A Grip on Sports: On another holiday when everyone seems to be working, our goal is to spend the day focusing on sports, not what happens tomorrow

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Labor Day isn’t a stuffed filled with celebrations, such as the Fourth of July, or gift-giving, like Christmas. In fact, it has more in common with Halloween, in that the day scares the heck out of school-aged children.

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• After all, school traditionally begins the day after – that tradition, like many, has faded into near-transparency – which frightens 8 out of 10 kids, according to our unofficial – and highly suspect – survey. Of the two it doesn’t, one is like my wife, who actually enjoyed school. The other? That would be a football player, who needs school to start to play his sport.

We have always used Labor Day to catch up. At times, on the labor we’ve neglected around the house. (Did a little of that yesterday and almost destroyed a window in our abode while “fixing” it.) Other times, the labor related to sports, as it does this day.

There is this column, as there is nearly every day of the year. There is also some personal work to finish, which just happens to have a sports connection as well. And then there are the sporting events on TV, from tennis to baseball to one not-so-anticipated college football game.

Of such thing are all holidays made, right? After a few decades even ones as sacred as Christmas and Thanksgiving lose their connection to their roots. Maybe not entirely, maybe not for everyone, but the connection begins to wear thin.

We’re not a sociologist, so we can’t explain the why. But we are an observer and we can chronicle the what. Today is not about spending time extolling the virtues and history of the American labor movement, that’s for sure. It’s more about a final breath of summer and the slow preparation for what’s ahead. That would be another fall and winter of raking leaves and shoveling snow. Or, in sports parlance, football, basketball and hockey, with a little cross country, volleyball and wrestling thrown in for good measure.

And good times.

• Late summer in the Midwest means rain showers. It’s as predictable as blood in a WWE match. You don’t know when or where it’s going to show up, but you’re going to get wet at some point.

The M’s got wet Sunday. A four-plus hour rain delay, endured because it was their final trip to Cleveland this season, hit them hard. But not as hard as the Guardians. (By the way, we never criticize anyone who utters Cleveland’s former nickname, as we almost typed it ourselves just now. Years of saying, or typing, one thing takes more than a season to get used to another.) They are fighting for the American League Central title and they just lost another series to Seattle. Swept actually. Now they may end up a wild-card team.

The M’s? That’s the best they can hope for, being in the same division as the Astros. And the best wild-card outcome would be to top one. That’s where they are today, one game ahead of Tampa in the standings. Hold that spot and there is a home playoff series in their future.

Isn’t that grand?

• One last thought. Utah lost to Florida on Saturday night. Then its flight home was postponed. The Utes were stuck on the East Coast an extra day. Is this a harbinger of things to come for USC and UCLA when it joins the Big Ten? Could be. The more miles one flies, the more chance there is an issue. A big issue.

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WSU: Colton Clark takes one last look at the 24-17 home win over Idaho. Now it’s on to Wisconsin, where the Cougars were pushed around to open Bill Doba’s last season as head coach. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college football, Jon Wilner takes one last look in the Mercury News at the weekend. It was good and bad for the conference. … It was good in Seattle, where transfer quarterback Michael Penix Jr. led the Huskies to a win in Kalen DeBoer’s debut. … It took some digging, we’re sure, but some positives were mined from Oregon’s blowout loss in Georgia. Now it is time to look ahead. … Oregon State begins the year 1-0. That hasn’t happened in a while. will the Beavers be 2-0? … Colorado is one of three Pac-12 teams dealing with a loss. … Utah is another. This one could hurt all season. … It wasn’t easy, but UCLA did get what it wanted out of Saturday. … In the past few years, nothing has come easy for USC. That’s why the blowout of Rice was so important for Lincoln Riley and the Trojans. … The best win of the weekend? Has to be Arizona’s at San Diego State. The Wildcats seem to be much improved.

Idaho: Jason Eck was a force of nature on the Martin Stadium sidelines Saturday night. And he team followed the first-year coach’s lead. Theo Lawson was in the press box, watched it all and put together this second-day story on Eck’s debut. It may not have been successful on the scoreboard but was in every other way.

Indians: The final home game of the 2022 regular season turned out to be a successful one for Spokane. Dave Nichols was at Avista and chronicles the 4-3 victory over Vancouver. The Indians are 4.5 games back in the playoff hunt with six games remaining. … Recycle Man, who said his goodbyes as a mascot earlier in the season, came back for the finale. Quinn Welsch has this story.

Chiefs: The Red-White scrimmage finished up preseason training camp yesterday, as it always does. But, as Kevin Dudley relays in this story, that’s about all that was the same about the first camp under new general manager Matt Bardsley.

Mariners: As we mentioned above, we stuck it out Sunday. Watched the entirety of the post-rain-delay game. The M’s won in 11 innings, 6-3. A perfect road trip. Back in first place in the wild-card chase. … The minor leagues may hold another starting pitcher for next season.

Seahawks: Only one undrafted free agent made the roster.

Sounders: It took a goal from a highly unexpected source but Seattle did win the match it had to have, 2-1, over Houston. The Sounders are still six points out of a playoff spot, however.

Storm: A defensive breakdown with the game on the line? Well, we’ve never seen that before. Wait, yes we have. Seattle will be hard pressed to win its WNBA semifinal series with Las Vegas after the overtime defeat at home.

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• If you are a student in the Spokane schools, enjoy your final day of summer vacation. Hope your learning loss wasn’t too great over the break. And the rest of us? Remember, school speed limits are in force tomorrow. It’s been nice not having to worry about that for the past few months. Until later …