A Grip on Sports: There are many once-a-year happenings in sports, and many of them don’t happen on the field

A GRIP ON SPORTS • This time of year we make a short journey. Drive five minutes, park in the shade and walk into our doctor’s office. Sit, wait, hear our name called. Head back, step on the scale, cringe and find our seat in a small room. Wait some more. Yep, it’s our annual physical. It happens today. The highlight? We have a new scar to share.

•••••••

• Knowing the routine helps us with our usual anxiety. With the poking and prodding. Their verbal equivalents. Good new. Bad news. Walking orders for the next 365 days. As the once-a-year visit loomed, we started thinking about other aspects of our life we look forward to once a year. And, no, our one good column doesn’t count – mainly because we can’t count on writing that many between January and December. But we can count on many sporting events or experiences popping up each year. Once. And we thought we would share.

• The day we realize the Mariners’ season is going to end in disappointment.

This one happens at various times. Take 2001 for example. The year the franchise tied the MLB record and won 116 regular season games. The year most of us thought was going to end in an M’s celebration.

Where and when did we realize that happy event wasn’t going to happen? We were sitting in Safeco, actually. The day after we turned 45. We watched as Cleveland’s ancient – even then – righthander, Bartolo Colon, shut down the offense – other than Ichiro and his three hits – in the Indians’ 5-0 postseason-opening victory. Before Tyler woke us from our ruminations, we realized the M’s were in trouble. Despite everything that happened that season, almost all of it good, they still didn’t have the starting pitching to win in the postseason. We said so. Which made the ride home all that much longer. That’s the problem with being a truthteller. (Otherwise known as someone who just blurts out whatever they are thinking.) You aren’t appreciated.

Over the years, we’ve realized the M’s hopes were over in spring training. Said so. In May. Said so. At the trade deadline. Said so. Heck, as late as the 18th inning of a wild-card game.

This year has been different. Instead of one “Eureka” moment, we have suffered through the drip, drip, drip of watching our hopes drown under the weight of twin failures: the offense and the bullpen. And yet, thanks to the Astros’ inability to do any more than dog paddle most of the season, we have yet to declare an end to Seattle’s chances.

Life support? Sure. Should we alert Miracle Max? Might be a good idea. But we’re not ready to call it just yet. Not sure if we are going soft in our old age. Could be. Maybe we’ll ask our doctor and get back to you tomorrow with his answer.

• There’s another event we don’t look forward to, but know is coming. Actually, it also arrived today.

We stepped onto our deck with the dogs this morning, took a deep breath and nearly began coughing. There was smoke in the air. Lots of it. It’s fire season. Which means it is time to do two things: Update the air quality app on our phone; and put together our football coverage kit.

That’s the way of the world these days. The two go hand-in-hand. Smoke today, football tomorrow.

• One last once-a-year moment. There comes a day when we realize we can’t have the sound on when Dave Sims is in the TV booth. It happened Saturday.

We have come to the realization Sims, like nature, abhors a vacuum. That’s fine for a radio broadcast, especially when Rick Rizz is out getting a hot dog or something. But on TV, the game needs to breathe. And your color commentator has to have room to do his job. Neither occurs when Sims is on Root.

We can deal with Sims’ relentless positivity. His Motown references. He’s like the older brother we never had. But each year we hit a wall with his never-ceasing chatter. We hit it this year over the weekend.

We love to listen to Blowers explain what’s happening in the game. He’s good at it. Honest. Straightforward. Insightful. We’ve come to realize one thing. If Blowers is paid by the word, he gets rich when Aaron Goldsmith sits next to him. And loses his shirt if it’s Sims.

•••

WSU: We linked an opinion piece yesterday from Las Vegas on the Raiders’ quarterback competition. The bottom line? Aidan O’Connell had won the job. Gardner Minshew hadn’t done enough to unseat him. Well, coach Antonio Pierce didn’t see it the same way. Minshew will be the starter in the opening week. … Elsewhere in the (new and old) Pac-12, Jon Wilner turns his gaze to the Big 12 race today in the Mercury News. He has Utah winning. … Oregon State’s president, Jayathi Murthy, sat down with John Canzano on Friday for an interview. Don’t miss it. … On the football field, it’s time to look at the Oregon State depth chart. One key defensive player won’t be on it due to injury. Trent Bray will have to figure out a way to fill the gap. … Overall, though, it’s not an unlucky day even if the numbers stories on the Oregonian website roll on, hitting No. 13 for Oregon State and Oregon. … The Ducks’ two-deep has a lot of stars, including quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who grew up in Hawaii. … So does Colorado, though depth is an issue. … As Utah prepares for its new conference, rivals need to develop and schemes have to be fine-tuned. … Picking a starting quarterback at Arizona State might not be all that hard. … An Arizona transfer is shining in practice. … In the Mountain West, Boise State picked its starting quarterback Sunday and it may not be who you thought it would be. … The same can be said about San Diego State’s choice for the position. … We can pass along a look at Utah State’s running backs. … Finally, an Arizona State golfer won the U.S. Amateur over the weekend.

EWU: Eastern held its first scrimmage of preseason camp Sunday. If you don’t count the sessions that occur every practice. We the opener less than two weeks away, this scrimmage seemed like a dress rehearsal. Dan Thompson was in Cheney and has this report. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana has a running back who is playing his sixth college season. … A thunderstorm rolled through Ogden and disrupted Weber State’s scrimmage Saturday. But the Wildcats got it done. … UC Davis is looking for improvement from its defense.

Preps: We weren’t sure whether we should put Taylor Newquist’s story on Lexie Hull’s breakout game yesterday here, with Hull’s Central Valley High roots, or in the Storm section, as Hull’s 22-point performance came against Seattle in Indianapolis. We settled on this one as it will stand out. And we could use a photograph.

Indians: Vancouver picked up a 9-4 victory Sunday at Avista. Won the six-game series 4-2. Ruined another major league pitcher’s rehab start, at least the fans’ enjoyment of it. Dave Nichols has all that in this story. … Elsewhere in the Northwest League, Hillsboro had little trouble with host Eugene, winning 5-1, while Everett held on against visiting Tri-City 9-8.

Mariners: No, Sunday’s 10-3 win had nothing to do with our belief it’s too early to give up on the M’s season. We’ve seen quite a few of these offensive explosions recently. They haven’t lasted. It’s 10 runs in one game, then two over the next couple. With Seattle’s starting pitching, spreading out the runs would be much more productive. … Seattle will play in Williamsport next season. Hopefully, Julio Rodriguez will have a team from the Dominican Republic to root for.

Seahawks: Though Seattle lost its second exhibition game, there was a lot to be gained by players, coaches and the team as a whole.

Storm: Seattle was going for a sweep of the season series with Indiana but Caitlin Clark and Hull (see the Prep section above) wasn’t about to let that happen.

•••       

• For some reason we scheduled our physical today for an early start. Which meant an early morning. And a race to get this done. We won. Barely. Let’s hope we got everything correct. Didn’t happen yesterday. But we are grateful our mistake was brought to our attention and we were able to fix it. Until later …