A Grip on Sports: It’s Father’s Day, a Spokane-bred holiday and one where it is always appropriate to bring dear old dad some doughnuts

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Everyone has a father. But not everyone knows their father, whether they were there every day or not.  

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• I really didn’t get to know my dad until I was older. Or maybe the better way to describe it is when he got older. And became more available.

In an emotional sense.

OK, so I’m using a term most of the fathers in my dad’s generation – known by its nickname, Greatest – would have termed hocus-pocus junk. Or something a bit pithier and with an expletive included.

But it’s true. Not many of my friends had dads who shared the most-important parts of the personalities with their children. Who let them know what their life had been like. What may be ahead for them.

As far as I can tell, we all had fathers who wanted what was best for us. It was just how they expressed that, mainly non-verbally, that we found hard to decipher. One of the most-striking example of that? As my dad would pull his leather belt from his pants to enforce some discipline, he always told me why he was doing it. To make a man out of me. Or to teach me right from wrong.

It certainly didn’t do the former, though the latter was driven home forcefully. Wrong was hitting your child. Or something like that.

I use to tell myself my dad never had a father – his died before he was 1 and his mother, having lost three husbands already, never remarried – so he was just learning on the job. And my behind was part of his learning curve.

Funny thing, though. He always regretted such mistakes. And I was right, he didn’t know any better. He just did what his friends told him their dads had done.

How do I know that? He told me. 

See, down the home stretch of his life, we got closer.

I still thank the confluence of circumstances that sent me to Pullman late in my career, because the unintended benefit of the Washington State beat reporter job were multiple trips to California the final years of my dad’s life. And multiple conversations with the Captain.

No, he was not a captain during his World War II military service. He was, as my friend Kent dubbed him, ironically, Captain Sunshine in the wee hours of the morning – when we all worked together ensuring the Sunday L.A. Times arrived in Sierra Madre, Pasadena and Arcadia driveways on time.

His final years were rays of joy, as he told me the reality behind all his “Big Fish” stories, answered every one of my questions, including the all-important ones that begin with why, and let me see the true heart that beat within his mammoth chest. The heart that didn’t fail him until 2010, when he was 85.

The past 15 years have been tough in one regard. There have been uncounted times since, when a moment has happened, whether it be with my children or while coaching or just puttering in the yard, it is all I could do to not break down. I wanted to share the moment with him. Pick up the cell and call him. And I can’t.

That doesn’t mean I don’t though. Maybe not in the traditional sense. But I understand a big part of me, of who I am, came from him.

The man who taught me more about the game of baseball than anyone. The man who tried, unsuccessfully, to interest me in one of his passions, fishing. The man who would try to scare his son by achieving air in his old Chevy as we drove the bumps of U.S. 66 on our way to his godfather’s – in the movie sense – Etiwanda ranch. The man who stoically sat in the stands during my high school baseball games, knowing how poorly we were coached and biting his tongue (almost) every day. The man who would drive an hour from Sierra Madre to Irvine every once in a while just to watch his son catch bullpens – and buy him a meal. The man who watched his son drink himself in oblivion at his bachelor’s party and loudly – way too loudly as his son recalls – laughed at him the next morning. The man who tried unsuccessfully to hide his disappointment when his son told him he was leaving Southern California and moving 1,200 miles to Spokane. The man who got on a plane without being asked when his grandson had major surgery on his third birthday. The man who told his son how proud of him he was one Friday at Pauley Pavilion, after his son introduced him to John Wooden. The man who spent his entire life trying to find marital bliss and failing, and telling his son that was one aspect of his son’s life of which he was jealous.

The man who shaped me. And who it is right to honor, again, on this Father’s Day.

