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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Grip on Sports: A nice, normal October Tuesday would be appreciated by all

Los Angeles Dodgers' Justin Turner celebrates after a three-run walk off home run against the Chicago Cubs during the ninth inning of Game 2 of baseball’s National League Championship Series in Los Angeles, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017. (Matt Slocum / Associated Press)

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Will things get back to normal today? One can only hope. Unless normal isn’t what you are hoping for. Read on.

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• It’s another October Tuesday, so “normal” means different things to different folks.

To a football player at any level, it means another game to prepare for, one of the dozen or so they play each season.

For a sports fan, it means postseason baseball during the week and football on the weekend. There is also some basketball thrown in, as college practices are underway and the NBA begins tonight. It’s pretty packed, and cool, schedule.

Those who don’t care about sports? The leaves have turned a nice shade of red or brown or yellow, the nights have begun to leave an icy reminder on the car each morning and the gutters have started to fill up. Some good, some bad but all in all, a win. Unless you hate winter and we all know that’s coming sooner than we planned.

But “normal,” no matter what it means, is a bit easier to deal with. So lets grab a glass of eggnog, raise it high and utter a toast. In other words, let’s give a little shout out to “normal.”

• What does that word mean here? Well, the Yankees won last night, which seems pretty normal for this time of year. The Seahawks didn’t make a deal to help their porous offensive line, so that’s typical. And there are enough stories about Washington State football to make your eyes hurt, which always seems to be the case.

So instead of wasting any more of your time, let’s get to them …

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WSU: President Kirk Schulz announced an interim athletic director yesterday and, if you’ve lived in the Inland Northwest for any amount of time, you know him. John Johnson (pictured) will fill the role, though he’s not a candidate for the full-time position. Theo Lawson has the story. … Theo also was at Mike Leach’s press conference, where Leach called outgoing AD Bill Moos the “best director” he’s ever met. Peter Berg is on line one. … In the normal category, Theo takes his first look at Colorado, Saturday night’s opponent and once again passes along the news a WSU game will begin after 5 p.m., the Oct. 28 game at Arizona. …In the abnormal category, air-quality specialists thought the game against California should not have been played. So do all Cougar fans. … USA Today’s midseason All-American team features two Cougars. … Leach’s statements are also the subject of Stefanie Loh’s stories in the Times. The paper’s columnist, Matt Calkins, credits Moos for a lot of the Cougars’ recent success. … We will check in with the Nebraska papers one more day concerning Moos’ hiring, then we will move on. Get your fill. … Colorado has been rotating players on its offensive line.

Elsewhere in the Pac-12, the conference may be on the outside looking in at the playoffs this year, due to all the contenders having one loss. That also changes the bowl outlook. … Washington has been hit hard by injuries, losing two key starters to injury during the Arizona State loss. … Oregon State, which has a bye this week before facing Stanford next Thursday, has to figure out who will be its next head football coach. … Oregon faces off with UCLA this Saturday, with both teams trying to rebound from some recent poor play. Part of the Bruins’ problem is they don’t tackle well. … USC steps out of conference to play new-look Notre Dame in South Bend. … California will have to try to stop Arizona’s suddenly potent offense without the services of its best linebacker, injured in the upset of WSU. … Utah may have trouble shaking off the effects of the one-point loss at USC, especially considering the late two-point conversion gamble probably should have succeeded. Now comes Arizona State, right off an upset of No. 5 Washington in which the Sun Devils took chances that paid off.

EWU: Before the season began, the Eagles probably weren’t too worried about their trip to Cedar City this weekend. After all, Southern Utah wasn’t considered one of the Big Sky’s top teams. The Thunderbirds have changed that thinking, a situation Jim Allen delves into today. … Around the Big Sky, Southern Utah isn’t all that far removed from winning the conference title. … The margin of Idaho State’s loss at Sacramento State was a bit of a surprise. 

Seahawks: The bye week is over and the Hawks’ brain trust has yet to make changes on the offensive line, despite how injuries the past week makes the road to the NFC championship more wide open than ever. … There are 11 games left. … Michael Bennett has been invited to participate via phone as the NFL owners talk about the pregame protests.

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• Normal is good. At least that’s the way I see it. Especially when it comes to brains you want to insert while re-animating a dead body. Just ask Igor. Abby Normal wasn’t a good fit. Until later …