A Grip on Sports: When will sporting events return? Not anytime soon, it seems

A GRIP ON SPORTS • We would love to share some good news about live sporting events. Truly. But that’s not what we have today. In fact, we are going the other way.
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• If you were hoping to travel to Stanford in the October to watch Washington State battle the Cardinal, might thinking hard about canceling those plans. Don’t take my word for it. The person who would decide whether the game can go on as scheduled thinks so.
Santa Clara County Executive Officer Jeff Smith, unlike me, a medical doctor, told the Santa Clara County supervisors Tuesday he doesn’t expect such events to happen in the county “until at least Thanksgiving, and we’ll be lucky to have them by Thanksgiving.” Uh, that’s a long time after football season is supposed to begin.
Under the county’s ordinances, Smith is the guy who decides whether or not large gatherings, like 49ers games in Santa Clara or San Jose Sharks games, can occur.
The reason he believes it will be a while? Until a vaccine is developed, it will just be too easy for the virus to return. And large crowds mean large numbers of possible infections.
You’re probably wondering to yourself, “what does this guy know?” After all, he may be well versed on infectious diseases, but he certainly isn’t on athletics. He referred to sporting events as “sports games,” the type of description you might expect from Sheldon on “The Big Bang Theory.”
Then again, that’s actually an argument in his favor. After all, with one off-putting phrase, he ensured all of us he doesn’t have any skin in the game. He seems dedicated to doing what’s right for everyone, not just football – or baseball, or soccer, or any other sport – fans. Unlike, say, Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State’s head football coach.
Besides, Smith isn’t the only one out there floating the idea big crowds are going to be big trouble until vaccination is in place. A therapeutic drug to treat the symptoms would help too. At the least, it would be helpful to have some sort of herd immunity, which isn’t the goal of sheltering in place.
Flattening the curve is a good thing. But it also means it will be a while until much of what we are doing goes away. What we are doing doesn’t include attending sporting events. And it may not until well down the road.
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Gonzaga: Byron Wesley may go down some day as one of the more crucial players in GU history. Wait, hear me out. (And understand a member of Gonzaga’s coaching staff actually led me in this direction.) He was Gonzaga’s first grad transfer, a significant source of talent for the Zags since he was enticed to leave Los Angeles and move north. Before he arrived in the summer of 2014, toting a USC degree and the ability to step into the Bulldogs’ backcourt, the Zags had struck out on a few crucial grad transfers. After his successful season, Mark Few’s staff has been able to go toe-to-toe with every school in the nation for the best fits among the players available each year. This year, one of those players is Aaron Cook, the guard from Southern Illinois who committed this week. Jim Meehan talked with Cook yesterday and got his thoughts on why he decided on Gonzaga and what he thinks might be ahead.
WSU: If there is a college football season in the fall, Nick Rolovich will be ready. Despite the delays forced upon the Cougars’ new coach by the pandemic. He talked about those problems and everything else yesterday when he appeared on our latest Virtual Northwest Passages Forum with Theo Lawson. You can watch the discussion and read Theo’s summary of it in this story. … Around the Pac-12, former Washington basketball star Isaiah Thomas is giving back to the school in these tough times. … Oregon’s Payton Pritchard is trying to figure out his future. … Arizona hopes it figures in Charles Minlend’s future. … In football news, there is just one question Washington fans want answered. … Due to past injuries, Colorado has a lot of depth on the defensive line. … Utah picked up some in the form of a BYU transfer. … USC has a player who just wants to help.
EWU: Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Northern Colorado has hired a football assistant with Arizona ties.
Preps: Dave Hall has been around Spokane’s North Central High for a long time. That’s ending. The school’s athletic director is retiring, marking another changing of the guard in the Greater Spokane League. Dave Nichols talked with Hall and has this story. … Dave also put together a notebook of the comings and goings in area prep sports. … Oregon has joined Washington in ending the 2020 spring seasons.
Seahawks: Steve Largent is one of the NFL’s all-time best receivers. He also sports an every-man look, which allows the Hall of Famer to blend in. … The Hawks re-signed one of their backup offensive linemen. … Will Seattle draft another running back? … DK Metcalf is doing good with his money.
Mariners: Larry Weir reached a bit farther afield yesterday, talking with M’s radio broadcaster Gary Hill Jr. for the latest Press Box pod. They talked about a lot of subjects, including M’s broadcasts from the past. That’s also the subject of this interesting Corey Brock story in The Athletic. … It’s tough to be a hitting coach when you can’t be within six feet of the people you are charged with helping.
Sounders: A COVID-19 vaccine may be still a year away. But widespread testing should be available soon. That gives one Sounders executive hope.
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• Yes, we are headed to Costco. We got up early to get this done before we left. You will find all the links we would normally have above. But our usual blathering was held to a minimum. You’re welcome. Now it’s off to stock up like our ancestors did before they headed off across the continent from Independence, Missouri. Until later …