A Grip on Sports: A scary-looking car crash once again puts Tiger Woods in the limelight

A GRIP ON SPORTS • What was it we said yesterday? “You can’t take any day for granted, including the quiet days?” It seemed as if Tuesday would be a quiet day. Until it wasn’t. And boy, it wasn’t.

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• Tiger Woods is one of the world’s transcendent athletes. The type who crosses over sports’ lines, lines between generations and draws a line between love and jealousy.

No matter what you think of him, and we think a lot, you had to stop and say a bit of prayer yesterday when you heard he was in a crash. And even more so when you saw the pictures of his car with its front caved in, sitting on its side in bushes well off the road.

How could anyone walk away from that? Turns out, no one really did.

Woods had to be extricated by mechanical means, suffered at least one and maybe two broken legs, was taken by ambulance to a local hospital and underwent emergency surgery. Right now it’s not his golf career that is centermost in folks’ thoughts. It’s the rest of his life.

It wasn’t more than a couple of months ago Woods had been seen in public playing, but that’s not what we remember. We remember his partner in a charity tournament. His son Charlie.

After all Tiger Woods has been through in the past dozen years, seeing him play with his son, seeing his son’s admiration and adoration of his dad, seeing Tiger Woods in a moment anyone would treasure, it was cathartic. All of the marital discord, the addiction issues, the breakdown of his body, all of it melted into the background.

Here was a father and son, albeit the father one of the more famous people on the planet, playing golf. As fathers and sons have done for decades. Heck, at least since Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris battled it out for the Open title in the 1800s.

And now those good feelings have been washed away with fears. At first the fear was for Woods’ life. That abated. Now it’s the fear another auto-related incident will once again derail what could have been the greatest career in golf history.

Hopefully it won’t. Hopefully, Woods will have one more back-from-the-brink moment as he did at the 2019 Masters. It won’t be easy. As you read the descriptions of the injuries he suffered in the one-car crash (thankfully no one else was involved or hurt), the less likely it seems Woods’ often-battered body will be able to rebound once more.

But if there is anyone in this world who could defy the odds, it is Tiger Woods.

• The fallout from the latest self-inflicted Mariner wound continued yesterday. But there might be a silver lining in Kevin Mather’s well-publicized self-conflagration.

To explain what that is, we will draw on a funny scene in a bad movie. And a Marco Gonzales quote.

To whit: “Major League.” And the hatred the fictional Indians felt toward their fictional owner, Rachel Phelps. It was so white hot, manager Lou Brown used it as motivation to bring his misfit team together, putting a cardboard cutout of Phelps in the locker room and ripping a piece of clothing off every time the team won. Misogynistic? Sure. But also funny in its time. And memorable.

Especially when Gonzales, who Mather termed “boring,” seemed to be harkening back to it yesterday while talking about the former team president’s comments.

“Sometimes common goals can unite you,” Gonzales told the media, “but sometimes a common enemy can do the same, if not greater.”

It was a lesson Brown used well, turning the (fictional) American League hierarchy on its ear en route to a (fictional) title. Maybe the real M’s can as well. Then again, that’s probably more fictional than the movie.

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Gonzaga: There are people that love the Bulldogs. And there are people who are jealous of their success (even if they would never admit it). The former category would enjoy watching the West Coast Conference tournament in person this season, if only they could. Not happening, as Jim Meehan’s story delves into. … The latter group could have more fodder come awards season, when GU begins to amass hardware. Jim looks at the potential for that as well as passing along the news Joel Ayayi is one of five finalists for the Jerry West Award. … Elsewhere in the WCC, there will be 1,500 fans in BYU’s arena this weekend.

WSU: The Cougars’ Noah Williams has been raking in his share of awards after last week’s back-to-back stellar performances. Theo Lawson shares the news Williams earned his second national player of the week honor. … Our friend Larry Weir spoke with Paul Sorensen yesterday concerning all things college football. It’s the centerpiece of the latest Press Box podcast. … Around the Pac-12 and college basketball, Washington was blown out in the first of two games at Arizona State. … Colorado has to keep winning to keep playing. … Is UCLA on the verge of something big? … Sean Miller has just one more year on his Arizona contract. Will there be an extension? … In football news, this story on how Colorado came to hire Karl Dorrell is the type of piece I love. … Levi Onwuzurike was going to play one more season for Washington until COVID-19 hit. … Oregon officially announced some staff changes. … How did Utah attract Baylor’s quarterback? … Oregon State will start spring practice in April.

EWU: Everyone knew Eastern had a talented roster this season. How talented might be a surprise however. A series of unheralded players have been contributing to their successful Big Sky Conference season. Ryan Collingwood looks at one of the more unheralded players when the season started and how Mike Meadows has earned his minutes. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana State has new coordinators but may not have a new identity. … Weber State will have up to 5,000 fans at home football games. … Missed this yesterday, but Northern Colorado won a nonconference basketball game Monday night.

Idaho: It’s been a tough year for the Vandals’ men. Any season in which every game ends on the short end of the scoreboard would be. But how and why that is happening in Moscow makes it even more so. Peter Harriman shares his analysis of the team’s issues.

Preps: It basketball playoff time for the boys in Idaho. (As an aside, basketball on the Washington side of the border will not begin until May.) Dave Nichols was in attendance as Lake City, with a young roster, punched its ticket to next week’s 5A State tournament in Nampa. The Timberwolves did it with a 63-47 win over Post Falls. … Dave also passes along a GSL volleyball roundup.

Indians: The Rockies announced their staff for Spokane this summer, led by veteran manager Scott Little. Dave has more in this story.

Mariners: We mentioned the Mather’ fallout in a lighthearted manner above. It’s not. And it isn’t being treated as such by the organization. Mather may be no longer with the M’s but those who are left, including Scott Servais and Jerry Dipoto, are dealing with the issues he left behind. Including a big one with Jarred Kelenic, who spoke with USA Today, concerning service time. … Finding the Mather video was a bit of a long shot.

Sounders: Jordan Morris spoke about his injury yesterday. It’s going to be a long rehabilitation.

Seahawks: The Hawks have free agents. Who may return and who may leave? … One of them is veteran linebacker K.J. Wright, who seems resigned to playing somewhere else. He has a championship legacy in Seattle.

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• Somehow, the link I tweeted yesterday didn’t work. Not sure what the problem was because it looked correct to me. My IT cat didn’t have any idea either, though Stella did take a couple seconds to stop licking her paws so she could let me know I was paying overtime, so my question better be important. Until later …