Rowland-Smith's MMA workouts, some baseball thoughts, and a football game in Tucson

Welcome from perhaps the highest point in Tucson – the press box at Arizona Stadium – where I'm taking a Saturday night break from baseball to cover the Washington-Arizona football game.

Hopefully, Scott Johnson, who covers the UW beat for The Herald, is relaxing at home with his family while I pray there isn't a repeat of last Saturday's double overtime game by the Huskies. Being a 7:15 p.m. start, games like that are reasons sports writers look 20 years older than we are.

Had a nice drive down from the Phoenix area, which I'll get back to a little later. First, a few baseball links:

I had a nice talk earlier this week with Mariners pitcher Ryan Rowland-Smith. He's so determined to never repeat this year's 1-10 record that he has immersed himself into the realm of mixed martial arts fighters with his offseason workouts.

Ryan is working out at the gym in Hollywood, Calif., operated by multi-time MMA champion Randy Couture (who grew up in Lynnwood). Here's a quote from my story in this morning's Herald on Rowland-Smith's workouts:

“I've done lot of hard workouts throughout the years with different people, and physically and psychologically there's nothing like this,” he said. “The workouts are so intense and so tough, you're just pushing and pushing and pushing. There are professional fighters in there and, being around those guys, psychologically nothing comes close to what they're doing.”

Interesting story today in the New York Daily News by John Harper, who writes that the Yankees' failure to pry Cliff Lee from the Mariners in July came back to beat them in the ALCS.

One particularly interesting part of the story sheds a lot of light on the Mariners' demands in the trade. The Mariners were asking Yankees GM Brian Cashman not only for catching prospect Jesus Montero, but also either shortstop Eduardo Nunez or pitcher Ivan Nova. The Mariners had been interested in minor league second baseman David Adams but shied away when they learned he had an ankle injury. That's when they asked for Nunez or Nova, the story said.

“It was too much for a rental,” Cashman said in the Daily News story.

With the Rangers offering a player the Mariners badly wanted – first base prospect Justin Smoak – along with three minor leaguers (pitchers Blake Beavan, Josh Lueke and middle infielder Matt Lawson) who may or may not make an impact at the big league level, the Mariners shifted from the Yankees deal and sent Lee to Texas on July 9.

It looks like the Blue Jays aren't afraid to go with a first-time manager. They've offered the job to Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell, according to this report.

Up in Peoria (where I'm a little more comfortable, especially on deadline), the Peoria Javelinas beat the Peoria Saguaros 7-2 in an Arizona Fall League game today, with a couple of Mariners prospects aiding the cause.

Third baseman Matt Lawson went 2-for-3 with two RBI and pulled his Fall League average to .208.

Right-hander Josh Lueke pitched the final two innings, allowing one hit with one strikeout. In five Fall League relief appearances, Lueke has a 1.80 ERA and allowed four hits and one earned run, with five strikeouts and no walks in five innings. That's quality work against quality competition.

Sadly, this might have been my last drive to Tucson in a while. Spring training is no more down here now that the Diamondbacks and Rockies will open a new complex in Scottsdale. That puts all 15 Cactus League teams in the Phoenix area.

It's looking like Tucson won't go completely without baseball next year. The Padres' Class AAA team is relocating from Portland to Escondito, Calif. It'll be a year before their new stadium is built in Escondito, so the Padres are expected to spend one season at Tucson Electric Park (where the Diamondbacks and White Sox played their spring training games).

So forgive me if, on the drive down I-10 to Tucson this afternoon, I had a lump in my throat when I passed such sites as:

• Firebird Raceway in Chandler. I'm a car guy, and any motorsports facility always catches my attention. Firebird has a drag strip, a road course and a lake where they run drag boats. Someday, I'm going to stop there.

• The huge outlet mall in Casa Grande. Someday, I'm going to drop my wife off there while I head over to Francisco Grande and play 18 holes.

• Rooster Cogburn's Ostrich Ranch south of Casa Grande. It boasts of having “the ultimate ostrich interaction.” I bet it does. Someday, I'm going to stop there.

• The old Nickerson Farms building near Picacho Peak. When I was a kid getting car sick in the back seat on family vacations across the Midwest, Nickerson Farms was an interstate oasis that we always seemed to drive right on by. This Nickerson Farms was boarded up, the gas pumps gone and weeds growing through cracks in the pavement. I should have stopped there long ago.

• The University of Arizona campus. This is my first trip to U of A, so I literally was the old guy with knuckles on top of the steering wheel making sure I made all the correct turns through town and into the media parking lot outside the stadium.

Thanks to some guy named Mapquest, I had no problems. Take Speedway Blvd. to Park and turn right on Park. When I started seeing young lads and lasses wearing their red and blue U of A t-shirts, jorts and flip-flops, I knew I was in the neighborhood.

All I need now is a quick game without passing or TV timeouts to leave plenty of time to write before deadline. That's probably wishing for way too much.