A GRIP ON SPORTS
If I really wanted to take a day off, today would be the day. Nothing much in the way of local stories, not a lot from the local college's conference connections and very little from the professional ranks. But those are often the days when, while trying to find tracings, you end up with nuggets. And we found one. Read on.
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• Before we pass along what we believe is the most interesting story of the day – “It is so interesting it reads itself to you,” to paraphrase a national ad campaign – we wanted to check in with yesterday's poll question and pass along another for today. A plurality of you believe, as I write this, Gonzaga will defeat BYU in a close game Thursday night. Add in the folks who believe the Zags will romp and that's nearly two-thirds of the respondents. Probably not a surprise considering this is a Spokane-based website. However, what does surprise me is how many folks picked BYU to wallop the Bulldogs in the Kennel. If that happens, it will be a first. Gonzaga has lost at home, but no one has really blown them out. In fact, the largest margin of defeat was the first loss to Santa Clara and that was by 11. … Today's poll has to do with the Pac-12, because I'm wondering what you think concerning the conference's awards. We talked a bit last week about Brock Motum and if he could win the conference's player of the year honor – he could but he won't – but today we change gears a bit. After reading Bob Clark's Pac-12 notebook in the Register-Guard, I began to wonder who will be the coach of the year. I do believe Tad Boyle of Colorado deserves it, but Cal's Mike Montgomery will be his peers' choice. Anyhow, I'm asking you who you think deserves it, not who will win it.
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• Washington State: Now we get to the most interesting story I found today. It has to do with housing near Oregon's new basketball arena and the money behind the new buildings. It came from Pat Kilkenny, who not only was Oregon's athletic director following the ouster of Bill Moos, but has also been a long-time supporter of the Gonzaga basketball program. After reading this story, I don't believe Kilkenny did anything untoward but it sure illustrates why some people seems to make money falling out of bed in the morning. … OK, if you didn't find that story interesting, maybe this one will do the trick. It's a St. Mary's based story from the San Francisco Chronicle, but the reason I'm putting the link in here is because the centerpiece of the report is the Australian Institute of Sports. Yes, the place Brock Motum (and Patty Mills, at right) came from. And it looks as if the AIS may change its emphasis, meaning there might not be as many Australian players available for American colleges in the future. … Christian Caple covers other Pac-12 and WSU links in his morning blog post. Yesterday he also passed along a couple of newsy notes. He'll be busy today because it's a Tuesday, so there are quite a few press events to cover.
• Gonzaga: Jim Meehan passed along the national poll news yesterday in this blog post. The Zags are nowhere to be found, that is if you don't look in the others-receiving-votes category. … BYU had a scare last week but it looks as if Noah Harstock is OK. … The Zag women are back in the rankings.
• Whitworth: The Pirates will begin the postseason ranked 10th in the NCAA Division III poll.
• Preps: Former Lewis and Clark soccer and basketball player Trish Harnetiaux has found the bright lights in New York. … The Seattle Times has its boys and girls 4A and 3A rankings.
• Mariners: This isn't exactly Seattle news, but in a way, how Albert Pujols will fare in Anaheim may be pretty important to the M's. … So who will emerge as the Mariners' third baseman? And will Casper Wells be seen in the outfield? How are the arms doing thus far in spring training?
• Sounders: The Eddie Johnson trade still has legs.
• Olympics: One last story from the boxing trials, supplied by the Los Angeles Times.
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• That's our report for this morning. We'll be on the radio today (filling in for an under-the-weather Keith Osso) and you can listen here if you want, starting at 3 p.m. We'll be at the Spokane Shock trading camp doing a live remote (that's a radio term I learned recently meaning we get to spend a day out of the cramped studio). Until later …
1:33 p.m. Feb 21
What do you mean it’s a light day? “Nothing much in the way of local stories…”. University Boys and Girls are playing in the regionals. Shadle Boys/Girls also. For UHigh, they’re district champs for the first time in something like 26 years and are currently ranked 8th in the state (yeah, I had to look at your link to the Seattle paper in order to figure this out!). I’ve been taking this paper for nearly 25 years (and my parents took it before that) — it’s incredibly disappointing how little effort you put into finding stories these days. Don’t tell me about the current state of the print news business — it doesn’t take more than one guy to write a story rather than saying ‘Nothing much in the way of local stories’. I guess if it’s not Ferris or G-Prep it just doesn’t matter.
3:29 p.m. Feb 21
Somebody has an inferiority complex.
