Killing Time

With the Nattos on the West Coast I'm just killing time waiting for them to come on at ten. I was delighted to see that the Cubs and the Dodgers were playing on ESPN, which is for the most part, the greatest thing that has ever happened to sports fans. However, Chris Bermann was calling the game. This guy has to be the biggest horse's ass in all of sports. It is bad enough that he can turn people off from watching Sunday night highlights in the Fall, does he really need to screw up baseball too? This guy makes Troy Aikman look like the Albert Einstein of calling games. Bermann has been at ESPN forever, his time has long since come. He goes back back back back and please keep going. It was entertaining in 1991, it grew stale around the turn of the century. Somone needs to tell that guy to shut up.

A positive thing in baseball is how great Nationals Park is. I haven't gushed about this place yet so excuse me while I do. The food and all of the concessions are great but I could care less. If I really cared about food I'd go to a resteraunt not a ball game. The sightlines seem perfect no matter where you sit. I've sat in several different seats throughout the park and they are all great places to watch a ballgame. So far, it appears that it is one of the few new parks that is a pitchers park, but the stats will prove if that is true or not over the next couple of years. The Lerners have hired some good people. They have normally been pretty strict about shuffling around seats but it was nice to see the staff let most of the crowd retreat back to the shade yesterday on what was the hottest day of the year thus far. Even the players are getting into the feel-goodness. Elijah "put up your" Dukes was a controversial pickup. Watching him as a person yesterday, if you can forget everything he has done, was awesome. He was signing autographs for kids, smiling at the crowd, and everytime they were done warming up in the outfield before the inning started, he would look for a kid to throw the ball too. These kids don't know what he has done off the field so the Nattos could get him at basement price. All they know is that a big leaguer looked them in the eye and tossed them a big league ball. Even with an eleven inning loss and a bad sunburn, it was good seeing an entire organization headed in the right direction live, despite being 8 games down.

To contrast it, take an organization that was doing great a week ago, but have come back to Earth and still remain classless. Its no secret I hate Sidney "the princess" Crosby. He whines so much he makes Miss Piggy look like an optimist. The Great 8 is my favorite athlete in the land and the two will be compared throughout their entire careers and thereafter and of course I want him to collect more hardware. I just want Ovie to do it with some class unlike his so-called counterpart. Everyone watching the game last night saw the princess whining again, but this time not at the refs, he had nothing to come close to whining about, but to his teammates. The Captain of the waddlers couldn't do anything but whine to his protectors (not the refs this time, the team.) How did the team respond? Without class. They targeted Johan Fraznen who just came back from a seven game layoff with "concussion-like symptoms." The waddlers just aimed their elbows for his head the whole time. I understand that it is playoff hockey and this might be the reason the waddlers are still in the hunt for the Cup and the Caps aren't. But the Caps would have scored at least one goal in two games. I hate the Wings because they swept us in the finals. At least we lost with class. The Pens can't do a thing in the series. Their captain can't even whine enough to influence the refs. Score a goal and prove you actually belong in the series that decides the Cup before you start head-hunting. I thought for a second that maybe I had the waddlers intentions confused. Maxime Talbot described he and his cronies the best: "last game was chippy and dirty and hopefully the next game is going to be too." It was only dirty from the Pens side of it. I hate the waddlers and hate them even more for making me stick up for the Wings. But the Wings played playoff hockey and the Penguins played dirty. Oh yeah, and the Wings scored goals. The Wings want Mr. Talbot to get his wish; they also hope the next game turns out the same except hopefully Mr. Franzen can do it without risking his livelihood, mental health, and kids' college fund.

That is the difference between two opposite organizations. One is classless and has a chance at the championship in their sport. The other is a year away from having been predicted to be the worst team ever and finds themselves in the basement. If I had the choice between having the future now playing for the championship two games down without touching the scoreboard and without class, or having the future be a year or two away but getting there with class, I take the future with class. Go Nats the future looks bright, better than the present for some others.

Random thoughts about rickies

Fred Davis apologized this week for missing practice. Almost a month after the transgression. Way to man up dude. Pacman probably apologized for three different things this week, but its because he actually wants to show up for work unlike our brand new shiny second round draft pick tight end out of Miami. At least everyone out of that fine educational institution seems to be quite upstanding. Heck if Kellen Winslow went there then the tight ends coming out of there must be phenomenal.

