A Grip on Sports: The only can’t miss sports TV event this weekend would be the Indy 500, back to its rightful spot

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Really, looking around this morning, who wants to spend the weekend indoors watching television? Not even a Friends reunion could entice us. Now, the Indy 500, that may be a different story. Especially if Phoebe is driving one of the cars.

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• Could you see Chandler trying to pass Takuma Sato on the back straightaway? Me neither. Nor could we imagine an Indianapolis 500 in August, without fans. But that is where we were less than a year ago, trying to get major sporting events in whenever the opportunity presented itself.

There is some sense of normalcy this year, and this Memorial Day weekend, except the weather in these parts is supposed to be pretty good, starting tomorrow. Today? Not so much.

With that in mind, we perused the TV sports schedule for the weekend and decided, except for a couple hours Sunday morning, it might be better to take a hike. Or enjoy some other form of outdoor recreation. Maybe even take a long drive through the woods and over the hills to grandma’s house.

But if you are stuck inside, what is there to watch? Well, NBA and NHL playoffs, for two. That’s a given. The Lakers will always be on, right? And more than likely not the hockey team you rooted for as a kid, or is that just me?

Anyhow, there is always baseball this time of year, with the Mariners’ soap-opera of a season continuing nightly, the last weekend of Pac-12 and WCC baseball and the NAIA World Series underway in Lewiston.

Softball? Sure. The Super Regionals have begun, with quite possibly the best matchup in Norman, Okla., where under-seeded Washington has a chance to knock off top-seed Oklahoma and ruin the selection committee’s weekend.

There is golf, of course, with the senior men playing their PGA Championship, with the most-recent winner of the open-to-all PGA also in the field. Can Phil Mickelson make it two PGA titles in two weeks?

If soccer is your thing, then the Champions League final is available Sunday as well, with the all-England matchup between Chelsea and City kicking off at noon on CBS.

But the weekend, as all Memorial Day weekends we can recall, is under the ownership of the Indianapolis 500. We’re old enough to remember when the race was held on Memorial Day itself. But the Sunday before isn’t bad either. It does give us the holiday to quietly remember those who left home to keep us safe and never returned. Which is, in actuality, more important than any sporting event.

• Sept. 11 is also a day of remembrance, for a similar reason. It also will be, in 2021 – the 20th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon – a really big day in the Pac-12. The conference has huge football games scheduled that Saturday. There is Oregon visiting Ohio State. Washington at Michigan. Texas A&M in Boulder to face Colorado. Stanford at USC.

The Cougars? They’ll be hosting Portland State at 3 p.m. That’s a true palate cleanser, isn’t it? The time, along with a bunch of times for the first few weeks, was announced yesterday. Theo Lawson has a story on Washington State’s announcement.

The big game in September for WSU comes the next weekend in Pullman. USC visits Sept. 18 for a 12:30 kickoff that afternoon. Kind of a throwback, huh?

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WSU: Besides Theo’s story on the early season football schedule, we have a couple other Cougar stories to pass along. … Quarterback Jayden de Laura will be back for the games, as Nick Rolovich revealed yesterday he’s finished his probation stemming for an offseason DUI arrest. Theo has more in this story. … The baseball team scored eight times in the sixth inning – we had just happened to turn on the game as the leadoff home run left the park – and defeated visiting Washington 8-1. A big part of the Cougar offense comes from Kodie Kolden, half of WSU’s Coeur d’Alene Rake Show. Theo has a feature on the shortstop from Lake City High. … Back to Rolovich, he spoke with Jon Wilner about recruiting in the time of COVID-19. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college sports, Utah is using the transfer portal to build depth. … UCLA finishes spring football happy and healthy.

Gonzaga: Andrew Nembhard will be busy in June trying to make Canada’s senior men’s team that will start the road to a possible Olympics’ berth. Jim Meehan has the story. … The baseball team won the WCC championship last night, defeating visiting USD 10-0. But there is more to play for, as John Blanchette describes in his game story. … James Snook adds a photo gallery from the game. … Larry Weir focuses on GU as well in his latest Press Box podcast, as he spoke with Steven Karr yesterday. … Around the WCC, BYU feels it was just a few bounces away from making the NCAA tourney.

Preps: With wrestling working under quite tight COVID-19 protocols, the idea of having outdoor matches came up this spring. Mead and Mt. Spokane held one last night at Union Stadium. Dave Nichols was there and has this story. … Dave also has a roundup of other high school action. … The NAIA World Series this weekend in Lewiston includes players who played their prep baseball in Spokane, including Ferris High’s Nick Merkel. Ryan Collingwood has more in this story.

Indians: Dave has another story for this morning, focusing on how the Indians are teaming up with veteran’s organizations and Fairchild Air Force base for a great cause. … Dave also has the game story from last night, as Eugene defeated the visiting Indians 5-4.

Mariners: Chris Flexen bounced back from a tough outing to stop Texas, 5-0. It was the opener to a weekend series in Seattle. … Hector Santiago is happy he answered the call.

Seahawks: Though many veterans are missing OTAs, Pete Carroll remains positive about the experience. Would you expect anything else? … Could K.J. Wright come back? … The Hawks are moving toward having everyone connected to the team vaccinated. … Ahkello Witherspoon wants to be better in Seattle than he was with the 49ers.

Storm: A Seattle player will miss the season due to pregnancy.

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• Tiger Woods talked about his rehab recently but really didn’t address his car crash. How and why it happened is one of those things we may never know. Until later …