Grip on Sports: The week begins with a visit from an old friend, Ichiro
A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s pretty nice outside. Not really. Rain is pounding the pavement like Buddy Rich on the snare in 1943. Way to skew young, right? Well, Ichiro is headed back to Seattle tonight and he would understand the reference. Read on.
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• Then again, Ichiro understands everything, from the sound a hummingbird’s wings make in mid-flight to the exact angle his bat has to be to lift a blooper 127 feet down the left-field line. He’s a savant.
And the greatest singles hitter in Mariners’ history.
He’s no longer with us, in the baseball sense, being a Miami Marlin, but he’s still playing the game at age 43. And playing it in the United States instead of his native Japan.
He speaks nearly impeccable English yet still uses an interpreter. He rarely plays these days but still commands attention. And some day he probably put on the Mariner uniform again, if only to retire.
But for now we have to be satisfied with watching him in the opponent’s dugout.
And hope one of his inside-out slaps to the left side doesn’t cause Taylor Motter problems.
• Thank goodness the weather was exceptional around Spokane yesterday. If it weren’t, then I wouldn’t have had a good excuse to step outside and do yard work.
I would have had to stay in the TV room and watch the NBA and NHL playoffs.
And that’s no fun.
Who wants to watch Kevin Durant hit shots, or Russell Westbrook miss them? Watch a guy get hit in the face with a puck, skate off for stitches and then return? Watch Draymond Green’s mouth never stop moving or James Harden’s feet doing the same?
Or look at Isaiah Thomas’ shoes.
That was enough to make me tear up, whether Charles Barkley likes it or not.
On one shoe Thomas, the former Washington Husky playing for the Boston Celtics, had written “RIP Lil Sis.” On another “I love you.”
See, Thomas’ younger sister Chyna, 22, had died in a one-car accident on Interstate 5 north of Tacoma. From all accounts the two were quite close. And yet Thomas played.
How he played was immaterial, at least to me. That he got on the court was a victory in itself. And worth admiring.
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WSU: Saturday was a busy day in Pullman, with the scrimmage and all, and I missed some of Jacob Thorpe’s work. He posted video of interviews with James Williams, Luke Falk, new defensive back Grant Porter, Alex Grinch and coach Mike Leach on Sportslink. Better linking late than not linking at all is my new motto. … Stefanie Loh has a story on a former Marine, Nicholas Smith (pictured), trying to make the Cougars as a walk-on. … Around the Pac-12, football is the subject from Oregon, Arizona State and USC. At Utah, it’s basketball.
Mariners: The M’s finished up a home sweep of the Rangers with just about everything: rallies, a home-run saving catch, a Scott Servais ejection. You name it, including a walk-off ground ball in the 8-7 win, it was included. And it’s all in Whitney Ogden’s Mariners Log, including today’s links. But we have one link for you right here. It’s to my column on the M’s today, lamenting the obsession with the past at the expense of the here and now. Especially when the now includes James Paxton.
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• Monday mornings after basketball season ends are pretty quiet. Today is proof of that. Until later …