No time for a history lesson
A GRIP ON SPORTS
I spent a lot of time last night trying to come up with a way to work John Belushi's speech about the Germans and Pearl Harbor into my blog post this morning, but failed miserably. So alas, no "Animal House" reference (or video clips) this morning. Read on.
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• One of the reasons I couldn't think of a way to work Belushi's speech into this morning's ramblings is I really don't have anything significant to write about. (And that's different than every other day how? I'm sure most of you folks look at the screen, perplexed and then think, "forget it, he's rolling.") It is the first Saturday of college football but my interest was stolen a bit thanks to Thursday night's WSU game and to a slightly lesser degree Eastern and Idaho facing off that night as well. If those two were playing today I guarantee you I would be in Moscow watching (easy to say now). Instead, I'm going to watch a bunch of schools I have no connection with play a bunch of games that I really won't remember. It just seems odd for the first Saturday of the season. At least one constant occurred today. The WSU flag was visible on ESPN this morning.
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• Washington State: Christian took an early morning flight from Salt Lake City via Phoenix but still got to the Cougars' light practice last night in Pullman. From that came this blog post and a follow story from the 30-6 loss at BYU in today's S-R. He also has his morning post. ... Looks as if Oregon is bargaining with the NCAA. Is this anything like I used to do with God back in the fifth grade ("God, if it stops raining and I get to play my baseball game tomorrow, I'll never use your name in vain again")?
• Idaho: In other WAC football action last night (I like writing that because I won't be able to in 12 months), San Jose State came this close to giving the conference an early signature upset, falling at No. 21 Stanford 20-17.
• Whitworth: The Pirates open their season today in Minnesota (Duluth, Minnesota to be precise), against a school with an interesting name.
• Preps: It's Saturday, so prep links from around here dominate the day. Greg Lee was at the rivalry game of the weekend, in which Gonzaga Prep pulled late away to hammer Lewis and Clark, 49-30. He also covered the first game of the doubleheader at Albi, Mt. Spokane's 35-18 win over North Central (right). ... Jim Meehan covered Coeur d'Alene's 58-20 rout of West Linn (Ore.). ... Jessica Brown was in the Valley for Mead's 43-10 season-opening win over U-Hi. ... We have our roundup of all the other games from around the area and I have this one note. If you took either Lake City or Kennewick in your prep pool – as an aside, if you have a prep pool, I'm really disappointed with you – than you lost. The two interstate rivals tied at 27 in Coeur d'Alene.
• Indians: So the Eugene Emeralds quite possibly were the best team in the Northwest League from opening day to yesterday. But the Ems probably won't be playing in the playoffs because they weren't the best team in their division, record-wise, in either half. Gotta love the minor leagues. Spokane handed Eugene a 3-1 loss yesterday and knocked the Ems out of the postseason.
• Chiefs: The preseason is here.
• Mariners: If the M's were hoping Kevin Millwood would have an outstanding outing against the Angels so they could trade him to a contender (he reportedly cleared waivers this week), the first couple innings – and about a million pitches – took care of that. Millwood had no command, the Angels' Mike Trout took command of the outfield and Los Angeles/Anaheim/La Habra seized command of the game with three runs in the first en route to a 9-1 win. ... Michael Saunders tried to play with a sore groin but didn't last long. I am not making any jokes. ... September could be really important for the Mariners. I wonder if the 17,000 or so in attendance last night feel the same way.
• Seahawks: The final cuts included young quarterback Josh Portis and veteran receiver Deon Butler. Other than that, not much in the way of big news as the regular season approaches.
• Sounders: It's always good to hear what coach Sigi Schmid has to say.
• Golf: It's Saturday and Jim Meehan has a column on a guy whose recent weekend really makes me jealous.
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• Have a great weekend. I'm going to put my butt in the Laz-E-Boy and watch a ton of college football today, something I haven't had time to do much of in the past few years. Until tomorrow ...
