A Grip on Sports: MLB’s midseason break is over, allowing us to look forward to the weekend and beyond

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Major League Baseball is back. Today. Tonight. Over the weekend. Will the next 10 weeks or so be enjoyable or disappointing?

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• There are a lot of variables that will decide that, right? Starting with the next two weeks, as the Mariners and everyone else in baseball slides toward the July 31 – 3 p.m. on the West Coast – trade deadline.

With the rosters set, then comes the August and September stretch run. October and its promise. One team’s fanbase will experience the ultimate joy. Others? They will either look at the results and believe their guys overachieved or express their anger with an unacceptable finish. The latter will probably be the response of choice for most.

But no matter what the days and nights between now and the end of October bring, baseball fans from Bangor to Bellingham will bathe in the one certainty the game guarantees: You want to watch a game, there is one available. Somewhere. Somehow. And there’s a decent chance you’ll see something you haven’t seen in a while.

• This weekend? You’ll see the Mariners return to T-Mobile following the All-Star break. You’ll see the Astros in town. And you’ll get to see all the games, surprisingly enough, on Root. No Apple+ or Fox or whatever.

If you aren’t of a mind to wander down to the corner of Edgar and Dave and boo Houston in person, you can do it from your Laz-e-Boy. Or couch. Or whatever local watering hole actually pays for Root (something I’m sure the hotel I’ll be at this weekend won’t do).

Cal Raleigh will go for home run No. 39 tonight at 7:10. Julio Rodriguez will chase down anything Jose Altuve hits Saturday, starting at 6:40. And Dan Wilson will take the lineup card to home plate Sunday just before the 1:10 first pitch.

• It will be busy in SoDo on Saturday. The Sounders are also at home, hosting San Jose across the street at Lumen Field. If you want to avoid the traffic and high parking prices, the match will be on Apple’s MLS Season Pass at 5:30. We’re sure purchasing every match on the streaming service the rest of the season is cheaper than the cost of a spot for your Subaru on Saturday night.

• If you’ve caught the WNBA bug, the league’s All-Star game will be on ABC the same time as the Sounders, though the reason many have becoming fans of the league, Caitlin Clark, will just be watching, not playing. Another groin injury is the culprit, not some wayward elbow to the nose.

Clark’s presence will be missed tonight as well, in the league’s 3-point contest. That event, as well as other skills competitions, is on ESPN starting at 5.

• Of course, the biggest event worldwide this weekend is the Tour de France on Peacock. Wait, that may not be right. It’s probably the NFL’s flag football championships on ESPN. No, that can’t be it. How about Sunday’s Grand Prix of Czechia, which starts at 5 a.m. on FS2?

None of those tickle your fancy?

Can we suggest grabbing a cold drink – flavored water seems to be all the rage – and settle in overnight to watch the 153rd time the champion golfer of the year is decided? Sunday’s final round is on USA (1 a.m.) and NBC (4 a.m.).

It has to be more exciting than watching the Astros intentionally walk Raleigh 11 times this weekend.

• The Big Sky Conference is holding its football media days this weekend in Spokane. Coaches and players around the conference will gather in Airway Heights, at Northern Quest Casino and Resort, to tell anyone who will listen how great their offseason was. How their team has made great leaps and bounds over the last few months. How the culture has either changed for the better or was built on the lessons of the past. How we should all expect big things from team X, Y, and Z.

Logic dictates not all of those things can be true. Just like it informs us every year the preseason picks, either from the coaches or the conference’s media, won’t get the order of finish correct. They were released yesterday and Montana State, last year’s FCS runner-up, was once again picked to win.

No matter. All of it is fun. Interesting. Worth debating. And helped fill a pretty dead Thursday, a day with only a few NBA summer league games to catch our eyes. For that alone we give commissioner Tom Wistrcill and his staff our thanks.

