A Grip on Sports: Everytime we turn on the TV for the Olympics, we wonder what life-long memory we will add to the collection

A GRIP ON SPORTS • When you think of the Summer Olympics, what is it that comes to your mind first? One event? One athlete? One memorable incident? Or is it a series of such built up over years and years of watching? We are in the last camp and, after spending Sunday in front of the TV, we wanted to share ours.

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• Our Olympic memories reach all the way back to 1968. Even before the Games in Mexico City. Even before Bob Beamon’s flight. Before John Carlos and Tommie Smith shared a black glove and a podium protest. Back to the track and field trials that year. In the woods outside California’s Lake Tahoe. When our dad drove us right up to the fence surrounding the track, parked his Mercury Cougar and we walked right in to the place.

Of all the changes we’ve seen in our 67 years on this planet, the difference in security at sporting events might be right up there, maybe even outpacing how we use a phone.

As dad casually stood next to a short fence and talked with childhood friend Payton Jordan, the Stanford and U.S. track coach, 11-year-old Vince watched Jim Ryun, Wyomia Tyus and Dick Fosbury do their thing. It was a seminal moment, one that was seared in our memory banks as we watched ABC’s grainy coverage in front of our big old RCA that fall.

Of course, the men’s basketball team wasn’t in the woods that day, but it did ascend the gold medal dais Oct. 25, after topping Yugoslavia 65-50 in the finals. That was the last innocent gold medal game, wasn’t it? Four years later, in Munich, the finish against the U.S.S.R. was so bungled as to change our perception of the competition forever. The ’72 Olympics featured a lot of bungling, some of which costs lives. But they went on with an 84-year-old man, IOC President Avery Brundage, going on worldwide television to tell everyone even terrorists seizing athletes as hostages wouldn’t stop the competitions.

We remember 1976 because of Bruce Jenner, ’80 because of the U.S. boycott, ’84 because the Games were in L.A. – and there was another boycott. After that, the sites and sounds sort of run together in our memory banks, mainly because raising a family takes all the brain cells you can muster.

Oh, sure, we recall pivotal moments. Carl Lewis losing to a yoked Ben Johnson in Seoul’s 100-meter race in ’88. The same Olympics gave us Greg Louganis, a diver we had written about often in Southern California, hitting his head on the board and yet still winning two gold medals. It also featured roast dove, with another spending opening ceremony idea crashing and burning.

Barcelona in ’92 gave us the Dream Team. Atlanta in ’96 a bombing and Muhammad Ali lighting the torch. Sydney in 2000? Cathy Freeman, an Australian Aboriginal, winning the women’s 400 meters and Rulon Gardner, a mountain of man from Wyoming, winning gold in Greco-Roman wrestling.

This century people like swimmer Michael Phelps, who won a record 28 medals, including 23 gold, seemed to take over. Remember Usain Bolt and his eight Olympic sprint gold medals? How about Simone Biles flashing onto the scene in Rio eight years ago?

As the years sail by, we wonder what memories these Olympics may sear into our brain. None of which, we’re sure, will match the sights, sounds and, yes, smells – the heat brought out that unique Ponderosa Pine aroma we still experience today – of the 1968 trials.

• We have one more thought on this Monday, though it isn’t an Olympian one. It’s about the M’s. And their weekend sweep of the White Sox in Chicago. And how important it may become.

Yes, we know the Sox are an abomination this season. They already have 81 losses, which is New York Met-1962 bad. But they also have two starting pitchers who everyone in baseball would like the have in their rotation. And the usually impotent Mariner offense, with Randy Arozarena added, whacked both around.

Saturday it was Erick Fedde, who came in with a 7-3 record and a 2.98 earned run average. Seattle knocked him out after four innings, pinning him with the loss and three earned runs. Sunday it was Garrett Crochet who took the loss, with the lefthander entering with a 3.07 ERA and leaving three innings later with a 3.23.

Such efficiency against efficient and effective starters hasn’t been the M’s calling card this season. It was over the weekend.  

