In between Washington’s most well-known sports stars from past and present, there was one geek running around Benaroya Hall Friday night asking questions completely unrelated to the Sonics, Seahawks or Sounders.

I was lucky enough to attend the annual Sports Star of the Year in downtown Seattle and took the opportunity to find out what phones and apps our local sports figures favor.

Whether it was Super Bowl champion Lawyer Milloy explaining why he owns both the iPhone5 and Galaxy S3 or ESPN vet Kenny Mayne wishing we still had phones with cords, the answers were both funny and interesting.

Speaking of Mayne, the Kent, Wash. native, I had a hilarious conversation with him about his thoughts on technology, Twitter and cloud computing. We’ll have another video and write-up of that interview in the next few days, so watch out for that.

Without further ado, here’s the lowdown on the favorite smartphones and apps. You can play the video above to see the responses as well.

Doug Baldwin, Seattle Seahawks wide receiver 

Type of phone: iPhone 5

Favorite App: “Probably the Maps. It comes with the phone but it’s so useful. Unbelievable tool. I never know where I’m at in Seattle so it comes in handy a lot.”

 

Drew Bledsoe, former Pro Bowl NFL quarterback and Washington State grad

Type of phone: iPhone 4 — “I’m not convinced that the 5 is that much better. It looks like the same thing repackaged. I’ll get there eventually.”

Favorite App: “I’ve got a lot of favorite apps. I love TripIt. When I’m in the city, I love Uber. It’s awesome and gets me where I want to go. And then there’s all the games that the kids put on the phone that I play around with. The most recent one the kids put on is called Ski Safari. I’m trying to beat their high score.”

Shawn Kemp, former Seattle SuperSonics forward and six-time All-Star

Type of phone: Cell.

Favorite App: “I don’t really use apps, but I guess it would be Breaking News.”

 

Roger Levesque, Seattle Sounders legend

Type of phone: Sprint LG. “Not even sure what model it is. It allows me to make phone calls and text. I also lose or break phones more than most so I’m sure it won’t be long before I make the upgrade into the next phase.”

Favorite App: “My favorite app on this particular phone is the clock. Got to set that alarm clock early and get me up and out of bed and going.”

Edgar Martinez, 18-year Seattle Mariners legend and future Hall of Famer

Type of phone: iPhone 4. “I’ll get the iPhone 5 eventually.”

Favorite App: “The one I use the most is Mint. It tracks your expenses. I like CNBC, which is also financial. It has my alarm and when it wakes me up, I can see what the stock market is doing and all that. Some days I don’t like what that application tells me.”

Kenny Mayne, ESPN journalist and Kent, Wash. native

Type of phone: iPhone 4. “I know their stock has dropped in the past few days but I still believe. Also, I just took a picture with my phone. Who knew you could take pictures with phones? Couldn’t do that in my day. We just had one phone with a long cord in the hall and one TV.

We used to make prank phone calls a lot. We’d do fake cash-call jackpot and call the Seattle papers and do hole-in-ones. Just make up a course and make up a name. The next day we’d all have our big laugh when we saw so-and-so’s hole-in-one in the Seattle PI. You can do that on a smartphone but now the problem is — and I’m sure there’s a way to mask it — they mostly know who you are now. The joke’s gone.”

Favorite App: “I do not have many apps. I’ve gone through three phones in the last eight months — couple of accidents — and so I have to bring everything back. I only have a third of my music back. I’m too lazy to take the time and download it again. I don’t like how many things you have to keep it going — the new downloads, the updates. Just make the damn thing work. I think they probably make them to last only a certain amount of time or update them to such a degree that you’re jealous and you think you need the next one. It’s a croc. Whole thing is a scam. I was perfectly happy with the one phone we had growing up, the one TV we had growing up — I communicated quite well with my friends. So in that sense I could get by by going back to pioneer days. But it’s cool to be able to do the things I can do with my phone.”

Lawyer Milloy, former UW All-American linebacker and Super Bowl champion; Tacoma, Washington native.

Type of phone: iPhone5  —”I am an avid Apple user. I do also have the Galaxy S3, another amazing phone that I use more for business. Both phones are very nice. If I have something, I like to see what the competitors are doing — you have to stay one step ahead of the competitor. I’m blessed enough to be able to afford both phones so I went out and got the competitor.

I can say that it’s the first phone that’s competing with the iPhone side-by-side. My favorite is the iPhone though — don’t get it twisted. Everybody is trying to copy what the iPhone has been doing for a long time and they’re getting closer and closer. Hopefully Apple picks up the game a little bit. They are full of innovators and I expect the best from them.”

Favorite app: “Probably has to be Instagram. Let me take that back — I like Twitter. For me, Twitter is perfect because I’m a retired player and that’s the way I stay relevant and in contact with my fans. My followers aren’t as high because I’m not playing, but it’s good because I can still get personable with my fans.”

Bob Rondeau, veteran UW radio broadcaster

Type of phone: Blackberry — “I’m not smart enough to have a smartphone. Some of us are just couched in the old habits and they die hard. I want to be smarter than my phone rather than the other way around, so we’ll just keep it cool with what we have.”

Favorite app: “I just learned how to text. Is that an app when you actually type in the message? That must be an app, so I guess that’s the favorite one I have.”

Sigi Schmid, Seattle Sounders head coach

Type of phone: Blackberry

Favorite App: “I’m not that sophisticated. The only app I try to use is my maps to make sure I don’t get lost in cities.”

 

Mary Whipple, two-time Olympic gold medalist and former UW crew NCAA champion

Type of phone: iPhone 4. “I have a plain old 4 — no Siri. I can’t ask her any questions — or, I do, but she just doesn’t answer.”

Favorite App: “The app I use the most is Instagram — one stop shop. I don’t like to use the filters because sometimes it’s overwhelming to choose from. But then you can also have fun with it. I haven’t used the hashtag “#nofilter” yet.”

Lenny Wilkens, NBA Hall of Fame player and coach

Type of phone: iPhone 4 — “Haven’t got the 5 yet. I’ll probably get it. My youngest daughter and son-in-law are high-tech people, so I will have it because they will make sure. They teach me everything. In fact, my grand-daughter who is three-years-old, she could do it.”

Favorite App: “No favorite. But I like to look up different things. I like to look up stocks and see what companies are doing.” 

 

See a full-write up about the event at SportsPressNW.

Previously on GeekWire: California politician blasts Ballmer over NBA deal, seeks details on Microsoft’s state contracts

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