Now that was a playoff game
A GRIP ON SPORTS
Wow. Read on.
• Somewhere, Bud Selig is smiling. Baseball's postseason couldn't have started better. The Royals' 9-8 wild-card win over the Oakland A's had everything. Comebacks. Blown leads. Clutch hits. Key outs. Great defensive plays. Jonny Gomes. Stolen bases. Brain farts on the basepaths. Solid pitching from unexpected sources. A collapse by one of baseball's best starters. Everything. Well, almost everything. It finished here well past my bedtime – though I was still watching – so think how late it was for East Coast viewers. But I guess that's to be expected for a 12-inning game. It was good enough to keep the true fan up for all hours, the marginal fan engaged for at least most of it and the non-fan intrigued enough to maybe check back tomorrow. And that's why Selig is probably smiling. The game did nothing but build up interest for the rest of the postseason. The out-going baseball commissioner wanted the extra wild-card team to build in another pennant race, sure, but he also was all-in on a one game playoff. Not only did he expect it to be exciting, he hoped it would tax the wild card teams as well. Too often the past few years, a wild-card entrant to the playoffs has won the whole enchilada. The one-game showdown is expected to nip that in the bud a bit, putting the wild-card team behind a bit when facing the league's top club in the best-of-five divisional series. Last night's game certainly taxed the Royals pitching staff, but if didn't do anything to slow their momentum, that's for sure.
• One other thing last night featured: It had enough bunting and stolen bases to blow up social media. Those who see bunting as the tool of the Devil were all over, proselytizing their numbers religion to the uninitiated and unbelieving. Fine and dandy. Any time social media, mainly a tool of the younger generation, is aimed at baseball, it has to be good for a sport that seems, often, to only appeal to denizens of retirement communities. Even if the air is filled with poison-tipped arrows. As they say, any buzz is good buzz.
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• WSU: It's Wednesday morning, which means I have a lot of notebooks about the Pac-12 to pass along. We'll start, however, with Jacob Thorpe's workload, which also includes a notebook. But there's more, lots more. Jacob also has his Pac-12 power rankings in the paper as well as a practice report from last night on the blog. ... Jacob also posted the WSU game notes and had a blog post on the newest basketball recruit. ... Today, there is the morning post, with links, and there will be a live chat at 11 a.m. ... The Cougar soccer team (pictured) is the lead piece in Jim Allen's notebook. ... One Heisman voter is keeping a close eye on Connor Halliday, even if she occasionally has him playing for the wrong school in the state. ... Halliday slipped a bit in these Pac-12 quarterback rankings, but there is a case to be made the numbers this weekend will be spectacular. ... That is, if you stay up to watch it. ... Now on to the notebooks, of which today we pass along two.
• EWU: Jim also has another story in today's paper, this one on the improvement occurring in the Eagles' defensive ranks.
• Idaho: John Blanchette has a blog post detailing the test coming Idaho's way this weekend. The Vandals will have to deal with an option attack.
• Chiefs: Speaking of notebooks, Chris Derrick has his WHL notebook for the week.
• Seahawks: Luke Willson and backup tackle Garry Gilliam should play a more significant role why Zach Miller is out. Willson will be the starter and Gilliam should be on the field at times. It's not an easy fix, that's for sure. ... For Kam Chancellor, it's all about the shoes.
• Mariners: Jack Zduriencik and Lloyd McClendon met with the media together yesterday (pictured) and they both agreed, while this year was a step forward, it's not enough. The team needs more hitting to continue to improve. As McClendon saw it, at least two more bats. That will take money, which the M's will spend, according to Zduriencik. We'll see. ... Major league baseball is going to try some speed-up rules this fall in Arizona.
• Sounders: The Sounders' newest defender is in town, but he needs to get into shape before he hits the pitch in a significant way. ... Zach Scott didn't break any bones.
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• Some day M's fans. Some day soon you will be able to cheer your team on in the postseason. Soon, of course, is a relative term. The next couple years might be considered soon for some, 10 years for others. For me, soon means they better get there next season or I'm going to be ticked. Until later ...
