A Grip on Sports: How we watch sports on TV is evolving, with the survival of the fittest trending toward streaming

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The Olympics are already fading from memory. Except for the cringing we felt from watching that one Break competitor. Anyhow, we have time to fill this weekend. How do we do it?

•••••••

• Of course, we’re talking about TV and sports. It’s Friday. It’s what we do. Even on an August weekend before football starts. Luckily, we have a couple of events you won’t want to miss. Though you have to be able to access AppleTV+ for the first one.

The drip, drip, drip of streaming and sports is going to overflow soon. At least that’s our view. The necessity is growing, what with Amazon, YouTube, Apple and others throwing money at owners – we’re lumping smart college presidents in there – in large enough amounts just about every sport has a streaming presence now.

Heck, the Olympics’ Peacock offerings, from the GoldZone to every sport imaginable, received such high marks the average, non-fanatical sports viewer must believe it’s the norm now. You win those folks, you’ve won the battle.

Sorry, we did a bit of rambling there. Back to today. Want to watch the M’s in Pittsburgh? Want to watch the M’s offense, coming off a one-hit game against the Tigers, try to make contact against the most-overpowering rookie in baseball? First off, what’s wrong with you, you sicko? Still, if you are so inclined, you can watch that auto wreck only on AppleTV+ at 3:40 p.m. It’s Friday. It’s a Paul Skenes start. And your Mariners are involved.

Good luck with all that.

At least the other two games this weekend are on Root, though both will take a chunk out of your mid-days. Saturday’s start time is 10:05 a.m., Sunday’s at 10:15. The way the Seattle offense is offending, we won’t blame you if you decide to weed or walk or weekend in some other way.

What else is there? The Little League World Series is back, with a team from Puyallup representing the Northwest. That group plays today at 4 p.m. on ESPN, with the added attraction of hearing Tim Kurkjian trying to pronounce “Puyallup.” Wonder if Tim ever spent time in Edgar Martinez’s classroom? The Series continues all weekend (and through the next week).

But it won’t last as long as the PGA’s playoffs.

The FedEx Cup is on the line, as is millions of dollars, with the Tour’s top players in Memphis this weekend. The top 70 players there will be winnowed down to 50 for next weekend at the BMW Championship, then the top 30 head to Atlanta for the finals. Got it? Ya, it’s silly. Even Scottie Scheffler, the player-of-the-year frontrunner, thinks so.

Not as silly, though, as how ESPN treats the WNBA. Isn’t this the golden era of women’s basketball? We found that hard to believe last night as the league returned from its Paris break. New York was in L.A. for the premier game. ESPN had the coverage. We flipped it on. Guess what? There was a blowout Little League game on. The women? They were shunted off to the Deuce.

OK, we understand contracts and such. But the optics were awful.

• We love movies. Watched a couple this week we hadn’t seen, though one, “Layer Cake” came out 20 years ago and the other, “The Lincoln Lawyer,” about a decade after that. Spent some quality time with “Citizen Kane” yesterday as well. But we’re not a fan of movies that end predictably.

Such was the case in Detroit yesterday. Noted film critic Scott Servais even called the Mariners’ 2-1 defeat a “replay of a bad movie.” As if we didn’t know that. Heck, some of us even saw it coming.

We wrote about the Seattle bullpen in this space Thursday. Then, sometime in the fourth yesterday, our friend, former sportscaster Keith Osso, shared a picture of the line score on whatever Twitter is called now, describing it as the most Mariner one of all time. They had no hits. The Tigers had one. Seattle led, 1-0.

Our response? “Can’t wait until the eighth inning.” Guess what? Javier Baez, one of the worst hitters in baseball this season, hit a two-run, two-out home run in the eighth off Andres Muñoz and the M’s lost again.

Someone asked how we knew it was going to happen. Our response? Unlike stocks, past performance can be indicative of future results. At least with the M’s.

