A GRIP ON SPORTS • Where were we? Oh, yes. Ripping into the M’s. But that’s so old school. Let’s move on to something else. Read on.

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• Left the desert yesterday where it was hot. Hoopfest 2015 hot. Got back to Spokane where it wasn’t hot. It was perfect. But the house was full of old S-Rs to wade through and enough mail to give the postman a hernia. Got through both piles, wondered if we would have enough money to pay all the bills and settled done to a nice dinner. And fell asleep before Columbo was done. It sure is nice to be home. Then we woke up this morning and there was the first harbinger of autumn. A Jacob Thorpe blog post on Pac-12 football media days. Before you know it, the trees will be ablaze in orange and yellow and crimson leaves. But that’s OK, isn’t it? This was supposed to be the summer of a baseball renaissance in the Northwest, the year the Mariners could quit talking about 1995 and 2001 and begin talking about the now. But it didn’t happen. Take Sunday for instance. Randy Johnson, the hero of 1995’s stretch run, was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Good for him. But he was inducted as a Diamondback. Bad for us. Just think if the M’s, about to make millions and millions with a new taxpayer-paid-for stadium, had given Johnson a contract that kept him in Seattle? Maybe the M’s win the 2001 World Series, no? All they were missing that year was a stud at the top of the rotation They had everything else. Oh sure, Johnson’s back was a big question mark. No one knew if giving him mucho dollars would pay off. But Arizona took a chance and it meant everything. The Mariners never took chances. Not even in 2001, when a midseason trade might have been all they needed to not only win a record number of regular season games but a title as well. But we digress. A little. We were talking about Sunday. When the M’s won. Thanks to a Franklin Gutierrez walk-off home run, the first of his star-crossed career. Even when they win these days, the M’s can’t avoid the past. They turn a triple play that hasn’t been seen in the big leagues since before even I was born. And they win a game thanks to a hit by a guy who only serves to remind us of what could have been. It wasn’t that long ago Gutierrez seemed to be the perfect fit in centerfield for the M’s, a worthy defensive descendent to Ken Griffey Jr., and Mike Cameron. And he could hit too, not like Griffey (who could?) but at least as well as Cameron and with a little more pop. But that disappeared in a sad litany of injuries and illnesses that served to rob Gutierrez of his special abilities. Now, in the twilight of his career, he struggles to play back-to-back days. He can’t roam centerfield as he used to. He is the player equivalent of what the Mariners are as a franchise, a couple of good years followed by many, many seasons of disappointment. And we are all left to wonder if that is all there is.

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• WSU: Yep, Jacob has a preview of this week’s media days. That’s so cool.

• Indians: It took 10 innings, but the Indians closed out the first half of the Northwest League season with a 6-4 win against the Dust Devils.

• Shock: We weren’t here yesterday but we have to pass along a Shock win. Jim Meehan has the game story of Spokane’s 42-40 victory against Portland at the Arena.

• Preps: There are still a couple of Spokane-area teams alive in the State Legion tournaments.

• Seahawks: A couple of football-related questions to pass along, but both are about backups at offensive positions. ... The starter at quarterback is still entwined in contract negotiations with the club.

• Mariners: Gutierrez’s joy in running around the bases was obvious following his 10th-inning solo home run that gave the M’s a 6-5 win over Toronto. He passed first and threw both arms out, celebrating the moment. Good for him. But bad for the guy who has to clean his cream-colored Sunday jersey. It was soaked in orange Gatorade, water and bubble gum. ... Hey, guess what. There is another Seattle kid making it in the big leagues. Of course, not with the Mariners.

• Sounders: Another Saturday match. Another late goal and a 1-0 defeat.

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• It seems as if we never left. At least I didn’t have to mow the lawn when I got home. There is some perks to having live-in help. Until later ...

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