September 8, 1974: Evel Knievel at the Snake River Canyon

September 8, 1974, 50 years ago: Evel Knievel tries to jump over the Snake River Canyon in Idaho, on a "sky-cycle."

For people too young to remember Knievel (pronounced Keh-NEE-vil), he was the kind of figure who defies description. He was a 1970s phenomenon, a proper coming together of man and moment, hero and hype level. He was the King of the Daredevils, wearing star-spangled jumpsuits, big collars, big belts with big buckles, and making a fool of himself in Las Vegas. Which makes him sound like the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, except Elvis also had some great shows in Vegas.

Robert Craig Knievel was born on October 17, 1938 in Butte, Montana. He claimed he'd adopted the stage name "Evel Knievel" after being arrested for, no joke, reckless driving, and sharing a cell with a man known as William "Awful" Knofel. He made it "Evel" instead of "Evil," and wore white instead of black, because he didn't want anyone to think he was associated with motorcycle gangs like the Hell's Angels.

He participated in rodeos, ski jumping events, and served in the U.S. Army before marrying Linda Joan Bork and starting a semi-pro hockey team. To support his family, Knievel started the Sur-Kill Guide Service, and later worked as an insurance salesman.

Eventually, he opened a Honda motorcycle dealership in Washington, D.C., but faced difficulties promoting Japanese imports. After the dealership closed, Knievel worked at a motorcycle shop where he learned motocross stunts that would later contribute to his daredevil career.

He put together a show featuring other bikers, and called it Evel Knievel and His Motorcycle Daredevils. He gradually increased the number of cars he could jump over, until June 19, 1966, in Missoula, in his home State of Montana: He tried to jump 12 cars and a cargo van, but his back wheel hit the top of the van, he fell, and he ended up with a broken arm and several broke ribs. But he survived, and that began his legend.

On March 25, 1967, he cleared 15 cars at Ascot Park in Gardena, California. He tried that again on July 28, 1967, in Graham, Washington. He landed his cycle on the last vehicle, a panel truck, was thrown from his bike, and suffered a serious concussion. He went back there on August 18, and his injuries were more serious.

He recovered and, on New Year's Eve, December 31, 1967, the same day that CBS broadcast the NFL Championship Game -- the Ice Bowl in Green Bay -- Knievel tried to jump 140 feet, over the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. He wanted it broadcast live on ABC Wide World of Sports. ABC said no: They told him to film it, and, if they thought it worthwhile, they would buy it, would broadcast it later. So Knievel got two friends to film it: Actor-director John Derek, and Derek's then-wife Linda Evans.

He did the jump, but he couldn't stick the landing, and was thrown over the handlebars. This was his worst set of injuries yet. But he didn't die. He lived to jump again, and was doing so by March 25, 1968. ABC refused to buy the Caesars film. As his legend grew, his production company rented the film to ABC, which would, eventually broadcast it -- many times.

On January 7 and 8, 1971, he sold out the Astrodome in Houston on back-to-back days. On the following February 28, he jumped 19 cars at the Ontario Motor Speedway in the Los Angeles suburb of Ontario, California. Doug Senecal was then 10 years old and living in Massachusetts, and was fascinated. In 2015, using the name Doug Danger, he wore the same costume and drove the same cycle that Knievel used in the Ontario jump, and set a new record, jumping 22 cars in Sturgis, South Dakota.

On March 3, 1972, at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco, Knievel made a successful jump, but, because of a short landing area, tried to stop short, and got hurt. He didn't get back to jumping until November 10, 1973. It was on this occasion that ABC finally agreed to put him on Wide World live, for what would be the 1st of 6 such appearances. There were 50 cars stacked at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and he got over them successfully, and landed successfully.

As far back as 1968, Knievel told the media that his dream was to jump from one side of the Grand Canyon in Arizona to the other. But the Canyon is included in the National Park system, controlled by the U.S. Department of the Interior, which denied him every time he asked, no matter what safety precautions he suggested. In 1971, while flying from one stunt to another, he was over the Snake River Canyon in Idaho, and he was struck by its natural beauty. Since the federal government had no control over that, that's what he set his mind on.

ABC refused to broadcast this one, fearing that he was finally going to be killed. Of course, they were already set to broadcast the Heavyweight Championship fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, which had people thinking that Foreman might actually kill Ali in the ring. (Instead, Ali knocked Foreman out.) And Wide World of Sports broadcast all kinds of dangerous events, from cliff diving in Mexico to all kinds of auto races: The Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Formula 1 and Grand Prix in Europe and South America. So who was kidding who?

So Knievel hired boxing promoter Bob Arum's company, Top Rank Productions, to put the event on closed-circuit television, and broadcast it to movie theaters, as if it were a major prizefight.

By this point, Knievel had learned that you couldn't just guess, or do it "by feel." He had accepted that he had to embrace the science of it -- which meant hiring people smarter than himself to figure it out. An ordinary motorcycle wasn't going to be able to do it. He hired aeronautical engineers Doug Malewicki and Robert Truax to build him a rocket-powered vehicle to jump across the Snake River.

On September 8, 1974, at 3:36 PM Mountain Time -- 5:36 Eastern -- the Skycycle was launched at the south rim of the Snake River Canyon, west of Shoshone Falls, Idaho. But the launch caused the drogue parachute to prematurely deploy, resulting in too much drag. The vehicle did reach a point over the north rim, but the wind caught the parachute, and blew it back to the south side of the canyon. The Skycycle crashed into the rock wall, and viewers were sure that Knievel had been killed.

Instead, at that point, crashing into the rock wall was the better option. He survived with only minor injuries. But he couldn't get out of the vehicle himself: His harness had malfunctioned. Had he landed in the water, he would have drowned before the rescue crew could get to him.

He had failed. But he had lived. The spectacle mattered more than the result. And, with Watergate reaching a climax that day with President Ford pardoning former President Nixon, America needed this kind of distraction. Evel Knievel had become the biggest thing in America.

On May 26, 1975, Wide World of Sports broadcast his attempt to jump over 13 buses at Wembley Stadium in London. These were not the "double-decker buses" that London is known for, but they were certainly taller than the kind of cars he was used to jumping. Frank Gifford, who was part of CBS' broadcast crew for the Ice Bowl, and wasn't there at Caesars, had since come to ABC, and had become friends with Knievel, and was the lead broadcaster for this event.

Over 90,000 people saw Knievel take off with not enough speed, and he hit the landing ramp with his front wheel, causing the bike to "trampoline" up, throwing him. His landing would have been bad enough, but the bike, with its wheels still spinning, kept going, and landed on top of him. The spinning of the wheel burned through his jumpsuit, extending his injuries.

He never lost consciousness. Gifford was among those who rushed to help him. They got him to a standing position, and he took a microphone, and said, "Ladies and gentlemen of this wonderful country, I've got to tell you that you are the last people in the world who will ever see me jump. Because I will never, ever, ever jump again. I'm through."

Gifford begged him to get on a stretcher for his ride to the hospital. Despite knowing his injuries included a broken pelvis -- because he'd done that before -- he said, "I came in walking, I went out walking!"

Like a great boxer, of course he couldn't stay retired. Just 5 months later, on October 25, he jumped 14 Greyhound buses at the Kings Island amusement part outside Cincinnati. At 133 feet, it was his longest successful jump. And it was Wide World of Sports' highest-rated broadcast ever. Again, he retired. Again, he lied, and came back, with a successful jump at Seattle's new Kingdome.

Inspired by the film Jaws, he wanted to jump a tank full of live sharks. On January 31, 1977, he rehearsed the jump at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago. He lost control of the motorcycle, and hit a cameraman, Thomas Geren, and a wall. He broke both of his arms, but heard that Geren had sustained a permanent eye injury. That was it: He was willing to risk his own life and limb, but not someone else's. He never jumped again. As it turned out, though, Geren regained his full vision. Though relieved, this time, Knievel kept his word, and never jumped again.

The Guinness Book of World Records listed him as having suffered 433 separate breakings of bones. He said he had broken 35 different bones over his career. It all left him in terrible pain, especially in his back.