•••

WSU: The Cougars will scrimmage once more this weekend, two weeks before their season kicks off with a home game against Portland State. For today, however, we offer this Jon Wilner mailbag in the S-R. We linked it when it ran on the Mercury News site if it seems familiar. … The result of the Cougars’ season-opening soccer match at Purdue ran in the print edition this morning, but we could not find a link to the 1-0 defeat. Here is what we were able to gather from Indiana. The coverage of such events is almost nonexistent. … Gardner Minshew. Starting quarterback. Las Vegas. Seems right. … Elsewhere in the (new and old) Pac-12, Wilner has a primer in the Mercury News on college football’s changes headed into the season. … Oregon State has depth at running back, including Jam Griffin. … Just where did the Beavers’ transfers go? … The numbers stories on the Oregonian website continue, with No. 16 for Oregon State and Oregon. … As preseason camps winds down, Washington is deciding on who will make up the secondary. … Oregon decided to revamp its defense in one regard. The Ducks added new safeties to the mix. … John Canzano took some time today to parse Dan Lanning’s recent comments. … Is the Big 12 a truck stop league? If it is, Utah will be great fit. … Colorado is practicing under the lights tonight. … UCLA has relocated its student body at the Rose Bowl. … The Bruins and USC each have strong receiving groups. … Hey, this headline is right. Arizona State is closer to naming a starting quarterback. Has to be, right? … There is some depth to Arizona and it shows in its stars. … In the Mountain West, San Jose State has a new coach, though he’s an experienced veteran. … Wyoming welcomed back an assistant coach. … San Diego State is happy with its cornerbacks coach. … Utah State’s turmoil has given an assistant a chance to call plays. … The New Mexico defensive line is keeping it simpler. … Colorado State features one of the best receivers in college football. … Hawaii just picked up a million dollars, thanks to Oregon. … In basketball, recruiting never stops. Colorado has proof. … The Stanford and Oregon men will play in San Jose this season. … Oregon State baseball will have its own TV contract.

Gonzaga: The Zephyr begins its Spokane adventure Saturday at ONE Spokane Stadium. We link the preview once more in the team’s section below. Here, however, we call you attention Justin Reed’s story on two Gonzaga alums who are playing for Spokane, years after they left the Zags’ program. … This year’s squad opened its season at Utah, falling 2-1. As we said above, finding stories to link is hard.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, it’s time to look at Montana’s special teams. … A Montana State receiver uses his hands for more than just catching footballs. … Here’s a look at the Big Sky from the Idaho State perspective.  … Cal Poly should be fine at linebacker. … Northern Arizona’s soccer squad is ready to open its season. … Weber State did that yesterday. … In basketball, a former Northern Colorado women’s coach looks back fondly at her time in Greeley.  

Preps: Ryne Sandberg, the former North Central High three-sport star, made an announcement yesterday. It seems Sandberg’s prostate cancer treatment has been a success.

Indians: There wasn’t much in the way of drama last night at Avista. Spokane scored early and often to take an easy 13-0 victory over Vancouver. Dave Nichols has this story. … Dave has more. He spent some time this week with Rockies’ top draft pick Charlie Condon, the 6-foot-6 power hitter who hit more home runs for the University of Georgia this spring than any college player ever. Condon has a legendary work ethic. … Elsewhere in the NWL, Eugene shut out visting Hillsboro 10-0 and Tri-City handled host Everett 7-1.

Zephyr: We wanted to link Justin’s preview of tonight’s franchise-first match one more time.

Olympics: Jordan Chiles spoke yesterday. She’s disappointed. She’s also holding on to her bronze medal for now. Maybe the IOC will do the right thing. Stop laughing.

Seahawks: The Hawks’ defense had a better showing in the second, and last, joint practice with the Titans. The teams will meet Saturday in an exhibition game (4 p.m., Fox 28). … Quandre Diggs talked about his time in Seattle. … The secondary was at its best. … Geno Smith seems to find a way to connect with every receiver. … The offensive line gave him time yesterday.

Mariners: The 2-1 defeat came without Julio Rodriguez in the lineup. He’s taking it slow with his ankle injury. … The Mariner owners also own Root. The regional sports network just lost another franchise, the Blazers. That can’t be good for the bottom line.

Storm: As we mentioned above, the WNBA is back. Seattle starts the post-Olympic break with three consecutive road games, beginning tonight in Atlanta vs. the Dream. Sunday, they have a nationally televised matchup in Indianapolis against Caitlin Clark and the Fever (12:30 p.m., ABC).

Sounders: Stop us if you’ve read this before. Seattle tried its darndest at the transfer deadline to find help for the roster. But couldn’t get it done. Yes, it’s the Sounders third consecutive year of that, which is such a Mariner thing to do. There must be something in the Seattle water. … The USMNT has found its coach. It’s veteran Premier League manager, Mauricio Pochettino.

•••       

• No matter how early we rise these days, it is a struggle to finish this feature before our 9 a.m. deadline. It’s football season. And millions of words are sacrificed every day describing what’s going on with the sport this time of year. Every year. We have to do our part. Until later …