A Grip on Sports: The best way to keep informed with your sports teams has its roots in the past but anchored in the present

A GRIP ON SPORTS • If you love reading about sports in a newspaper, whether that be online (as here) or with a printed version in your hands, you are part of a once-overwhelming but now shrinking crew. But we’re here to connect all of you.

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• We started thinking about this earlier this week. That’s when the Oregonian, the last decent-sized newspaper in its state, wrote a story about the gutting of a once-proud paper down I-5 in Eugene, the Register-Guard.

When we began our Pacific Northwest adventure 40 years ago, the newspaper in the University of Oregon’s hometown was one of the best in the region. Small but mighty. Unlike the underachieving Duck athletics department back then.

Now? Oregon athletics rode the wave of a conglomerate buyout – c’mon, who doesn’t see UO as Nike U? – into the upper reaches of the NCAA. The Guard? It’s a shell of itself – thanks to a corporate takeover. How can you tell? There is a simple example today.

Oregon’s softball team earned its way into the NCAA softball’s Sweet Sixteen. The Ducks play a Super Regional at Oklahoma State. Pretty cool. The story available in the Register-Guard’s online edition? It’s about Oregon but from an Oklahoma newspaper. There really isn’t anyone in Eugene to write one.

That’s the state of local journalism these days.

Oh, sure, there are many Duck-centric online sites – and similar ones for other universities, including WSU and Gonzaga – one can access. Some are for-profit. Others are put together by volunteers who love their alma mater. They all do a fine job of allowing one to stay in touch with their old school. But the number of places that cover all aspects of athletics, the good and the bad, are harder to find.

The Register-Guard, which once covered the Ducks with some of the best writers and photographers in the nation, is just an extreme example. Every newspaper has been touched – at the least – by the change in how folks access their information. That change has impacted everything from how we vote to how we know where to go to watch fireworks or eat a good meal.

We are, of course, focused on sports coverage. And we have some suggestions, ones we’ve covered a bit in the past but feel obliged to pass along once again.

It’s starts with two things we know you already have: Access to the Internet and a subscription to The Spokesman-Review and Chronicle. The former is vital. The latter is still the best place for Inland Northwest sports coverage.

Is it as in-depth as it once was? Probably not. But as drop-offs go, the cliff hasn’t been nearly as steep as most in the nation due to a commitment from the family ownership and the hard-working people who still call Spokane home. Thanks to them, if you live in the Spokane area, you can still get your hands dirty each morning. With the S-R at least.

If you want to stay informed in what’s going on up and down the West Coast, however, you might want to subscribe online to a few other publications. As many as you can afford, actually.

In order, we think the most-crucial are the Seattle Times (the added bonus of the region’s pro teams), the Oregonian, the San Jose Mercury News, the Los Angeles Times, the Arizona Republic and the Arizona Daily Star. That, along with the Deseret News, gives you the best coverage of the Pac-12. If the Big Sky is your emphasis, the Missoulian and the Bozeman Chronicle still offer the most in-depth look at the conference and the teams. The West Coast Conference? Well, that’s a tough one. Most of the schools are in big cities where the coverage is dominated by the nearby Pac-12 schools. The ones that aren’t, like Pacific, have seen their local coverage basically disappear.

Nationally, a subscription to The Athletic helps, as does one to the New York Times or Washington Post, though their emphasis is more east than west.

Finally, there are a couple former high-profile sports journalists who have struck out on their own that are worth subscribing to, if they cover your area of interest. John Canzano, the former Oregonian columnist, has a website that offers coverage beyond Oregon, while Christian Caple delves into the Huskies at his On Montlake site.

Is it a perfect world? No way. But it is the world we have. And that’s how you navigate it.

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WSU: Not every Cougar-centric story has to come from Pullman. Today we can offer two on prominent alums. The first is on Gardner Minshew, who signed on with Indianapolis this offseason. The other is on Klay Thompson, who is at a crossroads with the Warriors. … Elsewhere around the Pac-12 and the nation, there have been more comments about the media deal. Jon Wilner, whose Mercury News column appears in the S-R off-and-on, has his thoughts on what’s been said. … He also breaks down the over/under win totals set for each conference football team. He favors the over with Washington State. … Wonder which games will be on the first couple weeks of the season? Here are some thoughts, including WSU’s first two games possibly receiving national exposure. … Washington has added a former Oregon defensive back. … Colorado continues its roster makeover. … The Utah men added a basketball player that seemed headed to BYU. … Arizona and Wisconsin are going to play this year and next. … Oregon’s women picked up a basketball transfer. So did Oregon State. … The Pac-12 baseball tournament begins today. One of the matchups pits Arizona with Arizona State. … Utah’s women have improved in track and field. … Where does Washington’s softball comeback rate among Seattle’s all-time best?… We mentioned Tiger Woods and Rose Zhang earlier this week. She passed his Stanford wins record with her individual NCAA golf title yesterday. … Finally, the group that oversees the West’s basketball officials has hired a new director. Veteran John Higgins will assume the role. You’ll recognize the face, we’re sure.

Preps: Fourteen GSL lacrosse players get to play in an all-star game after winning all-state honors. That news leads off the latest S-R local briefs column. … Curtis High basketball star Zoom Diallo, a Gonzaga recruit, is leaving the state for Prolific Prep in California.

Seahawks: OK, it’s not football season. But the OTAs are in session – organized team activities if you didn’t know – and that’s newsworthy. How so? Well, Bobby Wagner spoke with the media. That’s a big deal. … There were absences, sure, but also some highlights. … The Hawks re-signed a cornerback.

Storm: The WNBA now has superteams. Biggest example? Breanna Stewart and the New York Liberty. And that might stunt the league’s growth, while hurting places like Seattle.

Mariners: Good news. Luis Castillo was solid Monday. OK, so the A’s are Quadruple-A caliber. Still, the righthander got back on track in the M’s homestand-opening 11-2 victory. … There is some good news on the injury front. The bad? Evan White is having hip surgery again and pitching phenom Easton McGee probably will have to have Tommy John surgery. … It sure looks like Jose Caballero will stay in the lineup. The question now is, what happens to Kolton Wong?

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• Re-reading what we wrote this morning, it hit us how similar access to TV and newspapers has become. In the golden age of cable, one subscription to your local provider supplied everything available – even stuff you didn’t want. Now, streaming is all the rage.  A la carte viewing. And the prices are getting comparable. Staying up-to-date with your sports teams just requires streaming of another sort. We wish it could be easier. And less expensive. But remember, no matter what you decide to do, we will be here each morning – well, most of them – with a guidepost to the best stories of the day. Until later …