A Grip on Sports: Haniger’s absence from M’s lineup just more evidence ‘normal’ is still a ways away

A GRIP ON SPORTS • If you are wondering whether the pandemic is actually over or just on hiatus, we offer a couple of pieces of sports-related evidence. The Mets had two outfielders test positive Friday. And the M’s lost Mitch Haniger to a positive test Saturday. Two teams 3,000 miles apart but joined in lost playing time.

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• And to think, with cases down, Major League Baseball isn’t even testing on a regular basis. Someone has to be sick, with symptoms, to have their nose swabbed.

But here we are, in the middle of April as the nation returns to something akin to normal and, well, maybe we should just understand the COVID-19-IL is part of normal these days. Players are going to miss time on and off all season.

For the Mets, it’s outfielders Brandon Nimmo and Mark Canha. For the M’s, it’s Haniger, one of their keys to success.

His absence wasn’t the main reason Seattle lost 4-0 to the Astros last night. Nope, that’s due to a player who was on the injured list all of last season, Justin Verlander.

The veteran righthander didn’t look as if he lost an inch off his fastball after Tommy John surgery. If anything, he looked a bit more well rounded, mixing in a hard-breaking curveball with his overpowering fastball and sharp slider. The Mariners, some of whom were seeing Verlander for the first time, didn’t have a chance.

So what do the M’s do while Haniger sits for five days and awaits either a lack of symptoms (if he’s vaccinated) or two negative PCR tests (if he’s not)? Saturday they moved Jarred Kelenic to right, Haniger’s usual spot, and gave the at-bats to Abraham Toro, who played third. Today, Scott Servais may do something different.

Either way, welcome to the new normal.

• Waking up on an Easter Sunday with snow on the ground today in Spokane brought back a rush of memories.

It was Easter, 1986. Kim, myself and our young son were spending the first one in our new house. My sister, her husband and their young daughter were visiting from California. The adults had hidden the eggs the night before, when it was raining, and had gathered up a little mud for authenticity.

See, we had moved into our newly built South Hill mansion the November previous, so our yard was still lacking amenities. Like plants. Of any kind. The mud garden was in full bloom, however.

Anyhow, Kim used the mud to make little rabbit footprints in the foyer, with their path leading to the carrots and lettuce the children had left for Mr. Bunny. Yours truly gnawed on the vegetables a bit and left a thank you note.

It was perfect. Except the next morning we woke up to an inch or two of snow. And the eggs had, basically, disappeared.

Of course it was still March then, not mid-April as it is now.

The egg hunt had to wait a while, as it warmed up. But it never got hot enough for the snow to melt, so our pictures from that year show bundled up parents leading perplexed children through a field of mud toward little mounds of snow that turned out to be colorful hard-boiled eggs. How did the adults know? Magic.

They weren’t magical enough, though. We found one well-hidden egg later that spring. It wasn’t pretty.

• By the way, how did your Lenten sacrifices turn out? We decided to eat better and lose weight. Sorry to report we gained a couple pounds. Hopefully, the Big Guy understands about stress eating. Maybe we’ll send Him a pamphlet.

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WSU: How did the Cougars spend their pre-Easter Saturday? Scrimmaging, of course. Colton Clark and Geoff Crimmins were there, with Colton posting this story and what occurred and Geoff a photo gallery of the action. … We are old enough to remember when the Portsmouth Invitational was the pre-NBA draft event. It isn’t anymore. That honor goes to the NBA’s combine. But it’s still a big deal, especially for former Cougar Michael Flowers. As Colton tells us, he had one heck of efficient championship game. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college football, the most important decision facing Washington? Starting quarterback, of course. … The defense shined for Oregon in its second spring scrimmage. … Oregon State’s scrimmage showed the corner has been turned. Next stop, respectability. … Colorado has had three good weeks of practice. … How did Utah’s scrimmage go? Pretty good but there are questions. … USC is going to have a nationally televised spring game. … Arizona had a good spring but it’s the guys up front that will decide its 2022 fate. … In basketball news, Terrell Brown was a basketball traveler during his college career. Seattle U. Arizona. And, finally, Washington. His next stop may just be the NBA. … Another player is back for Colorado. … Christian Koloko must decide if he will return for Arizona.

Gonzaga: It’s been a year since Chris Standiford took over from Mike Roth as GU’s athletic director. An eventful year, actually. Dave Boling caught up with Standiford (and Roth) for this column. … The baseball team won another series, taking two of three from Portland.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, there were a couple of spring scrimmages Saturday around the conference. Weber State held one. So did Montana State.

Preps: One of the rights of spring for Spokane-area athletes concerns sweating their way through the Pasco Invite. The track meet returned from COVID-19 hiatus Saturday but the usual warm weather didn’t. Exceptional times did show up, though. Keenan Gray has the coverage. … Dave Nichols makes his first appearance today with a roundup of Saturday’s other action.

Chiefs: The good news? Spokane defeated Victoria 4-2 in Canada last night and qualified for the postseason. The tiebreaker scenario described in the linked story seems to be off, according to this WHL release. (This is fixed from an earlier post of the column.)

Indians: Spokane managed four hits yesterday. In two games. The Indians were swept in Eugene. Dave has more in this story.

Bloomsday: Junior Bloomsday returned Saturday, with the children running at Spokane Falls Community College. Garrett Cabeza has the coverage.

Seahawks: The Hawks may just be able to take edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux with the first pick. How long will it take Husky/Hawk fans to forget he was a Duck? … Maybe Seattle will do what it seemingly always does and just trade down.

Kraken: Matty Beniers introduced himself to the home folks last night in Seattle’s 4-3 shootout win over visiting New Jersey.

Sounders: DeAndre Yeldin came back to Seattle. And helped Miami win 1-0 against the Sounders’ second string. … We link this Portland story just because an MLS record was set in the scoreless draw with Houston.

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• What’s the best way to prove you are over 65? Besides an ID, of course? May we present the argument the first touches of arthritis making an appearance as our choice? We caught baseball and fastpitch softball for parts of four decades. In that time, foul tips claimed every one of the five fingers on our right hand. We knew at some point those dings would come back to bite us. That point is now. Crud. Thank goodness we only use one of them to type this column. Until later …