A GRIP ON SPORTS
Years ago I used to look forward to Thursday nights because it meant “Hill Street Blues” and “Cheers.” Now I look forward to Thursday nights because it means a full night of college basketball. These days are better, though I miss hearing “let's be careful out there.” Read on.
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• Let's see. There's the much-anticipated showdown in the Kennel between visiting St. Mary's and Gonzaga. Then there is Eastern hosting Northern Arizona out in Cheney. And, a few miles south, Idaho hosts WAC newcomer Denver. About the only thing missing is a Cougar game, but, thanks to the new-world of Pac-12 basketball, they are already done with their first game of the week. And it didn't end pretty. Really. For about 35 minutes last night, Washington State looked as if it was going to hand Stanford another conference loss. But when the Cougars needed to execute on the offensive end and get stops on the defensive side, they did neither. The result, another late-game defeat. Thankfully there is the typical Thursday night schedule of local college hoops to wash the icky taste from our mouth.
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• Washington State: Another close loss for the Cougars, another game story from Christian Caple, who in in the Bay Area for the weekend. He also had a pregame post from Maples Pavilion, where, when it gets foggy, it is hard to see the court from the media's vantage point, along with a tale of the tape, a blog post with quotes and a morning post today with links. He also has his short summary of the weekend on our college basketball page. Christian will be holding a live chat today, quite possibly from the Golden Gate Bridge or an In-n-Out parking lot. … He also has this blog post on some football coaching rumors involving the Cougars.
• Gonzaga: It's been a long time since someone other than Gonzaga can appear at McCarthey wearing the label, defending WCC champions. But that's the case tonight as the Gaels come to town. Jim Meehan has an advance, a notebook and the weekend summary. He also has a day-of-game blog post. … St. Mary's is worried about GU's size inside (as is everyone in the conference). … BYU is adjusting to some new rules while trying to stay competitive in the WCC. … San Diego will try to hand USF another conference defeat.
• EWU: As we said yesterday, we'll be filling in for Jim Allen on coverage of Eastern's game tonight, though Jim handled the summary and the news from Cheney about a couple of offensive stars heading early to the NFL draft. Jim also has this feature on Jeffrey Forbes, who is handling more of the load for EWU after the loss of Justin Crosgile. … The best team in the Big Sky may just be Weber State.
• Idaho: The Vandals are at home this week and Josh Wright put together this summary.
• Chiefs: Spokane has a three-game winning streak and they all are against the same club. Chris Derrick covered last night's win over Seattle in the Arena against a Seattle team that just keeps losing. … Portland, on the other hand, keeps winning and setting records. … Tri-City also won last night.
• Preps: It's Thursday, which means Prep Page day. Greg Lee has a column and a feature on Colfax's Brandon Gfeller. … There was wrestling last night and Mike Vlahovich was at one of the matches.
• Seahawks: The Atlanta Falcons have something to prove this weekend (especially quarterback Matt Ryan) and that makes them dangerous. … The Hawks are down a kicker, so they signed a veteran that grew up a Seahawk fan. … Pete Carroll only seems smarter now the team is better. … Marshawn Lynch is following his usual schedule. … It's Bruce Irvin's time to step up.
• Sounders: Fredy Montero said goodbye to his second home yesterday while the MLS announced next season's schedule.
• Mariners: The baseball writers didn't vote anyone into the Hall of Fame, which means Edgar Martinez missed out again. Don't expect the best designated hitter of all-time to get in anytime soon. Could it be some of the writers though he built those biceps through illegal means?
• NBA: Twitter went nuts yesterday with reports the Sacramento Kings were being sold to Chris Hansen and his Seattle group. It doesn't look to be a done-deal just yet though, but the reports sure fired up Supersonics fans and caused some consternation in Sacramento.
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• As we said, we'll be out in Cheney tonight and tweeting from the Eagles game. Otherwise, we'll be back here tomorrow. Until then …
9:05 a.m. Jan 10
“But when the Cougars needed to execute on the offensive end and get stops on the defensive side, they did neither.” — That phrase should be on Ken Bone’s business card. Rinse, repeat.
Wish I could see the Zags game tonight, but those late west coast games are pretty much a non-starter, since the game won’t start until after 10pm at my house. God forbid they schedule the WCC’s marquee matchup on a Saturday.
9:12 a.m. Jan 10
BTW, can someone please get rid of the useless poll answers such as “don’t know” and “don’t care?” First, NO ONE knows what is going to happen, as with nearly every prediction (except when predicting the Coug football team to lose). Second, If one does not care about a particular game’s outcome, why on earth should we be concerned with the fact that they don’t care? “Not sure” is nearly as pointless.
10:02 a.m. Jan 10
SpectreCoug…you forgot…”and the Coug basketball team to lose”!
10:13 a.m. Jan 10
Hill Street Blues, a great show. “Let’s be careful out there.”
10:33 a.m. Jan 10
I wonder if I quit watching Cougar games, I could do away with my high blood pressure meds?
12:44 p.m. Jan 10
What you get in the Hall of Fame voting this year is several voters turning in blank ballets. I think it was stated by ESPN reports that it was a record year for blank ballets. The emotional fervor to protest against the steroid use that has riddled the MLB over the last 15 years has come to a head. Clemons, Bonds and others who have dominated the headlines during their playing years along with others who have been suspected but have otherwise clean records could not get any traction for a vote. No one was even close the getting enough votes to get in the hall.
So now we have those like Edgar Martinez, who have been on the ballet for a few years now with no implications of any performance enhancing drugs what- so-ever gets lost in the shuffle. You may have, say, someone who comes down to the last year of eligibility loses out merely because he has numbers good enough to get in the Hall from the thinking of years past but this year he loses out because his number are not better than those of the cheaters. So this year the thinking goes, “If I can’t vote for someone with big big numbers then I won’t vote for anyone else either. “ It stands to reason that if these players had not taken the PHD’s then their numbers would have been on the same level as the other “good “ players.
With this, I say let players like Edgar get better consideration and leave the cheaters off the ballet all together.