, the free-agent acquisition from Green Bay; and Tarvaris Jackson, the incumbent starter.

In the column, I speculated that Flynn will win the job hands down over Jackson and that Wilson will be the backup. Jackson will be released before the season starts, saving the Seahawks the $4 million they’d have to pay him if he stuck around.

I’d list the odds as follows on earning the starting job:

FLYNN: 1-5
WILSON: 20-1
JACKSON: 100-1
JOSH PORTIS: 5,000-1

If you’d like to read the Kitsap Sun column, you can find it here: Rookie QB Wilson Could Be Sensational

Thanks, have a great day and Go Cougs. “The Kevin Calabro Show” on 710 ESPN Seattle is taking the day off as long as the Mariners’ game in Boston is not rained out.

It’s my little girl’s 21st birthday today, and I’m not going to get sentimental like I did when she turned 18, but still…

For anyone who has kids – and I tend to think it’s more magnified with girls than boys – it’s hard to believe when they reach the age of an adult.

I think you’re officially an adult at 21, though I wonder if I’ll ever feel like I’m one, and I’m almost 55.

Even though I said I wasn’t going to get sentimental, I still managed to tear up when I saw Brooke at P.F. Chang’s in Bellevue last night. Twenty-one. Wow.

I remember her first day of kindergarten at Sunset Elementary in Issaquah, and now she’s one year from graduating with a degree in apparel merchandising from Washington State.

Last night was fun. Brooke spent the evening with several friends, all of whom stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue. Her mom and I went to their adjoining hotel rooms and left around 10:30. At midnight, when she officially turned 21, Brooke and her friends no doubt hit as many bars as they could before last call.

She’s probably sick as a dog this morning. The last time I saw her, she was having a margarita and taking a swig of Fireball. She was wearing a necklace with shots of Jose Cuervo and Jagermeister dangling in front of her, and at some point, her friends were no doubt urging her to drink them.

I’m sure she’ll be in great shape when I see her later today. We’re planning to go to Alki for a family dinner at Pegasus. I don’t think she’ll be in the same kind of mood she was in last night, but that’s OK.

It will be strange to go to a bar with my kid. I’ve never done that before. I want to take her to the Roanoke for lunch on Mercer Island. I also want to take her to Lake Tahoe this summer so we can have margaritas on the beach, and I can teach her how to play (and lose at) craps.

She got home from Pullman last week and will be interning at the Bellevue Nordstrom starting in June. She might also be working as a beverage-cart girl at Newcastle.

It’s weird watching your kids grow up. You’re happy for them, but at the same time, you wish they could stay little forever. Strange deal. I guess we all go through it.

At any rate, I’m proud of her and happy for her and I just wanted to pass along a few thoughts about her on her 21st birthday.

Go Cougs.

I admit it, I can’t keep up. I don’t try to keep up. I know that if you want to really be with it in today’s media world, you need to post stuff right when it happens or right after it happens.

What the hell am I talking about – in this instance, the Sea Gals tryouts. They were held last Sunday, a full five days ago, and here I am writing about what happened now.

I was one of nine judges at the “competition”. I planned to post a story about what it was like Monday morning. But my daughter came home from Pullman, and I went on a walk/hike with her instead. Then other things came up on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The saying “better late than never” hopefully still applies…

To be honest, for most of the three hours Sunday night, I sat there feeling like an idiot, a pervert, a dirty old man and whatever else you want to call me. I went back and forth, thinking: “Man, I need to take this seriously because it’s a big deal to all of these girls.” Then again, it was hard to take it seriously because we were talking about girls who were trying out for a dance team for an NFL team, hoping to perform in front of a bunch of dirty old men like me.

One minute, I’d be thinking: “Wow that’s girl’s hot.” The next minute: “Uh, Jim, that girl’s your daughter’s age.”

Devil on one shoulder, angel on the other. The devil and his impure thoughts usually won because apparently my inner 15-year-old was the swing vote.

Sixty girls were competing for 28 to 30 spots. They were all fit, all tan, and of course they all had blindingly white teeth.

