Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Grip on Sports: If a bus garners this much attention, what will the show itself bring?

Washington State fans and students greet the ESPN College GameDay bus as it arrives in Pullman on Wednesday. (Luke Hollister / Courtesy)

A GRIP ON SPORTS • We wrote about baseball yesterday. We can’t do it today as well. Instead we will write about a bus rolling into Pullman. Read on.

••••••••••

• When I was living in a nice two-bedroom apartment in Pullman oh so many years ago, my wife Kim would occasionally ride the Greyhound down from Spokane on Friday night. I would pick her up by the IGA and we would spend the weekend together while I worked.

You know, I never remember a crowd gathering to celebrate the bus’ arrival. I’m sure this morning she feels cheated.

Then again, no one waited 15 years and more than 200 television shows for either of us to show up on the Palouse. So there’s that.

The crowds that lined the Pullman streets yesterday reminded me of John Glenn and New York City back in the day. Without the ticker-tape, 60-story buildings and about a million people, of course. The celebratory atmosphere was there though.

It’s a party. A flag-waving party. A football, flag-waving party this weekend at Washington State.

• Speaking of flags, one needed to be thrown on major league baseball last night after Joe West, who has been calling big league games since the mid-1970s, couldn’t make up his mind if their was fan interference in Houston or not, and then just sent the whole thing to New York to figure out.

Was Jose Altuve’s home-run ball in the stands, and thus fair game for the fans? Or was it still in the playing field and Mookie Betts’ property? Let’s examine a quote from Betts after the game, with an emphasis added by me: “I was pretty positive I was going to be able to catch it. But when I jumped and reached my hand over, I felt like someone pushed my glove out of the way.”

Over what? The fence, of course. Which means the ball was in the stands and interference, under baseball’s rules, is impossible. The fans could have ripped Betts’ glove off and it’s not interference as long as it was past the yellow line. The field belongs to the players. Everywhere else is fair game.

The call was wrong. And it may cost the Astros a chance to win back-to-back championships.

•••

WSU: So who did you want to be GameDay’s guest picker? If it was the most high-profile professional Cougar these days, you may have gotten your wish. An ESPN announcer mentioned Klay Thompson is the guy. Theo Lawson has a story on a report yesterday. … There are folks coming from far and wide to be in the crowd early Saturday morning. Theo profiles one of them who is traveling from Virginia. … Theo also has his picks of this weekend’s games (if you took his advice last week, sorry), a transcript of yesterday’s chat and an appearance on Larry Weir’s latest Press Box pod. … GameDay’s arrival in Pullman may also have an impact on the local volleyball scene. Jim Meehan explains how in this notebook. … It will be a little longer trip to Pullman this week for those of you heading over from the West Side. … Oregon hasn’t defeated the Cougars for a while and that doesn’t sit well with the Ducks. … Finally, I almost forgot my own story for The Athletic. It’s on the flag, GameDay and this weekend in Pullman.

Elsewhere in the Pac-12, there are problems galore for commissioner Larry Scott and they are getting worse. …Who will win this week as we enter the second half? And who are the better teams? … After last week, Washington and Colorado meet in a game that lost some luster, but not as much star power as some thought. … The weekend kicks off tonight with Stanford facing Arizona State in the desert. … California travels to Oregon State trying to end its skid. … The most physical game of the weekend will probably be in Salt Lake City. The Utes, however, are losing their prized freshman quarterback. … Two weeks ago, Arizona would have been favored over UCLA. This week, not so much. … In basketball news, Colorado has lost a key player for the season.

Gonzaga: Rui Hachimura is one of the best players in the nation, a preseason All-American pick from some. He’s also a preseason candidate for the Julius Erving Award. Jim Meehan has the details. … There are quite a few Gonzaga players on this CBS Sports list. … The women are the favorite to win the WCC again, at least according to the conference coaches. Jim Allen has this story on the preseason poll. … Saint Mary’s is picked second, which shouldn’t be a surprise.

EWU: The Big Sky Conference started the season with more than a handful of standout quarterbacks. At the midway point of the year, many of them are dealing with injuries. Ryan Collingwood has more in this notebook. … Around the Big Sky, Montana is reviewing its redshirt options. … Weber State’s defense knows it has to be precise this weekend. … Montana State is in the money. … UC Davis fans are still talking about the comeback win over Idaho State.

Idaho: There is a Federal lawsuit in the case that led to Rob Spear’s dismissal. It’s not by Spear.

Chiefs: The road trip is going well, with the Chiefs posting a shutout last night in Regina and winning 4-0.

Preps: It’s Thursday, so there is a lot of high school news to talk about. We start with the Pick Six, in which Dave Nichols and Sam Adams make their football game selections. … It was a big cross country day yesterday, with Dave at the meet that lifted the North Central girls and Lewis and Clark boys to GSL titles. Libby Kamrowski has the photo report. We also can pass along a roundup of the other action. … Dave looks at winding down of the regular season in other sports. … Steve Christilaw has a feature on Mead lineman Nathan Puletasi. … Finally, we have a soccer roundup.

Seahawks: The NFL is assuring Hawk fans their team won’t be leaving Seattle after Paul Allen’s death. … Tyrone Swoopes has finally earned a starting spot.

Sounders: For the 10th consecutive season, Seattle has clinched an MLS playoff berth. That came last night with a 2-1 win over Orlando.

•••      

• You know, if baseball is really going to have replay for the rest of time, then it needs to install more cameras in stadiums. Like thousands more. That will allow the replay umpire to build a 3-D model of every occurrence. And then mess up the call. Until later …