3:59 p.m. Feb 21
The truth hurts Spectre. Good point eb. Just like making Spring Sports second class citizens. Wrestling, gymnastics and games between 6th and 7th place basketball teams get highlights in the paper, but in a couple of weeks, the only highlights you will see from Baseball/Softball is a short blurb on Thursdays. Just pathetic Mr. Palmquist
4:05 p.m. Feb 21
The truth hurts Spectre. Good point eb. Just like making Spring Sports second class citizens. Wrestling, volleyball, cross country, gymnastics and games between 6th and 7th place basketball teams get highlights in the paper, but in a couple of weeks, the only highlights you will see from Baseball/Softball is a short blurb on Thursday only. Same with our track athletes. I agree with eb that the excuse of not enough help just doesn’t cut it. I know for a fact that there are dozens of parents/coaches/fans who would turn in nightly highlights. In fact, the coaches already do this, but the highlights don’t make the paper in the morning due to the new philosophy of the SR. Just pathetic Mr. Palmquist
4:12 p.m. Feb 21
Always nice when certain people only show up to make negative comments, then melt away. If you don’t like it, don’t pay for it. The above comments are akin to someone telling a waiter, “I’ve been coming to this restaurant for 10 years, and the food keeps getting worse.” Umm, how ‘bout you quit coming to the restaurant? In the meantime, feel free to write the editor. It’s Grippi’s blog, and he determines content. If you don’t like it, go somewhere else.
5:27 p.m. Feb 21
Spectre….been there, done that. Written that is. And, I regularly post on here with 90% being positive. You can check it out if you want. True the online blog is written by Grippi. I’m not responding to the blog. The blog doesn’t cover daily spring sports highlights. Neither does the Prep Sport’s column. Do your homework.
Greg Lee writes the Prep Sport’s column, but the spring sports get no writeups except on Thursdays. If you play Thursday and Friday as the GSL and most other leagues do, you have to wait a week to hear about your sons and daughters. Not acceptable in my opinion. This column is scheduled for release in the paper by Mr. Palmquist and no one else.
Also, your weak metaphor is off base. If I don’t like the restaurant, I’d go to another one, then another. In Spokane, if I don’t like the Review, why then I’d…..oh yeah, we only have one newspaper. Bye the way, I never said I didn’t like the Review. I have a complaint that I personally know thousands of people share in this community concerning the local sports coverage. Just trying to add to the dialogue, not hating anyone.
7:35 p.m. Feb 21
@Middleman - The restaurant analogy was more for eb. However, If I pay for something that constantly disappoints me, and my life doesn’t depend on it, I stop paying for it. If you think the Spokesman is your only avenue for sports scores, I would venture to guess that there are other places to get your info. Also, not sure if you’ve heard, but newspapers aren’t exactly the wave of the future. They can’t afford to pay people to report on every track meet and soccer game. If you have to wait a week to hear about your son’s track meet, try being a better parent and either attend it, or talk to him about it (not directed toward you personally). You shouldn’t rely on the newspaper as some sort of validation of your kid’s performance.
As far as your contributions, I was referring to Vince’s blog. I read two blogs every day, Grippi’s and Caple’s. I have zero memory of you making one post. That’s not a good or bad thing, but it’s a bit disingenuous to come on, lodge a complaint about something Vince has little to no control over, and then disappear.
7:52 p.m. Feb 21
Spectre….again….I never referred to the blog. Read above and you will see. I am talking about the Spokesman Review giving highlights about every Football, Wrestling, Basketball, Cross Country, Gymnastics and Volleyball game in the print addition the next morning. Every single sport mentioned gets press in the AM the NEXT morning, regardless of what day they compete.
I have no gripe with Vince. Vince doesn’t write the prep report. He writes the BLOG, which has LINKS to the previous day’s stories. These stories are written in the Fall and Winter. NOT in the Spring. Greg Lee with(Mike Vlahovich’s part time assistance and Vince, when he has time)writes the prep report on Thursday where all the Spring Sports highlights are. My beef is that Baseball and Softball in particular (along with Track and Field, and Men’s Soccer) don’t receive game highlights even when they are called in each and every game).
This is not Vince’s fault. It’s not Greg or Mike’s fault. They are great supporters of local sports. The responsibilitylies with Joe Palmquist as he has decided that Spring Sports do not deserve the same time and/or recognition as the other sports. I am simply pointing out what is an unfair practice with our newspaper.
8:27 p.m. Feb 21
Ok, I just hopped back on to check to see how Shadle did and saw the torrent. Spectre, feel free to bail on any restaurant you want. Personally, if I have an old favorite and it begins to disappoint, I talk to the staff. As I mentioned in my original post, I’ve been reading the Spokesman for a long time. I like it. The point I was making was that I’m disappointed in the lack of coverage of relevant sporting events happening today. Is it Vince’s blog? Yes. Can he write about whatever he wants? Of course. However, this little box allows me to offer my opinion. My opinion is that the blog and the Prep Page in general missed an opportunity to write about the 3a action tonight and even made a point of saying there isn’t much going on tonight. Further, I think it is happening more and more all the time. I have no intention of giving up on Vince or the Spokesman — rather, I’ll share my opinion with them — chastise when necessary, and hopefully things will turn around.
6:59 p.m. Feb 23
Wow, did my comment really get deleted? What’s up with that..Honestly, can someone please tell me???
10:20 a.m. Feb 24
coult44:
I went through our database and could find no evidence of a deleted comment from your handle. My guess is you thought you had posted a comment but it did not make it to the database.