He turned to painting, a much calmer pastime -- and one he shared with another famous Wide World of Sports crasher, Slovenian ski jumper Vinko Bogataj, victim of the 1970 "agony of defeat" fall. He supported his son Robbie Knievel's daredevil career, addressing the crowds at Robbie's events. He did safety-themed commercials, telling kids to wear helmets while riding their bicycles, to stay away from drugs, and one on radio for the New York City Transit Authority, telling people not to try "stunts" on Subway trains or buses: "Take it from a daredevil, me, Evel Knievel: Some stunts are just plain stupid."

But his health declined. His many surgeries required blood transfusions that led to Hepatitis C, and needed a liver transplant. It looked like he wouldn't get one, and, in 1999, he was told that he only had a few days to live. He decided to leave the hospital, and die at his home. On the car ride home, he got a call that a liver was available. Take a wild guess as to how the donor died: In a motorcycle accident. (On the NBC hospital drama ER, the characters called motorcycles "donorcycles.")

In 2005, to raise relief funds for Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, he worked with Harley-Davidson, makers of all his motorcycles, to lead a group of cyclists on a fundraising ride around Harley's hometown of Milwaukee. But he suffered a stroke shortly before the event, and had to limit his effort to an autograph-signing session.

Evel Knievel may have been on ABC Wide World of Sports 6 times, but what he did was not a sport. He died on November 30, 2007, outside Tampa in Clearwater, Florida -- not due to the effects of any or all of his crashes, but due to lung disease and diabetes.

Maxim, a magazine geared toward men, always with a scantily clad woman on the cover, printed his last interview. He said, "You can't ask a guy like me why I performed. I really wanted to fly through the air. I was a daredevil, a performer. I loved the thrill, the money, the whole macho thing. All those things made me Evel Knievel. Sure, I was scared. You gotta be an ass not to be scared. But I beat the hell out of death."

In 1999, Robbie Knievel jumped a portion of the Grand Canyon owned by the Hualapai Indian Reservation, out of the federal government's jurisdiction. In 2016, stuntman Eddie Braun, working with Evel's son Kelly and Ronald Truax's son Scott, successfully piloted a replica of the 1974 Skycycle over the Snake River Canyon. Braun idolized Evel, and had insisted that the jump would have worked if the parachute hadn't deployed too soon. He proved himself right.

It took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. There were too many ridiculous distractions from the rotten things going on in the world; and, at the same time, not enough of them.

How to Go to a Football Game In Idaho

38 States down, 12 to go. The football team at Boise State University, the most popular sports team in the State of Idaho, hosts the University of Virginia this coming Saturday.

Before You Go. Being sort-of in the Rocky Mountains, Idaho can get cooler and then colder sooner than New York does. Being sort-of in the Pacific Northwest, Idaho can get rainier than New York does. Precipitation is not scheduled to be an issue next Saturday, but low temperatures might be: Mid-60s by day, but low 40s at night. Definitely bring a jacket.

The Idaho Panhandle is in the Pacific Time Zone, 3 hours behind New York, because it shares economic and cultural links with adjoining Washington State and its eastern city of Spokane. The southern part of the State is in the Mountain Time Zone, 2 hours behind. This includes Boise, where this game will take place.

Indeed, the shape of Idaho doesn't make sense: The Panhandle probably should have gone to Washington, and the rest of the State to stand on its own or to neighboring Montana or Utah. Or maybe the Panhandle, and eastern Washington and Oregon, should have been merged into a single State, which has been discussed. The combined region is sometimes called The Palouse.

Tickets. BSU got over 31,000 for all 6 home games last season, and 2 were close enough to capacity to be considered sellouts. That was roughly the case the year before, too, and they got 31,581 for their home opener 2 weeks ago, against Troy University of Troy, Alabama, a school many of those fans probably had never even heard of. Getting tickets might be difficult.

Students are seated in the northeast corner, so those sections are unavailable. Midfield seats are $65, south end zone seats are $43, and north end zone seats are $28.

Getting There. It's 2,470 miles from Midtown Manhattan to the Boise State campus. Knowing this, your first instinct will be to fly. You can get a flight from Newark to Boise Airport, but it won't be nonstop. Round-trip fare would be a little over $800. There is no bus service from the airport to downtown.

Amtrak does not go to Boise, making its only stop in the State in Sandpoint, 500 road miles to the north. Greyhound goes there, with a round-trip fare of $452, but it can drop to $375 with advanced purchase. The station is at 1212 W. Bannock Street.

Knowing that, if you really, really want to drive... Get onto Interstate 80 West in New Jersey, and stay on that through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and Utah. Outside Ogden, Utah, at Exit 168, switch to Interstate 84 West. Take that into Idaho, and get off at Exit 54, which will take you into downtown Boise.

Not counting rest stops, you should be in New Jersey for an hour and a half, Pennsylvania for 5:15, Ohio for 4 hours, Indiana for 2:30, Illinois for 2:45, Iowa for 5 hours, Nebraska for 6:45, Wyoming for 6:30, Utah for 3:30, and Idaho for 3:45. In total, that's around 41 1/2 hours. Given rest stops, we're talking more like 56 hours -- almost 2 1/2 days.

Once In the City. During the American Civil War, when Congress was considering organizing a new territory in the Rocky Mountains, eccentric lobbyist George M. Willing suggested the name "Idaho", which he claimed was derived from a Shoshone language term meaning "the sun comes from the mountains" or "gem of the mountains." Willing later claimed he had simply invented the name. And the origin of the name isn't the only strange thing about the State.

The State House in Boise

Idaho gained Statehood on July 3, 1890, the 43rd State, and is home to about 1.7 million people. About 225,000 of these live in the largest city, Boise -- and that's pronounced "BOY-see," with an S sound, not "BOY-zee," with a Z sound -- which is also the capital. It was founded in 1862, and was named for an exclamation made by a French guide: "Les bois, les bois!" (The wood, the wood!) The river, a U.S. Army fort, and finally a city were then named "Boise."

Idaho is 89 percent white. There are more Native Americans and people of Asian descent living there than black people. This explains why it has voted Republican in every election but 1 since 1948, and even in 1964, it came closer than any State other than the Deep South and his home State of Arizona to going for Barry Goldwater.

It's also why far-rught groups like the Aryan Nations and the "Christian Identity" lunatics have found Idaho to their liking. The Ruby Ridge incident of 1992 was in Idaho. And while we associate the dumb right-wing freak Sarah Palin with Alaska, not only was she born in Sandpoint, but got her degree (somehow) from the University of Idaho.

Other than that, while its nickname of The Gem State speaks to its jewelry production, Idaho is most famous for its potatoes, producing about 1/3rd of the nation's spuds. Indeed, while the State's license plates call it "Scenic IDAHO" and show mountains, they also say, "FAMOUS POTATOES," even though there's no picture of a potato on one -- or on their State Quarter, which shows the State Bird, the peregrine falcon.

The State sales tax is 6 percent, but it rises to 6 1/2 percent in Boise. The Area Code is 208, and ZIP Codes start with the digits 83, 837 in the Boise area. The local daily newspaper is the Idaho Statesman. Main Street and Warm Springs Avenue divide streets addresses into North and South, and 1st Street divides them into East and West.

What amounts to a skyline in Boise.

The Eighth & Main Building is at center,

the State House dome to the right.

The Downtown Circulator, a streetcar system, is under construction. But even if it were ready, it wouldn't help you get to the game. Valley Regional Transit runs the buses. A single fare is $1.00, and and all-day pass is $3.00. Boise doesn't have a beltway.

Boise Junior College was founded as a 2-year school in 1932. It became a 4-year school, Boise College, in 1965; was renamed Boise State College in 1969; and was renamed Boise State University in 1974. "Extended Studies at Bosie State" offers regional classes in Lewiston, Coeur d'Alene, Nampa and Twin Falls. Notable alumni include current Governor of Idaho and former Congressman Butch Otter, former Governor Mike O'Callaghan of Nevada, author William Anderson, actor Earl Boen and film director Michael Hoffman.

Going In. Boise State's stadium opened in 1970 as Bronco Stadium, and was renamed Albertsons Stadium in 2014, when naming rights were purchased by Joe Albertson, head of the Albertsons grocery chain. Capacity was 14,500 when it opened, and was expaned to 20,000 in 1975, 30,000 in 1997, and to the present 36,387 in 2012.

It is about a mile and a half south of downtown, across and on the Bosie River. The official address is 1400 Bronco Lane. Bus R2 from downtown. (That's R2, not R2-D2.) If you drive in, parking is $15.

