Seattle, WA
Seattle Mariners fire longtime manager Scott Servais and hitting coach Jarret DeHart amid midseason skid
One day after being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Seattle Mariners have fired longtime manager Scott Servais and has replaced him with former Mariners All-Star catcher Dan Wilson. Earlier on Thursday, The Athletic reported that Servais losing his job was imminent.
In a statement released Thursday, Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto confirmed that Servais will be replaced by Wilson. Wilson, a member of the Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame, has no previous management experience, but has been brought in by the Mariners as a special assignment coordinator for spring training for the past few years.
“We believe that we need a new voice in the clubhouse,” Dipoto said in the statement, praising Wilson as “a key member” of the organization. “He is well respected within and outside of the clubhouse, and we are confident he will do a great job in leading our group over the final six weeks of the season and moving forward.”
Per the statement, Wilson will manage his first game on Friday, as the Mariners hope to reverse a midseason collapse with a home series against the San Francisco Giants.
In the statement, Dipoto also thanked Servais for his nine years with the team. “He has poured his passion into the team and our community and I know I speak for the entire Mariners organization in thanking him for his hard work,” he said.
Servais, who has managed the Mariners since 2016, helped end the team’s postseason drought in 2022 but has been unable to reverse the tide on another mediocre season and a disastrous midseason slump in 2024. The Mariners, who at one point held a 10-game lead in their division, have since fallen to five games back of the Astros in the AL West.
The Mariners also fired hitting coach Jarret DeHart, who has been with the team since 2018 and who was promoted to the position in 2021.
Seattle started the season strong but has struggled in the past few weeks: The team is now well behind the Astros and has lost eight of its past 10 to fall to .500 with a 64-64 record.
Despite some incredibly strong performances on the mound from star pitchers such as Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller, George Kirby and Luis Castillo, Seattle has struggled immensely on offense. The Mariners lead the league in strikeouts with 1,308 and have recorded the fewest hits (903) and lowest batting average (.216) in the league.
The Mariners fired bench coach and offensive coordinator Brant Brown in May, but the initial improvement on offense quickly fell apart as Seattle’s lineup reverted back to struggling.
Seattle fans will still fondly remember Servais for his management in 2022, when he led the long-suffering Mariners to the postseason for the first time since 2001 — ending a 21-year playoff drought, the longest active drought in all of North American professional sports at the time. Seattle clinched a wild-card berth that year and advanced to the AL divisional series before getting swept by the Astros.
But Servais’ tenure was also filled with seasons that failed to meet expectations. In 2016, his first season with the team, Seattle fell just short of the postseason after an unexpected playoff push. The same thing happened in 2021, when the Mariners were in playoff contention until the final day, and in 2023, when Seattle finished one game out of a playoff berth.
With its lead suddenly lost, Seattle looks to be hurtling toward a similar fate this season. Given that the AL West is one of the weakest divisions in baseball, the Mariners would likely need to win the division to secure a playoff spot. But they sit five games back in the AL West and 7.5 games back of the final AL wild-card spot as of Thursday.
Seattle has not won a World Series in the team’s 47-year history, and it’s one of five teams in MLB that has failed to win a pennant. If the Mariners fall short yet again, it’s likely that Dipoto — who has already infuriated fans with comments implying that the team wasn’t aiming for a World Series — will be on the hot seat next.
The team will now reportedly turn to Wilson, who caught for Seattle from 1994 to 2005. Per The Seattle Times, Wilson has become a mentor and good luck charm for current Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh during his tenure as a special assignment coordinator.
Additionally, per Adam Jude of The Seattle Times, Mariners legend Edgar Martinez will join Wilson, his former teammate, on the coaching staff. Martinez, a seven-time All-Star who played with the Mariners from 1987 to 2004, served as the hitting coach in Seattle from 2015 to 2018 and has been a special advisor since then.
Hearing Edgar Martinez is expected to join old teammate Dan Wilson on the Mariners coaching staff for the rest of the season.
Martinez was the M’s hitting coach from 2015-18 and he’s been a special adviser for the club since.
— Adam Jude (@A_Jude) August 22, 2024
Seattle will look to these two former players to help the team navigate the final 34 games of the regular season.
Breast milk samples from moms in the Seattle area contained chemicals linked to health problems, new research has found.
The chemicals are often used in beverage can liners, receipt paper, and other products, and they’ve been linked to reproductive problems, cancer, and immune problems like asthma.
Ryan Babadi is the science director at the nonprofit Toxic Free Future, which co-authored the research. He said breast milk is still the best food for most babies.
“The problem is not breast milk,” he said. “The problem is that we have chemical policies that are allowing these contaminants to end up in women and breastmilk and result in exposure to infants during a very sensitive time period of development.”
Researchers collected breast milk from 50 women and tested it for various chemicals. They found that the majority of the samples contained BPA and the related chemical BPS, triclosan, and melamine. All three of these chemical groups are known as “endocrine disruptors” because they can mimic, block, or alter human hormones and thus affect a large number of systems. BPA, for example, has been linked to diabetes, the early onset of puberty, and a number of cancers. Triclosan interferes with thyroid function and could increase cancer risk. And melamine has been linked to kidney problems.
