A Grip on Sports: The snow flies in Spokane which, of course, has us thinking of a bunch of big flies at T-Mobile Park this summer

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s been a while, but snow finally decided to pay Spokane a visit. Perfect timing. The day I decided to touch base with the Mariners. It’s too bad I couldn’t be writing from Peoria or Surprise or Goodyear.

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• Spring training can still be special. Especially for those of us who decided to spend their life north of the 45 Parallel. Forgot the crocus in your neighbor’s yard. Sports fans’ first real first sign of spring is the day pitchers and catchers report. Or when the entire squad shows up. Or the first game. Or the first radio broadcast back home.

Take your pick. Spring training marks the beginning. The beginning of a slow crawl to October. And glory.

For the first time in more than two decades, the local nine, the Seattle Mariners, are the odds-on favorite to represent the American League in the October Classic.

How long has it been? Not since Lou Piniella’s was tossing dirt on home plate. Not since Bret Boone was growing Popeye-like forearms. Not since Dan Wilson massaged a starting staff of journeymen to a record number of wins.

Only one of those folks remain. But Wilson is now charged with massaging the entire roster. And the starting staff is filled with whatever the opposite of journeymen are. Stars, maybe. Aces. Solid at the very least.

A group that is expected to give the M’s an arm up on the rest of the American League and a berth in the World Series. Where the Los Angeles Dodgers, their $4.6 billion payroll – seemingly – and their three-peat hopes will await.

Either the star-powered Dodgers or some red-hot upstart with nothing to lose.

Nice choice, huh? But that’s for autumn. Spring? Optimism. Happiness. Joy.

Baseball’s version of Vitamin D.

Seattle was eight measly outs away from the World Series last October. Get eight men out and the franchise would have erased the stigma of being baseball’s only one without a Fall Classic on its resume.

Couldn’t do it. Wilson might have been to blame. Or too much use of too few pitchers. Or the offense picking the wrong time to lose its way. Or we all can just blame future Mariners’ manager Cal Raleigh and call it good.

Get ahead of the trend. After all, Raleigh hit 65 home runs between Opening Day and the final out against the Jays. There is no way the Big Dumper can deposit that many baseball in the seats again, is there? Regression has to happen.

Will it matter? The starting staff was wracked by injuries last season. George Kirby at the beginning. Logan Gilbert in late April. Bryce Miller a couple times. Bryan Woo late. Luis Castillo didn’t miss a start but had the usual aches a 32-year-old veteran usually deals with.

This year? It’s easy to predict regression again, but in a good way.

It may not matter. Not if Julio Rodriguez finally, at age 25, puts together a first half that closely resembles his usual second halves. It has to happen some season, right?

After all, a guy who can post a career second-half batting average of .297 is capable of doing that in April, May and June as well, right? OK, so he’s hit .260 in those months since he started. And posted an OPS of .737 (.902 in the second half). But it will change at some point. I choose to believe this is that point.

And I choose to believe by the time Spokane experiences another snowfall, M’s fans will have spent an October to remember.

• Walked by my eldest son yesterday. Decided to lift his spirits. With one sentence.

“The Seahawks won the Super Bowl.”

It worked. I got to see the smile I love. Try it on someone close to you. It’s magical.

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WSU: An offensive lineman from Yakima, West Valley High’s Parker Mills, announced last week he’s headed to Washington State for football. I mention this for two reasons. The 6-foot-6, 290-pound Mills has only played football for two seasons. Before that, however, he was a basketball standout for the Rams, and for yours truly. He played a summer for me before his ninth-grade year. He’s always had great footwork in the post, a high school trait many great WSU offensive linemen over the years have shared. … ln the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, there is a line in John Canzano’s column from yesterday that hit me. Canzano writes about his recent conversation with Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne. Byrne said “I’ll be in the Charlotte airport later today as I’m taking a flight, and I guarantee you I’m going to get a half dozen ‘Roll Tides!!’ because it’s just such a melting pot and it’s such a forefront of what you’re doing day in, day out.” And how that wouldn’t happen out West. Well, “Go Cougs” happens all over the world. My wife, who turned into a Cougar football fan when I was living in Pullman, has experienced it. Just wearing her Crimson sweatshirt. … Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley’s contract expires at the end of the season. As Jon Wilner points out in his rankings of the Big 12 men’s teams, there is little chance Hurley will return to ASU. Then again, there was little chance the Sun Devils would defeat No. 13 Texas Tech on Tuesday night and they did. … No one should ever be surprised when UCLA’s Mick Cronin melts down during a blowout loss. Two of them? That’s also par for the course. … I expected Oregon to defeat Minnesota on Tuesday night. I was wrong. … Colorado made the right choice recruiting Isaiah Johnson. … Utah has a bunch of little things to clean up. … No. 23 BYU will be missing a key player when the Cougars travel to No. 4 Arizona. The Wildcats will be missing one star as well. … Are big first-half leads “fool’s gold” as Leon Rice believes? His Broncos are at Utah State tonight. … San Diego State’s NCAA hopes lost some tarnish last night after another loss to Grand Canyon. … Colorado State has won three consecutive games. … The Colorado women picked up another win, topping Arizona.

