A GRIP ON SPORTS • Baseball’s All-Star break gives every team, every player and every fan an opportunity to hit pause and reflect on what’s already happened in the season and what may be ahead. Let’s do the same.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Jim Bouton didn’t put much of a mark on baseball as a pitcher, winning 62 games in 10 big league seasons. But he changed the game nonetheless. The 80-year-old, who died yesterday, opened a door behind the scenes with his uproariously funny “Ball Four,” and it’s not closed since.

Who’s in? Who’s out? With Washington State’s 2019-20 basketball roster finalized, we take a look at all of the offseason transactions, dividing it up by the returners (6), newcomers (8), departures (3), transfers (4) and decommits (2).

After months of acquisitions, departures and transfer portal uncertainty, new Washington State coach Kyle Smith can rest easy having finalized the Cougars’ 2019-20 roster.

Jalen Thompson, whose Washington State career ended unceremoniously two weeks ago when the standout safety learned he’d lost his final season of eligibility, was selected by the Arizona Cardinals in the fifth round of Wednesday’s NFL supplemental draft.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • While traveling last night, I was able to watch bits and pieces of baseball’s All-Star Game on my telephone. At 39,000 feet in the air. Isn’t technology grand?

Once again, the Cougars have lured a wide receiver out of the state of Texas, receiving a commitment from Dallas’ Cedrick Pellum Tuesday afternoon.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Observing college basketball over the years, there were certain players on the various local teams we were sure would end up coaches. Sometimes we were totally off base. Other times we were right on. The latest alum to return to Gonzaga to coach is in that latter category.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Summer is officially in full swing. The Fourth of July holiday is in the rearview mirror and the only thing standing between us and football season is the interminable days stuck working when you want to be on vacation. To quote a great man, it could be worse; it could be raining.

Employed adolescents are more likely to use marijuana than those who don’t work, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • The most anticipated sporting event of the day may be over before you even read this. That doesn’t mean it isn’t important.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Thank goodness it’s a Saturday. The weather is nearly perfect, the work week is over and the day is all yours. Get out and attack it. But before you go, check below.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • If there were a competition for getting somewhat lost in the Spokane-area woods, akin to the “competition” of eating, say, hot dogs, I would probably be considered in the Joey Chestnut stratosphere.

Medicine is not a field for the squeamish. Just ask Danna Rosales, a high school senior from Kennewick who had an up-close experience with a human cadaver last week at Washington State University’s health sciences campus in Spokane. “It was surreal,” Rosales said. “I got to hold a human heart and a human brain.”

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Happy Fourth of July. Enjoy yourself today. Be safe. Sane. Don’t do anything dumb. Like take a long walk in the woods.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Let’s get to the world of sports’ news quickly. After all, tomorrow is the Fourth and hot dogs, apple pie and fireworks await. Well, not that last one because, you know, fires and stuff. But hot dogs. Woo-hoo.

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s a match that would have been more appropriately held on July 4th, don’t you think? The U.S. versus England – there is a bit of history there – for half the World Cup marbles.

Beginning in 2020, Washington State season ticket-holders and Cougar Athletic Fund members who attend home football games will be charged a per-game rate to park in Martin Stadium lots, the athletic department announced Monday.