A Grip on Sports: Every weekend in May is special but this one’s main claims on fame have a sports relationship
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Around the Spokane area, there is only one weekend in May that can be considered somewhat open this year. The first weekend held Bloomsday, a civic celebration. The second and last ones include Mother’s Day and Memorial Day, national days of celebration and reflection, respectively. Which leaves us this one. The sports-crazy weekend.
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• How crazy has it been? When the M’s wild, gutsy, come-from-behind win on the road in Baltimore, a victory against the team with the second-best record in the league, only elicits a, “wow, cool,” response, then it’s been wild.
Or the Triple Crown race in Baltimore, the 149th Preakness, featuring a muddy track and the Kentucky Derby winner coming up short, seems pretty mundane, our excitement threshold is high. And there’s still a day left.
However, unless Scottie Scheffler shoots a 59 and roars back to victory in today’s PGA final round, we’re not sure anything that happens today can top what has already occurred. After all, that event, the season’s second major tournament, has endured a tragic fatal accident outside the course, a pair of record-tying 62s on it and a Scheffler incarceration, albeit a brief one, in the local jail.
A major already over its quota of major news has to be somewhat anti-climactic on its final day, doesn’t it?
Which opens the door for, what exactly?
The NBA’s news threshold, at least in this region, has already been reached, what with Oklahoma City’s elimination last night in Dallas. There are more than a few Seattle folks who, in Miami Dolphins-circa-1972 style, pop a champagne cork every year when the franchise falls out of championship contention. It’s mean, it’s vindictive and it’s perfectly normal, considering Oklahoma City and its movers and shakers ripped the Sonics away “only” 16 years ago.
Get over it people. Or not.
We get it. There were people in Brooklyn who burned Walter O’Malley in effigy, at least in their minds, as late as the 1980s. Rooted for anyone who was playing the Dodgers until their last breath. Held parties when L.A. had an earthquake. OK, we’re not sure about that last one, but you get the idea.
The Sonics were beloved by a certain segment of the state. And losing them, the team that first brought a league title to the Puget Sound, was heartbreaking. Even now, though? Sure.
As long as there are former Sonics still playing in the league, such as Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook – who was drafted by the franchise six days before the moving fans were packed – then, ya.
Sure, there are two game sevens in the NBA playoffs today. Sure, the defending champion Nuggets could be eliminated at home by baby Jordan, Anthony Edwards, and the Timberwolves. And sure, either the Knicks, the choice of hoop historians everywhere, or the Pacers, the choice of Larry Bird worshippers, will move on to play the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals with a win today.
But neither of those games move the dial like the Thunder falling on last-second free throws.
Ya, we know. A foul with 2.5 seconds left, a failed challenge and a couple made free throws seemed a bit anti-climactic, to use that term once more. The only saving grace? It couldn’t have happened to a more-deserving franchise.
The NHL doesn’t have a contender for weekend honors today. Nothing is on the schedule. Three of the four conference finals berths are filled.
Saturday’s lone game, the Oilers’ 5-1 rout at home that evened the Western semis at three games apiece, wasn’t exciting. It did, however, set up a winner-take-all-of-Canada’s-hopes Monday night game in Vancouver. That’s about as good as hockey gets, no?
And it kind of extends this “boring” weekend one more day.
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WSU: Our best find this morning? Jon Wilner spent an entire Mercury News column answering questions about Washington State and Oregon State’s future. He had no definitive answers, but then again, who does? Certainly not us. We have a hope – the Pac-12 is reborn as a nationally relevant entity sometime in the next decade – and a guess – only a couple dozen schools will have national relevance when that decade passes. Other than that, no one will matter that much. … Oregon’s baseball team completed a sweep of the Cougars in Eugene. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, there are still five conference schools alive in the NCAA softball regionals. Washington and California have been eliminated. Oregon, Stanford, Utah, UCLA and Arizona still have a shot at the Super Regionals. … Arizona scored twice in the bottom of the ninth, rallied past Oregon State 4-3 and won the conference regular-season baseball title Saturday. … In football news, Washington added another defender from Sacramento State. … What would be a day without transfer news from Colorado? … On the basketball court, Jaden McDaniels spent one year at Washington. He was good. Not great. Now he’s a difference-maker in the NBA.