I've sat through Al Noga, Jeff George, Alvin Harper, Deion Sanders and Dana Stubblefield. I even drank the kool-aid when Snyder bought Bruce Smith when he started to realize he couldn't buy a championship, but at least he could buy the sack record in his uniform. So I never thought I would ever want to trade for Jason Taylor but we need to. We will only get him two, maybe three years tops. But it is worth a fourth round pick, even a third. We don't even know what to do with a second round pick, much less later picks. Once again we drafted a tight end when we already have a pro bowl tight end. Who is Antonio Gates' backup? Who is Alge Crumpler's backup? We can go old school and ask who was Mike Ditka's backup? Only diehard Skins fans know who Cooley's backup was last year. I think it was Todd Yoder, but no matter who it was they showed up for practice. Backup tight ends are meaningless, especially when you just signed your pro bowl tight end to a brand new contract.

The point is our third and fourth round picks are almost worthless. I suck at darts but every once in a while I hit bullseye. I'm good at horseshoes but sometimes I lose to lesser players. Broken clocks tell the right time twice a day. Yes we could make a great third round selection, like we did with someone like Chris Cooley from Utah St., but the braintrust at Skins park has no idea what is going on. So go back to the overspending that you took so much criticism for Danny boy. Use a third round pick to rent the "Dancing with the Stars," and at least ten sacks a year kind of guy. Or waste more picks on guys like Lav Coles (who I love by the way,) or Brandon Lloyd.

Or save the picks to go out and draft ricky receivers like Rod Gardner, who I thought I had purged from my memory until I watched the "Hard Knocks" documentary about the Chiefs preseason and training camp. This guy got cut and had the nerve to say that he didn't want to get picked back up by the team to "wait for somone to get injured or something." These are the guys the Redskins draft. Rod Garder; number 87 on the field, number one in round picks for the skins, and fifty-fifty as far as receiving the ball. Lest you forget the position Gardner was drafted for; receiver.

As a sidebar lets talk about another ricky 87. It was so great watching Crosby and the Pens get crushed tonight. It feels weird rooting for the Red Wings; I've hated them even before they swept the Caps out of the finals; they are the C0wboys of the NHL. But it is so much easier to hate Sid "The Princess" Crosby and his cronies so much more. This guy cries more than Nancy Kerrigan does. Somone touches him and he screams over and over "why me?" Ovechkin carries himself like a gentleman everywhere, and can be nasty on the ice when needed. The two will be compared throughout their careers and hopefully afterwords as well. So lets just hope the Great 8 jumps up one on the princess on the Cup tally. I hope the competition between the two is spirited. Maybe even as spirited as the tight end competition in training camp for the Skins. If everyone shows up.

Will you be around in September Mr. Figueroa?

Who is this guy? I know the Nattos are young, that is what makes them exciting despite the fact that they have the worst record in the league. I don't think that after 162 are played they will be close to being the worst in the league, but I'm an optimist. So in the midst of coming out of what is hopefully the worst stretch of the season and soundly kicking around the Mets last night, I would hope the young Nats would be excited.

L. Nelson Figueroa did not like it when they did get excited and their bats got hot. I don't know what the L stands for but it seems like every time I check the box scores and he is pitching there is an L next to his name. To quote the one guy who could get an entire team out of a hitting slump; "they were cheerleading in the dugout like a bunch of softball girls. They could show a little bit more class, more proffesionalism....they are who the are." I have trouble making it through a regular season NBA game because frankly, they don't care. I ran into Chris Samuels the week after the draft and when I asked him about it he said he "didn't care but he heard we got a big receiver which is good." To see pro athletes so excited about a stupid win in May is what makes these Nattos so exciting. They have been excited about winning for both themselves and for us since they set foot in DC. Everyone said we were going to be the worst team ever, literally, last year. They spit in the face of that. They spit in the face of everything that comes there way and keep punching even if they are cut open above both eyes.

