A Grip on Sports: Smoke can’t stop us from watching baseball and more this weekend, though it may make our crystal ball murky

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s Friday morning. The weekend beckons. If the smoke sticks around Spokane, however, in the doses its hit us with recently, the weekend will be spent indoors. Or coughing.

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• And what is there to do indoors? Watch television, of course. We recommend finding the Steven Spielberg movie “Always” on some streaming service, opening a window and getting the full olfactory experience. But if that seems a bit too maudlin (or smoky) for you, then we have other, sports-related options.

How about Little League games?

Look, we were not a fan when ESPN started televising regional games a decade or so ago. Leave the TV lights off until the championship in Williamsport, we thought. These are 12-year-old kids. It’s too early to beam their games into America’s living rooms. Let them play and have fun.

We were wrong. Having spoken to some young men who actually experienced the television thing, it doesn’t seem to have had much of an impact on their future lives. But they were grateful their family and friends were able to accompany them, at least in spirit and via TV, on their incredible journey.

So we withdraw our objections your honor and enter into visual evidence regional games all day today and tomorrow on ESPN. And don’t forget, the young players’ Field of Dreams, Williamsport, is just around the corner.

(As an aside, Major League Baseball pulled off a theatrical event last night, with the help of Fox. The game from the big guys’ own Field of Dreams was, by all accounts, a rousing success – even before the ninth-inning heroics, capped by Tim Anderson’s game-winning homer into the cornfield. The old-timey feel to the broadcast, the bells and whistles added for effect, all seemed to be met with universal praise. And will return next season. There’s no way baseball isn’t going to run the feel-good aspect of this into the ground, is there?)

Back to our regularly scheduled rant. Little League games aren’t all we can view this weekend. There is the usual baseball slate, with the Mariners hosting Toronto this weekend, sans the usual thousands of fanatics from Vancouver who cross the border to root for Canada’s team. If the U.S. Government wants to change the COVID-19 travel restrictions next week, we’ll be OK with that. Just give the M’s a real home weekend first.

Add in golf, though nothing major, some auto racing from Indy, NBA summer league games that seem to feature a local player every hour and you have a decent-enough slate for an August weekend.

• There was an announcement yesterday that may have floated under your radar a bit. But it has the potential to upend college sports in a big way.

A couple of companies are teaming up with BYU to sponsor every player on the Cougar football team, including the walk-ons. Here is how the Desert News covered it:

“Thursday, BYU Athletics announced an ‘enhanced agreement’ with current corporate partner Built Brands, LLC, which produces Built Bar energy products, to support the football program, ‘while also pioneering separate innovative multi-year NIL agreement with individual members of the football team.’

According to a school news release, the agreements include ‘compensation to all members of the team, including compensation to all walk-on players in the amount comparable to the costs of tuition for the academic year.’ ”

How can this change college athletics? By rendering moot the NCAA’s rules on scholarship limits.

An NCAA FBS team like Washington State can have 85 players on full-ride scholarships. So can USC. Eighty-five is probably all the Cougars can reasonably afford (though with WSU’s debt issues, 50 might be more like it). USC? The Trojans could probably afford to have 125 players on scholarship, and usually did until 1973, when the NCAA limited schools to 105.

The idea, besides saving money, was to put everyone on a level playing field. It worked. Before 1973, USC (and Notre Dame and Texas and Oklahoma and Alabama) would scholarship players just to keep them from going to UCLA or Texas A&M or Auburn or somewhere. I know. I saw it happen to a friend.

The Trojans might have had seven high school All-American offensive linemen on scholarship, but they would grab an eighth if they thought the player might head to Washington and hurt them down the road.

As scholarship numbers came down, players who used to sit the bench at USC began accepting money at WSU or Oregon State or Arizona State. Pay to sit or get a paid education to play? Easy choice. And walk-ons became even more a part of the culture, especially at public schools where the cost was lower than private institutions such as Notre Dame and USC.

That model is about to be thrown aside. If Bryan Harsin walked into the home of an economically challenged family and offered their son a full-ride to Auburn this summer, it carried a lot more weight than a pie-in-the-sky walk-on opportunity at Alabama. But if Nick Saban comes bearing a gift from a Greek yogurt company, in the form of a tuition payment for all his walk-ons, don’t you think that young man is going to head to Tuscaloosa? Sure he will.

And the best will just get better.

BYU, a private institution with a higher cost than, say, Boise State, just became a bigger factor in recruiting marginal players with a high upside. Players who, for the past five decades, have headed to schools without the same sort of resources as the big guys, helping them catch lightning in a bowl and occasionally whip up a top-10 ranked season.