Two by two, they danced in front of the judges to Chris Brown’s “Turn Up the Music.” I had not heard the song before, but I know it now after hearing it 30 times.

It was quite the production. Tony Ventrella hosted a Webcast on seahawks.com along with a former Miss Washington. I think her name was Tina.

Before the girls danced, they had to answer a question about what about them was different than the other girls, or something to that effect.

I liked No. 2’s answer – her name was Carli – she said she played rugby at Central Washington and is now an elementary school teacher.

No. 6 Bianca told us she had stubby thumbs.

The affable judge next to me – Fitz, a morning deejay from 100.7 The Wolf – loved No. 12 Brandy, saying her body came straight from the Lord. Which was cool, especially after Brandy told us that she loved her dad’s steak and mom’s fried potatoes, proving that she at least likes food.

Some of the others girls, I wondered about that. No. 16 Charlotte, what a lovely girl she was, but while I was watching her, I kept thinking that I wanted to put my arm around her after the competition and tell her: “Honey, let’s go to Dick’s and get you a Dick’s Delux, TWO orders of fries and a vanilla shake.” Charlotte was gorgeous, but she looked like she hadn’t eaten in weeks.

I absolutely loved No. 30 Amber, a Starbucks barista from Graham. But later my vision was questioned when someone asked me: “You didn’t think her butt was too big?”

In answering that question, I said: “No, not at all. In fact, it never entered my mind when I looked at her butt that her butt was too big. In fact, I thought No. 30’s butt was perfect, thank you very much.”

We graded on three categories – Appearance, Dance, and Presentation. 5 was the top score in each category, so a 15 was the top score you could hand out. I think I gave out four or five perfect scores, including one to Amber, who will never come close to the original Amber the Sea Gal, but she’d certainly do in a pinch.

I admit to doing two things I should not have done as a Sea Gal judge, and making this admission will no doubt prevent me from ever judging again. To that, I say: “Oh well.”

When No. 33 Stephanie J. said she was a student at Washington State, I automatically gave her a 15.

And when No. 45 Melissa said she had a golden retriever, I gave her a 15 too.

All in all, it was a fun night. My thanks to Sea Gals director Sherri Thompson for having me and putting up with me.

Go Cougs.

This Sunday I’ll be judging the Sea Gal finals at the West Club Lounge at Century Link Field. Why was I chosen to do this? I have no idea.

Along with nine other judges, I’ll help determine which 24 to 32 girls will be dancing and cheering at Seahawks’ games this fall.

I’ve been told by Sea Gals director Sherri Thompson that it will be a fun evening but I need to take it seriously. This will be difficult because I don’t take many things seriously, but I will do my best, I promise, wink, wink.

To that end, I asked people on Facebook and Twitter for qualities I should look for in Sea Gal candidates:

From Ryan: “Does anyone pay attention to the dancing? Go for the prettiest.”

From Lance: “Natural beauty, sexiness and confidence.”

From Roy: “Girl-next-door hotness with moves and a smile.”

From Heather: “Sweet, nice and cute.”

From another Roy: “Definitely look for wardrobe malfunctions.”

From Fake Matt Flynn: “Beefy chicks with potential to double as backup offensive linemen.”

Then there was this from Randy: “Highest scores to the girls who dance like strippers.”

I was all in with Randy until I heard from Maren Bergstrom, a Sea Gal from 1991-95. As a Sea Gal alum, she knows what Thompson is looking for. According to Bergstrom, these are the top 5 qualities I should consider:

1) Confidence, not meekness.
2) How she recovers if she screws up during the routine. If she has fun with it vs. falling apart.
3) If she moves faster vs. slower (nimble vs. lumbering).
4) Constant smile – no faltering.
5) Today’s pop culture causes girls to think they need to striptease and be coy instead of jazz dancing and being peppy and having a huge smile. Don’t go for the strip-teasers!”

