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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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A little of this and that

A GRIP ON SPORTS

And to think, it isn't even summer yet. The dog days aren't even upon us yet. Read on.

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• There is a time in the early part of summer in which there is little, other than baseball, to cover in a newspaper sports section. It's the time for vacations, retreats and golf tournaments. Those days are still in the future. But their effect is already being felt. The Seahawks went to the White House yesterday. That's somewhat big news, especially since Marshawn Lynch stayed away. Something tells me it wasn't for political reasons – he did attend Cal, after all – but I could be wrong. And the M's lost. That's news, though not in the big category. State prep playoffs are still going on, which is important to a certain segment of our readership. But the big sports, college football, college basketball, the NFL, those are in kind of a lull right now. What we need is Mike Leach to write another book. Or Mark Few to follow in Leach's footsteps and write one, maybe on the explorations of David Thompson throughout the Northwest. Or on the best fly-fishing streams in Montana. His choice. Either way it would fill another day of this column. Funny, though. There may not be a lot to write about – though the Spurs' rout of Oklahoma City might have been worth a paragraph or two, if the Thunder had stayed in Seattle (and no, I'm not bitter) – but there are still plenty of links to pass along. Odd how that happens.

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• WSU: Speaking of Leach, he held an on-line conversation yesterday to promote his book. Jacob Thorpe has some of the highlights in this blog post. ... Jacob also passes along the news of WSU's new hires in its athletic fund-raising arm. ... If you liked the statistical piece on turnovers I posted recently, you'll like this one as well. ... I pass along this ESPN.com piece on Utah's breakout player only because this guys was once WSU-bound. ... Oregon State introduced Wayne Tinkle as its new basketball coach yesterday. ... The commissioners of the Pac-12 and Big Ten got together in the Bay Area yesterday and talked about the future. It will look a bit different.

• EWU: Jim Hayford filled the hole in his basketball coaching staff by promoting from within.

• Shock: Jim Meehan has his notebook for the week. He uses it to re-introduce us to the Shock's new (old) quarterback, Brian Zbydniewski (pictured).

• Whitworth: Division III sports aren't like Division I sports. John Blanchette makes that abundantly clear again in this column on the Pirates' track and field team.

• Preps: A lot going on in spring sports right now. Ferris moved on in the State 4A soccer playoffs with a rout last night. Jim Allen has that story along with a feature on Cheney's defending state champion soccer team. ... Greg Lee has his column this week on a veteran track and field coach and a notebook that is hard to read without getting a bit misty-eyed.

• Seahawks: Yes, there are a whole lot of stories about the Hawks and their trip to the White House. If you follow social media in any way, shape or form, you couldn't get away from the pictures yesterday. The president had his quips ready and there was even a little piece of news, as Malcolm Smith was in a walking boot. No one seems to know why.

• Mariners: The M's ended their road-trip with a 4-3 loss at Texas, another game that was within their grasp if only they had a little more offense. Which is why this column by Larry Stone on Kendrys Morales (pictured) is so time-appropriate. ... The M's will be home for 11 games, time enough for many of their injured players to get healthy.

• Sounders: With another Cascadia Cup match coming up, the Sounders can boast of being the MLS' most productive regular-season team the past few years.

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• And that's that. Will be back here tomorrow. At least that's my plan. Until then ... 



Vince Grippi
Vince Grippi is a freelance local sports blogger for spokesman.com. He also contributes to the SportsLink Blog.

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