A Grip on Sports: Forget everything else because today, Opening Day, is the annual celebration of what’s new and what’s possible
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Forget all the other stuff. Time begins today. It’s Opening Day and the capital letters are on purpose. Time to exhale. Time to smile.
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• For years we had a baseball tradition. Hot dogs at the park? Well, sure, who doesn’t? Catch with one of our sons? Yes, but no, that’s not it. The tradition we’re referring to is more cerebral than that, though we’ve been knocked in the noggin playing catch before.
We read Thomas Boswell’s collection of baseball essays, “Why Time Begins on Opening Day” as the season begins.
We don’t do it anymore. Not as often anyway. Our loss.
Heck, back in the day, when Opening Day was intertwined with the NCAA championship game – it happened a few times over the years until Opening Day moved to March and basketball leaked deeper into April – we would take the day off work, grab the sandwich-thin book and head to a watering hole/food emporium, grab a table and watch games throughout the day. All the while imbibing on adult beverages and reading Boswell’s poetic waxings on the game we love. In the early evening, friends would arrive and our focus would shift to the basketball game. When the night was done, we would wander outside, where the most-perfect wife God ever created would be waiting to drive me home.
Days we will never forget. Which is the point of Opening Day, right?
Baseball is a soulful game. One that unfolds at a meandering pace. Over days, weeks, months. And it all starts with one afternoon or, in the M’s case on this March 28th, evening of celebration. Bunting, the paper type. Fireworks, during and after. Pomp. Circumstance. Corn-fed hokum, sure, but comforting hokum.
Your team is destined for another disappointing finish? Big deal. That’s for tomorrow. Next month. August. Today, right now, this minute, we gotta chance. And that’s all anyone can ask for, right?
• There is very little we’ve written over the years that have hit a chord as much as yesterday’s column. Our ode to a fallen basketball hoop a few years ago. Thoughts on the passing of our dog Yogi – and yes, we still miss him. A few sports subjects that have faded into irrelevance. We’ve watched the flood rise before, sometimes out of the blue, sometimes totally expected.
Yesterday’s column on Pat Chun leaving Washington State to become UW’s latest athletic director was a little of both.
We knew Cougar fans were angry. We knew the feelings about the former AD in Bohler were ambivalent, at best. We knew there was an undercurrent of pent-up fury for what’s happened in the past couple years. We just didn’t expect it all to coalesce around this one piece of news.
It did. It has. It will. It is just another example of how our love of sports colors our life. Good, bad, happy or sad. They all show up. And hit hard.
• Speaking of that, who will the Cougars hire to replace Kyle Smith, their former basketball coach who was introduced to the Stanford faithful yesterday?
We heard through the player grapevine last night a name we thought would be on the periphery. Montana State’s Matt Logie. For those who don’t not know, Logie is the grandson of legendary Mercer Island High coach Ed Pepples. He’s also a former uber-successful coach at Whitworth at the Division III level, Pt. Loma in Division II and, this season, somehow willed Montana State to the NCAA Division I tourney after replacing Danny Sprinkle in Bozeman.
Yes, the same Danny Sprinkle who was introduced Wednesday as Washington’s latest coach following his one-year stay at Utah State.
Much has been made of Sprinkle’s rebuild in Logan, as the entire roster scattered before he arrived. Well, Logie had a few players to work with at MSU but Sprinkle took the best. Others decided to find new homes. After a slow start, the Bobcats came on, won the Big Sky tournament and earned a First-Four spot.
They lost to Grambling in overtime, which put a quick end to Cinderella’s night, but Logie’s abilities were showcased nationally.
He knows the region. He knows the game. And, in an homage to the former WSU coach, we’ll call him a Nerdball guy too. Not sure if that’s going to be enough to help him make another jump. What we are sure of is Washington State is going to act quickly. It has to. If it’s Logie or someone else, expect an announcement in the next couple days.
