How the chips fall here ... and there

Kalispell and Coeur d’Alene are often compared to each other.

Kalispell has two distinct advantages ­ — a Chick-fil-A, and Clover Club potato chips.

Coeur d’Alene counters with a gorgeous lake just down the street, and that Resort you may have heard of.

The towns both have their similarities.

Motorists in both display absolutely no regard for red lights — they blow through them like they were still green.

At least in the old days, people gunned it on a yellow to at make it at least look like they were trying to get into the intersection before the light turned red.

Nowadays, if you don’t feel like stopping, well, the other cars with the green light can just wait.

Just a few miles north from Kalispell is Whitefish, which is reminiscent of Sandpoint (before the bypass) with its slow-to-a-crawl traffic as you roll into town, but more importantly, its cute little city beach in town.

THERE IS a bit of a sports tie to this, in case you were wondering.

Like Sandpoint High, Flathead High of Kalispell does not have an on-campus football stadium. The Braves play their home games a few blocks south of campus, at Legends Stadium. Flathead shares the stadium with the other AA high school in town, Glacier, which opened in 2007.

Glacier has a spacious campus north of town (near the Chick-fil-A, in an unrelated event). If you’re driving around the Glacier campus wondering where the baseball field is, don’t. Remember, high school baseball is not offered in Montana, only Legion ball, which starts in April.

Not that anyone would temporarily forget that.

And, of course, teams from Coeur d’Alene, Lake City and Post Falls play Flathead and/or Glacier on occasion.

Brock Osweiler, who starred at Flathead and originally committed to play basketball at Gonzaga before deciding to play football at Arizona State, was born in Coeur d’Alene. He lived here for a year before the family moved to Montana, but he still returns here on occasion during the summer.

Kent Leiss, the former Coeur d’Alene High boys basketball coach and now head man at Sandpoint, came to Cd’A after a stint at Flathead.

Ryan Edwards, the former Gonzaga basketball player, came to Coeur d’Alene High a few years back with his Glacier High hoops squad. The big man was slowed with an ankle injury at the time, but you could see what the Zags liked in an entertaining game won by the visitors.

And, more than a decade ago, a future NFL running back named Rex Hilliard came to town as Flathead won at Lake City in the Timberwolves season opener.

None of them, sadly, brought Clover Club potato chips with them.

At least as far as we know.

Other observations from the last couple weeks:

- A couple of other players — a Seahawk and an ex-Seahawk — attracted attention for not standing during the national anthem.

Somehow, I’m guessing that’s Colin Kaepernick’s fault as well.

But it’s OK for these guys to do it because, well, one’s a Seahawk and the other’s an ex-Seahawk.

Let ’em all do whatever they want — it’s their stand, so to speak.

- Last week the Mariners tried to play themselves out of the AL wild-card race.

Doom and gloom in Safeco-land.

This week, they’re playing their way back in.

Suddenly, October is a month worth looking forward to.

The reality is the M’s are a mediocre, underachieving club battling mostly other mediocre, underachieving clubs (the surprising Yankees being the exception) for postseason berths.

They lean on the crutch of injuries, but that’s just an excuse. Stop overusing the bullpen, and you won’t need so many pitchers.

But maybe that’s a plot — as soon as the opponents get used to the first guy, in comes the next. And the next. And the next. And before you know it, you’re out and you’ve lost.

Whoever they trot out there with a bat is usually a threat to at least make contact and make something happen. And the trio of Cano, Cruz and Seager is the core any team would envy.

So with all of that, there will always be a chance.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.