Sports consist of a plethora of annual storylines for each team, with each player finding their own path through the year. The storylines of 2022 buoyed Seattle’s fans from the floor of an ocean of disappointment up to waves of hope crashing on a Pacific Northwest beach. These six stories impacted Seattle sports the most in 2022.

Flash Flood, Dead Drought

The Seattle Mariners, jokers of the MLB for the past two decades and infamous captains of the longest playoff drought in North American professional sports, came into this year hoping to throw off both titles. The season started off crashing into shoreline rocks, with the team falling below .500 and well out of a playoff spot. Murmurs and the same few cliché lines muttered each of the past 20 years floated around town.

“Same old Mariners team.”

“We’ll never make the playoffs!”

Around mid-June, the tide started to turn; in July, the tsunami arrived. The Mariners sunk 14 opponents in a row, tying a franchise record. They accelerated into the playoffs, relieving the postseason drought that had parched a thirsty city.

This feat alone would’ve satisfied the fanbase. However, the Mariners weren’t out of gas just yet.

The first postseason plunge was in Toronto, a best of three series. The Mariners cruised through Game 1, winning 4-0 over the Jays.

Game two threw the M’s into a whirlpool, down 8-1 in the fifth inning. Hope of a sweep disintegrated into the sea as many fans abandoned ship.

Everyone in the world thought the game was over. Everyone except those 28 Mariners in the visiting clubhouse.

They paddled their way upstream, eventually overtaking the Blue Jays in the ninth inning with a go-ahead single. An impossible 10-9 win powered Seattle through the storm.

What a perfect allegory of the season: finding themselves lost early in the voyage and fighting back into it late. Seattle couldn’t have wished for anything more.

The Mariners sputtered out in the Divisional Series against the eventual champion Houston Astros, but every fan in the city can look ahead to next season’s journey. The excitement is just on the horizon, rising like the morning sun.

Rusty Russell, Glimmering Geno

Russell Wilson was once the golden boy, the franchise quarterback, a shining hero in Seattle. After leading the Seahawks to a Super Bowl in 2014 (their first), the media uplifted Russell’s reputation. Kids in Seattle looked up to him, and he never failed to give back to the community.

The spotlight rarely left him, and Russell embraced his role as a cultural icon with his wife, the famous pop star Ciara. He once resembled a light shining on the city for the city, brighter than all the rest. However, in recent years, a villainous alter-ego emerged from the shadows: Wilson wanted more fame, more money, more power.

He feuded with multiple people in the Seahawks organization, including beloved head coach Pete Carroll. Blinded by the spotlight, he forced the team to make a choice: stick with Russ or stick with Pete.

The Seahawks chose Pete.

In March, the Seahawks shocked all sports fans, trading Russ to the Broncos for a huge package of players and draft picks in return. The fine print showed signs of a rebuild for the Seahawks, likely building for the future rather than the present.

The expectations for the team changed. The likelihood of this team making the playoffs was slim to none. Jason McIntyre, an analyst for the NFL, even promised he would shave a Seahawks logo into his head if the Seahawks finished with a winning record.

The team used each media report from a so-called expert as bulletin board inspiration.

In Primetime, on an electric Monday Night Football, with the world watching, the Broncos themselves rode into town, led by Russell Wilson. An enemy at his former abode, he wanted nothing more than a glistening win.

However, Wilson played like The Weeknd, blinded by the lights. The Seahawks closed as heavy underdogs, but they snuck out an ugly 17-16 win on that crisp Monday Night. The Hawks took their victory lap around the media, and they could’ve been satisfied right then and there.

But they weren’t. That wasn’t their final fuse. Hard fought, close, suspenseful games carried through the rest of the season.

Seattle had eight fuses left, just enough to sneak into the seventh seed in the playoffs, an accomplishment no one predicted. The leader of the team? Russell Wilson’s ex- backup, quarterback Geno Smith.

Resistance followed Smith in his three previous circuits in the NFL. Most counted him out. Experts wrote him off as a “permanent backup,” but Geno “ain’t write back though.”

He set multiple franchise records, proving himself to be an upgrade over Wilson and earning respect from around the league. Geno Smith’s starting left tackle? Star rookie Charles Cross, the stud the Seahawks drafted with one of the several picks that the Broncos gave them in “The Trade.”