• In football news, Washington is once again looking for a new offensive coordinator, though head coach Jedd Fisch really holds that role. … This Bruce Feldman story in The Athletic about former California-starter-turned-Indiana-star Fernando Mendoza is worth your time. … A graduating Oregon offensive lineman tore his ACL in the Rose Bowl loss to Indiana. … USC has added three more assistants. The labor market in L.A. has received a college-football-caused bump.

Gonzaga: The Bulldogs are in the Bay Area again tonight. For a last showdown with USF, the only WCC school with multiple NCAA titles on their resume. And a 35-game losing streak against Mark Few’s program. Theo Lawson has this preview and the usual key matchup. … There is also the usual Zags Basketball Insiders podcast this week, with Jim Meehan and Richard Fox discussing the new-look offense. Adapt or die, right? You can listen here if you wish. … Graham Ike garnered another national player of the week award. Theo has that story as well. … Jeff Metcalfe’s ranking of the best West Coast women’s teams in the Mercury News still includes Gonzaga. That’s despite the Zags’ recent loss at Loyola Marymount.

EWU and Idaho: Around the FCS, North Dakota State’s fans seemed bored with winning. Really? There is no guarantee moving up to the Mountain West will include such things.

Preps: The WIAA’s District basketball playoffs dominate the landscape this week, with Dave Nichols out and about. Tuesday he headed to Ridgeline to cover the Falcon girls and their 72-53 victory over Southridge. … Dave also put together a roundup of other District games from last night. … Lake City’s Blake Buchanan began his college basketball career at Virginia. But after Tony Bennett abruptly retired. Buchanan moved on to Iowa State, a program with similar hoop DNA. And has thrived.  

Indians: Snow on the ground? High school hoop playoffs? No big deal for Dave Nichols. He also has a story on Spokane’s new-look coaching staff.

Seahawks: There are a few stories to link today we already did when they ran in the Times. One is about the new offensive coordinator. … The other is about Kenneth Walker III and the franchise tag. … Is there anyone the Hawks might cut for salary cap reasons? … College football’s weird realignment this spring has resulted in the Seahawks gaining an experienced running backs coach. Northern Illinois head coach Thomas Hammock is headed to Seattle. … There was an opening on the staff. … Patriots fans still can’t believe their team lost to the Hawks.

Mariners: The Times’ story on Gilbert’s first child? It ran in the S-R today. So we link it once more.

Olympics: Mikaela Shiffrin this morning earned what she came to Italy to earn. No, not great pasta and sauces. A gold medal. In the slalom. Oh, and vindication. That was included. … The stars of U.S. women’s figure skating had an up-and-down day in the short program Tuesday.

Sounders: A homegrown player is headed to Nashville.

Sonics: Jim Moore is not happy with Adam Silver’s continued dawdling about bringing back the franchise. And he’s not alone.

Golf: Tiger Woods won’t rule out playing in this year’s Masters. Why should he? A couple of days playing Augusta in the spring? I wouldn’t rule it out either, if the opportunity ever existed. Spoiler alert: For Tiger, yes. For me, no.

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• I love “Jeopardy!” Though not as much as I did before Alex Trebek left us. Still, this story about a come-from-way-behind win recently was fun. Thought I would share it. Until later …