The stadium is a horseshoe, open at the north end. The playing surface is named Lyle Smith Field. Smith played football and basketball at the school in the 1930s, served as the school's football coach from 1947 to 1967, and its athletic director from 1968 to 1981. He moved the program up from junior college to the NAIA in 1968, NCAA Division II in 1970, and Division I-AA (now FCS) in 1978. After him, it moved up to Division I-A (now FBS) in 1996. He died a few weeks ago, at the age of 101.

The field is laid out north-to-south, and has been artificial turf since the stadium opened. And not just any artificial turf: Since 1986, it's been blue, first AstroTurf, and, since 2008, FieldTurf.

Albertsons Stadium, with their training facility,

Caven-Williams Sports Complex, at the northwest corner

Due to its distinctive color, it is known as the Smurf Turf. They're used to playing on it, visiting teams aren't, so the effect is similar to how the Boston Celtics knew the dead spots on the parquet floor of the old Boston Garden, while visiting teams couldn't avoid them.

The NFL banned colors other than green for fields (aside from the end zones) in 2011, but, contrary to myth, the NCAA has never done so, not even with a grandfather clause allowing Boise State to keep theirs. In 2014, Eastern Michigan became the 2nd FBS school to adopt a nontraditional color, going gray. None of the major conference schools have done so, though.

Admit it: You thought that if any school was going to go

with a nontraditional color, it would be a "hippie" school

like the University of Colorado, or the University of Oregon,

or the University of Washington, or Bill Walton's UCLA, man.

Since 1997, the stadium has hosted a bowl game, even though Idaho is not exactly a warm-weather destination as bowl cities are generally known for being. It was called the Humanitarian Bowl until 2011, when they decided to go with a local name (like Miami's Orange, New Orleans' Sugar, Dallas' Cotton, Atlanta's Peach, and so on), and began calling it the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. It is the longest-running cold-weather-city bowl in the country.

The Taco Bell Arena, the 12,644-seat home to BSU's indoor sports teams, is opposite the northwest corner of the stadium. It was known as the BSU Pavilion from its 1982 opening until 2004.

Food. It's "mid-major" college football, so don't expect anything spectacular. But I've read that a particular favorite item of the locals are the mini-donuts with caramel dipping sauce.

Team History Displays. Boise State won the Big Sky Conference title in 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1980 and 1994; won the Big West Conference in 1999 and 2000; won the Western Athletic Conference in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010; and have won the Mountain West Conference in 2012 and 2014.

That's 18 league titles in a span of just 42 seasons, and includes undefeated seasons in 2006 (13-0, including an overtime win over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl) and 2009 (14-0, including another Fiesta Bowl win, over Texas Christian). However, due to strength of schedule, their final poll rankings were only Number 5 in 2006 and Number 4 in 2009. They did, however, win the Division I-AA National Championship in 1980.

Display inside Albertsons Stadium.

That's Lyle Smith in the hat.

Although they have minor rivalries with Brigham Young, Nevada (the main campus in Reno, not UNLV), Fresno State and Hawaii, Boise State's biggest rivalry is with their cross-State opponents the University of Idaho.

UI is located in Moscow, Idaho, and I once read a Sports Illustrated article that didn't make them look good. They were doing silly categories for college football. They said the best college town was Austin, home of the University of Texas. They listed a tie for the worst: "1. Pullman, Washington, home of Washington State. To party, students must drive 10 miles to Moscow, Idaho. 2. Moscow, Idaho." (Actually, it's 8 miles, as close as the campuses of USC and UCLA.)

Their teams are called the Vandals. The original Vandals were an East Germanic tribe, from present-day Poland, and sacked Rome in AD 455, thus the creation of the term "vandalism" for property damage. Good name for a football team, although it's not clear what damage they could do to a bucking Bronco, as Boise State calls its teams.

They first met in 1971, and Boise State leads the rivalry 22-17-1. But when BSU moved to the Mountain West in 2011, their schedule was such that they had to give up an interleague game, and they chose Idaho. Idaho then refused to play BSU in basketball. They still don't like each other much. Now members of the Sun Belt Conference, UI have a losing record all-time, but are 3-0 in bowl games.

Boise won every game from 1999 onward, including all 10 games since the institution of the Governor's Trophy in 2001.

Boise State players with the Governor's Trophy,

inside Idaho's indoor stadium, the 15,200-seat Kibbie Dome

UPDATE: On November 19, 2018, Moneywise compiled a list of their Worst College Football Stadiums, the bottom 19 percent of college football, 25 out of 129. Boise State was spared. Idaho was not, coming in 11th: 

The Kibbie Dome is one of the smallest and most unusual venues in the NCAA. The 43-year-old stadium seats fewer than 16,000 and has a domed roof made of wood. An opposing coach once famously said the barrel-arched building looked like "a Campbell's Soup can cut in half."

There is not much of a rivalry with Idaho State University, in Pocatello, which plays in the Big Sky Conference and whose teams are called the Bengals. UI hates ISU much more than BSU does. They succeeded Boise State as Division I-AA National Champions in 1981.

Boise State has one player in the College Football Hall of Fame, and one in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but they're not the same player. Linebacker Dave Wilcox starred for the San Francisco 49ers in the 1960s, and he's enshrined in the Pro Hall in Canton. Randy Trautman was a defensive tackle at BSU from 1978 to 1981, and he's in the College Hall in Atlanta. He never played in the NFL, instead playing for the CFL's Calgary Stampeders.

Other notable BSU athletes include former Knick and Net Chris Childs, Basketball Hall-of-Famer Gus Johnson, All-Star pitcher Larry Jackson, former Jet running back Cedric Minter, former Jet cornerback Kyle Wilson, and Super Bowl-winning Pittsburgh Steeler defensive tackle Kimo von Oelhoffen.

A statue of centenarian Lyle Smith stands outside the stadium. He did live long enough to see its dedication.

Stuff. There is no team store at the stadium. The Bookstore and Bronco Shop are in the same building, but with different addresses: 1700 and 1910 W. University Drive, respectively.

Boise State Football: A Photographic History, a coffee-table book, was published by the University in 2009. The DVD Out of the Blue: A Film About Life & Football at Boise State was produced last year.

During the Game. You're a visitor, and have no reason to antagonize the locals. Don't do that, and your safety won't be an issue. You wanna talk potatoes, go ahead. You wanna talk about the Smurf Turf, critiquing is okay, insulting is not. And stay away from the subject of neo-Nazis, as they're understandably sensitive about that.

Bronco players are led out of the tunnel at the beginning of the game by a horse and rider, with the first player out carrying The Hammer, awarded to the last game's best special teams player, or to the player with the biggest hit.

The noise level at Albertsons Stadium, led by the Blue Thunder marching band, has been measured as high as 123 decibels -- above the 120db threshold of human pain. Bronco fans chant "Boise! State!" with opposite sides of the stadium answering each other. 

After the Game. Be nice, and you'll get nice in return. You and your car (if you drove in) should be safe.

Most of the nearby places to eat are on South Broadway Avenue (U.S. Routes 20 & 26). To the south of the Stadium and the River, going south from the Stadium, there's a Chili's, a Burger Belly, a Starbucks, a Subway, a Wendy's, a Burger King, a Noodles & Company, a Del Taco, a McDonald's, a Little Caesar's, a Taco Bell and a Pizza Hut. Among non-chains, there's The Pie Hole, the Suds Tavern, Cobby's, R Bar, and Flying Pie Pizzeria. If that's not enough choice for you, there are other choices north of the Stadium and the River.

If you're a fan of a European soccer team, you can get your fix at the Double Tap Pub, at 409 S. 8th Street, downtown.

Sidelights. There are no professional, even minor-league, football, basketball or soccer teams in Idaho. The State does have 2 professional baseball teams. The Boise Hawks play in the Class A Northwest League, 5 levels below the major leagues, and are currently a farm team of the Colorado Rockies. They play at the 3,452-seat Memorial Stadium. 5600 N. Glenwood Street.

They've won 6 Pennants: 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2002 and 2004, and have won their Division 10 times, most recently in 2012. Previously, the Boise Braves won Pennants in 1956 and 1958. So that's 8 Pennants for Boise.

On the other side of the State, the Idaho Falls Chukars play in the Pioneer League, a Rookie league, 6 levels below the majors, as a farm club of the Kansas City Royals. They play at 3,400-seat Melaleuca Field, at 568 West Elva.

