Vince Grippi

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.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Every decade or so a golfer comes along, ascends to the top of the golfing universe, wins a lot, gathers in a few major titles and excites absolutely … no one? OK, a few folks. But not the masses. Is Scottie Scheffler filling that role in the 2020s?

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s excruciating to be a sports fan sometimes. Life interrupts and you miss the event everyone is talking about. Or you do get to watch and, after the few invested hours are over, you wish you hadn’t. But we soldier on, hoping the next time will be better.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Where were we? Oh, yes. Contemplating a Thomas Wolfe novel and college hoops. Where else would we be?

A GRIP ON SPORTS • We expected to have the Masters’ first round streaming on our computer this morning as we wrote. It’s become something of an early April tradition, watching pros try to hit the green at the par-5 second with their second shot, all the while misspelling some poor Big Sky basketball player’s name. Alas, this year the weather in Augusta did not cooperate.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Let’s take a quick spin around the dial, shall we?