A Grip on Sports: Today’s latest Hall of Fame class will just add to baseball’s history and attraction

A GRIP ON SPORTS • If there is anywhere in the nation we love spending time, non-Disney version, it is Cooperstown, N.Y. Baseball’s Hall of Fame. The first Hall. Still the best Hall. Today, we find out the next generation of players to join Sandy Koufax, Hank Aaron and Ryne Sandberg in the happiest place on Earth. Non-Disney version, of course.

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• We weren’t alive in 1936, the year the Hall elected its first class. But we know all about it. Partly because our father was (and he had some strong opinions), partly because we’ve always loved the history of the game (and have some strong opinions).

How the heck Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson were not all elected unanimously, put in by acclamation so to speak, was (and is) beyond our understanding. At the time they were the best of the best, the standard by which every player was measured. But even though Cobb, for example, held just about every offensive record in the game when he retired, he wasn’t a unanimous choice. He fell four votes shy.

Silly. And such silliness continues almost a hundred years later. There will not be a unanimous choice when the Hall announces this year’s class this evening – nor should there be. There has been just one ever and it was the Yankees’ reliever, Mariano Rivera. Yes, he deserved it, despite being a closer.

But so did others, like Aaron or Willie Mays or Ken Griffey Jr. They were denied because no one in that first class had earned, so why should they? Or at least that’s why we think, and hope, they were denied.

Anyhow, we come to praise the Hall, not bury it and its Baseball Writers Association of America voters.

We’re sure a former Mariner will make it today in his first try, though unlike Griffey or Edgar Martinez, Adrian Beltre will not have an M’s cap on his plaque. He’ll probably be joined by another first-timer, Minnesota catcher Joe Mauer, and Colorado first baseman Todd Helton, who has been on the ballot for a while. Reliever Billy Wagner and RBI-machine Gary Sheffield also might get to the 75% threshold after years of missing the cut.

One or five, it doesn’t matter. This is a fun day. A day of celebration. A day for grown men crying, though in Beltre’s case, we’re about 99.7% sure he’ll make some sort of joke – as long as no one rubs his head.

• Speaking of Hall of Famers, Spokane legend Sandberg broke from his usual reserve and shared some personal news yesterday via social media. The former North Central High standout, elected to the Hall in 2005 after a long career with the Chicago Cubs, is battling metastatic prostate cancer.

We have our personal memories of Sandberg, the best of which dates back to the run-up to the first Hoopfest, when our eldest son appeared with him in a TV commercial. But anyone who was around the area in the 1970s knew of him from his abilities on the football and baseball fields. He is a Spokane legend. And we wish him the best in his hard days ahead.

• One last note for today. We love golf, even though golf doesn’t love us back. Still, any day on the course is a good one. Especially on special courses. We’ve played a few, from Pebble Beach to Torrey Pines and elsewhere on the West Coast. But we’ve thought often of just spending a year traveling, playing some of the nation’s accessible crown jewels.

We’re not sure which courses should be on our list, but we recently found one that includes places you can stay and play an iconic course. It includes two courses we’ve played and a few we’ve lusted after over the years. It also includes one our father had a membership to back in the 1960s – a membership he never used. (That’s a story for another time but it involves a police chief, a small investment and a certain crabby person in our home that wouldn’t let him get away for weekends.)

If you have a list of course like this, don’t be afraid to share. Our golfing days are not done. Not even close. And we want to hit it into the water or woods or traps of as many great courses as we can before they are.

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WSU: Around the Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner’s most-recent mailbag appears in the S-R this morning, so you can access it easily. He also has his weekly conference basketball power rankings in the Mercury News. … What happened? No one seems sure but Dave Heeke, just days after hiring a new football coach, is out as Arizona’s athletic director. That’s a weird decision by UA president Robert C. Robbins, the same guy who was in charge of the university when a $240-million accounting mistake was made. … There was one big basketball game last night, as Utah’s 20th-ranked women upset second-ranked UCLA 94-81 in overtime. The Utes had to rally to earn the home win. … JuJu Watkins is the best freshman in the Pac-12. The USC guard may just be the best player. And she’s helped the Trojans to a No. 11 ranking. … Oregon State is finally ranked and it comes after a weekend it lost. … The Arizona women have some work to do. … Arizona State has some momentum finally. … We can pass along this power ranking as well. … The Oregon men wasted opportunities on the road over the weekend. … A freshman has had a big impact for Colorado. … There is a men’s power ranking to share too. … In football news, John Canzano gets us started here with a Monday mailbag. … Christian Caple delves into how Arizona transfer running back Jonah Coleman could help the Huskies. … Washington also lost another player to the portal yesterday. … An Oregon State lineman was arrested and charged with assault. … Former WSU and Arizona quarterback Jayden de Laura settled his sexual-assault lawsuit in Hawaii.

Gonzaga: Richard Fox and Jim Meehan got together for another Zag Basketball Insiders Podcast. You can listen here if you want. … The Associated Press Top 25 poll was released yesterday and the Gonzaga men were not included again. Jim has that story. … The women? They were jumped by three teams, jumped three others – including Louisville, who they lost to early in the season – and stayed at 17. … ESPN will carry the first matchup with Saint Mary’s on its main channel Feb. 3. Theo Lawson has the details. … Chet Holmgren or Victor Wembanyama? The choice for the NBA’s top rookie is not as cut-and-dried as it looked to be after the draft.

EWU: Cedric Coward is one of those rare players who can guard anyone on the court and play whatever position is needed when Eastern has the ball. He was, as Dan Thompson tells us, also trying to do more than even he could early in the season. He’s figured it out and the Eagles have been rolling ever since. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, there were a few games last night, which is odd. Speaking of odd, Montana’s men defeating visiting Weber State isn’t. But the crowd, as shown in these Missoulian pictures, is. What happened to the UM we used to know? Where’s the spirit? … The Montana State men also defeated visiting Idaho State. … On the women’s side, Montana won on the road and Idaho State won at home.  

Preps: We linked Dave Nichols’ Sandberg story above and do it again here, just in case you missed it.

Mariners: Ichiro is on the Hall ballot next year. So is Felix Hernandez. The former could be a unanimous choice. Should be, actually, as the entirety of his career – it’s baseball’s Hall of Fame, not major league baseball’s, and no one’s ever was better – should be considered. The latter? He’ll get votes and may make it someday. … Why are the Mariners not looking to sign one of these players?

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• We didn’t get to visit the Hall of Fame until we were in our 30s. We were surprised to see the name of a few pitchers we had caught included in exhibits. But what we weren’t surprised about were the wide eyes and joy in the face of our eldest son, then a baseball nut. And the same joy reflected in the faces of many of the young children in the building. We do, however, have a regret. We wish we could have shared those moments with our father. We never had the opportunity. Until later …