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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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What a perfect spring weekend

Seattle Mariners’ Logan Morrison is showered with garbage by Nelson Cruz after hitting the winning home run on Friday. (Associated Press)
Seattle Mariners’ Logan Morrison is showered with garbage by Nelson Cruz after hitting the winning home run on Friday. (Associated Press)

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s another perfect Saturday in Spokane. The high is going to be in the 70s, the sun will be shining and you have one more day to shop for Mom. Read on

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• Yep, this is you 24-hour notice. If you haven't already, you better hustle on down to the Fred Meyer or Target or wherever and come up with the perfect gift. And telling your wife, “you’re not my mom,” doesn’t work either (that’s the voice of experience talking friends). So bite the bullet and buy something. Anything. As long as it’s from the heart it will be fine.

• On the sports’ front Friday, the Mariners walked off with a win – I saw that – as did the Chicago Bulls – missed that one. Washington had a chance to close out its series with New York – that was my commercial filler for the M’s game – but gave up a tying goal in the final seconds and then lost. Frank Clark, along with some forgotten others, made his rookie camp debut for the Hawks. The Shock won a game. And that, in a snapshot, is what happened yesterday.

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• WSU: The Cougar baseball team rallied to tie against Oregon but ultimately lost in 10 innings. ... Klay Thompson needs a bounce-back game. ... WSU is mentioned in these bold predictions by ESPN.com’s Pac-12 blog.

• EWU: Tyler Harvey has been invited to the NBA’s draft combine in Chicago.

• Idaho: For the Vandals’ men’s golf team, the Big Sky championship was just prelude to more. At least that’s the hope. Jim Meehan has more in his weekly golf column.

• Shock: The Shock routed the L.A. Kiss 68-46 last night in the Arena. Jim Meehan was there and has this story. But before everyone gets too excited, remember Los Angeles, at 0-7, is the only winless team in the AFL.

• Shadow: The Evergreen Premier League is underway and the Shadow are hoping to repeat as champions. Jim Allen has more in this story.

• Preps: There was a lot of prep action yesterday, including 5A Region I track in Idaho, which Greg Lee covered, and 3A and 4A baseball in Spokane, which Tom Clouse was at for this story. ... Jim Meehan has an advance of next week’s state golf in Idaho.

• Seahawks: “We live in a world of optimism around here.” If there is anything Pete Carroll has ever said that better defines his life philosophy, I haven’t heard it. He made the comments yesterday talking about Clark, who met the media after the first rookie mini-camp workout. But it also is the way Carroll coaches and lives his life. ... Clark's selection disappointed some Hawk fans. ... The first day of camp went pretty much how everyone thought it would. ... Other than Clark, Nate Boyer is probably the most interesting rookie in camp. If it's not Tyler Lockett. ... The offensive line rookies have Tom Cable smiling.

• Mariners: The M’s had the heart of their order up in the bottom of the 10th last night. Nothing. They had red-hot Logan Morrison up in the bottom of the 11th. Game over. Morrison’s solo home run gave Seattle a 4-3, come-from-behind win against the A’s, who have a lot of troubles right now. ... In a somewhat surprising move, Tom Wilhelmsen went right from the disabled list to the active roster, bypassing a rehab stint.

• Sounders: The Sounders are headed to Columbus, a place that holds fond memories for a trio of folks. ... Seattle will try to avenge a 2-1 loss to the Crew in Seattle last season. ... San Jose was more than happy with a draw last night.

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• The weekend is here already? Where did the week go? The sun is shining, so who cares? 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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