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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Vince Grippi

Vince Grippi

Current Position: Sports columnist

Vince Grippi is a freelance local sports blogger for spokesman.com.

Email
vincegrippi55@yahoo.com

All Stories

Sports

A Grip on Sports: There are numbers that are so high they play tricks with the mind and then there are numbers that seem to be too low to believe

A GRIP ON SPORTS • There are a lot of numbers thrown out there that are near-impossible to wrap your mind around. How about $36 trillion, which Google’s AI informed me is the U.S. debt as our nation closes in on its 250th July 4. Or the $52.6 million the L.A. Lakers will pay a 40-year-old LeBron James to play next season. Or the $5.23 (or so) it costs Hoopfest to give each winner and consolation champion a T-shirt.
Sports

A Grip on Sports: Sometimes, the summer weather around here, and summer opportunities such as Hoopfest, are just too perfect

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It is a postcard-perfect Spokane morning. Great. All these out-of-towners here to play in Hoopfest will somehow think this is how it is all the time. And move here. Cramming the roads. Crowding the restaurants. And driving up home prices. Hey, it snows here nine months out of the year. Stay in Bellevue or Hillsboro or Nampa. Do not move here.
Sports

A Grip on Sports: There are a few things to watch on TV this weekend but it’s always better to watch Hoopfest in person

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Most Fridays I have one goal with this column. Prepare you for the weekend of sports on TV. A good goal. A worthy one? That’s up to you. Think about it. But not right now. This Friday the main viewing event isn’t a made-for-TV one. It’s a made-for-wandering-around-the-streets-of-downtown-Spokane one. Hoopfest. Another one of those audience-participation experience in which the city shines.
Sports

A Grip on Sports: Though we never learned how to play the piano, we learned long ago how to ruin a tune

A GRIP ON SPORTS • I’m pretty sure the song I rewrote the lyrics for the most while our children were growing up was Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.” It’s simple and it’s sweet and it works in every situation. For example, sometimes I would come home from work and belt out “It’s 6 o’clock on a Wednesday, dad walks through the back door …” Ruined their night. Often. And now I plan to ruin your day.
Sports

A Grip on Sports: With a Hall of Fame ceremony on the docket, maybe this is a good day to drill down a little deeper into this Hooptown moniker

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Name two words that strike fear in your heart. Check engine? Dad’s home? Bullpen game? My choice on this Wednesday is simple: root canal. Why? We have an appointment for a procedure on a tooth that’s been a problem since mid-1970s. After 50 years, might a pain-free future await on the other side of the drill?
Sports

A Grip on Sports: Sometimes it takes longer than it should to filter out the noise and make the appropriate evaluation of a player like Cedric Coward’s potential

A GRIP ON SPORTS • And here I thought my hearing was disappearing. Fading away. And all the while it turns out it is fine. It is the TV shows that have changed. That’s a relief. Now back to our regularly scheduled rant about, well, my other failings. Maybe I’ll even turn up the volume a bit this morning. Or supply subtitles.
Sports

A Grip on Sports: Let’s take the positive view about the cooler temps and chance of rain this weekend, as that gives us another reason to watch sports on TV

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Today is, literally, the longest day of the year. If by day you mean the time the sun is above the horizon the longest. And you are located in the Northern Hemisphere. But one thing is clear. It won’t be clear in Spokane. This first day of summer is going to be cloud covered. And when the solstice arrives this evening, it might even be raining. That sure feeds the cliché, huh?
Sports

A Grip on Sports: Every once in a while a dollar figure just blows your socks off, even when you’re wearing sandals

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Things I would do if I had $10 billion? Disappear, possibly. Maybe purchase a Dunkin’ Donut franchise for the back yard. Things I wouldn’t do with $10 billion? Buy the Lakers. Or any other professional sports franchise. Well, maybe the Mariners. I mean, c’mon. Being the guy who brought a World Series title to the Pacific Northwest would get you on the region’s Mount Rushmore, wouldn’t it?
Sports

A Grip on Sports: WSU drops the field part of track and field, a preview of the cuts other sports will have to endure as college athletics continue its evolution

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Next time you are sitting around the sports bar with your buddies, try this little test. Start talking about track and field, except don’t use the field part. See if everyone knows what you’re talking about. Why? Partly because Washington State University announced Monday it will be conducting a similar experiment come the fall.