The Front Row with MARK NELKE July 14, 2011

With the growth of club sports for youths, the summer sports season is not quite so quiet anymore.

There has been club softball for years, and Coeur d'Alene is home to several youth tournaments throughout the summer. Last week the Lake City hosted the state 10-and-under and 12U tournaments at Ramsey Park; this week the 18Us visit Coeur d'Alene for the western "A" and "B" regionals at Ramsey.

The Coeur d'Alene Sting has put on a successful soccer tournament for years each May, but June and July have been fairly quiet around here on the soccer front. This year, Post Falls took a stab at hosting a soccer tourney in the summer for the first time, and attracted 80 teams to the Western Border Cup, with most of the games in Post Falls and a few in Spokane. The host Idaho Thunder are already looking forward to next year's tournament, and perhaps attracting 150 teams.

Little League district baseball tournaments have been going on in Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls and Rathdrum the past couple of weeks.

And next weekend (July 22-24), the state age 9-10, 10-11 and Majors (11-12) tournaments are scheduled for Croffoot Park in Hayden.

The cool thing about the British Open is, especially on the first two days, you can go home after working the night shift and watch live golf, as the first and second rounds are scheduled to begin at 1 a.m. on ESPN - starting early this morning.

The bad thing is, by the time you grab the newspaper off the porch and read about each round, the next round will already be halfway done.

Either way, it's the one week of the year where the tee shots seemingly roll for miles, and you can't tell where the fairway ends and the green starts.

Speaking of being on a roll, seems that Rory McIlroy has been all but conceded the Claret Jug, with his sights next set on Tiger Woods' 14 majors and then Jack Nicklaus' record 18 majors.

Pretty good for someone who is now tied for 77th in career majors won with ... one. If he wins this week, he’ll tie people like Johnny Miller, Andy North, Lee Janzen and Hubert Green for 44th place.

Nice to see a slugger from the Milwaukee Brewers (Prince Fielder) hit a three-run homer in the All-Star game so the Philadelphia Phillies — er, whoever the National League champs are — get home-field advantage for the World Series.

Somebody suggested perhaps the winning “league” from the celebrity all-star softball game on Sunday night should get to host Games 1 and 2 of the Series.

Or perhaps the winning league in the Home Run Derby.

Makes about as much sense.

At least there was no brawl at the All-Star festivities — unlike the melee between the Spokane Indians and Vancouver Canadians on Monday at Avista Stadium. A total of four Spokane players and two from Vancouver were suspended, and a total of 51 players were fined — though the fines couldn’t have been much, considering what minor leaguers (especially in short-season class A ball) get paid.

I can’t remember a fight at an Indians game prior to Monday. Then again, the minor leagues are supposed to be about developing players for the major leagues. It will be interesting to see how the Texas Rangers — the parent club for the Indians — handles this. While the higher-ups might admire a player’s toughness, I’m not sure anybody’s ability to punch someone would help them get called up.

At least in baseball.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at [email protected].