Reading this New York Times article makes me positively swell with pride (this happens often with Seattle) and stop sniffling with my death cold for a few minutes. The Seattle Sounders FC, Major League Soccer’s newest team, has outscored opponents 5-0. More importantly, they’ve given Seattle fans an opportunity to demonstrate their sports passion, their civic pride, and their civic uniqueness.

1. I appreciate all of the national commentators noticing Seattle’s sports woes here at the end of 2008. Where were you when the Sonics moved and the national reaction was … mute? You’re a little late, thank you. But all of this moaning shouldn’t distract us from the true positives in Northwest sports. I’m not trying to put a feel-good spin on an awful year, or to deny the pain of the Mariners season, but I hope we recognize where things have gone well. There’s no curse on Seattle – the Seahawks, Sonics, Huskies and Mariners all made major mistakes to end up in the pits (or oblivion, in the Sonics’ case).

I wish that the incredible high-school basketball landscape in Washington for both men and women would continue to flourish and garner attention on the national stage. I wish to applaud the individual and team efforts of the University of Washington women’s cross country team. I wish that the new Seattle Sounders FC can bring more big-time soccer to the Seattle metro area. I wish to marvel at Gonzaga University’s sustained national success in major college basketball and their graduation from mid-major status.

2. I wish that Jim Mora will continue the professional approach of Mike Holmgren’s Seahawks. I expect nothing less from the continually classy Seahawks organization, but I also worry about the hotheaded Mora, who hasn’t held his tongue in important situations before and already brings a little controversy to the table. With Mike Holmgren, you expect greatness. You expect absolute respect to the players and the game. You appreciate that he’s put that whole general manager fiasco behind him and concentrated on coaching a great football team.

Holmgren will probably return to coaching after his upcoming sabbatical. Good for him. I’m almost more excited to witness what he does during his sabbatical. Will he write an authoritative coaching book? Will he join the rest of his family in missionary and service work around the entire world (I think this is pretty likely)? Will he lay low and not fluff up his hair for a pregame show gig? Heavens no. He’s too erudite and substantive for a TV show. Let’s just hope that Jim Mora spent all his time over the last two seasons drinking Holmgren’s brain fluid. If so, maybe that’s why Mora’s secondary has been so lackluster until the last couple weeks. Football, more than any other sport, is about the entire team, the entire 52-man roster. That’s why good coaches mean so much. Please, Jim Mora, be a good coach.

3. I wish that the Mariners would trade Ichiro. If your team’s identity was found in a $100 millionleadoff hitter who rarely walks, sells team merchandise like crazy, seems very interested in an entertainment career, speaks like a philosopher and made waves last season because many of his teammates apparently hated him, you might have some issues. The Mariners still have no leader and now they’ve lost Raul Ibanez. My wish: trade Ichiro and his ridiculous contract for whatever we can get. Just see what we can get in return. We need position players. Why not sign Pat Burrell? Please, I’m done with Ichiro. It’s apparent he’s a clubhouse cancer, but he doesn’t make the same waves as others like T.O. because he lives in Japan half the year and because his selfishness isn’t so public. The guy won’t participate in the Home Run Derby even though he could create record ratings!

To be fair, it’s not that Ichiro is bad. Calling him a clubhouse cancer is probably going too far. He’s a good major league leadoff hitter and a very good defensive outfielder, but ultimately replaceable. His time with the Mariners has come to an end. He is not a team leader and at his contract, he needs to be one. If we’re going to rebuild, let’s rebuild. That means saying goodbye to easy merchandise money for a while and trying to move forward without Ichiro. The million-dollar leadoff man model is broken.