A Grip on Sports: It’s not too long now before the Pac-12 emerges from the ashes and flies over the West Coast again

A GRIP ON SPORTS • One thing about the Harry Potter books and movies. Their ubiquitous presence in libraries and on TV helped all of us who love to make references to once-obscure mythological figures. Like the phoenix. No, not the city. The bird. My preference is to highlight how it rises, reborn, from the ashes. Not how it carried Dumbledore away from trouble. Then again, both probably work as a Pac-12 analogy this month.

•••••••

• In three weeks, the Pac-12 returns. Not in its full glory. Not in the way most of us remember. But as a modern-day re-imagining of a college conference born more than 100 years ago in a Portland hotel. And, appropriately, the re-birth has been midwifed through two years of labor by two Northwest schools.

It has been an elephantine task, that’s for sure. But as dad always used to say, no one wants to hear about the labor pains. They just want to see the baby. They will. July 1. Three weeks from today.

Will it be as cute and precocious and impactful as its older cousins, from the Pacific Coast Conference through the Big Six, the Pac-8, the Pac-10 or its immediate predecessor, the Legacy Pac-12, as we’ve called it during the limbo years?

Probably not. The old conference held the best of the West. The premier schools, academically and athletically. Ten of those are making their oversized mark elsewhere, as illustrated by the four who shall not be named in the Big Ten. They combined to win 14 of the 28 team titles the conference handed out this year. Four schools winning as many as the 14 members of the old guard combined.

That’s dominance. And it also doesn’t matter to the new Pac-12. It will have its history to write. Just as the four schools – UW, Cal, Oregon and Oregon State – had in 1915 when they formed the PCC. Washington State came aboard a year later and Stanford a couple years after that.

A wild ride started. And did not end for a hundred years. If it has ended at all.

The names, other than Oregon State and Washington State, will be different. San Diego State. Fresno State. Colorado State. Boise State. Texas State. Utah State. Gonzaga in basketball and other sports. Dallas Baptist in baseball. Other schools in other, less prominent sports. But the Pac-12 will live.

It seemed two years ago the Pac-12 was about to go dark. It did not. The ash heap of history served as its incubator. In 21 days the phoenix will rise.

And begin again.

• There might be a phoenix feather somewhere in the Mariners’ dugout right now. After all, they seemed dead a couple weeks ago. And again last night about three times in what turned out to be a 6-5 win over host Baltimore. A win Seattle’s thin bullpen tried to toss away, only to be saved, in large part, by replay.

Two plays at the plate, both of which looked to a biased observer as candidates for an overturn favoring the Orioles, were not. Two plays by Ryan Bliss, the backup-backup second baseman, both of which seemed destined to go Baltimore’s way, ended up being crucial outs. And the last pitcher available in the pen, Tuesday’s callup Nick Davila, somehow recorded three outs in the bottom of the 10th to secure the win.

One word probably describes it best. Whew.

You want to know the one word that described Logan Gilbert’s first two innings? You’ll have to figure it out yourself. It can’t be written here. Two innings that took almost 60 pitches, many of which ended up nowhere near where Gilbert intended. Command? What’s command?

It’s what Gilbert found in the third, when, after escaping the first two frames having given up an inconceivable – yes, that’s the perfect word – one run, finished up by retiring the final 14 batters he faced.

The offense took it from there. Or should we say Randy Arozarena did. The left fielder was 3-for-5 with three RBIs (two coming on a 10th-inning home run that supplied the winning runs). He raised his average to within a point of the magic (and rare these days) .300 mark. And combined with Mitch Garver (a three-run fourth-inning bomb) to drive home all the M’s runs. Talk about finding a way, or ways, to win a game that probably should have been lost.

Remember June 9 come September. If the M’s end up in a tight pennant race again – they lead the American League West by three games after Texas lost Tuesday – than this one could be the difference between first and second.

