THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Sept. 10, 2014

The baseball season isn't a sprint, it's a marathon.

But you can help but feel like teams are about to rip right through that finish line tape.

A FEW months ago, right before the All-Star break, the Seattle Mariners did everything they could think of to steal a couple games in the division against the Oakland Athletics in Seattle.

They were successful, at that time, in taking 2 of 3 games in that series.

This weekend's series - the final time the teams are scheduled to play this season - is likely the biggest of the year for them.

Oakland entered play Tuesday with a one-game lead on the Mariners for the first wild-card spot. The Athletics only led Detroit for the second spot by 1 1/2 games, so their spot in the postseason is not even close to the lock that it appeared to be in July when they acquired Jeff Samardjiza and Jon Lester to help balance out the pitching staff.

Oakland gave up Yoenis Cespedes to get Lester, which left a monster hole in the team's offense.

After Sunday, Seattle will have seven games remaining with the AL West-leading Los Angeles Angels, including the final three at Safeco Field, as well as four at Toronto and three in Houston.

Seattle's only home games in that stretch come against Los Angeles, which might not have anything to play for when rolling into town Sept. 24-26 to end the regular season.

Throughout the season, Seattle has been a better team on the road, and hopefully that remains the case in the next week or so.

FOR WHAT it costs to get to a college football game, none carried more bang for the buck than Saturday's Eastern Washington-Washington game at Husky Stadium.

Washington jumped out to an early 21-0 lead, only to have Eastern fight back and take a lead in the third quarter. The Huskies did just enough to secure a 59-52 win, but likely because the clock just ran out on the Eagles that day.

I've seen a few comments that the Idaho Vandal football team should follow this same model to avoid playing those "money games," and play some of the regional schools in the Pac-12 Conference.

Idaho could play teams like Washington State, Washington, Oregon State in nonconference games, but those schools likely won't be into that home-and-home at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow.

Thanks to those "money games" the school has been able to make improvements in and around the Kibbie Dome and instead of seeming like a concrete dungeon, it's actually a lot better experience to watch a game there.

Another idea is for the Vandals to go back to the Big Sky Conference, like they've already done in all other sports but football.

By doing that, they'd be limited to what they can offer in scholarships to its athletes. They'd gain fans from regional schools like Eastern Washington, Montana, Montana State and Idaho State that might travel with the team.

It's true, Idaho hasn't held the same success in football as that team on the blue turf south, but the Vandals shouldn't just take their ball and go home just yet.

They've shown at least some fight this season. With a little more consistency, they might closer to knocking it out of the park than some think.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at JEPressSports.