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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Springing into a new season

A GRIP ON SPORTS

Growing up, some of the coolest things on television were the Disney nature shows. If you are of a certain age, you know what I mean. The best part was not the hawk swooping out of the sky, wings flapping to grab the mouse in its talons – though, for a 12-year-old boy that was pretty cool and I remember it to this day – but the time-lapse photography. The Disney folks would put a film camera on a certain part of, say, the desert, and let it roll for a year. The ensuing birth, growth and, ultimately, death of the flora in the area would zoom by like something out the front window in "The Time Machine." Why am I thinking about this? Because, since the first of the year, I've been living the same experience, albeit in slow motion. Each morning I rise out of bed, trundle to my spot downstairs and begin reading and writing. I keep the windows open to watch the neighborhood. But today I noticed the buds on the tree to my left, the one that had a single 2011 leaf clinging to it until just a couple weeks ago, really opened up yesterday. The blooming is about to begin. Read on.

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• What do the blooms on a tree have to do with sports? Well, nothing – and everything. I could get into the metaphysical discussion about rebirth and all that, but instead I'll keep it simple. Spring is here. Baseball season has started. College sports are almost over. The links are fewer and farther between. Wish we had more. But like the Mariners offense, wishing isn't going to make it suddenly appear.

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• Washington State: Because the Cougars didn't practice yesterday and don't today, about all Christian Caple has on his morning blog post is Pac-12-centric links. Though there are a few there worth following. He also has a link to John Blanchette's column on Bill Doba, back in the area for tonight's WSU event at Northern Quest Casino. ... Say what you will about Doba's tenure as head football coach, there is no taking away the fact he is a good human being and was a hell of a defensive coordinator. ... WSU's baseball team shut out Utah yesterday, 5-0, behind freshman pitcher Tanner Chleborad.

• Gonzaga: Former Zag Ryan Spangler has already landed, making one visit and committing to Oklahama, the home-state university that didn't offer him a scholarship out of high school.

• Chiefs: Big night for the Chiefs. They are in the Arena for game six of their WHL playoff series with Tri-City and must win to force a game seven. Jessica Brown looks at the pressure of tonight's game in a S-R story and a blog post from last night. ... Kamloops will try to get even and force a game seven with Portland tonight as well. The Blazers have won the last two games of the series.

• Shock: Nothing about Spokane, but we found this piece about Phoenix, which fumbled a big opportunity in Iowa last weekend.

• Preps: Just wanted to draw your attention to a new endeavor in North Idaho. Ryan Collingwood, who used to cover WSU basketball for the Lewiston Tribune, has developed a website built around North Idaho sports. You can check it out here.

• Mariners: Went to a musical with Kim last night. One of the central elements of "In The Heights" is a power outage. No, it's not about the Mariners' 2011 season (cue rim shot). Why bring that up? Well, the M's did their best impression of the '55 Dodgers on Jackie Robinson Day, with home runs from Justin Smoak and Brendan Ryan (I know, Brendan Ryan, right? And at Safeco) en route to a 5-3 win over the A's (who else?). Seattle will take a 6-5 record into today's day off. ...

• Sounders: Not only do we have news and notes about on-the-field play today concerning Seattle's professional soccer club, we also can offer this Steve Kelley column on the relationship between two of the players, one on the women's squad, the other with Seattle's reserves. Full serviceis our motto, yes sir.

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• That's our report for this morning. Have a good week (or, as it's known at WSU, have a good Spokane Week). Until later ...



Vince Grippi
Vince Grippi is a freelance local sports blogger for spokesman.com. He also contributes to the SportsLink Blog.

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Vince Grippi's daily take on all things regional sports has been moved to our main sports section online. You can find a collection of these columns here.