A Grip on Sports: Our goal today is to prove questions, and their answers, don’t always have to be of the questionable variety
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Yes, it’s early in the week. Maybe too early to flit from here to there. But it seems right. Mainly because there are a lot of questions to answer, almost all of them brought forward by perusing the web this morning.
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• Actually, though, the first one popped up last night. Why the heck did baseball outsource the Home Run Derby to Netflix?
The impetus for the question? The little circle that kept popping up while the Derby was going on, making it nearly impossible to watch. Actually, completely impossible. And don’t try to pin it on poor connections. After a switch over to Paramount+, there were no problems watching a 30-year-old movie about some girl named Harriet spying on everyone.
Just think if the Philly fans had to watch from home. The booing would have been audible to the folks standing in line at Dick’s.
• I mentioned yesterday running into WSU men’s basketball coach David Riley as we were both headed back from Las Vegas. Then this morning a Theo Lawson story about Riley’s best former player, Cedric Coward, and his performance Monday night in the NBA Summer League. Got me to thinking. How different would Riley’s first year in Pullman have been if Coward, who would be drafted with the 11th pick in the ensuing NBA draft, had not been injured?
Better, that’s for certain.
The Cougars finished 19-15 two seasons ago. Coward, who followed Riley from Eastern Washington, played six games before being sidelined with a shoulder injury. Averaged almost 18 points, four assists and seven rebounds. Was the best player the Cougs had.
And then had an outstanding first NBA season with Memphis.
• There are a couple big sporting events today. Why does one have such a weird start time?
There is a World Cup semifinal between France and Spain, played in Jerry Jones’ palace outside Dallas. And the MLB All-Star game in Philadelphia. At least they won’t overlap on our TV. Heck, they don’t even come close. And neither will be on Netflix.
The World Cup match, highlighted by a star-studded French team capable of putting big numbers on the scoreboard, starts at noon our time (on Fox). Fine with me. I’m retired. But for much of the U.S., it’s not the most convenient time. Then again, it’s on in prime time in Europe, which makes sense.
Baseball’s All-Star Game? Missing many of the game’s biggest stars, including the two guys who battled for last season’s American League MVP, Aaron Judge (injured rib) and Cal Raleigh (injured bat). It is schedule to start at 5 p.m. But being it’s also on Fox, expect it to actually begin a bit later.
• How many of you share the worry my son has about the Seahawks’ sale? His trepidation has to do with the new ownership not having any connections to Seattle. To the Northwest. Heck, the family has even owned up to being longtime 49er fans.
He’s followed the ongoing acrimony in Portland concerning the new owner of the Blazers and the city over the Moda Center. He remembers when the M’s were almost moved, when Ken Behring owned the Hawks and when Oklahoma City ripped away his favorite NBA team.
He knows Lumen Field is almost 25 years old. Doesn’t have the bells and whistles newer stadiums have. Can’t host indoor events, like the Final Four because it, well, doesn’t have a roof. Worries that after spending almost $10 billion on the team, the new owners will expect Washington taxpayers to finance a new palace.
And will be turned down. What happens then?
• One last question. Who was the best attorney in television history? Perry Mason? Matlock? Arnie Becker? Jackie Chiles? Denny Crane? Harvey Specter? Saul Goodman?
No reason. Just ran across an old “Boston Legal” rerun the other day and remembered how much I loved James Spader as Alan Shore. And wondered why all the great legal dramas seem to have disappeared.
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WSU: We mentioned Theo’s story on Coward’s Monday night performance in Las Vegas. Linked it above. Do so again here. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12, John Canzano has his Monday mailbag on his site. … We can pass along a Boise State preview from an Oregon perspective. … The Broncos’ field renovations left enough room for a pro soccer pitch. … Where do national folks see Colorado State football finishing up this season? … Around the West Coast and the nation, the player from NCAA titlist UCLA having the best WNBA season? Gabriela Jaquez. … The only UCLA men’s national champion we ever played pickup basketball with was just voted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame. Walt Hazzard, who was head coach at then-Chapman College when we filled the role of the school’s interim sports information director, is part of this year’s class. … Arizona and Auburn have set a date for their men’s matchup. … The NCAA faces another class-action eligibility lawsuit.… In football news, an Arizona State offensive lineman had a stroke. He’s back and will play this season. … Colorado has changed its recruiting philosophy. Will it work? … Who has better coaches, the Big 12 or the Big Ten? … Finally, Sports Illustrated tried to pick the greatest college football players of all time. It wasn’t easy.
Gonzaga: Greg Lee is beginning a multi-part series on the Zag women and their offseason. He has an overview in today’s S-R. The Bulldogs move over to the Pac-12 this season, a conference that will challenge them more than the WCC ever did. They’ve already been dealing with Oregon State, who went to the NCAA Final Four in 2016 and has been the Elite Eight as recently as 2024. Washington State is just a few years removed from winning the Pac-12 tournament title. And Boise State, Colorado State and San Diego State all won 25 games or more last season. … Sorry, the Player’s Era game Gonzaga will play Nov. 24 starts too late for me. Or for the newspaper’s deadlines. Theo has a story on the men’s contest against Kansas State in Las Vegas tipping at 9:30 p.m. And, being it is the final game of the day, might have just a faint hope of actually starting that early. … It only took CBS Sports a couple months, and another European player’s decision, to drop Jack Kayil’s name from its Top 25 and One rankings. And to drop the Zags too.
EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, the FCS STATS preseason All-American teams are out and there is one Utah Tech player that earned a spot. Other conference schools had more, including Montana State with eight and Montana with three. … How have other Montana football coaches done in their first year? … Northern Arizona has settled on its start times. … A Montana men’s basketball player was charged with a DUI over the weekend. … Idaho State hasn’t lost as many softball players as first feared after losing its coach to Boise State.
Chiefs: Spokane added a veteran coach to its staff Monday. Former Vancouver Giant head coach Parker Burgess was named associate head coach.
Mariners: Randy Arozarena is the M’s lone All-Star tonight. … The Derby broadcast might have been beset with issues, but the outcome was stellar. The Cardinals’ Jordan Walker, down to his final miss, hit six consecutive bombs and topped hometown-hero Kyle Schwarber by one.
Seahawks: We linked Bob Condotta’s story about what the new ownership might mean when it ran in the Times. It is on the S-R site today. … There are also questions about what type of owners the new family will be. Just who are they and why did they want to buy the Hawks? … The World Cup has shown it’s possible to have grass fields everywhere these days. Will the NFL pay the money to make it happen? (Spoiler alert: No, it won’t.) … This is a fun story. But we do believe the Hawks have won more Super Bowls than England has World Cups.
Sonics: Seattle seems to be ready for an NBA expansion team. But the league will want two new franchises to make a move. The logic place for the second? Las Vegas. Too bad that city doesn’t seem ready yet.
World Cup: Who will win the Golden Boot? It seems to be nearly as important as the outcome of the tournament overall. … When will the U.S. have a team get this far? Maybe after the red-card controversy finally fades away.
Kraken: Will there be a big move this offseason?
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• There’s no question here. It’s going to be a long day in the Grippi household. If the forecast of afternoon thunder showers comes through. Boomers and dogs don’t always mix. Until later …
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• Photos: The Spokesman-Review, Getty Images, Tribune News Service