Grip on Sports: The Seahawks don’t win, but the rest of the weekend is OK
A GRIP ON SPORTS • When you are in a tourist location, it is important to visit the sites. All the sites. Read on.
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• This column is being written in a bar.
(Again, the length and breadth of technology amazes me. It wasn’t that long ago the only things you could do in a bar – besides drink, of course – was flirt, talk to the guy next to you, watch a grainy football game and/or get sick in the bathroom. Now you can check out every website in the world – and not have to look at anybody.)
Not just any bar, not if you are a strange subset of sports fans called Littles. If you understood that sentence, you don’t have to read anymore until the next section.
If you don’t, it has to do with a podcast. Yes, a podcast. There was a time when it was a radio show, but now it’s a podcast. The Tony Kornheiser Show.
You may know Kornheiser from his PTI show on ESPN with Michael Wilbon. I know him from his days at the Washington Post, when he wrote a column in sports and the Features section.
Those were the days if you wanted to the read the Post, or the L.A. Times or the New York Times, you had to wander down the street and buy a couple-days-old version at a store that actually sold such things.
Not today (see all the links below). The same can be said for radio. Remember those days when you loved the 50,000-watt stations that you could hear late at night, with games from all over? Or how you would adjust the radio to be able to listen to a show after sundown?
Then came the internet, with the ability to listen to Mike and the Mad Dog – sad – or Vin Scully – worth every second – anywhere in the world. Which opened up the podcast world.
Basically, anyone can have their own radio show. Which Kornheiser, who was with ESPN Radio and then a local station in D.C., took advantage of a couple years ago.
Then he invested his children’s inheritance in a restaurant. Where he records his podcast. And serves breakfast.
After listening to this podcast for years (and the radio show before that), and having planned a trip to Virginia for work/play, I decided it was about time to visit.
Which explains where Kim and I are today.
• As you may know, today is my birthday. My 62nd birthday. Hey, Social Security is an option. But not for me. Not while I’m still doing this. Thanks.
Just remember today is also the 62nd anniversary of Don Larsen’s perfect game in the World Series. And as I’ve said many times before, my dad went to his grave blaming me for missing it.
• OK, back to sports.
The Seahawks earned the always bankable moral victory.
Of course, there is no such thing. The 33-31 loss to the Rams was just that, a loss. Another loss in a season with too many, some of them not even reflected in the standings.
The biggest discussion afterward had to do with a timeout Pete Carroll called that may have changed the course of the game. If you are wondering, Carroll was not negative about it. I know, a surprise. Mr. Positive didn’t worry about the decisions the Rams were making.
Maybe he should have been.
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WSU: The Cougars are off this week. An open date. The team they will play next, Oregon, is prepping for a visit from archrival Washington. Which means the Ducks will come to Pullman coming off either a deflating loss or a celebratory victory. And the Cougars will be coming off a week of rest. Has to be an advantage, doesn’t it? Still, Theo Lawson, who, like me is taking some time off, writes about the last half of the WSU schedule. … Theo also has a short item on the polls. … The Times’ Scott Hanson, looks at the first half and gives grades.
Elsewhere in the Pac-12, yes, the polls are out. People have problems with them. What else is new. … Washington moved up in the polls but Las Vegas thinks they will have trouble with Oregon and Justin Herbert this week. … Oregon State had some high points in the Washington State loss. Just not enough. … Stanford is out of the polls after the loss to Utah. … California has enough folks to blame for the loss in Arizona. … Colorado is moving up in the rankings. … Utah feels like it turned a corner. … USC had a bye but suffered a loss. … UCLA’s running game seems to be getting better. … Arizona State didn’t get much out of the loss to Colorado. … Former Arizona coach Mike Stoops lost another job.
Seahawks: The best thing to read today? I am contractually obligated to cite John Blanchette’s column. But I mean it. … The timeout is the No. 1 topic, but right behind it is the game itself. The Hawks ran the ball well. They scored enough points. But the injury-depleted defense is like a sieve. … That’s despite Frank Clark’s best effort.
Sounders: Every match is important now.
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• I have to buy an extra T-shirt today. It’s for my buddy Ryan Divish. He’s a Little as well. And, if you were wondering, the breakfast was great. A little too much food for me, but it tasted great. I would recommend it if you are ever in the Friendship Heights area (though, I’m not sure how many of you even get to D.C. Until later …