Seattle’s LGBTQ community members say they hope that this Friday’s World Cup “Pride Match” between Egypt and Iran, two countries where homosexuality is criminalized, can be an opportunity to change minds.
Seattle, WA
Why Seattle Mariners could go new route with first-round draft pick
When it comes to this year’s MLB Draft, the Seattle Mariners’ scouting department knows one sure thing: It will need to be ready to think on its feet.
Seattle Mariners Roster Notes: OF added on waivers; Woo, Speier updates
After having a whopping three first-round selections in a top-heavy draft last year, the Mariners hold the 15th overall pick in 2024. Exactly who will be available when Seattle is on the clock will be quite the mystery, even to the organization’s dialed-in scouting department.
“This was a different one,” Mariners director of amateur scouting Scott Hunter said about this year’s draft on Wednesday. “It’s going to be more of a challenge. I think we’re gonna have to do a lot of heavy lifting and figuring out (how to extract) the players that really we believe in for what the Mariners do.”
The 2023 draft was stocked with talented high school position players, which resulted in Seattle going that route for all three of its first-round selections. According to Hunter, this year’s draft – which begins with the first and second rounds July 14 and runs through July 16 – doesn’t have near the caliber of depth at the top.
“The depth of the draft is a lot different. It’s a weird class,” Hunter said. “… It’s a little thinner than last year’s at top of the draft. I think there’s about nine or ten players we think are going to be off the board before we pick, and then after that, we’re pretty much saying it’s dealer’s choice for what organizations are going to do.”
A different route for M’s?
Over the past several years, Hunter and his staff have hit on a number of early-round picks. First it was a run of college pitchers picked in the first round in consecutive years, starting with Logan Gilbert in 2018, then George Kirby and Emerson Hancock. In the three drafts since, Seattle has shifted its focus to high school bats, selecting catcher Harry Ford in the first round of 2021, shortstop Cole Young in 2022 and infielders Colt Emerson and Tai Peete and outfielder Jonny Farmelo in 2023.
Gilbert, Kirby and Hancock have all reached the majors. (Hancock is currently in Triple-A, which is more of a testament to Seattle’s pitching depth than Hancock’s talent). Ford, Young, Emerson and Farmelo are all rated as top-100 prospects by either Baseball America or MLB Pipeline, or both.
With that type of success, it appears Seattle is doing something right when it comes to scouting high school bats and college arms. However, they may have to go a different route with their first-rounder this month.
“There’s a lot of high school pitching, which I know we haven’t really done much at the top of the draft, but it’s actually really in play for us because we have to consider every demographic in the draft,” Hunter said. “And we don’t want to make poor decisions, but we also want to make sure we’re giving our best ourselves the best chance to make a good decision. Sometimes the high school pitcher could be that guy.”
Seattle hasn’t taken a high school pitcher in the first round since Hunter was hired following the 2016 season. The highest prep hurler taken during that stretch was right-hander Sam Carlson going in the second round at N0. 55 in 2017. Carlson’s career has been hampered by injuries, but Seattle is seeing some good early returns from a recent high school pitcher it drafted. Michael Morales, a third-rounder in 2021, is with Double-A Arkansas at just 21 years old and is the Mariners’ No. 12 overall prospect, according to MLB Pipeline.
Hunter said the injury risk and time it takes to reach the majors are some of the cons of taking a pitcher out of high school. However, he also noted that high school pitchers are starting to have more success early on in the minors than in the past, and they’re entering pro baseball with better raw stuff and understanding of analytics than ever.
“If you pick the right high school pitcher, you usually have a lot of success,” Hunter said, “but there is a lot of landmines and risk that goes into that.”
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SEATTLE — Seattle police are investigating a shooting that left a 17-year-old boy injured early Thursday morning in the High Point neighborhood.
At about 12:48 a.m., dispatchers received multiple reports of rapid gunfire near Sylvan Way Southwest and Southwest Morgan Street.
Officers arrived and found a 17-year-old boy suffering from a gunshot wound to the hip area. Medics transported the teen to Harborview Medical Center in serious but stable condition.
Before officers located the victim, they found a car that had crashed and become disabled near Sylvan Way Southwest and Delridge Way Southwest. Police said multiple suspects were seen running from the vehicle through a nearby Home Depot parking lot.
Officers cordoned off the area and searched for the suspects with assistance from the K-9 Unit, but were unable to locate them. Police recovered the vehicle and impounded it for processing.
During the incident, gunfire struck at least three vehicles and two buildings. No other injuries were reported.
Officers processed multiple nearby scenes and recovered evidence before clearing the area. Detectives with the Gun Violence Reduction Unit will lead the investigation.
Seattle, WA
Council eyes street barricades in fight against violence, sex trafficking in north Seattle
SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council is expected to vote next week on a plan that would give the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) the authority to close off street access for public safety reasons.
The proposal comes after months of outcry from residents in north Seattle who say sex traffickers and sex buyers are looping through the streets surrounding Aurora Avenue North.
The street-closure proposal passed the council’s Public Safety Committee on Tuesday and is expected to be voted on by the full council next week.
“I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say the crime has gotten much worse, much more violent, and much more predator,” said District 5 councilmember Debora Juarez. “I think that we do have the authority to shut down a street for bullets flying and endangering the lives of those who live there.”
Frustrated neighbors have installed their own homemade barricades after a spate of gun violence between sex traffickers in May.