“This isn’t a problem that mothers or people in general can shop their way out of,” Babadi said. “We need government decision-makers and policymakers as well as the corporate environment to come up with policy solutions that protect us.”
RELATED: Trump administration actions contradict MAHA rhetoric on toxic chemicals
Breast milk for the study was collected in 2019. In the years since, Washington state has started regulating some of the chemicals the researchers found.
For example, as of last year, beverage cans in Washington aren’t allowed to contain BPA and related chemicals. And as of January, those chemicals aren’t allowed in receipt paper in the state.
That’s because, under a state law passed in 2019, the ecology department prioritizes harmful chemicals, identifies consumer products that contain those chemicals, and writes new regulations to ban or restrict them.
So far, the state has regulated not only BPA and related chemicals, but also phthalates in personal care products and vinyl flooring, triclosan in cosmetics, and PFAS chemicals in carpets, rugs, and furniture. Those last are known as “forever” chemicals because they do not degrade over time.
RELATED: 5 ways to reduce everyday exposure to ‘forever chemicals’
The state is now looking at chemicals in cosmetics, jewelry, cookware, paint, and artificial turf, among other products, for possible future regulation.
The state has not looked at banning or restricting melamine, one of the chemicals the researchers found in breast milk.
Babadi said in an email that Washington’s law is the nation’s strongest for regulating toxic chemicals, but he said it needed to be improved “to be able to enact bans in urgent scenarios when, for example, we observe harmful chemicals in breast milk.” The process for restricting new chemicals currently takes at least five years.
Marissa Smith is a toxicologist and the former technical lead for the Safer Products for Washington program. She now works on chemical policies across the ecology department.
She said the state’s current process of chemical regulation helps build compliance by giving manufacturers and industries plenty of lead time and compliance assistance.
“We generally do see compliance with state laws,” she added. “Most manufacturers want to sell products that are compliant.”
RELATED: Trump cuts demolish agency focused on toxic chemicals and workplace hazards
Smith emphasized that state-level chemical regulations like those in Washington and California can have an effect across the country, as manufacturers switch over to safer alternatives for their entire supply chain.
And Smith sees other reasons for hope.
“ Products are getting safer over time,” she said. “ There were some toxic flame retardants that were used in kids’ pajamas and other products, and we banned those, and we actually saw concentrations in our bodies and in our environment go down.”
For another example, Smith pointed to the dramatic decline in how much lead was in children’s blood after the U.S. banned leaded gasoline in 1996.
“ There’s just a lot of examples where we have actually regulated products and we’ve seen reductions in people’s exposure,” Smith said.
Seattle, WA
14-year-old dies in Seattle e-bike crash at Colonnade Park after losing control on steep stairs – MyNorthwest.com
A 14-year-old boy was killed Monday evening after crashing a motorized electric bicycle while riding down a steep staircase at Seattle’s Colonnade Park, according to the Seattle Police Department (SPD).
Investigators said the teenager was riding an e-bike on a staircase inside the park, located beneath I-5 near the Ship Canal Bridge, when he lost control. He suffered severe head and body injuries.
Seattle Fire Department (SFD) medics attempted life-saving measures, but the teen died at the scene, according to police.
The crash happened at Colonnade Park, a popular mountain biking destination known for its technical trails and riding features. Police said the investigation determined the teen lost control while attempting to ride down the steep stairs. Because of the victim’s age, SPD’s Homicide Unit responded to conduct the investigation, though authorities said the death appears to have been a tragic accident.
The fatal crash comes as electric bicycles continue to grow in popularity among teenagers and young adults across Washington and the country.
Research published by the American College of Surgeons has found that riders injured on electric bicycles are more likely to suffer serious trauma than riders on traditional bicycles. The study found e-bike riders faced a 17% risk of internal injuries compared with 7.5% for riders on conventional bicycles, a difference researchers attributed in part to the heavier weight and higher speeds of electric bikes.
Under Washington law, electric bicycles capable of producing more than 750 watts of power or traveling faster than 28 mph while powered by a motor are not classified as e-bikes and may instead be regulated as motor-driven cycles or motorcycles.
The Seattle tragedy follows several recent serious crashes involving young e-bike riders. Earlier this year, a child was critically injured in Kirkland after an e-bike collided with a vehicle, while other fatal e-bike crashes involving teenagers have been reported in Illinois and Missouri.
SPD will continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the crash.
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SEATTLE — Seattle police responded Tuesday evening to a fatal motorcycle crash at I-5 Colonnade Park in Seattle’s Eastlake neighborhood.
According to police, dispatchers received a call just after 6 p.m. reporting that a 14-year-old boy had been injured while riding an electric motorcycle down a flight of stairs in the park.
When medics arrived, they found the teen with severe head and body injuries.
Despite life-saving efforts, he died at the scene.
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Seattle police said the teen was wearing a bicycle helmet at the time of the crash.
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