Idaho Falls teams have won 7 Pennants: As the Idaho Falls Russets in 1952, as the Idaho Falls Yankees in 1963, as the Idaho Falls Angels in 1970 and 1974, as the Idaho Falls Braves in 1998, as the Idaho Falls Padres in 2000, and as the Chukars (a bird indigenous to the area) in 2013.

Boise has a minor-league hockey team, the Idaho Steelheads, winners of the 2004 and 2007 Kelly Cups as ECHL Champions. (For geographical reasons, the letters officially no longer stand for anything, much less their original "East Coast Hockey League.") They play at the CenturyLink Arena, built in 1997 and seating 5,000. 233 S. Capitol Blvd. downtown.

The Idaho State Historical Museum is at 214 S. Broadway Avenue, 3 blocks north of the river. The Discovery Center of Idaho is at 131 W. Myrtle Street, also downtown. Yes, there is an Idaho Potato Museum, but it's in Blackfoot, at 130 NW Main Street, 256 miles southeast of Boise, closer to Idaho Falls (29 miles southwest of it). So it's a bit of a trek.

Neither Elvis Presley nor the Beatles ever performed in Idaho. Idaho has never produced a President, or even a Vice President. The closest it has come is when Sarah Palin, born and, for want of a better word, educated in Idaho, but living most of her life in Alaska (including her brief term as Governor), was nominated by John McCain to run on the Republican ticket in 2008.

The tallest building in Idaho is just 323 feet tall, and carries the rather unimaginative name of the Eighth & Main Building, for its downtown Boise address.

Few TV shows have been set in Idaho. The most popular is Malcolm In the Middle. Then there was the briefly-running 2012 spinoff of the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite. Other than that film, the best-known movie set in the State is My Own Private Idaho, whose title was taken from a B-52's song.

*

Idaho is beautiful -- if sparsely populated, and partly populated by some people who are unpleasant by choice. But that shouldn't be a problem at a Boise State football game. Your only problem there could be the assaults on your eyes by the Smurf Turf and on your ears by the Blue Thunder and the fans they egg on. You could still enjoy yourself.

Top 10 Athletes From Idaho

July 3, 1890: Idaho is admitted to the Union as the 43rd State.

Top 10 Athletes from Idaho

10. Sarah Heath of Sandpoint. Okay, this women's basketball star has spent most of her life in Alaska, didn't play the sport beyond high school, is now more identified with hockey, and goes by her married name of Sarah Palin...

Just checking to see if you were paying attention. Although Sandpoint isn't all that far from the Canadian border, so maybe she shouldn't have questioned President Barack Obama's American birth.

Now, let's get serious.

10. Luke Ridnour of Coeur d'Alene. When I did a list of the greatest basketball players from each State, Ridnour turned out to be the best of a weak bunch from Idaho. And he just barely qualifies, as he went to Washington State to play high school ball, as his father was his coach.

But he was named Pac-10 Player of the Year in 2003, almost getting the University of Oregon into the Final Four. He starred as a guard for the Seattle SuperSonics (including their last season, 2007-08, but getting traded before they could complete the move), the Milwuakee Bucks and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

9. Merril Hoge of Pocatello. Idaho has never produced a Heisman Trophy winner, but it's produced a few really good football players. A star running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, he has become better known for having sustained concussions, and his activism in promoting their prevention and treatment.

He is also a renowned studio analyst, and has a son now playing at Brigham Young, and another at Notre Dame.

8. Wayne Walker of Boise. The Detroit Lions have their share of legends, but not many living ones, and they just lost another this past May 19. Walker (no relation to earlier Lion legend Doak) was a linebacker and placekicker for 15 seasons, making 3 Pro Bowls. He later served as a broadcaster for the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Athletics.

7. Jake Plummer of Smiley Creek. His real name is Jason Steven Plummer, but he adopted the nickname "Jake the Snake" after pro wrestler Aurelian Smith Jr., a.k.a. Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who took his nickname from an earlier quarterback, Ken Stabler.

He was named Pac-10 Conference Player of the Year as a quarterback at Arizona State in 1996. He starred for the Arizona Cardinals, getting them into the Playoffs in 1998 (their only berth between 1982 and 2008) and getting them a win away to the Dallas Cowboys (their only postseason win between 1947 and 2008). In 2005, with the Denver Broncos, he was named to the Pro Bowl.

6. Vernon Law of Meridian. He won 162 games as a major league pitcher, all with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1960, he went 20-9, made the All-Star Team, won the World Series, and was named the winner of the Cy Young Award, then given to the best pitcher in both leagues.

A Mormon deacon, and the father of former MLB infielder Vance Law, he is believed to be the originator of 2 well-known quotes. One is, "A winner never quits, and a quitter never wins." The other is, "Experience is a hard teacher, because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards."

5. Gary Stevens of Boise. Winner of over 5,000 horse races, he won the Kentucky Derby aboard the aptly-named filly Winning Colors in 1988, Thunder Gulch in 1995 and Silver Charm in 1997. He's also won 4 Preakness Stakes, 3 Belmont Stakes, and 11 races in Breeders' Cup play, including the 2013 Classic aboard Mucho Macho Man -- the horse was 5, the jockey 50.

He is a member of the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame, and is still active. (Active jockeys are eligible.) He also played George Woolf, one of the title horse's jockeys, in the film version of Seabiscuit.

4. Jerry Kramer of Sandpoint. He might be the best guard in football history, and yet, in 2008, NFL Films named him the Number 1 player not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He was a 6-time Pro Bowler with the Green Bay Packers, winning 5 NFL Championships, including the 1st 2 Super Bowls in the 1966-67 and 1967-68 seasons. He is best known for his block that allowed Bart Starr's quarterback sneak to win the 1967 NFL Championship Game, a.k.a. the Ice Bowl.

His diary of that 1967 season, Instant Replay, preceded Jim Bouton's Ball Four by 2 years, although it wasn't nearly as controversial. His recollection of the Packers' Super Bowl I winners, Distant Replay, is football's answer to Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer.

He was named to the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame and the NFL's 1960s All-Decade Team. But he's still not in Canton. He's 81 years old. What are the voters waiting for?

UPDATE: Seven months later, on the eve of Super Bowl LII, Jerry Kramer, still alive, was finally elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He had been eligible for 44 years.

3. Picabo Street of Sun Valley. She won a Silver Medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, in the women's downhill. In 1995, she won the downhill at skiing's World Cup, becoming the 1st American of either gender ever to win a speed event at the World Cup. A nasty injury in a 1996 training accident put her 1998 Olympic chances in jeopardy, but she won the Gold Medal in the Super-G at Nagano, Japan anyway.

2. Larry Wilson of Rigby. Like 1920s football star George Wilson, to whom he appears not to have been related, he was nicknamed Wildcat, but the earlier Wilson is not the reason. When he was drafted by the Chicago Cardinals in 1960 -- they moved to St. Louis before the season -- their defensive coordinator, Chuck Drulis, created a play he code-named "Wildcat," inventing the safety blitz. The Cards drafted Larry specifically to take advantage of this, as his play at the University of Utah showed him to be both really fast and hard-hitting.

Larry Wilson was so tough! (How tough was he?) He was so tough, he once played a game with both hands taped over, including his fingers, because he had broken both wrists -- and still intercepted a pass. It was 1 of 52 he picked off in his career, for 800 yards, including 5 touchdowns.

The aforementioned Jerry Kramer called him "the finest football player in the NFL." It seems a crime that he never appeared in a Playoff game in his 13 seasons, but Kramer's Packers dominated the NFL Western Division at the time, so the closest the Cardinals came was finishing 2nd in 1964, making the subsequent Bert Bell Benefit Bowl (a.k.a. the Playoff Bowl).

It's not that they weren't good: They were 9-5 in 1963, 9-3-2 in 1964, 8-5-1 in 1966, 9-4-1 in 1968, and 8-5-1 in 1970. We're not talking about a one-man team here. Had he hung on just a little longer, he could have been a part of the Cardinals' 1974 and '75 NFC Eastern Division Champions.

He made 8 Pro Bowls, and was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the NFL 1960s and 1970s All-Decade Teams (even though he retired in 1972, and the only other man named to both teams was Dick Butkus), the NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team, and The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Football Players.