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WSU: The Cougars will pocket $750,000 from Stanford for the poaching of Smith. That tidbit, and a bit more, are in Greg Woods’ most-recent story on Smith’s departure. … Smith will have to work to keep the Cardinal roster together, as this list of the best players in the portal shows. … As for Chun’s departure, Anne McCoy has been elevated into the interim spot. Of note, when Bill Moos left and John Johnson – now Portland State’s athletic director – was tabbed to lead in the interim before Chun was hired, WSU president Kirk Schulz made it clear Johnson would not be considered for the permanent position. There was no such language in Wednesday’s announcement about McCoy, a longtime athletic department staffer. Greg has more. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and around the nation, Jon Wilner has his best bets for the Sweet 16 in the S-R this morning. … He also has some suggestions in the Mercury News for the Cougars at the AD spot. His first call, however, is a non-starter. JD Wicker isn’t leaving San Diego State (or San Diego and its life, to be more accurate) for Pullman. … Utah is headed to the NIT’s final four after a home quarterfinal rout over VCU last night. … Arizona has a Sweet Sixteen matchup with Clemson, a surprise to most. The Wildcats have been surprised in this round before. … The season’s end means Colorado has lost a couple players to the portal. … The Oregon State women are hitting their stride. … Oregon’s roster rebuild begins. … On the flip side in Boulder, the transfer portal has added fuel to Colorado’s success. … UCLA, like most schools, use men to help at practice. The Bruins have LSU in the Sweet Sixteen. … USC faces off with Baylor. … In football news, the Washington coaches previewed the Husky spring practices for the media yesterday. … The portal is a match for Colorado, isn’t it? … There are a bunch of transfers at USC this spring. … There is another Utah quarterback on the roster, if you didn’t know.
Gonzaga: It may come as something of a surprise to those who follow the Bulldogs peripherally, but one of the more-crucial aspects of their success during this long season happens to wear No. 11. Yep, Nolan Hickman. Ya, that Nolan Hickman. Theo Lawson goes in-depth this morning on what Hickman has done to earn such praise. … Dave Boling echoes a theme in his column we delved into during the recent women’s homestand. The continuity Mark Few supplies the Zags is the not-so-secret sauce of their success. … After five consecutive years, the Bulldog will not lead the country in scoring this one. Jim Meehan covers that subject. … The efficiency of the women’s offensive attack mirrors their male counterpart’s, as Greg Lee covers in today’s story. … Jim Allen has a look at the Zags’ success in Oregon over the years. … Back to the men, Zach Edey and Gonzaga have seen a lot of each other the past few years. Purdue has won both regular season matchups. … Gonzaga’s former director of operations, John Jakus, has been hired as Florida Atlantic’s head coach. … Will what happened to the Utah team supply impetus to the NCAA to go back to early round neutral sites?
Idaho: The Vandals and WSU combined on a Pro Day for senior football players Wednesday. The site: the Kibbie Dome, where the schools held parallel workouts for NFL scouts. It is also an annual rite of spring. Peter Harriman was there and has this story. … Idaho volleyball coach Chris Gonzalez has been placed on administrative leave as the investigation into his actions reaches a denouement. Thomas Clouse passes along that news and more.
Seahawks: What can we take from the Hawks’ league meeting comments?
Mariners: Yep, it’s Opening Day. The M’s host the Red Sox. We have a couple stories to pass along from the Times via the S-R and more from Seattle itself. Mitch Haniger. The rest of the starting lineup. The ballpark experience. Jerry Dipoto’s trades. The starting pitching depth. Have fun reading.
Kraken: Seattle’s players say they haven’t quit.
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• It’s a bit harder to put together our column right now. Kim is visiting her mother in California which means the two dogs are part of our morning responsibility, not her’s. From food to attention to making sure they get outside when they have the need, it isn’t easy. Plus, there is the occasional squirrel scamper across the roof that sets off the alarm bells, usually right in the middle of a complicated sentence we’re trying to decipher. Oh, well. It’s part of the deal, right? Messing with our writing is one thing. Messing with our Opening Day reading and watching? That’s another. Better not happen. Until later …