More stars after sunny Showcase
Growing up as a kid in the Silver Valley, you had two choices when it came to watching baseball on television.
Either you could watch the Atlanta Braves on TBS.
Or, if you were like my friends and I, you usually had the Chicago Cubs game tuned in on WGN.
ONE OF the key components to the team’s roster was Mark Grace, who played from 1988 to 2000, before eventually moving on to the Arizona Diamondbacks, winning a World Series in 2001.
Grace spent three seasons as a hitting coach in the Diamondbacks farm system — Hillsboro of the Northwest League in 2014 — and the D-Backs hitting coach in 2015.
Of course, a little pride came out after seeing his former franchise break the curse last fall.
“It was great for the game of baseball,” Grace said. “The Cleveland Indians have a lot of history on their side. And the Cubs have theirs. There was a lot of happy Cub fans around the world. They’re everywhere.”
Grace returned to Chicago shortly after the World Series win.
“It was great to see,” Grace said. “It was great for the city, and great for Cub fans. Baseball got a big boost last year. I went back to Chicago a week after it happened, and they were still partying. They’re still partying as we speak.”
Grace competed in a group along with Fred McGriff and Bruce Bowen during Saturday’s event.
“Golfing and bowling are both something you can do once you get older,” Grace said. “You can still compete because of the handicap system. Us former ballplayers are still really competitive. If we can compete somewhere, we’re looking for the opportunity to compete. Once again, Freddie beat me.”
Grace patrolled the right side of the Cubs infield alongside Spokane native Ryne Sandberg, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005.
“I played beside him and hit behind him for 10 years,” said Grace of Sandberg. “I’m fortunate for it. I got to hit between two Hall of Famers in Ryne and Andre Dawson. They both made me much better, and at the end of the day, I hope I made them a little better too.”
IN HIS third visit to Coeur d’Alene, former NFL quarterback Neil Lomax — a Portland State standout who finished with 90 NCAA records before leaving school — weighed in on Idaho’s return to the Big Sky Conference in football starting with the 2018 season.
“I don’t care if it’s UC Davis, Idaho or Idaho State, I played them all back in those days,” Lomax said. “We even played Boise State back then. It was a very competitive, underrated league.”
As far as playing in the Kibbie Dome?
“I just know that they usually had about 5,000 to 6,000 in the crowd,” Lomax said. “And they were always loud. I love it loud. It was kind of like throwing in my garage.”
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.