That recipe may no longer work. The richest schools will be able to not only have a monopoly on the cream of each recruiting crop, but the half-and-half as well. And that will leave less for the rest.

• Yes, the transfer rules have changed, which would allow anyone who sits too long at, say, Alabama, to transfer. But that year or two they are part of the Crimson Tide becomes a de facto tryout. The good ones earn spots. The not-so-talented are encouraged to transfer, opening even more make-good spots. There is no downside for the traditional powers.

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WSU: With pads on, the Cougars hit yesterday. And boy did some of them hit. At least according to Theo Lawson in this notebook. And we’ve come to trust Theo’s opinion in these matters. About the Giants, no. But Washington State football practice, yes. … Theo also has a story about Abe Lucas and Idaho’s Tre Walker being named to the Senior Bowl watch list. … Add in three videos of post-practice interviews – with Nick Rolovich, Lucas and Ron Stone Jr. – and you have a complete report on Thursday’s going-ons. … Gardner Minshew is not giving up his starting spot in Jacksonville without a fight. He’s going to lose – money talks – but he’s fighting. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college sports, we linked Jon Wilner’s all-time Pac-12 teams before (with our objections) but here is the link from the S-R version. … Jon also delved into the revamped COVID-19 forfeit policy that was announced yesterday. … The Washington receivers are wearing goggles in practice. … Does Oregon have pressure to win against Ohio State or is the onus on the Buckeyes? You decide. … One Duck has already decided on his future. … Oregon State focused on the red zone in practice Thursday. … With an improved line, the Colorado offense hopes to take some steps. … The offensive line is better at Arizona State as well. … Utah’s new facilities are superb and there is space in the locker room for someone who isn’t there. … The running game at USC got better due to a transfer. … UCLA is singing its way to team unity. … On the first day with pads, Arizona’s quarterback battle heated up.

Gonzaga: We were watching Jalen Suggs play last night when he hurt his left hand. He left the game and did not return. That is part of this NBA summer league roundup. … Killian Tillie has signed a two-way contract with Memphis. Jim Meehan has more in this story.

Idaho: We are linking Theo’s story here too on Walker’s inclusion on the Senior Bowl watch list. … Around the Big Sky, an injured Montana running back is still helping. As is a Washington State transfer. … Montana State is getting help from a transfer as well. … UC Davis’ preseason practice is underway.

Preps: As of now, high school football players won’t have to wear masks this season.

Boxing: Amber D. Dodd has this story on boxer Fadya Hakare, who left Iraq, came to America and found her bliss in a boxing ring. Dan Pelle has a photo report documenting Hakare’s training.

Indians: Tri-City scored five times in the sixth inning and went on to an 11-5 rout of Spokane in Pasco. Dave Nichols has more here.

Shock: Spokane is reeling a bit without its top two quarterbacks and main running back, all out injured. Tonight at the Arena the Shock will try to keep up with the explosive Arizona Rattlers offense. Justin Reed has five things to watch.

Mariners: Marco Gonzales seems to have gotten his groove back. The lefthander threw a complete-game, two-hitter as the M’s topped Texas 3-1. The game took just 2 hours, 8 minutes. Talk about a throwback game. Forget the Field of Dreams, this was it. … Jarred Kelenic has made adjustments and they are beginning to show.

Seahawks: Speed is the one word that hopefully will describe the Hawks’ offense. Speed in the players. Speed in how they play. … Why don’t the Hawks just pay Duane Brown and move on? And Jamal Adams as well.

Storm: We said this earlier this week and we stand by it. In rating Breanna Stewart against her peers, no one in the world of basketball stands out more. She does it all. And last night she led the Storm to the WNBA’s Commissioner’s Cup title and $500,000.

Sounders: As we mentioned yesterday, the coaching staff underwent drastic reformation as Atlanta took two of Brian Schmetzer’s top assistants. We have to wonder if the MLS has any sort of compensation rules in this regard. … We missed this story a while back, but its subject, how Seattle is injecting youth into the lineup, is still true.

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• There are other firefighting movies you could watch this weekend, but most are too sad. Just like the fires themselves. At least with “Always,” there is – spoiler alert for a movie that is 32 years old – a happy ending. That is, if you root for beautiful people to live happily ever after. Personally, I think Holly Hunter belonged with John Goodman and my being an overweight old guy has nothing to do with it. OK, maybe a little. Until later …