A Grip on Sports: Weather once again plays an outsized role in athletic competitions this time of year
A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s always illuminating when spring’s volatile weather illustrates the truism about plans, laughter and the Almighty.
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• Major golf tournaments are planned to the minute. So are major NCAA events. Auto races, baseball games, horseshoe competitions. All are ruled by the clock. Not just to determine a winner but to make sure the events fulfill their mission: entertain us. And flood our TV sets with said entertainment.
Everything is controlled. Except, really, nothing is.
There is a Yiddish proverb about it. Peripherally, of course, because when it was first uttered who-knows-when, there was few sports and even fewer commercials on ABC.
The proverb? Well, to keep with our underlining TV theme, we will turn to one of our all-time favorite characters for a paraphrase. “Announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh,” Al Swearengen once uttered on HBO’s “Deadwood,” a statement that has stayed with us for two decades. And is tattooed on a friend’s leg.
I’ve always wondered who laughed when said friend announced he was going to get that tattoo, but that would be digression – just like the preceding two paragraphs.
We’ll get to the point.
For all the meticulous planning event organizers make for an outdoor sporting event, they can’t control the weather.
Thunderstorms strike the Charlotte area? The PGA Championship has to be delayed this morning. Tee-times revamped. Players thrown on the Quail Hollow course from both the first and 10th tees. Threesomes instead of the usually weekend twosomes. And ESPN’s part broadcasting Moving Day is cut to pieces. Most of the action will be on CBS.
Tornadoes and their deadly nature roared through Kentucky and elsewhere Friday, leaving death and destruction in their wake. It seems almost sacrilegious to mention they also forced the postponement of the Reign’s NWSL match in Louisville, scheduled for last night, and delayed or postponed some NCAA softball games.
Which brings to mind another old saying, though I’m not sure anyone thinks about it except myself. One person’s inconvenience may actually be another person’s disaster. It’s just another way of reminding myself to always light a candle instead of cursing the darkness.
• The Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena will be dark for the rest of the rest of the junior hockey season, although that has been planned for a while. But how the Chiefs’ season ended on the place’s ice last night didn’t spark much in the way of laughter. Except, maybe, from the Medicine Hat players, celebrating their hard-won berth in the Memorial Cup.
The Tigers came to Spokane earlier this week having dropped the second game of the best-of-seven WHL title series on their home ice. They seemed vulnerable, with their best player dealing with an injury.
Then preceded to dominate Spokane. Medicine Hat roared through the Chiefs in the three Arena games 15-4, including Friday night’s 4-2 clincher that included three Tiger third-period goals.
• You know, the Pac-12 is still one big entity in some alternate universe. Has to be. There has to be a dimension somewhere in which the USC president isn’t Carol Folt, Larry Scott spends his entire career in pro tennis and a Utah economics professor tells his boss ESPN is offering a fair deal. Has to be.
Instead of the conference’s legacy schools dominating Big Ten baseball – the four former Pac-12 members are in the top five of the league’s standings – and track, there is a place where they are battling each other for supremacy of the West Coast. A world where Oregon State is not a baseball independent but just one of handful of schools with a good chance to add to the conference’s 29 NCAA titles in the sport.
There isn’t, of course. There may never be again. And I’m sure no one is laughing about it. Except maybe Scott’s accountant.
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WSU: Maybe there is still a place in which building relationships with recruits still pays off. Where it is not all about NIL numbers. Where players make decisions based on old-fashioned – nah, that place doesn’t exist anymore except in small doses. Or in Pullman, as Greg Woods illustrates with this story on Washington State’s most-recent men’s high school basketball recruit Dominik Robinson. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, the money the Pac-12 schools made in its last fiscal year, 2024, wasn’t all that bad. Jon Wilner and John Canzano both delved into the financials Friday. … Washington’s longest-tenured coach is about to retire. … Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes is not ready for that step yet, despite all the changes to his chosen profession. … Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter has already won over the hearts of Jacksonville fans. … Utah is building a new baseball facility that it hopes will lead to more wins. … San Diego State picked up another running back in the portal. … In basketball news, Utah State men’s coach Jerrod Calhoun recently sat down and talked about his first season in Logan. … The NCAA softball tournament began Friday. Among the Pac-12 legacy schools, Washington and Arizona State lost while Oregon, Stanford, Cal, UCLA and Arizona all won.
Gonzaga: Former GU star Courtney Vandersloot has been given a new assignment by the Chicago Sky. She’s expected to assist a couple of young WNBA standouts as a mentor. Being that Vandersloot has been about assists her entire career, it seems a great fit. … Elsewhere in the WCC, Santa Clara’s first-ever NCAA softball tournament game turned out poorly. The Broncos were run-ruled by host Arizona.
EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, football recruiting never stops. Ask Montana State. … Montana is in the market for a new assistant men’s basketball coach. … Weber State played Oregon tough. For a few innings.
Whitworth: The Pirates’ opener in the NCAA Division III baseball tournament didn’t have the result they wanted. Whitworth fell 5-1 to host La Verne.
Preps: Greg Lee covered the GSL sub-district track meet Friday. He has this story. … Cheryl Nichols has a roundup of Friday’s competitions.
Chiefs: We mentioned above the result last night and in the series. For more astute observations, you’ll have to hit this link to Dave Nichols’ game story. He’s got his fingers on the pulse of the sport. … Tyler Tjomsland had his finger on his camera’s shutter button. And he used it to take all these photographs of the Chiefs’ final game of the season.
Indians: The winning streak is over, done in by a 6-1 win for host Eugene on Friday night. Sorry, but I do not have an online story to link.
Seahawks: What do betting lines tell us about the 2025 season? … It’s about time changes are made to playoff seedings. Even if the latest proposal owners are set to vote on next week is still not good enough.
Mariners: After a 1-5 homestand, the road must have felt anything but like home last night. The M’s actually played and pitched well, starting with the leadoff hitter J.P. Crawford. His solo home run in the first set the tone for a 5-1 win at San Diego. … George Kirby made another rehab start, this one in the altitude of Albuquerque. … The ace right now? Bryan Woo.
Storm: The Times’ story on Seattle’s newest star duo? It is on the S-R site today. … The team faces questions as the WNBA season begins. And it may not have a better record even if it is improved.
Sounders: Lineup juggling means Seattle will be somewhat rested when it plays its rivalry match tonight in Portland.
Horse racing: There are worries surrounding the 150th running of the Preakness today in Baltimore. But weather stopping the race isn’t one of them. Rarely is in horse racing. … Will once-again favored Journalism do what it failed to do at the Derby?
Reign: Seattle was all set to play a bounce-back match at Louisville on Friday. As we said above, Mother Nature intervened.
Golf: The PGA has a surprise leader after two rounds. … It is no surprise Scottie Scheffler is in the hunt. … If you wondered why Rory McIlroy has struggled finding fairways this week, this news might explain it.
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• Some television shows stand the test of time. Others? Not so much. One of the former? “Deadwood.” The dialogue is Shakespearean, the plots biblical in complexity and the casting, especially the main characters, near-perfect. Most HBO series, from “The Sopranos” to “The Wire” display such traits. And one other. They focus on life’s underbelly, a place where an itch is always about scratch. Until later …