•••

WSU: The Cougars will enter the rebuilt Pac-12 with a different look with their track and field team. It’s all track, distance track actually, these days. Everything else was eliminated nearly a year ago, thrusting 50 athletes involuntarily into the transfer portal ocean. Where they had to find lifelines. John Blanchette checked into how they did and found many of them will be competing in the NCAA meet this weekend in Eugene. Not for Washington State, of course. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, the Brendan Sorsby drama will dominate college football for at least a few more days. Big 12 commissioner Brent Yormack is, as Jon Wilner explains in the Mercury News, facing a revolt among his membership. Other schools have already responded. More are being urged to. And then there is poor Oregon State. Tuesday the school introduced its new athletic director, Kevin Griffin, the guy who will take them into the future. His first issue? The Beavers host Texas Tech in their second football game. John Canzano and others want to know what they will do, even though Sorsby will not be playing. … Back to a more normal part of the game. Recruiting. Normal in that it never stops. Ask Washington, which seems to gathering in a bunch of pups. … Utah and Under Armour are parting ways soon. What’s next? … The Utes need to get their financial house in order. … Arizona seems to have its taken care of these days. … A USC linebacker is joining an athlete group suing in an attempt to upend the way NIL is overseen. … His coach earned nearly $12 million in 2024. Is Lincoln Riley worth it? … In basketball news, Arizona State’s men have a nearly full roster. … So does Boise State, something coach Leon Rice discusses here.

Gonzaga: The Zags will be playing at least one exhibition in October. Against Arkansas. On the road. Theo Lawson has the details in this story. Though not the date, which is still to be determined. … Elsewhere in the WCC, USF has hired a new athletic director. Brent Blaylock last worked at Oregon State.

Idaho: John returns with another track story, this one from Moscow, by way of, well, a lot of places. John’s story on Blake Sturgis is worth taking the time to read, as Sturgis’ long journey from Valley Christian to the University of Idaho is as complicated as any J.K. Rowling plot. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, two Montana State men’s basketball players are hoping to be back from their injuries when the season begins. … The Bobcat football team continues to recruit. … Cody Hawkins will be doing the same for Idaho State for years after signing a contract extension.

Preps: Tuesday was a big night for high school athletes. The Spokane Youth Sports Awards at the Martin Woldson Theater. The best of the best from Spokane and the surrounding area honored in many categories. Liam Bradford has the coverage. … Dave Nichols was at Avista Stadium last night and, surprisingly, not for an Indians game. Dave covered the Eastern Washington all-state feeder baseball game.

Indians: Don’t despair. Dave still has the Indians covered. From their early deficit at first-place Eugene through the comeback that came up a run short. Spokane fell 6-5.

Mariners: We linked the game story above. And do it again here. … Cal Raleigh certainly seems healthy after the game he had in Tacoma. … The Mariners have the 14th pick in the July draft.

Seahawks: The Hawks are in minicamp mode. Zach Charbonnet showed up, just four months after major knee surgery. Devon Witherspoon was there too, though contract talks are not done. The team announced when the Super Bowl rings will be handed out. And there was talk about potential bidders for the franchise. … Jaxon Smith-Njigba has the correct trophy. 

NBA: The league is weird sometimes. There was a discussion Tuesday whether a foul that was not called during the Monday night game should be assessed before the next matchup. It will not be. … The Spurs need to work together to be successful. 

NHL: Yes, we watched part of the game last night. But the M’s game overlapped and we were not going to leave until we found out what happened. Anyhow, we missed some of the best parts. But saw Carolina win 5-3 in Las Vegas to even the series at two games apiece.

World Cup: It is not that long now. The Cup matches will begin. And there will be winners and losers. Unless there is a draw in the group stage. … There will be plenty of stars too. … Can the U.S. win? The team has a longshot chance. But to think it should, that is just ludicrous. 

•••       

• I have read each of the Potter books. Many more than once. And have seen every movie. All more than once. But the reboot series? Have not delved into that yet. Not sure why. It’s not as if I am one of those folks who believe the movies were perfect. Heck, the first couple were so raw as to be almost quaint in rewatching them on USA or Sci Fi or whatever channel is having a weekend marathon this week. That’s not it. I guess I’ll have to do it sooner or later. But not until I get through Friends or Seinfeld or The Wire for the 1,294th time. Until later …