A Grip on Sports: In our never-ending quest to focus on tomorrow, did you know summer is just around the corner?
A GRIP ON SPORTS • One more week until summer begins. Unofficially, of course. But summer has always been a state of mind. And after Memorial Day, our mind resides in that state, at least until September. What attractions will this year’s summer hold?
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• There is an Olympics in Paris. That’s pretty cool. Wasn’t that where the games in Chariots of Fire were set? This year’s games start in late July and run through mid-August. That has to be priority No. 1, right? The Summer Games only happen once every four years, giving them a cachet no other sporting event outside of soccer’s World Cup can boast. Put the dates in you calendar. Make sure your phone is hooked to the cloud. And then figure out how to fill the rest of the summer.
Sometime in early June – yes, June – we will find out which NBA team gets to wear the league’s championship crown. And can be penciled in for an early exit in the 2025 playoffs. That’s been the narrative lately and it happened again last night in Denver. The Nuggets turned into bricks in the second half against Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves, leading to a second-round exit in their title defense.
Back-to-back champions? How about making the conference championships? That would be unusual. It’s been six seasons since that’s happened. The NBA will have its sixth different title holder in that span as well, the first time that’s happened since 1980.
The NHL will also crown a champion by mid-June but if there is one thing we think is a lock, it is tonight’s game seven winner between Edmonton and Vancouver won’t be hoisting Lord Stanley’s cup. It was 1993 when a Canadian franchise took home the prize, and neither of this year’s survivors have Patrick Roy, or his modern reincarnation, between the pipes.
It might take such a happenstance for Canada to prevail in the country’s favorite sport.
June also features the third major golf tournament, the U.S. Open, at Pinehurst. And the first tennis slam event, on the clay in Paris.
If you are planning on attending the Olympics – outside of Mark Few and his family, we haven’t heard of any Spokane folks headed across the pond – then July could be a month of major events in Europe, if you want.
There is tennis’ crown jewel, Wimbledon, which finishes on July 14. Then golf’s oldest event, The Open at Royal Troon, where Viktor Hovland is going to win his first major, July 21. Five days later, you have to be in Paris for the Olympics’ opening ceremonies. Talk about a stretch of can’t miss events.
Then again, maybe your passport is misplaced. Or you just want to save a few bucks. Then July is not for you. Heck, after two LPGA majors in June in the States – the women’s PGA is even at Sahalee in the Seattle area June 20-23 – the final ones of the year are, yep, in Europe. July, Nelly Korda and everyone chasing her are in Paris a couple weeks before the Olympics, then in late August they are at St. Andrews to finish out their five – one more than necessary – with the British on the Old Course.
Besides, July is when football begins to re-assert itself. Before the month is out, the NFL is back with training camps opening July 29. The first day of the Mike Macdonald era is not set in stone just yet but keep the calendar free. And be ready to spend all of August dissecting what’s happening in Renton.
That’s got to be easier than trying to keep up with the going-ons of the scattered-to-the-winds Pac-12 schools. We’re going to try to stay in touch just out of habit. Uncharted territory is a term that comes to mind.
As long as we can remember, the conference added schools. In 1978. In 2011. In 2024, we will have to spend August dealing with the loss of 10 football teams. It will be hard not to wonder what’s going on with Cal. Or ASU. Or the Huskies, unless you are so angry at them you feel the need to cleanse your memory. Add in the main focus, Washington State and Oregon State, along with their Mountain West opponents and, wow, staying informed in August will be a challenge.
Maybe we’ll just stay in Europe. At least mentally.
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WSU: Around the Pac-12 and the nation, the conference, as we have known in most of our life, still has a few days left. In competition. There are three conference softball teams headed to the NCAA’s Super Regionals, with Stanford and UCLA hosting and Arizona headed to Oklahoma State. Oregon and Utah were eliminated Sunday. … The last 12-school conference-sponsored event happens this week in Scottsdale, with nine teams – no, WSU didn’t make it – in the baseball tournament. The first games are Tuesday. Arizona won the regular-season title … Colorado will have an international flavor to its women’s basketball roster. … Football recruits want to know when Utah’s Kyle Whittingham will retire. … Arizona added a transfer from Miami.
EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Weber State’s Dillon Jones has made himself into an NBA prospect.
Indians: Spokane led 7-2 after six innings Sunday at Avista Stadium. We’re sure Dave Nichols had much of his game story put together. Then Vancouver scored the next seven runs, including five in the top of the ninth. Rewrite time. Boom. The Indians’ Kyle Karros steps up to the plate with two on in the bottom, drives the ball over the fence, Spokane wins 10-9 and Dave has to write another lead. … Elsewhere in the Northwest League, Eugene was able to keep pace with a 7-5 win at Everett. … The antithesis of the Avista game occurred in Pasco, as Tri-City scored a single run in the bottom of the eighth and edged Hillsboro 1-0.
Velocity: Whatever momentum Spokane carried into their USL League One match with Forward Madison Sunday disappeared quickly. Madison won 3-0. Ethan Myers has the coverage.
Mariners: Speaking of disappearing momentum, George Kirby has lost his. He was knocked around in Baltimore, with the Orioles earning a 6-3 victory and a series win. … It will still be awhile until the double-play combo is back playing.
Seahawks: The best game on the Seattle schedule? The week four visit to Detroit. The third consecutive season playing in the Motor City.
Reign: The Orlando Pride scored a late goal to hand Seattle a loss at Lumen Field.
Storm. Jewell Loyd got hot. That’s all Seattle needed to roll past Washington in the fourth quarter and win 84-75 on the road.
Golf: We wanted Xander Schauffele to win the PGA title yesterday. We wanted the San Diego State alum to be able to shed the best-player-to-never-win-a-major label. He did. And he did it by knocking in a 6-foot-knee-knocking putt on 18 for a birdie. That putt also set a major record for lowest total relative to par, 21-under. And kept LIV defector Bryson DeChambeau from winning. All in all, the result we were hoping for as the day dawned. … Turns out getting arrested didn’t throw as much of a wrench in Scottie Scheffler’s plans to win his second consecutive major as not having his usual caddie did. Who would have thought?
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• Our summer will be spent in the States. Rehabbing from surgery. Well, the first part of it anyway. We have another hernia surgery scheduled for the last Tuesday of May (and the first Tuesday of unofficial summer). Hopefully our doctor won’t be out on the lake next Monday. At least not for too long. Until later …