A Grip on Sports: There was a storm of football news Tuesday and it overwhelmed our patience a bit

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Patience. Virtue. The two have been connected since the Middle Ages. But, really, the Pac-12 powers that be are testing that bromide. We find there is little virtue in being patient anymore. At least when it comes to being a college football fan.

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• Raise your hand if you are tired of waiting for the conference to announce its media-rights deal. One, two, three … OK, we have a majority. In the more than a year since USC and UCLA announced it was destroying the West Coast version of a neighborhood athletic league, we’ve waited patiently for a deal that would tie the remaining 10 members into some sort of coalition for the next few years.

Every few weeks since, it seems like, someone would report a leaked opinion, from someone who should know, the deal was just around the corner. And it would be just what the Pac-12 needed.

Heck, sometimes those leaks wouldn’t be leaks at all, but proclamations from someone important, like Washington State president Kirk Schulz. In early June he told the school’s Board of Regents the deal’s final numbers would be available in a couple weeks.

At the end of the month, we all echoed Judge Smails. But our “well, we’re waiting” landed on deaf ears.

Except there was a new narrative in July. The deal had to be over, signed, delivered, hashed out, concluded by football media day, right? C’mon, how can George Kliavkoff let it continue to fester? Not with football. No one would let football’s premier day be outshined by such news two consecutive years. And expect to keep their job.

OK, the conference’s commissioner isn’t going anywhere. Not yet. Not unless the media deal is awful. But the patience of everyone associated with the conference, from the CEOs to the fans, has to be wearing thinner than an August practice jersey.

Yet the newest leaks to those who are worth leaking information, make it clear Kliavkoff will take the Las Vegas dais Friday with nothing final to announce.

All he may have to share is a plea for patience. Again.

• Funny how the leaks about the media deal still not being ready were floated the same day the conference announced its preseason football teams.

“Hey, look over here. Your school has five players on the all-conference teams. And, oh by the way, the media deal isn’t done. See you in Vegas.”

• A question. What’s more important to a school, the number of first-team selections on an all-conference preseason team, or the overall number of players honored? The answer is simple. If your school has a bunch of first teamers, boom, that’s the headline. If not, you highlight the overall number. And if no one is honored? You show patience and wait until … ah, forget it. There is no more patience. If that happens, it’s time to moan and groan.

• The same can be said about the regional baseball team. Tuesday night’s game didn’t stand out for the result, a 10-3 loss to visiting Minnesota. Losing happens. But the SNL nature of the defeat did stand out. Bad base running. Bad pitching. Bad hitting. And really bad defense. Enough bloopers for its own reel.

If it was intended to be funny, sorry, it fell flat. Running through stop signs. Running into outs by two yards. Not making plays when needed. Passed balls of all things.

Ninety-four games in, the Mariners are once again playing .500 baseball. A 14-game winning streak, a la last season, would help considerably. But when has this group shown it has that in it?

Heck, the last time it seemed possible, USC was still the Pac-12’s golden child.

• Speaking of baseball, there were a lot of runs scored Tuesday. A dozen teams scored at least 10 times. The last time that happened was in ’94. Uh, 1894. July 4, 1894 to be exact.

That day was also the first time four games featured both teams scoring in double digits. It happened once more, on July 9 of that year. Then it didn’t happen again until yesterday. That’s almost as long a stretch, seemingly, as the Pac-12’s media negotiations.

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WSU: The Cougars had four players earn second-team preseason honors, with three of them coming from the defensive side of the ball. Colton Clark, who is leaving the beat, has this story on the awards. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, we have media rights stories from Jon Wilner in the S-R and John Canzano to pass along. As well as one from The Athletic and other spots. … Canzano also has this look at the upcoming season. … Before we go any further, we can pass along all-conference stories about Washington, Oregon, Oregon State, the two Oregon schools together, the two Bay Area schools together, Colorado, a couple from Utah, Arizona State and Arizona. In fact, everyone but UCLA and USC. Have they already left for the Big Ten? … Christian Caple has a look at Washington’s upcoming camp. … Utah is going to be among the best, even if Cam Rising was ignored by the media. … The Arizona State men’s basketball team is going overseas. … The NCAA is putting the women’s NIT on the same level as the men’s. … Finally, a former Mariner, Willie Bloomquist, who is the head coach at ASU, has some NIL thoughts.

Gonzaga: We mentioned Corey Kispert’s wedding a couple days ago. Theo Lawson tells us Joel Ayayi couldn’t make it. He was too busy. We get it. We have used that excuse to avoid buying presents for dozens of weddings. … Around the WCC, the Santa Clara star who the Warriors drafted in the first round did not do well in summer league.

EWU: Eastern has completed its men’s basketball coaching staff. Dan Thompson has the information. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, a former Montana State receiver is playing overseas. … UC Davis has a new way of buying football tickets.

Preps: Dave Nichols has a notebook today because there were two pieces of news. Mead’s Teryn Gardner, the league MVP, has decided to play college hoop at Boise State. And former Lewis and Clark coach Jim Redmon is returning to the league as Mt. Spokane’s girls coach. … Former Central Valley kicker Ryan Rehkow is still doing the punting at BYU. And he wants the Cougar fans to chill out.

Indians: If Spokane could somehow get the border closed again, it would have a chance in the Northwest League. As it is, Vancouver seems to have a deed on the Indians this season. Dave has the game story from Tuesday night’s 11-3 loss at Avista.

Seahawks: The Hawks need to decide what type of offense they want. Run the ball or open it up? … The throwback uniforms are here.

Mariners: We touched on the M’s loss above. It was ugly. … So were the uniforms worn in 1998. But they were supposed to show us the future. … A couple prospects worked out at T-Mobile. … Rick Rizz is out for a while but he still feels lucky.

Sounders: What has to happen for the team to make another playoff run?

Kraken: The NHL is a tough league to predict. Take Seattle’s prospects this season for instance.

Soccer: The U.S. Women will begin their quest for an unprecedented three consecutive World Cup titles this weekend in New Zealand. Here’s the team.

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• We spent Monday watching wildlife. From the deck of our mother-in-law’s home. Our count sounds a bit like a Christmas song. At the bird feeder, there were six doves, four woodpeckers, three red-headed birds we couldn’t identify and a hummingbird feeding from a nearby plant. There were two deer in the nearby meadow, before being run off by a trio of turkeys fighting over territory. Then, while walking that night in the hills well off the ocean, we could hear the sea lions barking at each other, wafting up from the beach. The day was magnificent. Until later …