A Grip on Sports: After a fulfilling (and filling) day off, we’re back with thoughts on the M’s, Holmgren and just about every sport out there
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Where were we? Oh, right? Worrying about the Mariners. And wondering about the NBA’s summer league. Well, the last one, not all that much.
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• Ah, the M’s. The Northwest’s most frustrating pro franchise.
The Seahawks have a winning formula. The Sounders do too. The Storm and Reign have won championships. The Mariners?
They try. Sort of.
That “sort of” isn’t aimed at the players, especially this group. It’s obvious they care. So too does the coaching staff. And, we’ll reckon, the front-office personnel involved with the baseball part of it. It’s the folks who have the final say, the non-baseball people who control the wallet, that we’re always worried about.
The franchise makes money. Thanks to a bit of diversity in its portfolio, Seattle made more money last season than anyone in baseball. At least according to Forbes Magazine’s reckoning. But investing those funds into the on-field product, known in sports’ circles as going “all in,” now that’s rarely been the Mariner way.
Life on the cheap gets old year after year.
This season has aged the average Mariner fan by a decade. Hope, slow start. Despair, a decent May. A glimmer of hope, awful June. Total despair, this week.
A players-only meeting seems to have blown a little life into the fading fire. Tampa Bay was burned for two wins. Now the Giants have been roasted twice. Two playoff contenders, two series wins.
The spark is still just that. The M’s sit at .500. Tonight in San Francisco, they have a chance to pop over the break-even mark for the first time since June 2. A win sends them to their personal house of horrors, Minute Made Park in Houston, with a sense of promise for four games worth of opportunity.
Win there – Seattle is 7-32 in the place since 2019 – and there is real momentum headed into the All-Star break.
Which seems about right for a franchise that has made its bones on teasing us every season.
• It seems weird to watch professional basketball in the summer. Any type of basketball really, even if we’ve spent the past decade coaching the game in such exotic locales as Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Chehalis, Washington.
Warm weather, sunshine and long days don’t seem to fit with a sport invented to keep young people fit during long, cold New England winters.
It’s part of the reason why we’ve never been all in with the WNBA. Nor the NBA’s expanding portfolio of summer leagues.
Sitting, watching a winter sport when cool breezes waft through an open window and beckon one outside for a game of wiffleball or bocci, just doesn’t seem right.
But even this guy was intrigued by Chet Holmgren’s return to the court Monday night in Salt Lake City.
You know the particulars. Holmgren, who spent a lone winter in Spokane polishing his game with the Zags, was set to vie for rookie of the year honors last season with Oklahoma City. Until a foot injury, suffered playing in August, took away his first year.
Absence did make NBA fans’ hearts grow fonder. And whetted the appetite of the NBA TV folks, who made sure to put Holmgren’s return against the Jazz on Monday night in prime time.
A noticeable bigger Holmgren – with his build, any gain was bound to seem slight, but the 13 pounds he added while rehabbing was apparent – was a punching bag early. And, in a league where regular-season officiating is hands off unless you are a star, a summer game wasn’t about to draw a lot of whistles.
After a quick stint on the bench to get his composure back, Holmgren returned with an aggressive mindset, seemingly focused on not getting pushed around anymore. It worked.
But let’s not get too worked up about his near double-double. It’s summer. And, most importantly, it’s summer basketball, games populated by a large degree with rosters full of players just looking for a chance, whether it be professionally here or overseas.
Holmgren’s real tests come down the road. In winter. The sport’s true time.
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WSU: A Washington State golfer won the 102nd Washington Men’s Amateur Championship at Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla. Pono Yanagi’s victory leads off the S-R’s latest local briefs column. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, need any more soap opera-like turns in the conference’s on-going battle for relevance (and, possibly, survival)? San Diego State has jumped in to supply it, as John Canzano documents once again. … Washington has added a highly coveted transfer to its basketball roster. … While USC is looking to make an appearance in the college football playoffs this fall, Arizona State just hopes to get back to winning ways.
Gonzaga: We took a holiday yesterday, which is why we waxed somewhat poetic about Holmgren’s summer appearance from Monday. It’s also why we link Theo Lawson’s story, and a few other stories down the way.
EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Lake City High senior Avery Waddington said Sunday she’s headed to Montana to play basketball. … There will be six quarterbacks vying to start for Idaho State this fall.
Whitworth: Mattea Nelson earned Division III academic honors this season, balancing her softball duties with her psychology-major studies. Charlotte McKinley has this story.
Indians: Before the Fourth of July fireworks, Spokane’s offense supplied some of its own at Avista on Tuesday night. Dave Nichols has this story on the Indians’ 11-9 win to open the six-game series with Everett.
Mariners: A complete game is rare these days. A complete-game shutout even more so. Logan Gilbert accomplished both yesterday in San Francisco as the M’s won 6-0. Mike Ford, with four hits, supplied a big part of the offense on his birthday. … There was no way baseball was going to not find a way to have Julio Rodriguez on the All-Star roster. He’s an injury replacement. As is George Kirby. Kirby is obviously deserving. Larry Stone explains why Rodriguez is as well. … Bryce Miller went on the injured list. … While we were hiking and eating and napping, the M’s made a small trade. … If you remember Mo’ne Davis from her Little League days, this story will interest you.
Seahawks: Hey, it’s July. But we can pass along some answers to your Hawk questions.
Kraken: The roster is changing as Seattle tries to get a bit younger while still winning.
Golf: The U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach is in the spotlight this week. There is one main reason why. Rose Zhang. The Stanford product is under the same limelight as another Stanford golfer from about 25 years ago.
Pickleball: Treva Lind delves into the need for pickleball courts in the Inland Northwest. … If a recent study is to be believed, there also may be a need for more doctors to care for folks injured playing the game.
Tennis: When we signed off Monday morning, we sent you off to the Washington Post website for what we thought was one of the best stories we’ve read in a while, Sally Jenkins’ column on the friendship between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. Now that story is on the S-R website. If you didn’t read it before, you have another chance.
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• It’s amazing what one can put on a hamburger. Our Fourth of July creation this year had nods to the West (the grass-fed beef), the Midwest (bacon), the South (a dash of barbecue sauce), New England (a crab/shrimp topping), Washington (fresh onions), big cities (a hot dog) and small towns (mustard and mayonnaise), all held together by a good, old-fashioned American bun. Oh, and we melted American cheese on it. Take that King George. And our cardiologist. Until later …