It is a crime that he was not named to the NFL Network's 100 Greatest Players in 2010, especially since he was still alive and available for an interview (and still is now). Along with Ronnie Lott, Paul Krause, Ken Houston and Emlen Tunnell, he is probably still 1 of the top 5 safeties in football history.

The Cardinals retired his Number 8 well before they moved to Arizona. Even though he never played for Arizona (though he was a Cardinals executive both before and after the move, serving as scouting director, personnel director, general manager and vice president, retiring from an active role in 2002), he is in their Ring of Honor at University of Phoenix Stadium. Although he never played for the Rams, they (before moving back to Los Angeles) named him to the St. Louis Football Ring of Fame at the Edwards Jones Dome.

1. Harmon Killebrew of Payette. Due to his name, they called him "The Killer." Fortunately, like his contemporary, Frank "The Monster" Howard, he was a nice guy in real life.

He was a one-dimensional player. He couldn't field, and was tried in the outfield and 3rd base before being moved to 1st base, until the American League finally brought in the designated hitter. He couldn't run, and indeed was nicknamed "The Fat Kid" by his fellow players. And he couldn't hit for average: Among players elected mainly as non-pitchers, only one member of the Baseball Hall of Fame has a lower lifetime batting average: Ray Schalk, elected for his defensive prowess as a catcher.

Yes, Killebrew was a one-dimensional player. But that one dimension! He hit 573 home runs, which is still more than any righthanded hitter in AL history. He led the AL in home runs 6 times, they weren't cheap home runs, either: He won the 1st of those crowns while playing for the Washington Senators, playing home games in Griffith Stadium with its faraway fences, before the team moved to become the Minnesota Twins with its hitter-friendly Metropolitan Stadium, where he hit the longest home run in both stadium and franchise history.

He led the AL in RBIs 3 times, won the Most Valuable Player award in 1969, made 13 All-Star Teams, and got the Twins to the 1965 Pennant and the 1969 and '70 AL Western Division titles.

He is in the Hall of Fame, and The Sporting News named him to their 100 Greatest Baseball Players in 1999. The Twins named him to their team Hall of Fame, retired his Number 3, and named a street outside the old Met Stadium (the street is still there, at the Mall of America, though the stadium is not) and a gate at their new home, Target Field, after him.

He is also believed to be the inspiration for the Major League Baseball logo, as Jerry West is for the NBA logo. He also broadcast for the Twins, and also for the A's, alongside the aforementioned fellow Idahoan Wayne Walker.

Seattle's All-Time Baseball Team

The Mariners' "territory" includes the entire States of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Had I found a player from western Montana good enough to make the Seattle team, I would have assigned him there instead of to the Colorado Rockies.

But British Columbia, even though downtown Vancouver is less than 150 miles from Safeco and Qwest Fields and the Key Arena, is in Canada, and is thus included in the Toronto Blue Jays' territory, and thus players from that Province are ineligible.

29. Seattle's All-Time Baseball Team

A mighty bat at 1st base, slick fielding in the rest of the infield. The outfield (with 1 exception) and catcher aren't great, but there's some good pitching.

All players listed below are from the State of Washington, unless otherwise stated.

1B Harmon Killebrew of Payette, Idaho. Of the 28 big-leaguers to have been born in that State, most of the good ones have been pitchers, like Vernon Law, Ken Dayley and Jason Schmidt. But "the Killer" -- he was always been a nice guy to teammates, opponents and fans, but not to fastballs -- hit 573 home runs, more than any American League righthander, and helped the Minnesota Twins to their first 3 postseason berths (1965 World Series, '69 and '70 ALCS, although they lost them all).

They have retired his Number 3. His .256 lifetime batting average is the 2nd-lowest for any nonpitcher in the Hall of Fame, but his career OPS+ is an astounding 143. He had 8 40-homer seasons (in a pitcher's era), 6 times led the AL in home runs, and 9 times had 100 or more RBIs in a season (leading the AL 3 times). He hit more home runs in the 1960s than any player, more than Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron or Frank Robinson.

While his home park, Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota, is long gone, replaced by the Mall of America, a street name on the site remains: Killebrew Drive. When The Sporting News announced its 100 Greatest Baseball Players in 1999, he came in at Number 69.

Honorable Mention to John Olerud of Bellevue, Washington. He survived a brain aneurysm in college (which is why he always wore a helmet, even in the field) to become a tremendous hitter (.363 for the AL batting title in 1993) and fielder for the 1992 and '93 World Champion Toronto Blue Jays. Also played in the postseason for the Mets (1999), his home-State Mariners (2000 & '01), the Yankees (2004) and the Red Sox (2005). Career OPS+ of 128, 2,239 hits, 255 home runs, 4 100 RBI seasons and 3 Gold Gloves.

Honorable Mention to Jack Fournier, who had a .313 lifetime batting average and a 142 OPS+, and turned into quite the power hitter with the 1920s Brooklyn Dodgers, but who was traded away by the Chicago White Sox for... 1st baseman Arnold "Chick" Gandil of 1919 "Black Sox" infamy.

Honorable Mention to Earl Torgeson of Snohomish, who helped the 1948 Boston Braves and 1959 White Sox to rare Pennants for those franchises.

Honorable Mention to Richie Sexson of Brush Prairie, who I'd like to make the left fielder on this team, but he didn't play there enough. A 2-time All-Star, he hit 306 home runs, and 6 times had at least 100 RBIs, reaching the postseason in 1998 and '99 with the Cleveland Indians, but playing his best years for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Honorable Mention to Ken Phelps, who also came from Seattle and played for the Mariners, and who had a higher career OPS+ than the man the Yankees traded for him, Jay Buhner.

2B Ryne Sandberg of Spokane. There was a time when Spokane was home to 3 extraordinary athletes, who played against each other in the 3 major high school sports, and all achieved greatness in different big-league sports: Sandberg in baseball, Mark Rypien in football, and John Stockton in basketball.

Contrary to popular belief, the Philadelphia Phillies trading Sandberg and Larry Bowa to the Chicago Cubs for Ivan DeJesus was not a dumb deal, as, during the rest of Sandberg's career, the Cubs never won a Pennant, while the Phillies won 2 (including '83 with DeJesus). But Sandberg was the 1984 NL Most Valuable Player, a 10-time All-Star, an 8-time Gold Glove winner, and hit 282 home runs, nearly all of them as a 2nd baseman, no mean feat even at Wrigley Field. (Remember, half the time, the wind is blowing in.)

Hall of Fame, Number 23 retired. He has now returned to the Phillies as their manager. His nephew Jared Sandberg briefly played for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Honorable Mention to Joe Gordon of Portland, Oregon. He reached the major leagues in 1938, while Buster Crabbe was starring in the Flash Gordon movie serials, so, naturally, Joe was nicknamed Flash. (As would be much later relief pitcher Tom Gordon.) He was a 9-time All-Star, a 6-time Pennant winner and a 5-time World Champion (1938, '39, '41 and '43 Yankees, '48 Cleveland Indians), a 4-time 100-RBI man, and the 1942 AL MVP.

He hit 253 home runs, an astounding number considering that he was a 2nd baseman, and a righthanded hitter at the pre-renovation Yankee Stadium and then Cleveland Municipal Stadium, and that he lost 2 years to serving in World War II, and retired at age 35 before becoming a manager. He finally got into the Hall of Fame long after his death, and the Indians have honored him in their Heritage Park.

Honorable Mention to Wally Backman of Beaverton, Oregon. The popular 2nd baseman of the 1986 World Champion Mets, it's easy to forget that only once did he have over 500 plate appearances.

Honorable Mention to Harold Reynolds of Corvallis, Oregon. A 2-time All-Star and a 3-time Gold Glove with the Mariners, he led the AL with 60 stolen bases in 1987 and with 11 triples the next year. He is now Fox's go-to baseball analyst.

SS Johnny Pesky of Portland, Oregon. Like Gordon, he came from the Rose City and reached the majors in 1938. The longtime Boston Red Sox shortstop should be remembered as a really good, hustling player, and not for one mistake (which isn't even all that clear on the film) in the 1946 World Series. As a longtime Sox coach and scout, he became known as "Mr. Red Sox," and his Number 6 was retired by the team.

3B Ron Santo of Seattle. He was a 9-time All-Star, won 5 Gold Gloves (probably would have won more if it weren't for Ken Boyer), had a career OPS+ of 125, and hit 342 home runs at a time when the only 3rd baseman with more was Eddie Matthews. All this with diabetes and a team that never won.

