Let me get this straight four weeks into the regular college football season and the Pac-12 is the most exciting conference in the country.

Washington, Oregon and Washington State have fans in the pacific northwest giddy with excitement and expectations.

Michael Penix jr. keep adding to his impressive statistics every week, piling up 1,636 yards, 16 touchdowns and a 93.7 quarterback rating. Rome Odunze treated Husky fans to a pair of touchdown catches and an 83 yard punt return for another one. Ja‘Lynn Polk caught a pair of TD passes from Penix and Sam Adams, Jaydn Ott and Dillon Johnson ran for one each. The 59-32 blowout of California has the Huskies at 4-0 , ranked 7 th in the latest Associated Press poll. When you consider that Washington is ranked 7th , USC is 8th , Oregon 9th, Utah 10th , WSU 16th and Oregon State 19th suddenly the Pac-12s demise makes me shake my head even more.

So sad what is happening in Denver these days. Sure it was a little disappointing when Russell Wilson’s rookie like innocence and attitude that helped bring the Seahawks a Super Bowl trophy, hardened in the last few years and led to his trade to the Broncos, but he doesn’t deserve what’s happening now.

After a terrible first season in Denver last year, this year is even worse. Going 0-3 to start any season is painful enough but then to have 70 points scored your defense is downright cruel. Sure, the Dolphins look like Super Bowl champs right now but 70 points and 700 yards of offense, no body is that good.

It’s he final week of the regular season in major league baseball. Neither of the high spending New York teams will make the playoffs this year which for most people in the rest of the country is no big deal, but for Big Apple fans, it’s another reason to yell at a cab driver who drives through a puddle and gets you soaked. I do feel good for the fans of the Phillies, Cubs, Brewers, Diamondbacks and Orioles though, now you’ll get your chance to see some baseball In October.

A quick note about the WNBA. Good luck to Connecticut and New York in the Eastern finals, Dallas and Vegas in the West. If Iowa’s superstar Kaitlin Clark declares for the draft, she’ll be the top pick. As of now Seattle has the 4th pick. The draft order will be finalized later this year when the WNBA conducts its draft lottery.

The Storm has first pick in 2001 and chose Lauren Jackson, then a year later used the top pick to choose UConn star Sue Bird and you know the results of those two picks. Together Jackson and Bird helped Seattle win it all in 2004, then Birds teamed with others to grab titles in 2010, 2018 and 2020.

Don’t ask me why but I spent an hour or so on Sunday night watching a YouTube feature on the top 50 baseball movies of all time. I’ll admit I may have drifted off to sleep between number 35 on the list and number two. No, I don’t remember which movie was ranked 35th but I recall vividly that “The Babe” starring John Goodman got panned. Apparently the actor weighed in at 235 pounds for the movie but in real life, the real Babe was actually about 25 pounds lighter than that.

I woke up in time to see Bull Durham finish in the top five and Field of Dreams finish second. Wanna know who came in first? Me too. Fell asleep again, didn’t see it.

I needed the sleep after spending the weekend doing yard work, playing in a softball game and of yes, watching college and pro football and some late season baseball.

Not much drama from either the Huskies or the Cougars. WSU crushed Northern Colorado 64-21 and Washington traveled to the Great Lake state to handle Michigan State in a 41-7 drubbing. Incidentally, I bet it’s been years since you’ve seen the word drubbing in a sports column, or any column for that matter.

On Friday the Seahawks packed up and flew to Detroit to face the 1-0 Lions. The Lions were fresh off an upset win at Kansas City while the Seahawks lost 30- 13 at home to the Rams.

Impatient Seahawk fans, wasted no time blaming Pete Carroll then piled on by suggesting that the 72 year old coach should step aside. I understand the need and the right to complain when your team loses but I also see a disturbing trend by fans, especially on social media, who feel the need to take out their frustrations on a player, coach or official.

In about 100 cases throughout the NFL season so far, fans have taken out their frustration and anger on other fans. In stadium assaults, attacks by one fan to another are more common this young season than in the past. I blame the combination of alcohol and in game betting for the up tick in bad behavior.

I know we tend to be an uptight nation these days, offended easily, flipping off other drivers on the highway, looking for new ways to be offended so we can strike back by offending someone else. So I say lets cool it. Try to enjoy your team, win or lose, If you sit next to a guy wearing the opposing team’s jersey, go easy on him, he probably paid too much for it anyway.

This column is like a trip down memory lane for me and I appreciate your indulgence. Back in the 1960s when newspapers at every level still ruled the media world, I got a job at the Wilton Bulletin in Connecticut writing and editing the sports section of that weekly publication.

There was one high school in Wilton and there still in only one high school in Wilton so it’s no surprise that the Warriors often grabbed the headlines. Since I owned my own barber back then and was open Tuesday through Saturday, I was able to cover to cover evening basketball and ice hockey but for Saturday football and weekday afternoon baseball, I’d sneak out of the shop for a few hours, leaving a note on the door for my customers letting them know when I’d be back. Not exactly the best business practice, but I managed to get away with it since most of my customers also read the Bulletin every week.

My first column, also called Sport Tones, was about high school basketball and in fact was written as an audition for the job. Had my boss Dave Gearhart not liked and approved that first column who knows where my sports career in print, radio and eventually television would’ve gone.

I still have the Royal typewriter I used to knock out my weekly little league results, Biddy league football articles and everything from high school Lacrosse and Field hockey, Cross Country, track, football, baseball and softball. I was a one man show and it was a blast.

Perhaps that explains why I’m calling this column Sport Tones as well.

As we move into September the local college football season has the state of Washington buzzing. In the aftermath of the bad news about the future of the Pac-12, both the WSU Cougars and UW Huskies have started their seasons at 2-0 and in fact eight of the Pac-12 schools are ranked in the top 25.

As I write this, the Mariners have just dropped three out of four in Tampa and finished a rough road trip winning only three of ten games. They’re still in the hunt for the A.L. West title and a playoff spot but it’s starting to look like their young pitchers are struggling as the season enters it’s final 20 or so games. Mariner fans aren’t the only ones wringing their hands either since the Seahawks dropped their opener to the L.A Rams 30-13 and the Rams were playing without their All-pro receiver Cooper Cupp.

Being a sports fan can be an emotional roller coaster. Add the heavy promotion of sports betting on all the networks and that roller coaster ride can become depressing and dangerous if the betting gets out of control.

So as I launch this new column, I’ll try to keep you in good spirts to the best of my ability with stories that entertain and maybe even enlighten. Have a great week.