The ride the Broncos expected this season crashed, as they had the 5th worst record in the NFL. That means the Seahawks own the 5th overall pick in the upcoming draft and a playoff spot. Many believe that this trade may become the most lopsided trade in NFL history.

Time will still tell all, but right now, the Seahawks are sitting pretty. Hopefully they can capitalize on this blunder by the Broncos and bring a second Lombardi trophy home to Seattle soon.

Freshman Frustration, Sophomore Surge

The Seattle Kraken entered the National Hockey League late. The league’s 32nd franchise arrived in 2021, after a tedious expansion process. Naïve as freshmen, they were just pumped to be in the same conversation as the veteran teams.

The city matched the excitement, ready to see the Kraken ace their first season on the ice. The oblivious expectations didn’t match the performance in year one: the Kraken flunked into the bottom of the league – a disappointing result to say the least.

The team’s freshman season brought struggles aplenty. Like a freshman who forgets the combination to their locker, the Kraken seemed to forget fundamental hockey and experienced periods of frustrations that seemed to go on forever.

To add insult to injury, the Las Vegas Golden Knights made the Stanley Cup final in their inaugural season as an expansion team, setting expectations high for future rookie teams. People wondered what the Kraken did wrong, why they scored an F when the path to an A was right in front of them.

Expectations ranged from zero to one hundred for the sophomore season. Maybe the sophomore slump hit early, and it was time to bounce back. Maybe there was still room to fall, and rock bottom isn’t even close yet.

The possibilities were limitless.

The former has proven true thus far. The Kraken have bounced back beautifully, rebounding all the way into a playoff spot, but just midway through the season.

The Kraken can’t stop studying now, as they still must pass another semester to see the returns they desire. Inconsistent goaltending has been the thorn in the side of the Kraken – the five-paragraph essay, if you will. If the Kraken discover the formula for consistent goaltending, their grades will skyrocket.

The support section for the Kraken hasn’t wavered once, the most loyal student section around. The Seattle hockey fanbase will fuel this Kraken team’s energy for the foreseeable future. Climate Pledge Arena, the newly renovated hockey venue, sold out each game for the first year and a half of its existence.

The atmosphere resembles a football game in Texas and has a fiery feel that adds tension to the games, like the classic student section chants. A playoff game inside would surely lead to a noise complaint, a complaint we the fans would accept with pride, as if it were a gold star. Like Lincoln’s new sports teams, the Kraken found their footing a bit late, but the rest of the leagues, both Metro and National Hockey, better watch out for decades to come.

Booming B-Ball, NBA Next?

Back in 2008, the Sonics dribbled their way to Oklahoma City, and have been looking for a way back ever since. When summertime rolls around, it is evident the basketball culture never left.

Jamal Crawford, a former NBA player and Rainier Beach High School graduate, hosts a Pro-Am, a fun, semi-professional basketball league at Seattle Pacific University for most weeks of the summer. There are normal teams, with players from around the Seattle area.

Then there are the special ones. The ones that make you go “NO WAY!”

Medium-level stars came in all summer, and even a few all-stars dropped by the Emerald City for the Pro-Am. That all changed when Jamal dropped some big news.

On Friday, August 19th, around 3 p.m., a Twitter bomb (a twomb) dropped. The one and only LeBron James (LeBron) would be performing his world-renowned act at Royal Brougham Pavilion the next day.

Ten minutes after the report hit the Twitter universe (twuniverse), Lebron fans (LeFans) set up camp outside the front doors. This was Friday afternoon, and LBJ wasn’t slated to play until 5 p.m. the next day, which would mean a 26 hour wait to see Lebron (LeWait).

Once Lebron retweeted Jamal Crawford’s original tweet (LeTweetTweet), hundreds more fans lined up to get in the gym. Morning showed lines converging into blobs (LeBlobs) and blobs into 5,000-person crowds. The gym holds 2,000 people, just a few more people than hieroglyphics in the name of Twitter’s new owner’s son.

This meant thousands couldn’t get in and see their idol play, but that didn’t stop them from trying. The stir around the SPU neighborhood notches in as one of the most influential basketball moments since our adored Sonics left for The Sooner State. Lebron brought some NBA friends with him (LeBuddies) and put on a show while he occupied the court.

In the coming years, Seattle hopes to see some more guest appearances, but eventually they would ideally not be necessary. Multiple politicians and celebrities attempting to bring an NBA team back home to The Emerald City made progress over the past year, and the turn out for Lebron and crew certainly should help (LeHelp) prove that Seattle deserves a franchise.