Like Phil Rizzuto, Richie Ashburn and Herb Score, he went from being one of his club's most beloved players to its beloved broadcaster. Also like Rizzuto and Ashburn, it took too long to get him into the Hall of Fame. Unlike Rizzuto and Ashburn, he did not live long enough to see it. He did, however, live long enough to see the Cubs retire his Number 10.

Honorable Mention to Ron Cey of Tacoma, who hit more home runs as a Los Angeles Dodger than anyone until Eric Karros (though Duke Snider, Gil Hodges and Roy Campanella hit more for Brooklyn), won 4 Pennants and a World Championship, and also played for the Cubs.

Honorable Mention to Scott Brosius of Milwaukie, Oregon, for his 4 Pennant-winning (3 World Series wins) seasons with the Yankees. He hit home runs in all 4 World Series he played in, and his dingers in Game 3 in 1998 and Game 5 in 2001 were huge.

LF Jeff Heath of Garfield. Though born in Canada, he grew up in Washington State, and was an All-Star with the 1940s Indians. He reached his only World Series with the 1948 Braves, oddly losing to the Indians.

Honorable Mention to Carson Bigbee of Waterloo, Oregon, who hit .323 and .350 in back-to-back seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and was a member of their 1925 World Champions.

CF Earl Averill of Snohomish. The Cleveland Indians retired the Number 3 of this Hall-of-Famer, one of the top hitters of the hitting-happy 1930s, but the only Pennant he won came with the Detroit Tigers in 1940. He played in the first 6 All-Star Games, including the 1935 Game at his home park, Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

His lifetime batting average was .318, his career OPS+ a terrific 133, and despite not reaching the major leagues until the age of 27 -- like a lot of West Coast stars, he could then make more money in the Pacific Coast League, and starred for the San Francisco Seals -- hit 238 home runs in the majors. That doesn't sound like much now, even with his late big-league start, but at the time he retired in 1941, it was good for 14th all-time.

Earl's son, Earl Averill Jr., also played for the Indians, and was one of the first stars of the Angels when they entered the American League (as the "Los Angeles Angels") in 1961.

Honorable Mention to Dale Murphy of Portland, Oregon. He might be the right DH for this team, but, while he did play a little right field, he didn't play enough there, so I can't move him over and make him the starter. But in Ronald Reagan's 1st term, he was the best player in baseball, winning the NL MVP in 1982 and '83, and was the face of the Atlanta Braves in their initial TBS Superstation "America's Team" years. Injuries shortened his career, though, and with 398 home runs, he's not getting into the Hall of Fame. The Braves have retired his Number 3, though.

Honorable Mention to Grady Sizemore of Everett, another Indians star at the position. Despite his career being cut short by injury at age 29, he made 3 All-Star teams and won 2 Gold Gloves. In 2006, he led the AL with 53 doubles.

Honorable Mention to Jacoby Ellsbury of Madras, Oregon. Now a Yankee, he spent 7 years with that lot up I-95, batting .297, nearly winning Rookie of the Year in 2008, nearly winning the MVP in 2011, and stealing 241 bases, including an AL-leading 52 last season.

RF Roy Johnson of Tacoma. The best of a weak field, he was a good hitter for the Tigers and Red Sox in the 1930s, and played for the Yankees in the 1936 World Series.

Honorable Mention, sort of, to Steve Whitaker of Tacoma. His career totals of 24 home runs and 85 RBIs should be a good season for a player who makes a team like this. The most notable things about him are that he tried to succeed Mickey Mantle as the Yankee center fielder, and that he became the 1st native of Washington State to play for a big-league team in that State, the 1969 Seattle Pilots, a team best known for being the subject, sort of, of pitcher Jim Bouton's "diary," Ball Four.

The Pilots were so bad, going 64-98 and probably not even that good, and its owners lost so much money, it was moved after one season to become the Milwaukee Brewers. Thus the Pilots' moment in the majors was so brief, Ball Four feels more like a novel, a roman a clef of how ridiculous baseball and its establishment could be in that period, than a true story. Smoke him inside. Is it possible to drown yourself under a shower head? Steve, don't you need a little trim? Yeah, surrrre.

Utility Player Steve Lyons, born in Tacoma, grew up in Beaverton, Oregon, so he counts. He played every position, including all 9 in one game (I think there's 3 others who've done that). Not a great player -- his career highs were a .280 batting average, 5 homers and 50 RBIs, and no 2 of those in the same season -- and he never played in a postseason. In fact, in 1992, he played for both the Toronto Blue Jays and the Atlanta Braves, but both got rid of him before that year's World Series in which they opposed each other, and he ended up on the Montreal Expos.

He both began (1985) and ended (1993) his career with the Boston Red Sox -- and people wonder why he's nicknamed "Psycho." He went on to become a good broadcaster, although a controversial one. He's the Jimmy Piersall of his generation, and you can interpret that any way you want, although Jimmy was also an excellent fielder in his day.

C Scott Hatteberg of Yakima. Not an especially good player, but a steady catcher and occasionally good hitter for the 1990s Red Sox and 2000s Athletics, and the other choices for a Washington State-born catcher are slim.

SP Sylveanus "Vean" Gregg of Clarkston. Reached the major leagues with the Indians in 1911 -- good timing, as their ace Addie Joss had just died of meningitis -- and won 63 games in his 1st 3 seasons. But he burned himself out, and was traded to the Boston Red Sox in 1914. That turned out to be good timing as well, as he helped them win the 1915 and '16 World Series. 

SP Mel Stottlemyre of Mabton. Born in Missouri, but almost a lifelong resident of the Evergeen State. Won 164 games for the Yankees, including 20 on 3 occasions and 2 in the 1964 World Series, before a rotator cuff injury ended his career at age 32. Went on to become one of baseball's greatest pitching coaches, first for the 1980s Mets, then for the 1996-2003 Yankee dynasty. He has also spent 2 stints as a roving pitching instructor with his home-State Mariners.

There must be something about Washington State that produces good pitching coaches, because it's also produced Mel's sons Todd and Mel Jr., Brad Arnsberg and Tom House (who, as a Braves reliever, was in the bullpen at Fulton County Stadium and caught Hank Aaron's 715th home run ball).

SP Mickey Lolich of Portland, Oregon. Won 17 games for the 1968 Detroit Tigers, plus Games 2, 5 and 7 of the World Series. Won 47 games in 1971 and '72, getting the Tigers back to the postseason.

Unfortunately, he became the subject of one of those really dumb Met trades, when the Mets got him after the 1975 season for a still-in-his-prime Rusty Staub, who was great in Detroit before going to the Texas Rangers and back to the Mets; while Lolich was pretty much done. Nevertheless, he won 217 games in his career, and at the time he retired, his 2,832 career strikeouts were tops all-time among lefthanders.

SP Jon Lester of Tacoma. Has overcome cancer to win, thus far, an even 100 games, against just 56 losses. He's already a 2-time All-Star and a 2-time World Champion with the Red Sox, and he just turned 30.

SP Tim Lincecum of Renton. "The Freak" looks like he's still in high school, but he sure doesn't pitch like it. The San Francisco Giant starter has, as of right now, these career major league stats: 89 wins, an ERA of 3.46, an ERA+ of 113, a WHIP of 1.243, 1,510 strikeouts, and a strikeouts per 9 innings pitched of 9.6. He's won 2 NL Cy Young Awards, and appeared in 4 All-Star Games and on 2 World Championship teams.

He's struggled the last 2 seasons, but he doesn't turn 30 until June, so he should have, barring a medical or ethical calamity, at least 7 or 8 good years left. Put it this way: Baseball-Reference.com already has him, on its "Hall of Fame Monitor," at 64, with a "Likely HOFer" at 100.

Among starting pitchers, Honorable Mention to Larry Jansen of Forest Grove, who won 23 games including the Bobby Thomson Game for the New York Giants in 1951, and was also on their 1954 World Championship team; Larry Christenson of Marysville, a star for the Phillies' near-dynasty of 1976-80; and Bruce Kison of Pasco, who won 115 games, most of them for the Pirates, including 13 in their 1979 World Championship season.