If you want to watch the Sea Gals finals, it will be available at seahawks.com on a Webcast. I think it will be hosted by Tony Ventrella, marking the pinnacle of his broadcasting career I’m sure. And if I’m not mistaken, his co-host will be a former Sea Gal – her name is either Dakota or Montana, I forget.

The Webcast starts Sunday at 5 p.m. I’ll be Tweeting like a fool all night long @cougsgo. And I’ll be taking really, really exclusive videos that you can see on this website on Monday.

I’ll be the only judge who freely admits that I’m open to bribes from the contestants. The others are:

Sea Gals Director Sherri Thompson

Sea Gals choreographer Shannon Kingsley

Seahawks vice president of sales and marketing Chuck Arnold

Mondray Gee of the Seahawks

Fitz from 100.7 The Wolf

Sea Gals alumni coordinator Sheri Leonard

Nichole Carroll of Tyler Rose Swimwear

Scott Swerland of Seattle Sun Tan

Kevin Klink, representing the 12th man.

Wish me luck and have a great weekend. Go Cougs. Love that they moved the UNLV game from Saturday, Sept. 15 to Friday night, Sept. 14 at 6 o’clock. The game will end around 9 o’clock, and then Coug fans can head to the Strip to gamble and drink some more. Should be a fun weekend, especially after we win and improve to 3-0.

I’m in Sisters, Oregon, preparing to head to Bend to play golf with Drew Bledsoe at Tetherow. I’m writing a story about Bledsoe for Cascade Golfer magazine, so the plan is to play golf, do an interview, see what he’s up to, that kind of thing. I know he’s busy making wine and being a dad (he’s got four kids). Should be a fun time.

Over the weekend, I played in the Central Oregon Shootout. Everyone has a partner, and mine was Joe Slye, a fellow Coug. We played at the Resort Course at Eagle Crest, Aspen Lakes and the Big Meadow course at Black Butte. Somehow Joe and I won Flight 2. I chalk it up to Joe being a great putter, and I think I had enough beers to be brain-dead enough to contribute here and there.

I’ll post some videos soon.

This morning I received this email from a Bruce Irvin fan. Irvin was the Seahawks’ controversial first-round draft choice. If you take a look at the email from Josh in West Virginia, I think we’re going to like Irvin in a Seahawks’ uniform:

“Jim, I am a huge Bruce Irvin fan in WV and I can tell you the fans in Seattle will love Bruce. The incident a month or so ago was actually a Pita Pit magnetic
sign that was on a car. It was a complete accident and the charges were dropped.

I know Bruce personally and you won’t meet too many guys that are that talented but also that down to earth. He is motivated and dedicated. He is honest almost to a fault and is great to be around. My 3 yr old daughter loves him to death. Every times she sees football on tv she asks if that is Bruce. The several times that we have been able to hang around him he has been great with him.

I even went so far as creating his fan site bruceirvin.net

Hope you guys in WA have as much fun screaming BRUUUUUCE as we did. The Seahawks just got about 1 million more fans that live in the state of WV.”

If you missed my Kitsap Sun column about the draft, read it here: Go 2 Guy Likes Seattle’s Draft Picks

Question to parents of kids who play sports – how do you do it? How am I going to do it?

What am I referring to? Watching your kids play basketball or baseball or any other sport without going crazy and turning into a little-league parent, complaining about this, bitching about that.

Last night I got my first taste of it when my 8-year-old boys played in a basketball game at the Bellevue Boys and Girls Club.

Before last night they had played in many basketball and baseball games, but no one was keeping score. When kids traveled or double-dribbled, nothing was called. And there was no pressing full-court.

Last night Mikey and Stevie went from 8-foot-hoops on a small full court to 10-foot hoops on a regulation-size court. And the officials were calling everything, which I’m completely fine with.

Teams were also allowed to press full-court in the final two minutes of the game. That’s when I had to fight the urge to become a little-league dad, the kind of dad I never want to become, the kind who starts yelling at officials and questions the coaches.

Mikey’s and Stevie’s team, the Panthers, were ahead of the other team by nine points when the other team mounted a furious comeback that got them within three points in the final minute.

