Grip on Sports: If the least sports TV can offer on a weekend is a respite, than that’s enough – especially when parenting skills need a tuneup

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It may be hard to believe, but everyone was young once. Including us. We even had a young family, one that seemingly demanded our attention 24 hours a day. Except a few times a year.

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• Why would we bring that up on a Friday, when our main task is to prepare everyone reading this for the upcoming TV weekend? It’s a long story, so please, bear with us.

Even so many decades ago, day-care costs were mind-boggling. And with both parents working, no grandparents within a thousand miles and one of us working at the hospital every other weekend – that would be Kim, of course, as we faint at the sight of blood – we did what we could to minimize that expense.

Which meant this under-qualified dad was thrown into one-on-two parenting duty often. We were outnumbered and the boys seemed to know it, even before they were out of diapers. Heck, even the great living room babysitter – the TV – didn’t offer much relief. Until we discovered horse racing.

Ya, we were amazed too.

But the “big dogs,” as our eldest first called them, were mesmerizing to the boys as soon as they became somewhat sentient. Tyler was the first to notice them and, boy, was he hooked. Which brings us to this weekend.

It may have 1989 or 1990 when we discovered this parenting trick. When there was an important day of horse racing on TV, we could flip it on, get Ty comfortable with snacks and his stuffed Snoopy and have some, well, time with our younger son – alone. One such day was Kentucky Derby Saturday.

We could turn on ABC early that morning and let Dave Johnson’s voice weave a lullaby of attention while Sunday Silence or Unbridled or someone prepped for their big day, then went out and thundered down the stretch to a life-changing victory. The hours of entertainment were a god-send for a young dad with minimal parenting skills.

To this day we don’t know what it was about the “big dogs” that mesmerized Ty – and then Jack. The fascination didn’t last long but for a short stretch in the early 1990s, if there was a big day of racing on, a Triple Crown day or the Breeders Cup in the fall, we were given the gift of time. We could fix a broken outlet or vacuum the upstairs or, if we were lucky, even take a nap while the boys sat quietly watching.

To be honest, we don’t have that many clear memories of the boys’ early life. Every day went by so quickly, hectically. But we certainly remember holding Jack in our arms, while Tyler stood way-too-close to the TV, pointing at the “dogs” and then turning to his dad, smiling as wide as he ever did. It’s a memory we will always cherish because it was so unexpected. Fleeting. And stress-relieving.

• The Derby is Saturday. It isn’t what it once ways, not nearly as important to the collective American sports consciousness as it was in our youth or even in our sons’, but it still dominates the landscape the first Saturday in May. NBC’s coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. in our neck of the woods, which means there is about a half day of blathering (and a few other races) before the 3:57 p.m. post time.

More than enough time to sit your kids down and get the bedroom re-painted. Or, if you want, to learn about Fierceness or Sierra Leone or Forever Young or our choice, Resilience. Then again, maybe you just want to watch to see the big hats and the expensive suits. It’s all available. And all mesmerizing.

• There is also a lot more on this weekend as the sun shines longer. There is Bloomsday on Sunday, with SWX providing start-to-finish-and-beyond coverage starting at 7 a.m.

The special items stand out, but the day-to-day is also featured, what with the Mariners playing an important-for-May series in Houston against the reeling Astros. Tonight (5:10) and Sunday morning (11:10) will be on Root, with Saturday afternoon’s (4:15) contest showing up on Fox. It will be the classic battle, the M’s pitching against an Astro lineup that has yet to hit on all cylinders.

That’s not all, of course. The first round of the NBA playoffs continue, as do the corresponding NHL ones. We have our eyes on Boston tomorrow, where Toronto will try to finish off the series comeback and the Bruins at 5 p.m. on ABC.