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WSU: We don’t know it we are in the 3-2-1-blastoff phase of Greg Woods’ countdown to preseason camp, but we have to be getting close. Today he delves into the linebacker position, which includes two returning starters. … Former Washington State defensive coordinator Alex Grinch has a new job. And old job, actually, coaching safeties, the same position at which he began his WSU career. He’s doing it for Wisconsin. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12, the Mountain West and the nation, we linked Jon Wilner’s Q&A in the Mercury News on Sunday. Today it is on the S-R website. … It’s not cheap to compete at college athletics’ highest levels these days. … The Oregonian’s football number series continues, with No. 34 for Oregon State and Oregon. … It’s time for Deion Sanders’ second season in Colorado to begin. … UCLA has five questions to answer in training camp. Deshaun Foster better not freeze up answering these. … Special teams are crucial to Arizona. … Colorado State has a chance to be good this season mainly because its quarterback turned down a lot of transfer money and stayed in Fort Collins. … Fresno State has a different type of money issue thanks to debt on its basketball arena. … The Pac-12’s athletes have had a good start in Paris, especially swimmers from the Bay Area.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, if you are planning to travel to Greeley to attend Eastern’s football game in early November, bring your clear plastic bag. There is a new policy at Northern Colorado.

Indians: It wasn’t home runs this time. Instead it was Sean Sullivan’s pitching that powered Spokane to another win in Eugene. Spokane left town with a 2-0 victory. Entering their off-day today, the Indians have a four-game lead in the Northwest League’s second half. … Elsewhere Sunday, Hillsboro added a game to Spokane’s lead by scoring twice in its final two at-bats to defeat the visitors from Vancouver 2-1 … Tri-City topped visiting Everett 4-1. If the Indians add the second half crown to their first-half title, the team with the overall second-best record will join them in the championship series. Vancouver holds that spot but by just a game over Hillsboro.

Olympics: We watched the U.S. men’s basketball game with Serbia and the U.S. women’s soccer match with Germany in their entirety. And just reveled in the high level of play. So good. So fun. … Jayson Tatum didn’t play a second in the U.S. win. There was some outcry about that, most notably in Boston. Steve Kerr had reasons but if we were in his shoes, we would just blame Mark Few. Say he was in charge of substituting. Just kidding. … The U.S. women begin their quest for their 124th consecutive gold medal (actually, eighth) today at noon (USA). … We aren’t all that enamored of women’s gymnastics but others in our household – and a sister many miles away – certainly are. Biles’ calf injury didn’t look good but also didn’t stop her from reaching the all-around finals and making the U.S. a heavy team gold medal favorite. … Novak Djokovic moved on to the third round in men’s tennis, but his straight-set win was most notable due to who he defeated on the Roland Garros clay: Rafael Nadal. Time wins once more. … We have been looking for a good TV schedule to pass along each day. You do not want to miss Jimmy Roberts, do you? Today we try this one. Remember, Eastern Time is always the default. Subtract the three hours if you live around us.

Seahawks: One has to wonder if Bobby Wagner is feeling old today. After all, a starting linebacker for the Hawks shared a story of as a young player reaching out to Wagner years ago. … For Geno Smith, success starts (and maybe ends) with accuracy.

Mariners: A few Seattle hitters really padded their stats over the weekend in Chicago, including Cal Raleigh, who hit another dinger in Sunday’s 6-3 win. Coupled with Houston’s loss to the Dodgers, the M’s moved back into a virtual tie with the Astros atop the American League West. … The trade deadline is Tuesday afternoon. The M’s need one more bat and possibly another bullpen arm. Will they be able to add them?

Reign: Seattle didn’t do well Sunday in its Summer Cup opener, losing to Club Tijuana.

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• These Olympics start so early in the morning, we miss some things we wish we could watch. But it’s better than the ones recently in Asia or Australia. The time issues were impossible to overcome. And in four years the Games will be in L.A. (and Oklahoma City, which is the antithesis to L.A.), meaning there will be no time problems. We can guarantee if we are still doing this column then, we will take off the entirety of the Olympic fortnight. We will either be in California watching live or imitating those spaceship folks in “WALL-E,” sitting in a comfy chair sucking down a Giant Gulp of some beverage. Until later …