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WSU: New Washington State guard Adria Rodriguez will miss some summer workout time over the next few weeks. He’s got national duty. For Spain. In an early August exhibition tournament. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, you know what is being held hostage as we all wait for the Big Ten (or SEC) to blink in the CFP showdown? Nonconference schedules. Jon Wilner explains in the Mercury News. …Could it be the salvo from the CSC was intended to start a legal battle all along? … Every school has position battles in preseason camp. Including Washington. And Colorado. … Oregon State has Tulsa on its schedule. … Colorado State has three games at home in its first four, the last one against WSU. … Bronco Mendenhall spoke about his first Utah State team at the MWC media days. … The Boise State coach believes he knows who will challenge his team this season. … Utah could have two, two-way players this season. … A UCLA receiver is suing the NCAA in a bid to play this season. … San Diego State coach Sean Lewis welcomes the fanatical nature of fans. … In basketball news, Arizona’s men will be led by a couple seniors. … USC should be much improved this season.

Gonzaga: It looks as if one of the most highly sought-after recruits in the class of 2027, small forward Baba Oladotun, will make a visit to Spokane. Theo Lawson has all the details in this story.

EWU and Idaho: We linked above Dan Thompson’s story about the Big Sky Conference’s preseason football poll. We do it again here in case you missed it. Idaho was picked fourth by the media and fifth by the coaches while Eastern was eighth and ninth, respectively. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, as we mentioned above, Montana State was picked to win the league’s football title. … The Bobcats lost a quarterback recruit to Sacramento State. … Northern Colorado was picked to finish last. … Idaho State’s poll spot was higher than usual. … The Bengals also rewarded coach Cody Hawkins with an extension. … Weber State is slotted near the bottom. … Northern Arizona is in the top five. … Portland State is not. … In their final season in the United Athletic Conference, neither Utah Tech nor Southern Utah are expected to battle for the title. … Montana’s men have finished rebuilding their basketball coaching staff.

Preps: We linked the news story yesterday morning covering Bryan Braman’s death. John Blanchette followed up with this obituary in the S-R. We covered Braman when he was playing at Shadle Park High. We can’t think of many Greater Spokane League players who combined Braman’s size (6-foot-5, around 200 pounds) and speed and quickness. Not only was he a near-impossible-to-block pass rusher, he was the best kickoff returner in the league.

Indians: The Northwest League was off this week as well, though since reorganization of the minor leagues, there is no longer an all-star game with another league. But the break gave Dave Nichols time to write this interesting feature on two Indians players from the same Virginia high school.

Motorsports: Mead’s Haeden Plybon has experienced much success recently on the region’s racing circuit. Doug Pace tells us how much and how it has happened.

Seahawks: We linked Bob Condotta’s look at the 2025 rookie class when it ran in the Times. It is on the S-R site now. … The Hawks did something yesterday they have never done before. Gave a second-round pick a fully guaranteed contract. Nick Emmanwori finally signed. … A pass rusher is on the physically unable to perform list.

Mariners: Raleigh is the M’s star these days. The Big Dumper is also a star in a pretty appropriate commercial. … And he could end up the A.L. MVP. … Will there be a reunion with Eugenio Suárez? That seems to be a thought. It’s probably up to Jerry Dipoto. … The M’s have 66 games left. And five questions. … Seattle’s hitters see more pitches than all but one MLB team. … Don’t be surprised if the World Series is exclusively on a streaming service in your lifetime.

Golf: Yesterday’s first round left five players tied atop the leaderboard. Former Open champion Brian Harman was not one of them. As we pound out this column today, he’s finished his second round, shooting a 65 and jumping on top at 8-under, though he did not hold the top spot alone all that long. There are still quite a few players still on the course, 17 of them with major championships on their resume.

Storm: Pickleball? In the Northwest? With young athletes? Yes to all of that. … The players union and the WNBA office are still at loggerheads concerning a new CBA.  

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• Just so you know, my root canal site somehow became infected. Badly. I am on antibotics and battling extreme pain. It made today’s column a chore I wouldn’t wish on A.J. Hinch or Jeff Luhnow. Well, maybe. But it came at an inopportune time, as I am headed out of town. There will not be a column tomorrow, though hopefully by Sunday the magic pills will have done their job and I’ll be able to work pain free. If not, Monday at the latest. Thanks for understanding. Until later …