This rally was fueled by full-court pressure that the Panthers could not handle because they’ve never had to handle it before.

So I’m sitting there wondering why the Panthers’ coaches didn’t call a timeout to help the kids break the pressure. I was about to stand up and yell: “Timeout! Timeout!” But then I remembered that I’m watching 8- and 9-year-olds playing basketball.

It’s not like it was the Final Four or the NBA Finals.

Plus the Panther coaches were 15- and 14-years old. Like I’m going to scream at 15- and 14-year-old coaches.

At one point, one of the officials called a 10-second violation on the Panthers in backcourt, and there’s just no way that 10 seconds had passed, but I again held back the urge to yell at the officials, who were teen-aged kids too.

The Panthers somehow held off the other team and won by 3, but it was crazy in the end, the other team hucking up threes in an attempt to tie the game.

After it was over, I literally had to restrain my 92-year-old friend, Mariam, from giving the opposing coaches a piece of her mind. She was upset that the coaches were on the floor all game long – they weren’t getting in the way, but they were certainly bothering Mariam.

This was an 8- and 9-year-old basketball game that meant absolutely nothing in the scheme of things. God help me when my kids are playing in a state championship game someday.

Now I get it. How do you do it? How do you restrain yourself and remind yourself not to be one of those little-league idiots?

Hey Mikey and Stevie, happy birthday! I know you won’t read this today or tomorrow or this week or even next month. You don’t even know that your dad has a website.

But maybe several years from now, you’ll read what I’m about to write. I basically just want to tell you monsters how much I love you.

I have a million people tell me that I’m crazy to have 8-year-old kids when I’m 54 and about to turn 55 in June. They tell me how happy they are that their kids are grown and they can do whatever they want. They don’t know how in the world – at my age! – that I’m able to keep up with a couple of 8-year-olds.

But I wouldn’t want to live my life any other way. I look forward to coming home at night and playing basketball with you in the driveway. I look forward to going to Newcastle to hit golf balls.

I look forward to tucking you in every night and saying: “Go Cougs, fight, fight, fight and counting down how many days it is until we beat the Huskies in the Apple Cup.”

I look forward to you beating me in every video game that we play. I look forward to going to Dairy Queen with you.

I have a lot of fun watching WWE with you and rooting for Dolph Ziggler and Alberto Del Rio. I can’t wait until we go to KeyArena to watch all of our favorite wrestlers in person again.

I can’t believe that you guys are 8 today. Eight! You’re almost done with second grade.

Pretty cool for your old dad to see how excited you were to get a couple of birthday presents from your grandma last night – a Kevin Durant jersey for you, Mikey; and a Russell Westbrook jersey for you, Stevie.

It took me back to 1967 when I was 10 and the Sonics came to town. As much as I enjoyed seeing the happy look on your faces when you opened your presents, it was also a little sad for me because those two players should still be Seattle SuperSonics.

You love these players even though they’re in Oklahoma City; I tried to imagine what it would be like if they were here, playing for the Sonics, your hometown heroes just like they were for me.

I am so darn proud of you guys. And I love how you think the Cougs are the greatest team ever, even when you know that they’re not. When you blew out the candles on your birthday cake, you wished for the Cougs to beat the Huskies in the Apple Cup.

I love that. Let me rephrase that – I love, love, love, love, love that!

What do I call you? Monsters, lunatics, my little men, what am I missing? Something I’m sure. I have no idea how mom and I are going to put you through college.

I guess I’ll be working forever, but I don’t care. We’ll figure it out. Mikey, I’ll hope that you’ll be playing for Mike Leach in 2022. Stevie, I hope you’ll be on the PGA Tour. Whatever you’re doing, your fat guy dad will be pulling for you.

Happy birthday ya goofballs. I’ll see you in the driveway tonight.

See what the Grandparents got the boys (hint: they may be OCT jerseys, but they’ll always be Sonics to me).

Yes, it’s true. From the 8th inning on, I rooted for the opposing pitcher to throw a perfect game against the Mariners.

