Another All-Star Game flies by
A GRIP ON SPORTS
Where were we? Oh ya, baseball season. Well, we might as well get back to that. Read on.
• Thanks to our travel plans, I missed the All-Star Game. Again. Over the years, it was probably the most taped – yes, that's the right word here – television event in our household. For so many of my 20s and 30s and even early 40s, I was often busy either with my own softball adventures or my kids' baseball ones. So the All-Star Game always took a back seat. But that didn't mean I didn't want to see the stars on display. Hence the box of VHS video tapes stacked somewhere in our storage unit. The tapes have labels such as "1993 All-Star Game. Ken!" and things like that. There is little chance I will ever watch them again, for a variety of reasons. Some of them are worn out from repeated viewings. My eldest son watched some of them like other kids watched Ninja Turtle or Sponge Bob tapes, over and over and over again. Others have been filed away so long I'm afraid the tape is brittle from disuse. Then there is the "lack-of-a-convenient-VCR" factor. Even if I wanted to watch the tapes, I would have to pull the VCR out of storage, dust it off, find the wires, hook it up to one of the older TV sets and plug it in. And pray it still works. Way too much work. Still we hang on to the outdated technology, not because of a small hope of watching the games but more due to memories. Many years my sons and I would rise Wednesday morning after mom had headed off to work. We would share some cereal, plug the tape into the machine and sit there in our pajamas, watching the game together. We would fast forward through the commercials, rewind Junior's or Edgar's at-bats and oh-and-ah over the best plays. Great times. Maybe someday we will do it again, figure out a way to watch and be magically transformed back to those days when all the stars seemed to shine so bright.
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• WSU: The Tyler Bruggman news is still being discussed, at least it was Monday, as Bud Withers took some time in a blog post to look at its effect on the Cougars. ... ESPN.com's Pac-12 blog finished up the examination of the conference by position while we were out, covering kickers and punters.
• EWU: Who is the Big Sky football favorite? Why, it's Eastern once again. The rest of the conference will be chasing the Eagles for a third consecutive season, if the prognosticators have it right.
• Shock: You know, when the Shock win, they usually win big. Jim Meehan ran the numbers and realized, before last weekend's tight comeback win over Arizona, Spokane's last 23 victories had been by an average margin of 24.1 points.
• Indians: We take a day off and the Indians lose two consecutive games in Boise, cutting their NWL lead in half. They lost last night 4-3 in 10 innings. We're back now, so maybe that will stop.
• Preps: Though it ran in Tuesday's paper, we didn't want to miss passing along Greg Lee's youth sports notebook.
• Seahawks: Marshawn Lynch (pictured with his mother) may be a star now, but he knows what it's like to struggle in life. He shared some of those struggles with Bay Area teens yesterday. ... The questions to ponder today are simple: who will be the backup quarterback and who will play right tackle? ... The Hawks are playing the Redskins this season. ... Bobby Wagner is usually not controversial. A quiet guy who does his middle linebacker job the same way, quietly. But he was a bit controversial yesterday on ESPN's "First Take."
• Mariners: Felix Hernandez started the All-Star Game. The American League, in Derek Jeter's finally appearance in it, won, 5-3. In between, Kyle Seager, Robinson Cano and Fernando Rodney did their part, though only Rodney stood out. ... Should the M's dangle their best prospects in an attempt to win now? ... By the way, Felix had the best pre-All-Star-break season of any M's pitcher. And the M's are doing OK as well.
• Sounders: You may not have noticed, but the Sounders defense has been steadily improving. It's not as good as the offense yet, but it's getting there. ... When Brad Evans returns from injury – he won't play in the friendly with Tottenham – his position might change again. ... Obafemi Martins gives the Sounders a weapon few in the MLS have.
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• That's it for today. We spent more than 12 hours traveling yesterday before Kim and I could settle down. Now it gets hectic. Until later ...
