A Grip on Sports: It may not officially be summer but summer’s games will dominate the weekend TV viewing

A GRIP ON SPORTS • We are about to embark on that great adventure known as summer in the Inland Northwest. Crisp mornings, perfectly clear afternoons, the occasional thunder-boomer in the evening and temps rising and falling like an angry sea. Perfect. Except if your idea of perfection is sitting in front of the TV.

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• About that. If you love baseball, you have plenty to watch this holiday weekend. But if it is anything else, well, the options are limited. At least Dallas rallied for a win over Las Vegas last night, giving us another NHL playoff game to add to the list. And the Celtics refuse to go quietly into the good night of a Cancun vacation, winning in Boston and forcing a game six in Miami on Memorial Day.

Heck, if you were excited about watching Michael Block play again, he certainly wasn’t. The PGA Championship sensation took his game to Texas and, well, he actually didn’t take his game, shooting 11-over Thursday, meaning he’ll be back in California by nightfall. Maybe he has a big lesson to teach tomorrow.

Which leaves us baseball and its cousin, softball, to fill our TV time.

At least the M’s won again Thursday night, their fourth consecutive. They are two games better than .500 and may be on a role. We say “may” because all four came against Oakland. At home. And the A’s have won all of five games away from the raucous Oakland Alameda Coliseum this season. OK, we joke because we care. The fans of the A’s – we have a couple in our extended family – don’t deserve this. And by this we mean the worst team in the history of the game, possibly, and a franchise headed out the door, certainly. We’ve lived through the latter and are still angry with the NBA.

Anyhow, the M’s face Pittsburgh this weekend and for some unknown reason, the Pirates are actually decent this season. Ya, it’s a surprise to us too. The teams play tonight than have day games Saturday and Sunday.

The NCAA softball Super Regionals are all in action today, with the games scattered around the ESPN channels like pine pollen on our back deck. You can pretty much watch a game from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. today.

But if you need a break, there are the Pac-12 baseball semifinals. The tournament’s new format left us with one Pacific Northwest game – Oregon and Washington meet at 2:30 – and one warm-weather one – Arizona and Stanford play at 7.

Lest we forget, there are other sports to watch. The Golden Knights will try to move onto the Stanley Cup Finals again Saturday night, this time at home. And, if you must have a football fix, there are USFL games Saturday and Sunday.

• Lots of people were sharing their Jerry Krause stories on social media Thursday. The former Eastern Washington basketball coach, who spent years working around Gonzaga as well, died Wednesday evening at age 87.

We have a short story to add to the number of “Jerry helped us with …” tales we read yesterday. A few years back we were talking with Krause after a coaching clinic, one in which he said something that changed the way we’ve coached ever since. But that’s not the story. The story revolves around our library of basketball coaching books.

For years we collected them, books on drills, books on Xs and Os, books on any aspect of the game that seemed important. Many of them have Krause’s name on them. OK, most. Anyhow, we mentioned that to Krause and said something to the effect we must own all of his books. He laughed. Asked if we had all 25 or so. Uh, no, we answered. We had maybe 10. He smiled and told me to keep trying. But he was still churning them out.

By the way, the thing he said that changed us? It was about running. Everyone wants their team to run, right? Then why use running as a punishment? If you want your team to run, don’t give it a negative connotation. Make it a positive. Use something else as punishment.

A small thing, sure. But Krause was right. As always.

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WSU: A few years back Gonzaga was making noises about leaving the West Coast Conference. Enough, in fact, the league made a change in how it distributed NCAA basketball tournament revenue. The Zags got to keep a greater share. Now that model has made its way to the Power 5, most recently with the ACC. And it includes football. Jon Wilner, in a column that ran in the S-R, thinks the Pac-12 needs to make the change as well. Win more, make more. … Elsewhere around the Pac-12 and the nation, we mentioned the baseball semifinals above. Oregon State isn’t one of the teams playing anymore. Either is Arizona State, which knocked the Beavers from the tourney. The Ducks defeated Stanford, but the top seeded Cardinal keep playing. … Oregon opened its softball Super Regional with an 8-1 loss to host Oklahoma State. … Washington and Stanford begin today, as does the conference’s surprise team, Utah. … The Utes had a great year throughout the athletic department. Heck, the football team is even attracting big-time quarterback recruits. … It wasn’t such a great week for USC’s athletic administration. … Can Arizona State win a men’s golf title at home? … Arizona picked up another European basketball commitment yesterday.

Gonzaga: Theo Lawson had the duty of writing Krause’s obituary, which we linked above and here as well. … Not sure how we missed this yesterday but the baseball team saw its season end with a 4-2 loss to Santa Clara in the WCC tournament’s opening round.

NAIA World Series: The annual baseball celebration that is the NAIA World Series begins today in Lewiston. Colton Clark has this preview of the 10 days that decide a champion.

Preps: The State track meets kicked off yesterday and Keenan Gray has coverage of the large school meet in Tacoma. … We can pass along a roundup of softball as well. … This is already happening in many places.

Indians: Ladies and gentlemen, your first-place Spokane Indians. Yep, Spokane’s 7-3 win over visiting Vancouver last night lifted them back into first place. And evened the series at two games apiece. Dave Nichols has the game story concerning a win built by starting pitching.

Mariners: There is no secret the M’s strength this season is their starting pitching. George Kirby has been spectacular. So has newcomer Bryce Miller. Logan Gilbert turned in a solid outing Thursday as well, overcoming hanging a curve ball that resulted in a two-run, first-inning home run en route an eight-inning stint in a 3-2 victory. … Ty France returned to the lineup, sent Sam Haggerty back to the bench and sent two balls into the seats.

Storm: The Seattle offense was putrid in the opener. It has to be fixed.

Seahawks: Geno Smith is in charge. That is obvious after another OTA day. … There may be a ninth starter at center in the past nine years coming up. But this one may stay a while. … The depth at corner seems a pretty good idea now. … The defense has new parts, which should help.

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• We puttered around the back yard yesterday. Fixed the fence, put a hook on the storage shed wall we’ve been meaning to install for months, pulled a few weeds, that sort of thing. No, we’re not Bob Villa. Heck, we’re not even Tim Taylor. But we felt pretty satisfied come dinner time. Exhausted too. This working-around-the-house thing is a young person’s game. Until later …