A Grip on Sports: Failure is always an option in sports but why do fans anticipate it so often?

A GRIP ON SPORTS • We’re not, by nature, an optimistic person. Part of that, we’re sure, comes from the sport we played a majority of our life: baseball. If you read on, you’ll find out what we mean. Plus a few other thoughts.

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• From the day our dad put our first glove on our left hand, he started pounding in a lesson. Baseball is a game of mistakes. Preparing to fail, whether at the plate or in the field, and learning how to deal with unavoidable failure, was the only way to succeed.

We can argue until the squirrels run across the roof whether he was right or wrong, but there is no arguing his philosophy shaped our personality.

As a catcher, every time an opponent hit a ground ball, we sprinted down the base line in foul territory. Why? To be in the right spot if an errant throw was made. It didn’t happen all that often but when it did, just being there made all the difference.

Prepare to fail. It seems like a weird motto but it served us well. Perseverance was a byproduct. So was pessimism.

The former helped us in the sports writing part of our career. The latter has always helped us as we watched sports. And allowed us to fit in with the Inland Northwest’s finest.

Take, for example, the folks in the stands during Gonzaga’s blowout of Saint Mary’s on Tuesday night. Sitting next to us was a Zag fan. A long-time Zag fan. One who has been involved since the days of true failure and through the march of success since the century turned. You would think the past couple decades would have sanded the pessimism down a bit.

You would be wrong. Even as the lead grew to 10, 20, 30, she was nervous as a cat in a rocking chair factory. (And yes, we first heard that comparison back in the 1890s.) Anyhow, not until the final couple minutes did she seem to exhale.

Really, though, if a 30-point second-half lead is not enough, maybe it’s time to start rooting for Washington State.

And join a group of acolytes that have true experience in such matters.

It’s no secret. Over the years, Cougar athletic teams have blown enough sure-fire wins there is even a term for it, one we refuse to use in this space. It’s a pejorative we won’t give voice to.

But we also won’t deny it has a basis in fact. Neither will Washington State fans, at least after they’ve had a few Jager bombs. They don’t enjoy blowing a, say, 32-point lead with 21 minutes left against UCLA, in 2019, sure, but they recognize its place in school history. That football collapse was extreme even for the Cougars, but it has been a good benchmark to refer back to over the ensuing few years. Replacing, for example, the missed 19-yard field goal in the last seconds of the 60-59 loss to California in 2014. Heck, Connor Halliday’s NCAA-record 734 passing yards didn’t even result in a win.

With such things rolling around in their psyche, we get why Washington State fans were so worried on social media during the women’s recent march to the Pac-12 tournament title. Each tweet or post seemed anticipatory of either a blown call or some weird circumstance that would rip victory out of their grasp at the last second.

When it didn’t happen, the exhilaration was palatable. Almost every celebratory social media post was colored by an undercurrent of relief. And surprise. The school we root for actually won something? Didn’t drop the ball in the final seconds? Didn’t, you know, do that thing most Husky fans think happens every 24 seconds?

Nope.

But that doesn’t mean anyone with a Crimson sweatshirt can relax now. Heck, as we followed along on Twitter yesterday during the Pac-12 tournament win over California, a game WSU was expected to win handily, and did, every turnover, every missed shot, every whistle was met with a “what’s-going-to-happen-to-us-next” mentality. As the lead grew, so did, seemingly, the trepidation. And, as the final horn sounded, the “oh-uh” thoughts were immediately transferred to Oregon, Thursday’s opponent.

Actually, though, the coping mechanism is probably justified. It’s the fan-world equivalency of sprinting down to backup first base on every ground ball. You never know when it will save you a lot of grief.

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WSU: The 69-52 first-round victory of 12th-seed California actually held little in the way of doubt, as Colton Clark’s game story details. The fifth-seeded Cougars were the better team and it was evident. … Cal’s season is over. After their worst season ever, even the Bears can’t keep coach Mark Fox in charge, can they? … We mentioned the women’s march to the tournament title. It was so impressive, even the New York Times weighed in. … The Oregon men await Washington State today. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college basketball, Washington’s season ended with a thud not a bang. The Huskies fell 74-68 to a Colorado squad they had defeated twice before. Now will the suck up the large buyout and make a change, forcing Mike Hopkins out? … The Buffs face UCLA next. The Bruins will be without Jaylen Clark, their best defender, for the rest of the season. … Oregon State’s season ended as well. The Beavers fell 63-57 to Arizona State. … Utah’s season began promising. It ended ignominiously Wednesday in a 73-62 loss to Stanford. Yet, despite a seven-game losing streak, the Utes may play in one of the postseason tournaments. … USC starts the tournament today, facing Arizona State. … Stanford will be Arizona’s first opponent in Las Vegas. … On the women’s side, what was behind Arizona State’s down year? … In football news, it was too hard for offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb to walk away from Washington. … Oregon starts spring practice with new players and a stocked running back room. … Again, we see a challenge awaiting a new Colorado assistant. … Finally, Jon Wilner once more lays out the case in the Mercury News some untapped areas of revenue will help the Pac-12 in the future.

Gonzaga: The way his team kept their focus from the opening tip until the end earned praise from Mark Few. Theo Lawson takes a look back at the convincing 77-51 win over the Gaels. … Despite the 64-60 tournament final loss to Portland, the Zag women still have a lot to look forward to, as Jim Allen shares in this story. … Back to the men, Julian Strawther is one of five finalists in a strong field for the Julius Erving Award. Jim Meehan has that news. … Andrew Nembhard’s NBA season is going just fine. … Elsewhere in the WCC, we were torn about linking this story about BYU’s future. After all, the Cougars won’t experience it against teams from around here. But then we said, “what the heck” and added it to our list.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky tournament, the Montana State men are headed to the NCAA Tournament. So are, for the first time, the Sacramento State women. Both won the Big Sky automatic berth with victories against Northern Arizona.

Preps: Winning any State basketball title is special. But none more so than winning your school’s first one. James Hanlon shares how that accomplishment is being received at Wellpinit High.

Seahawks: Just who might fall to the Hawks at five? … An assistant was thrilled with her experience with Seattle.

Mariners: The M’s still have some things on their to-do list. … Seattle and the Dodgers tied.

Kraken: Quit talking about making the playoffs. That’s a given. Seattle should be thinking about bigger fish.

Sonics: The most astonishing news yesterday? We vote for Shawn Kemp being arrested in Pierce County and charged in a drive-by shooting.

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• Woke up this morning to a couple inches of new snow. We’re no longer in Nevada anymore Toto. But, according to our handy weather app, it’s finally going to start warming up. But not before it snows Friday like we relocated to Saskatoon. Until later …