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THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Some local ties are more local than others, but are still ties

| July 18, 2021 1:30 AM

Mark Jackson is an avid Tampa Bay Lightning fan, and has followed Tyler Johnson since his days with the Spokane Chiefs.

Johnson, as you might know, recently helped the Lightning win its second straight Stanley Cup title.

And not only did he play for the Chiefs, he attended Central Valley High, and before playing for the Chiefs, Johnson played for the Coeur d'Alene Lakers.

That got Mark to thinking — and researching — and wife Clarissa to emailing.

"Players winning two or more consecutive Stanley Cup winners are rare, but we have had at least three of them from the local area," Clarissa wrote in an email to The Press.

Bill Nyrop, who later became an attorney in North Idaho, won three consecutive Stanley Cups playing for the Montreal Canadiens from 1976-78.

Nyrop, who died of colon cancer in 1995 at age 43, is the father of area volleyball standouts Jessica and Hannah Nyrop. Jessica played three years at St. Maries High and one year at Lake City, and then played at the University of San Diego. Hannah played at Kootenai High and then at Lewis-Clark State.

Bill Nyrop's wife, Mandy, formerly coached at Kootenai High, Gonzaga and North Idaho College.

The third local tie?

Wayne Gretzky, of course!

The Great One, a part-time resident of Gozzer Ranch, twice won consecutive Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers.

"My husband was looking up these statistics and I heard them, and thought I would pass them on to you because of the local significance," Clarissa wrote.

SPEAKING OF local ties ...

Bennett Hostetler, a fifth-year shortstop at North Dakota State and an 18th-round selection of the Miami Marlins in this past week's MLB first-year player draft, is the son of former Sandpoint High great Michelle (Chastain) Hostetler and former North Idaho College baseball player Troy Hostetler.

Chastain was a three-sport star for the Bulldogs, graduating in 1984. She helped Sandpoint win back-to-back state volleyball titles in 1982 and '83, was a state champion in the discus, and helped the Bulldogs reach the state championship game in girls basketball three straight years, including in 1984 where they lost in overtime to Coeur d'Alene on the Vikings' home floor.

The 6-foot, 195-pound Hostetler, from Bozeman High, took advantage of an extra year of eligibility from the NCAA due to COVID-19. He started all 61 games at shortstop and hit .394 with 10 home runs and 58 RBIs. He was named the Summit League Player of the Year.

"He is exactly like me," Michelle said of Bennett. "My husband (Troy) is the same way. All of our kids have/had good mental games to go with their athleticism.

"My husband has made sure they know my ‘past’ and my family tells them," she said with a laugh.

Troy Hostetler was a three-sport athlete at Bozeman High and played baseball at NIC and Eastern Oregon State College. He's now head boys basketball coach at Bozeman High, and an assistant football coach.

Michelle went on to play one year of basketball and two years of volleyball at NIC. These days, she works in the superintendent's office of the Bozeman School District, assisting in curriculum and technology.

Their oldest son, Nick played football at NCAA Division III Concordia University Chicago. Bennett is the middle son and the youngest, Morgan, plays baseball at NAIA Corban University in Salem, Ore.

"All finished their degrees — which makes us the happiest," Michelle said. "All three boys won state AA high school championships in football."

Bennett won two, was an all-state safety, an all-state point guard and an all-state shortstop.

"Nick was our smartest athlete," Michelle said. "He knew where everyone was supposed to be and was fine having others get accolades in both football (linebacker) and basketball (point guard). Bennett is our truest raw athlete and also has great game knowledge. Morgan (a right tackle/end in football, and a forward/post in basketball) is our quietest athlete, completely unselfish, but a big bruiser at 6-foot-3, 220 pounds."

MIKE TROUT probably has no local ties — unless for some reason one of you spotted him eating lunch on Sherman during the offseason.

But his name came up recently in the newsroom, in a discussion about teams who continue to toil away in mediocrity, wasting the careers of great players before of ineptitude elsewhere in their organization.

Sort of like anybody really good who had to play for the Detroit Lions.

Or the Seattle Seahawks, in the years since their genius coach OK'd the lamebrained decision to attempt a forward pass with 1 yard to go to win a second straight Super Bowl.

Anyway, Trout has appeared in just one postseason series since joining the Angels in 2011, and that was a division series loss to the Royals.

In the Angels' case, they overpaid for bats (Pujols, Rendon, etc.) while their pitching has been average at best — and that might be generous.

However, the Angels made what may turn out to be a brilliant move in this past week's MLB first-year player draft — they selected a pitcher in each of the 20 rounds.

Apparently they subscribe to the theory that if you throw enough mud at the wall, at least some of it will stick.

And maybe at least one of these 20 pitchers — and hopefully more — will turn out to be aces or at least rotation guys.

But hopefully some of them will reach the major leagues while Trout, 29, still has some prime left.

But the Angels shouldn't stop there. There's obviously plenty of good pitching in the majors, because the Angels see it on a regular basis from the teams they face.

So if the Angels can't beat 'em, they should trade for them — right after the game. That would be an improvement right there.

If not, load up on even more bats, like the then-California Angels did in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Guys like Reggie Jackson (before he tried to kill the Queen), Rod Carew, Fred Lynn and Don Baylor.

That was enough firepower to make the playoffs despite a pitching staff headed by the likes of Geoff Zahn and Ken Forsch.

ACTUALLY, THERE is a local tie with those old Angels.

In 1982, when major league teams still used to do that sort of thing, the California Angels played an exhibition game against the Spokane Indians, their Triple-A affiliate at the time, at Avista Stadium.

As I remember, the lefty swinging Carew stepped to the plate early in the game, waited on a pitch as long as he could, and steered the ball down the left field line for one of his trademark doubles.

Then he called it a night.

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