Here’s hoping Edgar gets the Hall of Fame call Tuesday

I will be sitting in front of my television at 3 p.m. Tuesday watching the MLN Network just to see if Edgar Martinez gets into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

This is his last year of eligibility.

I was so certain he was going to make it last year, but he fell just 20 votes short of being inducted in 2018.

I’ve followed the Hall of Fame trackers on Twitter, and I’m confident it’ll happen.

He was just one of the best right-handed hitters in baseball during his time with the Mariners. Afterall, the American League’s top designated hitter earns the Edgar Martinez Award.

Baseball purists will pooh-pooh the idea of allowing a designated hitter into the hall — although guys like Frank Thomas made it — but the position has been a part of baseball since the early ‘70s.

Those purists also don’t believe in relievers being inducted. But that position has been part of the game for decades too.

So it’s time — nay, I say — it’s long overdue for Edgar to be officially honored among the best.

I’m hoping I’ll get to celebrate Tuesday for him.

Indoor football

Tri-Cities Fire owner Kinshasa Martin told me Monday that his group is closer to a deal with the Toyota Center for a lease.

“We have not signed a deal yet,” Martin said. “We plan to do that here at the Toyota Center and at a media conference. I don’t have a date of that yet, but it should be some time this week.”

To that end, Martin announced the Fire’s home dates and opponents as the five-team American West Football Conference begins its inaugural season in March.

The home games are: March 30, Sacramento Spartans; April 13, Idaho Horsemen; May 23, Reno Express; June 2, Wenatchee Skyhawks; June 15, Reno; and June 22, Idaho.

Weekend highlights

Here are the 10 best local things from the weekend, in no particular order:

• Casey Arstein’s Hermiston boys basketball team seems to find a way to win. The Bulldogs raised the Mid-Columbia Conference record to 8-4, jumping into the Class 3A No. 1 seed position by beating Southridge on the road 62-61 in overtime Saturday. Cesar Ortiz led the way for Hermiston with 17 points in what was the Bulldogs’ third overtime game this year. All of those close games may help them when postseason rolls around in a few weeks.
  
  

• It’s rare to have a three-game weekend in the Western Hockey League. Even more rare, is to win them all. But that’s what the Tri-City Americans did, beating Seattle at home, and Spokane and Portland on the road. On Friday, the Ams beat the T-Birds 3-2 in a shootout, as Tri-City goalie Beck Warm stopped 39 of 41 Seattle shots. Nolan Yaremko and Parker AuCoin scored goals in the shootout for the win. On Saturday, Warm stayed hot by stopped 39 of 40 Spokane shots as Tri-City beat Spokane 2-1 in a shootout. Warm also stopped 4 of 5 shootout attempts, while the Ams’ Sasha Mutala scored the game-winner in the shootout. And on Sunday, Talyn Boyko gave Warm a well-deserved break in net by stopping 45 of 47 Portland shots in a 3-2 Americans’ victory, in regulation this time. Kyle Olson had two goals for the Ams in the win. Tri-City is now just 2 points behind third-place Spokane in the U.S. Division standings.
  
  
• All season long, the Selah boys basketball team has had to do with its star, senior Elijah Pepper. Already committed to play at UC Davis next year, Pepper had a torn meniscus before the season began, had surgery, and he spent most of this season rehabbing it. But he listened to his doctor and practiced patience, allowing the knee to heal enough that he finally was cleared to play Friday and Saturday nights. It was if he never missed a beat. In just 23 minutes of play Friday in a 91-62 win over East Valley, Pepper had 20 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists and 7 steals. In a 79-58 win over Grandview on Saturday, Pepper had 27 points and 5 steals.
• I watched Connor Woodward roll up 33 points in a 76-60 Hanford loss to Walla Walla on Friday night. On Saturday night, the Falcons senior scored 21 more in a 66-48 loss to Kennewick. But in that game Saturday, Woodward cleared the 1,000-point mark in points — a rarity among high school basketball players. Woodward has 1,012 points now.
• Ashlee Maldonado, a Sunnyside senior who is committed to playing at Santa Clara next year, sank 7 of 11 3-point field goal attempts and finished with a school-record 39 points to lead the 14-2 Grizzlies to a 66-60 victory over Moses Lake on Saturday in a Big Nine Conference showdown.
  
  
• Chiawana High School was the place to be Saturday. The Riverhawks girls basketball team handed Kamiakin its first loss of the season, winning 52-50. It was Alyssa Agundis who sank the game-winner with 5 seconds remaining, and the Braves were unable to answer at the buzzer. It could allow Steve Davis’ girls to share a piece of the MCC title with Kamiakin.
  
  

• Speaking of Kamiakin, star Oumou Toure scored her 2,000th career point in the first quarter of the Braves’ 81-71 win over Richland on Friday. The Butler University-bound senior finished the game with 39 points.
  
  
• Those who stuck around Saturday after the Chiawana girls won got to see another great game, as Kamiakin’s boys upset Chiawana 67-57. Kyson Rose scored 21 points on 9 of 14 shooting for the Braves, while Steven Westermeyer added 15 and Woodley Downard had 13 points and 8 rebounds. The two big keys in the game for Kamiakin was a 20-11 third quarter outburst, and the Braves outscored the Riverhawks 30-18 from the 3-point line.
  
  
• Pasco’s girls bowling team swept Chiawana 4-0 on Friday, giving the Bulldogs a 15-1 MCC record and the conference regular-season title.
  
  
• The marquee matchup at the Pasco at Chiawana tripleheader on Friday night had to be the 7 p.m. boys wrestling match, featuring the No. 1 Class 4A team in the state, Chiawana (according to the website Washingtonwrestlingreport.net), and the No. 6 Bulldogs. But it was the Bulldogs who won, 37-24, to earned the MCC regular-season title. These two teams will do battle over the next month as wrestlers prepare for the postseason.
  
  

This story was originally published January 21, 2019 at 7:14 PM.