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WSU: Around the Pac-12 and the nation, former Washington State player TJ Bamba will play next season for Oregon. The Villanova thing just didn’t work out. … Jon Wilner attended a talk by Big 12 commissioner Brent Yormark yesterday and shares in the Mercury News what he heard. It’s interesting. … Wilner also passes along a West Coast football recruiting roundup. … John Canzano leaves sports (sort of) for a while to share a story about a soldier in need. … Washington holds its spring football game tonight. It will be on the Pac-12 Networks. … Colorado is still adding offensive linemen. … UCLA will have to add a new fundraiser for its athletic department. … How will Arizona State and the Big 12 fit in the new playoffs? … The spring helped some Arizona players show what they can do. … In men’s basketball, how often do we share stories about USC basketball alums? Occasionally, right? Here’s another. The subject played for the Trojan JV team back in the early 1960s, when there was a JV team. Then went on to superstardom – in another field. Tom Selleck, best known – in our circles – as the perfectly flawless Lance White, is about to turn 80. … On a more serious note, Washington has hired Tony Bland as an assistant. If the name sounds familiar, he was mentioned prominently in the 2017 FBI recruiting investigation. … Oregon State has added another player, this one with defensive skills. … How much do Utah and BYU hate each other? Well, one coach leaving the Utes and heading to Provo has caused a lot of angst in the Salt Lake City area. … A rematch between Purdue and Arizona, set for the fall in Las Vegas, has been postponed. The Wildcats need another game in Tucson. … Oregon State’s women are trying to rebuild their roster as another former player finds a landing spot. … Oregon has added a former Arizona standout. Meanwhile, another Wildcat entered the portal late. … Colorado has gone farther afield to supplement its roster.

Gonzaga: If you feel the Zags’ biggest transfer need left is a tall, long guard, then Theo Lawson’s story on Khalif Battle should be of interest. The Arkansas senior has them in his final three and should make his decision soon.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Montana and Montana State are net winners in the newest games of NIL and transfer portal players. … Montana has lost a women’s assistant with a recognizable name to Pepperdine. … Weber State has added another player to its men’s roster. … An Idaho State receiver is leaving for Fresno State.

Whitworth: Northwest League rival Linfield has a new athletic director. It’s former baseball coach and World Series MVP Scott Brosius.

Preps: When Wayne Gilman was the boys’ basketball coach at Ferris High, and the Saxons were State title contenders most every year, he asked his players to all play a spring sport. Run track, play baseball or, if those were out, play tennis. The Hall of Fame coach felt the movements the game demanded mimicked basketball’s. We thought about Gilman today as we were reading Dave Nichols’ story on Shane Skidmore, the U-Hi basketball player who is on the Titans’ tennis team this spring. … We also have two roundups by Dave to pass along, one on soccer’s district playoffs, the other covering the rest of the sports.

Indians: There seem to be two better-than-the-rest Northwest League teams this season. One is Spokane, which opened the year with a franchise-record winning streak. The other is Eugene, which is in town this week. Dave has this coverage of the Emeralds’ 7-2 comeback victory yesterday. Eugene is 17-7, Spokane, which has dealt with awful weather at times, is 14-6. … Elsewhere in the NWL on Thursday, Tri-City (9-15) topped visiting Vancouver (9-11) 3-2 and Hillsboro (11-3) edged host Everett (8-16) 6-5.

Mariners: There are some keys to this Astros series. … Pitching will play a big role, of course.

Seahawks: Seattle got its first introduction to defensive lineman, and the Hawks’ first-round pick, Byron Murphy II on Thursday. Murphy explained how he became a Seahawk fan as a youngster and how he hopes to help the franchise return to the heights.

Sounders: The L.A. Galaxy await Sunday but before then, a notebook.

Reign: The losing streak is on the line this weekend against San Diego.

Bloomsday: Though none of last year’s winners are returning, the professional field will still be deep, thanks to increased prize money. Greg Lee previews the run-for-the-money part of Sunday’s race.

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• We have to report some sad news. Somehow, some way, the top-ranked UCLA Bruins were able to edge the gritty Fightin’ Anteaters of UC Irvine in yesterday’s NCAA men’s volleyball semifinal. It took the NIL-rich Bruins five sets to get past the throwback Eaters, but they prevailed. UCLA will face Long Beach State, another five-set semifinal winner, for the title. It’s a bummer of a way for us to begin our weekend, but we will get through it. Until later …