I felt kind of guilty about it but figured what the heck – I’ve never seen a no-hitter or a perfect game in person. And my 7-year-old kids were with me. That probably had something to do with it.

Rather than have us walk out of Safeco Field after yet another dismal performance by the home team, I wanted to walk out after seeing something of historical significance.

Until yesterday, a perfect game had happened only 20 times. And one of the most amazing things about it – I can’t believe for as feeble as the Mariners have been over their 35 years that it has never happened to them before.

Here’s the question I have for Mariner fans – when did you start rooting for the perfect game? Or did you root for the Mariners to break it up right until the end?

Here’s what one of the Go 2 Twins had to say about it.

I didn’t watch much of the Mariners’ game last night because I was busy with my kids, playing basketball in the driveway and going to Dairy Queen later on.

Got Willie the Go 2 Pup an ice-cream cone. Had a Caramel Delite Blizzard myself.

Noticed that the Mariners struck out 15 times in a 7-3 loss to the White Sox. Dustin Ackley has struck out three times in two straight games.

I don’t know what to make of the Mariners. I’m trying to hang in there with them, but their lineup doesn’t look greatly improved at this point. And outside of Felix, the rotation is so-so.

I feel like a lame Coug because I’m not going to the spring game in Spokane today. Going to the Mariners’ game instead. Got four tickets from KIRO GM Dave Pridemore, a fellow Coug who’s going to the spring game.

The tickets are in the Diamond Club. I’ve had Diamond Club tickets once before – the seats are right behind home plate, and you also have access to a pre-game meal along with whatever you want to eat and drink all game long.

Everything’s inclusive, which means everything’s free. And when you have the willpower that I have (none), you wonder if you can show a little restraint and doubt that you can.

But I don’t plan to be a complete idiot. Partial idiot, yes; complete idiot, no. Taking the wife and kids, and I don’t have any problems drinking in front of my wife, but the kids? Can’t be a booze hound in front of them.

So I’ll probably have a beer or two and enjoy the game on a sunny day. Looking forward to it.

Also looking forward to hearing and reading about the Cougs’ spring game. I’ve got a Tuesday deadline for a Cougar football preview for Athlon magazine, so I’ve got to get up to speed on Mike Leach’s team in the next few days.

Go Cougs. Have a nice weekend. And thanks for stopping by the website.

Chone Figgins led off last night’s game against Cleveland with a home run. And he did it on the eighth pitch from Derek Lowe. This, according to baseball seamheads who know more about this crap than I do, was a perfect at-bat.

He worked the count before he went deep. It set a terrific tone for the rest of the game. And then you know what happened two batters later – Ichiro homered to right-center field too.

So that was cool. Jason Vargas was given a 2-0 lead, and he nursed it to a 4-1 victory that improved the Mariners’ record to 7-6 and 3-2 on the nine-game homestand.

A few other things of note:
• Justin Smoak did not play because of a mild hamstring strain. OK, I’m fine with that BUT…if you had four hits in the previous game like Smoak did, would you take the night off with a mild hammy strain? I wouldn’t either, not when my bat is heating up.
• Dustin Ackley replaced Smoak at first base and did all right over there. He played first base at North Carolina so this wasn’t a huge deal I guess. It didn’t bother him at the plate as Ackley came through with two hits.
• John Jaso wasn’t in the lineup, which surprised the hell out of me. Jaso, as you’ll recall, had a triple and a single last Wednesday in a 4-3 win in Texas. Then he didn’t play again until Tuesday night against Cleveland. He hits a two-run homer and isn’t in the lineup last night? What gives?
• You could say that Miguel Olivo snapped out of his slump with a sharp single to right. You could also say that if Michael Saunders hadn’t been running on the pitch, the Indians’ second baseman would have turned that sharp single into a double play.

Tonight, Felix is back on the mound for the Mariners, and I’m sure everyone will be checking the speed of his fastball again.

Josh Tomlin is chucking for the Indians, and he’s a guy who’s been throwing meatballs thus far this season – the right-hander’s ERA is 8.31.