RP Randy Myers of Evergreen. He appeared in only 10 games for the 1986 Mets, and didn't get into the World Series. But after the trade of Jesse Orosco, he became their closer, and nearly won a Pennant with them in 1988. After the 1989 season, the Mets traded him to the Cincinnati Reds, and he joined with Rob Dibble and Norm Charlton to form the "Nasty Boys" bullpen, pulling off upset wins for the NL West, the Pennant, and a sweep of the Oakland Athletics in the World Series.

Also appeared in the postseason with the Baltimore Orioles in 1996 and '97, under his former Met manager Davey Johnson. He gave up Bernie Williams' walkoff home run in Game 1 of the '96 ALCS, but, lucky for him, that game is remembered for another home run, Derek Jeter's game-tying blast that is remembered for the fan who almost caught it, Jeffrey Maier. Won another Pennant with the Padres in 1998, but again lost to the Yankees, and then rotator cuff surgery ended his career.

A 4-time All-Star, his 347 saves were 5th on the all-time list at the time he retired -- he's now 9th, having fallen behind Trevor Hoffman, his teammate on the '98 Padres; Mariano Rivera, his opponent on the '96 and '98 Yankees; and John Franco, whom the Mets got for him, so it wasn't a typically boneheaded Met trade.

Honorable Mention to Steve Olin of Beaverton, Oregon. In 1992, pitching for a terrible Indians team, he went 8-5 with 29 saves, a 2.34 ERA and a 1.211 WHIP. He had 48 career saves and an ERA+ of 129, and he was only 27 years old at the close of that season.

The following spring, he was killed with teammate Tim Crews (and teammate Bob Ojeda was nearly killed as well) in a boating accident on an off-day during spring training. We'll never know how good he could have been, but his death may have stopped the Indians from winning the World Series in 1995 and 1997, and from at least getting into it in 1996 and 1998. Seriously, who would you rather have as your closer: The 1992 Steve Olin or the 1997 Jose Mesa?

MGR Fred Hutchinson of Seattle. He starred as a pitcher with his hometown Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League, then was a teammate of Averill's on the 1940 AL Champion Tigers. Went into the service in World War II and, unlike Hank Greenberg, did not return in time to help them win the 1945 World Series. But he did manage to win 77 games in his first 5 seasons back from the War.

As a manager, he led the Cincinnati Reds to the 1961 NL Pennant, and nearly won another in 1964 but had to leave the team late due to the cancer that would soon take his life. One of baseball's community-service awards, the Hutch Award, is named in his honor, and the Reds made his Number 1 the first they ever retired.

Seattle's All-Time Baseball Team

The Yankees come home to begin a 3-game series with the Seattle Mariners.

The Mariners' "territory" includes the entire States of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. If I find a player from western Montana good enough to make the Seattle team, I could assign him there instead of to the Colorado Rockies, whenever it is that I do theirs. But British Columbia, even though downtown Vancouver is less than 150 miles from Safeco and Qwest Fields and the Key Arena, is in Canada and is thus included in the Toronto Blue Jays' territory, and thus players from that Province are ineligible.

Seattle's All-Time Baseball Team

1B Harmon Killebrew of Payette, Idaho. Of the 26 big-leaguers to have been born in that State, most of the good ones have been pitchers, like Vernon Law, Ken Dayley and Jason Schmidt.

But "the Killer" -- he's always been a nice guy to teammates, opponents and fans, just not to fastballs -- hit 573 home runs, more than any American League righthander, and helped the Minnesota Twins to their 1st 3 postseason berths (1965 World Series, '69 and '70 ALCS, although they lost them all). They have retired his Number 3. His .256 lifetime batting average is the 2nd-lowest for any nonpitcher in the Hall of Fame, but his career OPS+ is an astounding 143. He had 8 40-homer seasons (in a pitcher's era), 6 times led the AL in home runs, and 9 times had 100 or more RBIs in a season (leading the AL 3 times). He hit more home runs in the 1960s than any player, more than Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron or Frank Robinson.

While his home park, Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota, is long gone, replaced by the Mall of America, a street name on the site remains: Killebrew Drive.

Honorable Mention to John Olerud of Bellevue, Washington. He survived a brain aneurysm in college (which is why he always wore a helmet, even in the field) to become a tremendous hitter (.363 for the AL batting title in 1993) and fielder for the 1992 and '93 World Champion Toronto Blue Jays. Also played in the postseason for the Mets (1999), his home-State Mariners (2000 & '01), the Yankees (2004) and the Red Sox (2005). Career OPS+ of 128, 2,239 hits, 255 home runs, 4 100 RBI seasons and 3 Gold Gloves.

Also, Honorable Mention to Jack Fournier, who had a .313 lifetime batting average and a 142 OPS+, and turned into quite the power hitter with the 1920s Brooklyn Dodgers, but who was traded away by the Chicago White Sox for... first baseman Arnold "Chick" Gandil of 1919 "Black Sox" infamy.

And to Earl Torgeson of Snohomish, who helped the 1948 Boston Braves and 1959 White Sox to rare Pennants for those franchises. And to Lyle Overbay of Centralia, a good hitter against most teams, and usually a very good one against the Yankees. And to Richie Sexson of Brush Prairie, who I'd like to make the left fielder on this team, but he didn't play there enough. And to John Jaha of Portland, Oregon. And... to Ken Phelps, who also came from Seattle and played for the Mariners, and who had a higher career OPS+ than the man the Yankees traded for him, Jay Buhner.

2B Ryne Sandberg of Spokane. There was a time when Spokane was home to 3 extraordinary athletes, who played against each other in the 3 major high school sports, and all achieved greatness in different big-league sports: Sandberg in baseball, Mark Rypien in football, and John Stockton in basketball.

Contrary to popular belief, the Philadelphia Phillies trading Sandberg and Larry Bowa to the Chicago Cubs for Ivan DeJesus was not a dumb deal, as, during the rest of Sandberg's career, the Cubs never won a Pennant, while the Phillies won 2 (including '83 with DeJesus). But Sandberg was the 1984 NL Most Valuable Player, a 10-time All-Star, an 8-time Gold Glove winner, and hit 282 home runs, nearly all of them as a second baseman, no mean feat even at Wrigley Field. (Remember, half the time, the wind is blowing in.)

Hall of Fame, Number 23 retired. His nephew Jared Sandberg briefly played for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Honorable Mention to Harold Reynolds of Corvallis, Oregon, and to Wally Backman of Beaverton, Oregon.

SS Johnny Pesky of Portland, Oregon. Longtime Boston Red Sox shortstop, should be remembered as a really good, hustling player, and not for one mistake (which isn't even all that clear on the film) in the 1946 World Series. Longtime Sox coach and scout, his Number 6 has been retired by the team.

3B Ron Santo of Seattle. He was a 9-time All-Star, won 5 Gold Gloves (probably would have won more if it weren't for Ken Boyer), had a career OPS+ of 125, and hit 342 home runs at a time when the only 3rd baseman with more was Eddie Matthews. All this with diabetes and a team that never won. Like Phil Rizzuto, Richie Ashburn and Herb Score, he's gone from being one of his club's most beloved players to its beloved broadcaster, but he still hasn't been let into the Hall of Fame. That is a disgrace. (UPDATE: He has now.)

Honorable Mention to Ron Cey of Tacoma, who hit more home runs as a Los Angeles Dodger than anyone until Eric Karros (though Duke Snider, Gil Hodges and Roy Campanella hit more for Brooklyn), won 4 Pennants and a World Championship, and also played third for the Cubs. And also to Scott Brosius of Milwaukie, Oregon, for his 4 Pennant-winning (3 World Series wins) seasons with the Yankees including big postseason home runs in 1998, 2000 and 2001.

LF Jeff Heath of Garfield. Though born in Canada, he was a Washington Stater, and an All-Star with the 1940s Cleveland Indians. He reached his only World Series with the 1948 Braves. Honorable Mention to LF Carson Bigbee of Waterloo, Oregon, who hit .323 and .350 in back-to-back seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and was a member of their 1925 World Champions.

CF Earl Averill of Snohomish. The Cleveland Indians retired the Number 3 of this Hall-of-Famer, one of the top hitters of the hitting-happy 1930s, but the only Pennant he won came with the Detroit Tigers in 1940. He played in the first 6 All-Star Games, including the 1935 Game at his home park, Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

His lifetime batting average was .318, his career OPS+ a fabulous 133, and despite not reaching the major leagues until the age of 27 -- like a lot of West Coast stars, he could then make more money in the Pacific Coast League, and starred for the San Francisco Seals -- hit 238 home runs. That doesn't sound like much now, even with his late big-league start, but at the time he retired in 1941, it was good for 14th all-time; today, Averill is 220th, and 14th place on the list is held by Manny Ramirez with a steroid-aided 554. Earl's son, Earl Averill Jr., also played for the Indians, and was one of the first stars of the Angels when they entered the American League (as the "Los Angeles Angels") in 1961.