Gonzaga: College hoops’ offseason is different these days. Most schools have to deal with major roster turnover. With losing key players to the transfer portal. With adding talent from the same magical place. The Bulldogs? The former didn’t apply. Yet. But the latter did. Jim Meehan and Theo Lawson held a conversation about the Zags’ pretty-much good news offseason thus far. It’s the duo’s first Four Out in a while.
EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Northern Colorado’s season ended in the NCAA softball tournament with a game-winning home run for Michigan.
Preps: Next weekend is not only Memorial Day weekend, it’s also the final weekend of the high school sports year. Which means Saturday included big deal track meets, covered by Greg Lee, and big deal playoffs in all the other spring sports, covered in this roundup by Dave Nichols.
Indians: Dave was at Avista Stadium for a modern anomaly. A doubleheader. Spokane swept Vancouver, winning the regular game and one of the makeups from the lost week in Canada. The two wins gave the Indians a 1½-game lead in the Northwest League standings over Eugene, who lost once again at Everett, 10-5. … Hillsboro also defeated host Tri-City by that same score.
Velocity: Spokane hosts Forward Madison today at 3 p.m. at ONE Spokane Stadium (and on SWX). Ethan Myers has a preview of the USL League One match.
Mariners: The Orioles are good. Won 101 games last season. Have been hot lately. Yet Luis Castillo, who has been locked in recently, shut them down for six innings – except for two measly runs. That looked to be enough until the M’s put together a rally. Scored four times and then held on for a 4-3 victory. … We won’t be surprised if Julio Rodriguez wins a Gold Glove. After all, it’s not about the best defender. It’s about the flashiest. … Luke Raley has been stroking the baseball lately.
Sounders: Seattle led 1-0 for much of the match with Vancouver. Then gave up a late goal. A 1-1 draw earned them a disappointing point at home.
Reign: Seattle hosts the undefeated Orlando Pride this afternoon at Lumen Field.
Preakness: Seize the Grey is a great name for a horse. A grey horse, which is the correct way to spell the color when referring to a horse, and a horse only. Plus, there is the play on a cliché. Always love that. It’s also the name of this year’s Preakness winner, by more than 2 lengths over Mystik Dan, the Derby winner.
Golf: We have our list of favorite golf course in the Spokane area. Some, like Indian Canyon, are on it due to their sentimental value. Others, like Gozzer Ranch, because of their beauty and challenge. Circling Raven? It’s on it for all those things. Some of our favorite rounds with our son in the past couple decades happened there. And no matter how well we play, there are always two or three or 17 holes on the course that kick our behind. Especially if it is windy. Which brings us to today’s special report from Jim Meehan as the course hits 20 years old. He looks back at how it came to be and where it might be headed. … We’re guessing Circling Raven, on a windy day, would challenge the guys playing at Valhalla this weekend more than the PGA’s venue. At least there are no moose to contend with in Louisville, especially now that Scheffler, using a substitute caddy Saturday, fell back. Who will win today? We would like to see Xander Schauffle earn his first major title. Not sure it will happen. If it doesn’t we only ask one thing of the golf gods. Make sure the winner is not a LIV player. Please.
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• We’ll try to catch the M’s today, albeit on satellite radio. And the end of the PGA (ditto). We are driving all over Southern California again today – we hit most of the major freeways yesterday – and won’t have time to sit and watch. We will, however, make time to have an In-n-Out. And maybe a doughnut. It’s our last day of what passes for vacation when you are retired, so we are going to splurge. Then eat little to nothing fun on the drive back to Spokane this week. Yes, we’re going to show some discipline. Who would have thought? Until later …