Vince Grippi

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Here it is, springtime. Flowers blooming. Grass growing. Pollen sneezing. And yet an old man’s thoughts turn to football. Drafts. Practices. Transfers. National pastime, no. National obsession, yes.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Shouldn’t excellence be award enough? Well, that and about $50 million. But, honestly, Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda deserve even more. Not money. Recognition. What the two are doing, at the same time mind you, is precedented, sure. But rare.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • No matter if you are 18 or 81, you’ve met people throughout your life. Sometimes meeting them means not ever actually, you know, being face to face. Case in point: athletic heroes. We all have them. And as you speed down the highway to your ultimate destination, those heroes exit the race more and more often. Another one of ours did Saturday.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • We won’t be writing about the Mariners’ Friday game this morning. It was postponed. Weather. We won’t be writing about the transfer portal either. We are overwhelmed. We also won’t be writing about the Seahawks’ draft plans, our latest golf outing or how sports can keep you young. That doesn’t leave much, does it?

A GRIP ON SPORTS • One ironic aspect of doing this feature every day revolves round the sun. As in, it wakes us up earlier this time of year, when the magnitude of sports coverage we are interested in lags a bit. Football and basketball seasons correspond with shorter daytime hours, meaning it’s pretty easy to oversleep. The opposite is true in late April.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • You know what would make today better? Other than warmer temperatures in the Spokane area, of course. It would be great if we were kicking off a major golf tournament today. As we did last week. But one a month is all we get, and only for four months.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s funny how certain memories from childhood never leave you. The first time you watch a baseball game. The first time you meet a famous athlete. The first time you experience a certain cartoon. Wacky, isn’t it?

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It was just another Monday in April. Tax Day, actually. Until it morphed into something more. Much more in that little niche of America known as the Inland Northwest. Somehow yesterday transformed into a celebration of college hoops.