Honorable Mention to Grady Sizemore of Everett, another Indians star at the position. And to Brian Hunter of Vancouver (Washington, not British Columbia) and Jacoby Ellsbury of Madras, Oregon. And to Dale Murphy of Portland, Oregon -- he did play a bit of right field, but I can't move him over.

RF Roy Johnson of Tacoma. Best of a weak field, he was a good hitter for the Tigers and Red Sox in the 1930s, and played for the Yankees in the 1936 World Series.

Honorable Mention, sort of, to Steve Whitaker of Tacoma. His career totals of 24 home runs and 85 RBIs should be a good season for a player who makes a team like this. The most notable things about him are that he tried to succeed Mickey Mantle as the Yankee center fielder, and that he became the 1st native of Washington State to play for a big-league team in that State, the 1969 Seattle Pilots, a team best known for being the subject, sort of, of pitcher Jim Bouton's "diary," Ball Four.

The team was so bad (How bad was it?), it went 64-98 and probably not even that good, and its owners lost so much money, it was moved after 1 season to become the Milwaukee Brewers. Thus the Pilots' moment in the majors was so brief, Ball Four feels more like a novel, a roman a clef of how ridiculous baseball and its establishment could be in that period, than a true story. Smoke him inside. Is it possible to drown yourself under a shower head? Steve, don't you need a little trim? Yeah, surrrre.

Utility Player: Steve Lyons, born in Tacoma, Washington, grew up in Beaverton, Oregon, so he counts. He played every position, including all 9 in one game (I think there's 3 others who've done that).

Not a great player -- his career highs were a .280 batting average, 5 homers and 50 RBIs, and no 2 of those in the same season -- and he never played in a postseason. In fact, in 1992, he played for both the Toronto Blue Jays and the Atlanta Braves, but both got rid of him before that year's World Series in which they opposed each other, and he ended up on the Montreal Expos. He both began (1985) and ended (1993) his career with the Boston Red Sox -- and people wonder why he's nicknamed "Psycho."

He went on to become a good broadcaster, although a controversial one. He's the Jimmy Piersall of his generation, and you can interpret that any way you want, although Jimmy was an excellent fielder in his day.

C Scott Hatteberg of Yakima. Not an especially good player, but a steady catcher and occasionally good hitter for the 1990s Red Sox and 2000s Athletics, and the other choices for a Washington State-born catcher are slim.

SP Sylveanus "Vean" Gregg of Clarkston. Reached the major leagues with the Indians in 1911 -- good timing, as their ace Addie Joss had just died of meningitis -- and won 63 games in his first 3 seasons. But he burned himself out, and was traded to the Boston Red Sox in 1914. That turned out to be good timing as well, as he helped them win the 1915 and '16 World Series.

SP Fred Hutchinson of Seattle. Starred with his hometown Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League, then was a teammate of Averill's on the 1940 AL Champion Tigers. Went into the service in World War II and, unlike Hank Greenberg, did not return in time to help them win the 1945 World Series. But did manage to win 77 games in his first 5 seasons back from the War.

Also the manager of this team, having led the Cincinnati Reds to the 1961 NL Pennant, and nearly won another in 1964 but had to leave the team late due to the cancer that would soon take his life. One of baseball's community-service awards, the Hutch Award, is named in his honor, and the Reds made his Number 1 the first they ever retired.

SP Mel Stottlemyre of Mabton. Born in Missouri, but almost a lifelong resident of the Evergeen State. Won 164 games for the Yankees, including 20 on 3 occasions and 2 in the 1964 World Series, before a rotator cuff injury ended his career at age 32. Went on to become one of baseball's greatest pitching coaches, first for the 1980s Mets, then for the 1996-2003 Yankee dynasty.

Has also spent two stints as a roving pitching instructor with his home-State Mariners. There must be something about Washington State that produces good pitching coaches, because it's also produced Mel's sons Todd and Mel Jr., Brad Arnsberg and Tom House (who, as a Braves reliever, was in the bullpen at Fulton County Stadium and caught Hank Aaron's 715th home run ball).

SP Mickey Lolich of Portland, Oregon. Won 17 games for the 1968 Detroit Tigers, plus Games 2, 5 and 7 of the World Series. Won 47 games in 1971 and '72, getting the Tigers back to the postseason. Unfortunately, he became the subject of one of those really dumb Met trades, when the Mets got him after the 1975 season for a still-in-his-prime Rusty Staub, who was great in Detroit before going to the Texas Rangers and back to the Mets; while Lolich was pretty much done. 

Nevertheless, won 217 games in his career, and at the time he retired, his 2,832 career strikeouts were tops all-time among lefthanders.

SP Tim Lincecum of Renton. "The Freak" looks like he's still in high school, but he sure doesn't pitch like it. The San Francisco Giant starter has, as of right now, these career major league stats: 48 wins, only 20 losses, an ERA of 2.93, an ERA+ of a whopping 150, a WHIP of 1.166, 793 strikeouts, and a strikeouts per innings pitched of 10.5. He's won the last 2 NL Cy Young Awards. And he just turned 26, so he should have, barring a medical or ethical calamity, at least a dozen good years left. 

Put it this way: Baseball-Reference.com already has him, on its "Hall of Fame Monitor," at 38, with a "Likely HOFer" at 100; and on its "Hall of Fame Standards" at 32, with an "Average HOFer" at 50. He should be on his way. All he needs now is a good team behind him.

Among starting pitchers, Honorable Mention to Larry Jansen of Forest Grove, who won 23 games including the Bobby Thomson Game for the New York Giants in 1951, and was also on their 1954 World Championship team. To Larry Christenson of Marysville, a star for the Phillies' near-dynasty of 1976-80. And to Bruce Kison of Pasco, who won 115 games, most of them for the Pirates, including 13 in their 1979 World Championship season. And to Adam Eaton of Snohomish, who played on the San Diego Padres' 2005 NL West Champions and the Philadelphia Phillies' 2008 World Champions, but is now a free agent and hasn't pitched this season.

RP Randy Myers of Evergreen. Appeared in only 10 games for the 1986 Mets, and didn't get into the World Series, but after the trade of Jesse Orosco, he became their closer, and nearly won a Pennant with them in 1988. After the 1989 season, the Mets traded him to the Cincinnati Reds, and he joined with Rob Dibble and Norm Charlton to form the "Nasty Boys" bullpen, pulling off upset wins for the NL West, the Pennant, and a sweep of the Oakland Athletics in the World Series.

Also appeared in the postseason with the Baltimore Orioles in 1996 and '97, under his former Met manager Davey Johnson. He gave up Bernie Williams' walkoff home run in Game 1 of the '96 ALCS, but, lucky for him, that game is remembered for another home run, Derek Jeter's game-tying blast that is remembered for the fan who almost caught it, Jeffrey Maier. Won another Pennant with the Padres in 1998, but again lost to the Yankees, and then rotator cuff surgery ended his career.

A 4-time All-Star, his 347 saves were 5th on the all-time list at the time he retired -- he's now 9th, having fallen behind Trevor Hoffman, his teammate on the '98 Padres; Mariano Rivera, his opponent on the '96 and '98 Yankees; and John Franco, whom the Mets got for him, so it wasn't a typically boneheaded Met trade.

Honorable Mention to Steve Olin of Beaverton, Oregon. In 1992, pitching for a terrible Cleveland Indians team, he went 8-5 with 29 saves, a 2.34 ERA and a 1.211 WHIP. He had 48 career saves and an ERA+ of 129, and he was only 27 years old at the close of that season.

The following spring, he was killed with teammate Tim Crews (and teammate Bob Ojeda was nearly killed as well) in a boating accident on an off-day during spring training. We'll never know how good he could have been, but his death may have stopped the Indians from winning the World Series in 1995 and 1997, and from at least getting into it in 1996 and 1998. Seriously, who would you rather have as your closer: The 1992 Steve Olin or the 1997 Jose Mesa?