Continent Conquered, Netherlands Not

One victorious fight. That’s it. One.

The Seattle Sounders FC had that lone major highlight in the year 2022, and it came early on.

In May, they won the CONCACAF Champions League final. This is a contest comprised of all the premier clubs in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Panama, and all of North America. One opponent after another waved that white flag, ending with Mexican club Pumas.

This left Seattle’s own with a historic trophy that will not soon be forgotten. In this annual tournament, not a single American team has emerged victorious until now. The Sounders became the first MLS team to win the final, a major step in the development of the U.S. on the pitch.

This wasn’t just about the Sounders winning a championship. The bigger picture is growing a national brand. Soccer (yes, soccer, not football), is on a path towards world dominance.

November rolled around, and with it came the World Cup, the be all end all for nations around the globe. The USA eventually faced defeat at the hands of The Mighty Dutch, not to be confused with The Mighty Ducks. Amsterdam and friends knocked off the Patriots, but Americans still have plenty to be proud of.

Surviving the better half of the United Kingdom and beating Iran’s best is no small task. America is nowhere close yet, as exhibited by the Netherlands’ 3-1 triumph, but with a few more financial investments in this branch of our athletic culture, the states have a chance to compete. The question is when, not if.

The commonfolk clearly care. Seattle sold out Lumen Field, the final battle site for the CONCACAF final, setting a local attendance record of 68,741 spectators. The World Cup matches were watched around the globe, including every classroom at Lincoln, whether teachers wanted it or not.

The buzz around Seattle pollinated each soul, and like a blooming flower, big money will follow. Soccer recently rose to the fourth-favored sport in the USA, passing Canada’s baby, hockey. Soccer shows no signs of slowing down, and with the world as proof, non-American football might destroy everything in its path.

Setting Sun, Shooting Stars

As the sun set on Seattle in 2021, many expected dusk to darken into the black night of 2022. Heroes such as Russell Wilson, Sue Bird, and Kyle Seager defined this city for the past decade-plus. 2022 saw the light fade on all of them, and an era of Seattle sports came to an end.

Kyle went first. At the end of 2021, he announced his retirement from major league baseball.

The past 11 years with the Mariners were nothing short of admirable. He brought many bright moments, but not one playoff berth. Seattle would miss their third-base captain.

Russell Wilson faded next. It wasn’t the happiest of divorces, as the feud that ended the great partnership went out with fireworks. Russ led the Seahawks to two Super Bowl appearances and one victory.

Nine Pro-Bowls to his name, he was the pride and joy for Seattle for a long time. Many thought the Hawks would be lost without Wilson.

Finally, the queen of Seattle for the past two decades: Sue Bird. Sue retired at the end of the 2022 season, ending an epoch of success for the Seattle Storm, Seattle’s professional women’s basketball team.

Sue and the Storm brought four WNBA championships back home, by far the most successful franchise in the Pacific Northwest. As she retires, she still leaves a good Storm team behind, as well as a legacy that will leave her as arguably the greatest of all time in the WNBA.

From the ashes of our former heroes, new superstars emerged. In baseball, Julio Rodriguez’s rookie season reached historically great milestones. Julio seemingly was born to be a superstar.

From his otherworldly talent to his booming personality, Julio provided the burst and power the Mariners needed to break the playoff drought. The Mariners signed Julio to a long term contract extension this season, inking him for up to 18 years. The Mariners should be relevant for the next generation with this generational talent.

In football, rookies Tariq Woolen and Kenneth Walker proved themselves to be stars in the making this season. As Russell Wilson partially tarnished his legacy in Denver, the Seahawks’ rookie class, featuring stars everywhere on the field, brought hope to the franchise. With the young studs featured on this variation of the team, the Hawks are destined for success in coming years.

The last emerging star in 2022 came on a team that was desperately searching for one. Matty Beniers, a center for the Kraken, made the NHL all-star team in his rookie year. The Kraken struggled last year due to a lack of star-power, but this rookie out of Michigan provided that right out of the gate.

The Kraken have seemingly built a winning culture, with Matty leading the way for future young stars, like 2022 top 5 draft pick Shane Wright. They found their identity, and are ready to compete among the NHL’s best.

Thus wraps up the six substantial sports stories of 2022 in Seattle. The storylines intrigued the city and kept the fanbases active throughout the year. Now we look forward to what highs and lows 2023 will bring us.