RELATED | SDOT removes street barricades near Aurora Ave; neighbors doubtful of temporary measures
Councilmember Bob Kettle says street closures will help tamp down sex buying in certain areas, but he emphasizes it must be accompanied by an increase in outreach and enforcement.
“We have to have a sustained effort,” Kettle told KOMO News. “My concern is for every action, there’s a reaction. We need to take this flex and then really attack it … because if we do just a bit and our attention wanders, we could have this conversation three months from now and we’re talking about the same thing.”
A 15-year-old boy was shot near 95th Street and Aurora Avenue North around 10:45 p.m. last night. The teen initially claimed he had been shot while walking down the street, but investigators now say he was shot by a passenger in his car.
RELATED | Seattle police say ‘drive-by’ on Aurora Ave. was actually passenger shooting teen driver
Kettle credited the city’s Real Time Crime Center cameras with helping investigators quickly piece together the events of the shooting.
“Just as important to finding out what happened, the cameras help police determine what did not happen,” Kettle said.
According to Seattle police data, reports of shootings and shots fired in the north precinct area are at their lowest levels since 2021.
Through the end of May, there were 48 total reports of shootings or shots fired, with one fatal shooting and seven nonfatal injury shootings.
That’s down from 63 total reports of shootings and shots fired – one fatal and seven injuries – in 2025; and 64 shootings or shots fired reports – one fatal and 17 injuries – in 2024.
At Tuesday’s committee meeting, councilmembers pointed out residents are calling for a new police precinct to be built on Aurora Avenue.
Ten years ago, a new North Precinct building was slated to be built at 130th Avenue and Aurora Avenue North to replace the existing precinct building, which was decades old and did not have enough space for the department’s needs.
Led by former councilmember Kshama Sawant, the “Block the Bunker” movement successfully got the North Precinct replacement project killed in city council.
Kettle said the city’s current financial issues make it essentially impossible to bring back a project similar to the one the previous council defeated.
“We have to connect the dots back,” Kettle said. “If we want to know why we are where we are today, we have to look at decisions made over the last two councils.”
Seattle, WA
Iran and Egypt to play in Seattle ‘Pride Match’ despite earlier complaints | The Jerusalem Post
Seattle revels in its reputation as a welcoming place and Pride flags are visible all over the city, all year round. Its June Pride weekend is one of the biggest in the United States.
So, ahead of December’s World Cup draw, it was only natural that local organizers designated the June 26 match to be held in the city as a “Pride Match.”
Then the draw happened — and the two teams scheduled to play the game were Egypt and Iran.
Egypt’s Football Association urged global soccer governing body FIFA to prevent any Pride-related activities, arguing such events clashed with the Muslim-majority country’s cultural and religious values. The governing body in Iran, where same-sex relations can carry the death penalty, filed an objection with FIFA.
Some in Seattle have doubts over the teams in the ‘Pride Match’
But in Seattle, there is no question that the Pride Match will go ahead as planned.
“The World Cup is going to come and go in three weeks,” Hedda McLendon, from Seattle’s local World Cup organizing committee, told Reuters. “The Pride celebration … has happened on this weekend for 50-plus years.
“It is going to happen this weekend, it is going to happen long after the World Cup.”
Some in the city’s LGBTQ community had mixed feelings given the participants, said Jon Cairns, 49, manager of local LGBTQ+ club Kremwerk.
Cairns, however, said his own view was that it provided a platform to promote acceptance that only the world’s biggest sporting event could offer.
“My reaction is let’s have them,” he told Reuters. “International sports is one of the biggest brokers historically of social change and individual rights and freedoms worldwide, including in the U.S.”
He cited black U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens’ four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Nazi Germany and Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ raised-fist protest in 1968 as moments where “only international sports could reach that big of an audience.”
“They’re not going to turn off the World Cup on state television in Iran or Egypt to block out a Pride flag in the audience,” Cairns said.
The Pride Match is “a host city initiative” and separate of FIFA, a spokesperson for soccer’s governing body told Reuters.
Seattle’s LGBTQ community sees an opportunity
Egypt and Iran’s involvement in the Pride Match is not the first time the World Cup has grappled with stark differences in attitudes between hosts and visitors.
In 2022 World Cup host Qatar, the emir said visitors should “respect our culture” when asked about gay people attending the tournament.
FIFA threatened yellow cards for captains wearing the “OneLove” armband, citing its rules against political slogans. Teams including England and the Netherlands that had been planning to wear the armbands to protest Qatar’s laws against same-sex relationships abandoned the plan.
For Ryan Webster, a 40-year-old lifestyle manager who was at Kremwerk the weekend before Pride, Seattle’s “Pride Match” was an opportunity to show solidarity with people in countries where their sexuality was outlawed.
“I’m choosing to believe that this is our moment to allow the members of the LGBTQ community that come from those countries to have the opportunity to celebrate themselves in totality that they might not have otherwise,” he said outside the club, which will host a watch party for Friday’s game.
Inside, ‘Venus Fengz’ lip-synced to Cher’s “Believe” before introducing fellow drag performers to the stage, clapped and cheered by a raucous crowd.
Fengz, who only wanted to provide their stage name, said Pride coinciding with the World Cup would bring increased visibility, anticipating perhaps some new audience members.
“I think it’s always great for us to be able to share space and share places with people who don’t have the same experiences as us,” they told Reuters.
“Sometimes you just have to be the bigger person and show grace where you can and know that everyone is a human learning (from) different experiences, but also it can get hard — because you’re on the shorter end of the stick, always trying to have to explain yourself around people who don’t grow up with the same worldview.”
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