A Grip on Sports: With high temps on the way, the heat is turning up on the M’s, on the Cougars, Zags and just about everyone

A GRIP ON SPORTS • What better way to start a week than with a quick look around the local sports scene. Stops in Pullman, over at Gonzaga, across the mountains, back here for a look at the past. Yep, seems like the right thing to do.

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• It’s scrimmage season for college football programs. No exhibition games in their ranks. Nope. Instead, the players square off on a Saturday (or Friday night) and go after it against each other. How is that different than, say, the last period of most every practice?

Mainly because officials are usually called in and fans are allowed to watch.

The Cougars scrimmaged Saturday at Martin Stadium (or Gesa Field for you young pups or bean counters). The day seemed almost pro-like in one regard. Veteran players either set out completely or played a truncated amount.

Did we learn anything? Probably not. But the coaching staff did and in mid-August, that’s what matters.

• What is it we write about once a week? Oh, ya. Recruiting never stops. Slows a bit, but come to a complete stop? Nope. In that regard it is like just about every Spokane four-way stop-sign intersection. But enough of our old-man-shakes-fist-at-cloud-style complaint. We were talking about recruiting.

And Gonzaga picked up another puzzle piece yesterday, though it seems pretty crass to compare college athletes to an inanimate object. However, the Zags had two scholarship spots opened, needed another shooter and, lo and behold, they were able to entice Luka Krajnovic, a 6-foot-4 guard, to sign a financial-aid agreement and enroll.

After he travels from Croatia.

Is the roster ready for the 2023-24 season? Not necessarily. There is still a scholarship spot available. And a few weeks before school begins. Besides, recruiting never stops, remember?

• By the way, college basketball coaches would like recruiting to stop. At least for a small stretch next spring or summer. Their organization has asked the NCAA for a few changes in the calendar. And maybe a couple tweaks to how dead periods are defined. We’ll see if it happens.

• The Blue Jays lost early Saturday. Which meant the M’s went into their 6:40 p.m. game with Baltimore knowing they could hop over Toronto and hold down the final American League wild-card spot. At least for a few hours.

Maybe the pressure was too much. No, not for starting pitcher George Kirby. For the offense.

We will pin the lineup’s impotent performance on the pressure of trying to impress Felix Hernandez, who was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame before the game. We don’t want to believe the burden of a pennant race, even the early stages of it, would be too much for this team, considering most of them went through the grind last year.

So, we’ll blame Felix and give him credit for inspiring Kirby, the young righthander who threw a vintage Felix game. Nine shutout innings is about all you can ask of any starting pitcher.

Our son refers to Kirby as a 6-4 Greg Maddux which, while wildly premature, illustrates the potential. Put an Atlanta Brave-like offense next to him and maybe we’ll see Maddux-level results in the win column.

• Howie Stalwick appears once again in the S-R’s sports pages, today adding to his recent series of stories on the Inland Northwest’s best. Today Howie covers colleges, from coaches to players. Oh, and throws in a look at more esoteric minutiae with a quick peek at the best actors, plays (the sports type) and such.

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WSU: We mentioned the Cougars’ scrimmage above. Greg Woods and Tyler Tjomsland took it in, with Greg writing this story and Tyler posting these photographs. … Hercules Mata’afa’s family, as one would suspect, were impacted by the Lahaina fire. Greg has a story on their efforts to rebuild. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, conference realignment is such a sea change there are way too many questions to answer at one time. Jon Wilner tries to get to a bunch of the regional ones in this Mercury News. … John Canzano does the same on his website. … Remember, conference changes are not finished. What we are seeing is the middle, not the end. … Washington held its first scrimmage recently and Christian Caple has some thoughts on his website. … Matt Calkins has his thoughts on the Apple Cup’s future. … Is it possible Oregon State will have an All-Pac-12-caliber quarterback under center this season? Yep. … Oregon wanted to force and limit turnovers during its Saturday scrimmage. The Ducks did both, which means no coaches were happy. Or too sad. … The secondary should be improved at Colorado. … The Bay Area has taken some blows lately. The woes experienced by California and Stanford aren’t helping. … Cam Rising isn’t the only Utah quarterback with an injury. … UCLA is showing more speed this preseason. … Arizona State’s trip to the mountains ended on schedule. But there was one key injury. … Arizona scrimmaged yesterday and Jayden de Laura was at the center of it. … San Diego State is still outside, looking in. … In basketball news, the Wildcats’ Middle East tour continued despite the heat.

Gonzaga: We delved into the most recent roster addition above but in case you missed it, here is Jim Meehan’s story once more.

EWU and Idaho: Hazing has been in the news recently, what with the issues at Northwestern. Dan Thompson talked with Big Sky Conference coaches and players at the conference’s media day about it and about how each program deals with incoming players. … Around the Big Sky, we can pass along a look at Montana State’s fullbacks and tight ends. … Northern Colorado held a scrimmage. … So did Weber State. … If you have questions about UC Davis football, here are some answers.

Indians: Spokane rallied in the bottom of the ninth and picked a 4-3 victory over Hillsboro at Avista last night. Dave Nichols has the game coverage.

Mariners: Yes, the homage to King Felix’s career was way too real, especially considering a better one would have been to knock the crown off Felix Bautista’s head in either the ninth or 10th inning. Neither happened, the Orioles’ overpowering reliever picked up the win in the 1-0 game.

Seahawks: You don’t have to be blazing fast to stand out in the NFL at one spot. Receivers have to be able to get open, catch the ball and block. Do those three things and you can find a roster spot. At least that’s what Jake Bobo is counting on. … The Hawks were back at practice Saturday.

Storm: Seattle has been hit hard by injuries.

UFC: It was an up and down night in Las Vegas for Spokane residents in the latest UFC extravaganza of bouts.

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• Enjoy whatever is left of your weekend. It was a special one for us. Our new goal? To have more special weekends like this one. Even on, say, Tuesdays or Thursdays. Might as well defy conventions, right? Until later …