A GRIP ON SPORTS

For quite possibly the first time in my life, today I would rather live in Cleveland. At least there the major league baseball team battles through adversity and has an ownership that will spend a bit of money to help its team compete. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have trouble saying such things with a straight face. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • ADDITION: 9:25 A.M.

Really, could there have been better weather to celebrate Mother's Day? The sun was shining, the temperature rose into the high 70s and the weeds seemed to almost pull themselves. OK, I was exaggerating a bit on that last part, but it was nearly perfect. And if you live outside of the Inland Northwest and your day was cloudy and blah, I'm sorry for gloating. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

So what's a blogger to do on Mother's Day? Tell a story about mom? Would that be present enough? It's going to have to be. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

As most of you know, I'm a big Felix Hernandez booster. The guy can pitch, it's as simple as that. But yesterday evening, I found myself quietly rooting for Hernandez to fail. Don't judge me. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

When I started this morning, the temperature outside was in the mid-30s. Now it is in the mid-40s. Oh the power of sunshine. Now if the sun could only make up for no Mariner game and little other news to link. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

One of the definitions of ownership is “legal right of possession; proprietorship.” Sounds like what the Mariners have over the Tigers right now. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

A little known fact: I grew up next to a major league baseball pitcher. A former Mariners pitcher. And, from time to time, I would spend a few days with him in Seattle. Once, while driving to the Kingdome, he made a statement that resonated through the years last night, following the last out of the M's loss, an out that prompts a little baseball etiquette lesson. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

It's going to be the nicest day of the year in the Inland Northwest today, so if you can, get out and enjoy it. If you can't, say because you have to something mundane like working to support yourself and loved ones, well, sit in front of your computer and read today's post. It's almost as good as being outside in sunny, 70-degree weather. Almost. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

What a day. The alma mater is headed to the NCAA semifinals and I read a headline I thought I would never see in my lifetime. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

It's Saturday morning. There is a lot to digest and we're not talking about last night's dinner. The NFL draft went through two more rounds (when is Roger Goodell going to realize you can stretch the seven rounds through six days and rest on the seventh, just like his counterpart upstairs?) with a few more Pac-12 stars being chosen. And the Mariners rallied in the ninth (in large part to a crucial error) and defeated the Toronto Blue Jays on a Michael Saunders' 10th-inning grand slam. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

“With the 12th pick of the draft, the Seattle Seahawks make a trade.” Now, those exact words were never spoken by Roger Goodell last night, but something similar was. Nothing surprising, of course, about that. Teams trade draft picks all the time. “With the 15th pick of the draft, the Seattle Seahawks draft Bruce Irvin, defensive end, West Virginia.” Those words, or something really close to those words, were spoken last night and they knocked most observers' socks off. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

I don't know about you, but I'll be listening to the NFL draft on the radio tonight when I drive back from Moscow. It will fill in the gap between Palouse and Garfield. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

What the heck? I got up this morning all ready to see how others around the country had began jumping on the Jason-Vargas-for-Cy-Young bandwagon and all I can find is stories about the Mariners' offense? Doesn't everyone realize yesterday's seven runs was a flash in the pan but Vargas – 3-1 already by the way – is the real deal? I don't get it. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • UPDATED: 10:20 A.M.

While driving back from the Seattle area yesterday, the ride was accompanied by a sports soundtrack. There was the news of Seth Greenberg's firing at Virginia Tech. There was the fallout from Ron Artest's elbow to James Harden's head. And, most prominently, there was the news from Arkansas that John L. Smith was headed back to the Razorbacks to become head football coach for the next 10 months. That, by the way, is twice as long as he was head coach at Weber State, his alma mater. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

For all of you who have been griping about the Mariners' offense, what do you want? Perfection? OK, you got it Saturday. Though not the right way. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

We're in the Seattle area this week on personal business but that doesn't stop us from filling you in on the sports happening around the Inland Northwest. Just like the dirty looks my wife Kim kept shooting me didn't stop me from saying “there's another person headed to the Cougar spring game,” every time an RV passed us headed east on Interstate 90. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

Fenway Park is turning 100 today and I'm here to refute the nasty Internet rumor that I was at the first game. Nope, couldn't get tickets. And, besides, I wanted to wait until Buck O'Brien was on the bump. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • UPDATED 1 P.M.

While reading through items I found yesterday about the M's loss to Cleveland on Tuesday night, one line in a Geoff Baker blog post about Eric Wedge caught my eye. “Managing a baseball team is about leading people as much as it is about playing percentages and crunching numbers,” Baker wrote. Now Baker, the longtime beat writer for the Seattle Times is a numbers guy, in the sense he understands all the statistics that are in play and have become the rage in baseball. But he also understands there is more to winning at the major league level than just running numbers through a laptop. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

When we got out of the car last night, the Mariner's had built an 8-1 lead over Cleveland. Yes, Cleveland, the poster child of ineptitude as illustrated by “Major League” (and a bunch of progressively worse sequels). Of course, the fictional Indians were the comeback kids, roaring all the way back to win the American League title. The real Indians, there is no way they could rally to overcome a seven-run deficit Tuesday night, is there? Not with all of 12,461 (yes, that was the official attendance) in the Safeco stands to cheer the home team on. Maybe one of them should have been banging on a real big drum. Read on.

A GRIP ON SPORTS

If we were going to take a day off, today seems as if it would have been the day. Heck yesterday was expected to be pretty dead. No M's. No spring football. Then all heck broke loose around here. Read on.