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WSU: There is a new person on the football staff who is helping to shape the Cougar football roster every day. Greg Woods introduces us today to Kris Kracht, the team’s director of mental performance. And a coach in his own right. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, we linked Jon Wilner’s mailbag yesterday morning as it was on the Mercury News’ website. It ran in the S-R today. … John Canzano emptied his notebook yesterday. … The reason a Boulder law firm is filing an appeal of the House settlement is simple: Title IX. … Oregon’s women did not win the NCAA track and field title. Georgia did. But the Ducks had an individual champion. … So did Washington, and it came in the same event, the 1,500, the Huskies won with the men. … Utah State had a 3,000-meter steeplechase All-American. … In basketball news, Tommy Lloyd may not be in Tucson much this offseason. He has USA Basketball commitments. … A new Colorado player is learning his way around. … In baseball news, UCLA picked up a win to open its 2025 College World Series. The Bruins broke ahead by six runs and then held on for a 6-4 win over upstart Murray State. … Oregon State is back at it this evening, facing Coastal Carolina and its 24-game winning streak in a winners’ bracket game. … Arizona is also on the field today, facing Louisville in a loser-out contest. … The Pac-12’s legacy is represented better than anyone’s this week in Omaha.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, another conference athlete made noise at the NCAA track and field championships Saturday. Another Montana State distance runner.

Indians: No first-half title for Spokane this season. The Indians fell 6-1 in Vancouver, the first-place Canadians’ ninth consecutive win. Dave Nichols has more in this story.

Velocity: Speaking of first place, Spokane occupies that position in the USL Super League table by four points after Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Forward Madison. John Allison was at ONE Spokane Stadium and has this coverage.

Mariners: As we said yesterday, the M’s are again playing the way they need to play to win. Solid starting pitching, solid bullpen work and timely hitting. Except, maybe, waiting until the bottom of the ninth to tie and then take a 4-3 win on Jorge Polanco’s single, is a little too much on the nose when it comes to timely hitting. … Danny Farquhar is happy to be here. Literally. … J.P. Crawford is having an all-star level season. But will he be one? … Julio Rodriguez is also hitting well. And is crucial to the M’s chances.

Kraken: The Panthers one win away from a second consecutive NHL title. They got that close Saturday night with another dominating win over Edmonton. This one was 5-2 and it came on the road.

Sonics: Chet Holmgren isn’t a star in the usual sense. He hasn’t been scoring 30 a game or grabbing 20 rebounds. But his presence at the rim allows the Thunder to play the type of disruptive defense they need to play to defeat the Pacers. And, when another WCC product, Santa Clara grad Jalen Williams, is flying around on the offensive end, Oklahoma City is tough to beat.

UFC: Michael Chiesa won a unanimous decision over Court McGee at UFC Fight Night yesterday at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

Storm: Seattle had a chance to help its Commissioner’s Cup cause but fell 76-70 in its first-ever game against the Golden State Valkyries in San Francisco.

Sounders: It’s dress rehearsal time in Seattle, though the Sounders don’t consider it thus. It is the Club World Cup, being held around North America just as next year’s World Cup will be. Seattle faces Brazilian club Botafogo today, the first of six Lumen Field matches the next couple weeks. … The USMNT is playing in the Gold Cup this week. But what’s playing offscreen is a soap opera of unrivaled depth.

Reign: Seattle went to Chicago for a day and flew home with a point, after its Saturday draw with the host Fire.  

Golf: Before we get to what went on in Pittsburgh yesterday, we have to guide you toward Jim Meehan’s column today. It serves two purposes. It is a perfect Father’s Day column, as Bob Ross treated so many Spokane kids as if they were his children. And it’s a great golf column because Ross owned Wandermere Golf Course and his mentorship and support came via the game. … Now to the U.S. Open, our national championship. There is a mix of major winners and major neophytes and the best pro who has never won a major among the top of today’s leaderboard. Adam Scott is in the first category, J.J. Spaun and Sam Burns the second and Viktor Hovland is the third one.

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• I hope you and your dad’s relationship was a great one from the word go. It was for my wife. Then again, she had a father who should be in the Hall of Fame. Lots of hall of fames, actually. … My son also earned some Hall of Fame points today, going out early and coming home with doughnuts. Until later …