What is funny is that the most over the top exuberance in the league right now comes from a pitcher. Jaba Chamberlain is a little excessive with his celebrations. Great you struck a guy out, now go get the other two. But at the same time it is his right. If I went yard against him though, I'd take my sweet time getting around the bases. Then I would probably take it in the back next time I'd bat and nothing could be done to Chamberlain, which is one of the huge reasons why NL ball is superior to AL ball. Maybe because I grew up without pro ball in my city (because Baltimore will never ever be my city) I don't know the proper etiquette. It just seems that everyone is making much ado about nothing.

It has gotten so bad that people are going after college ball and this kid and manager at FSU. Believe me I grew up Irish-Catholic and lifelong Notre Dame fan and watched FSU rob us of the '93 National Title despite the fact that we stomped them; I look for reasons to hate FSU more. However, his kid went in against Savannah St. and played all nine positions over the course of the game under orders from his manager. The manager usually has to decide wether to put him at short, catcher, or relief pitcher every day. So playing six more positions in a game really isn't that much of a stretch he is already a third of the way there. What some are taking offense to is that it was against Savannah St. Last I checked college teams get to choose who they want to play out of conference so they get what they asked for. I just thought it was cool that a guy played all nine positions in nine innings, it never occured to me that that could be offensive.
Maybe I don't know baseball etiquette so what i'm about to say may break yet another rule, I don't know. If I was a pro Baseball player and somone called me a "softball girl" I might put one in their back tonight. Figueroa tore the jersey out of Jesus Flowers' pants last night and then hit one more of our guys. Save the next get-even beanball for September when we see the Mets and possibly Figueroa again. If Figueroa keeps pitching like he has been he won't be there, so just bean whoever is wearing 27 just for good measure. Keep rooting for the scrappy pro athletes who aren't there just for a payheck and keep punching.

Especially Pittsburgh

Just a thought. The lockout was disturbing but what is even worse is the current playoff situation. We have four choices; the Wings, the Flyers, the Pens or the Stars. I never thought there would be a situation where I could ever root for a team that resides in Dallas but this is what it has come to. With Dallas down 2-0 you almost wish there was another lockout until the Caps can play again and have the refs rob us once more.

Catching Up

So Lo Duca and Estrada went on the DL. Lo Duca, under best estimates, won't be back until July. Its time to cut bait. Nieves is playing pretty damn well at the plate, and the fact that he can block pitches and throw out runners is a plus. Ten guys have tried to steal on Lo Duca. All were successful. He couldn't get one of them. A broken clock tells the right time twice a day but John Kruk could probably steal on Lo Duca.

Further frustrating the issue is that Jesus (Jesus Flowers) Flores is the future, and lasts years production shows that the future should be behind the plate. I don't begrudge Schneider leaving because we got Blastings Milledge who despite his play in the field should be a solid part of this team for a while. I thought it was great because I thought Jesus Flowers was headed straight for the starting role. Lo Duca was a bad pickup not only because of the black and white numbers that he has produced this season. He was signed the day before the Mitchell report came out. I don't believe in coincidences and someone had to know what was going on, after all this is Washington.

It was bad not having baseball in DC for 34 years. The only positive is that the National franchise had nothing whatsoever to do with the steroid era. Bringing in Lo Duca who not only took but peddled the steroids smudged what has otherwise been a clean franchise. He is on a one year contract that at most he will only play half of. Even when semi-healthy he hasn't done anything of note. Let him go. I understand the logic of having Flores catch our up and coming aces down in the minors, but in the mean time, Lannan looks like he will stick around for a while in the bigs. Just say no to Lo Duca and find Jesus.

Olie!!!!!

DCs longest tenured athlete is going to hit the road. We all knew it was going to happen but it hits hard when you actually look at it in print. I am never going to argue that the Caps needed to keep him, I think his time has come. Huet needs to be signed to a three year deal to mind the net while our minor leaguers are maturing. He should be the bridge between our sad sack past and our bright future. But the most consistent positive thing amongst all the things that have befallen the Caps over the last nineteen years has been Olie the Goalie.

What were you doing in 1989? Olie Kolzig was getting drafted. Think of all of DC's sports figures since then. We were still 16 years away from getting the Nationals. Joe Gibbs hadn't retired yet, not even once; in fact he had another Super Bowl in him. The Wizards were still the Bullets. Saying "major league soccer" would have confused a lot of people. Hell, Brett Favre hadn't even been drafted yet. Think of what has come, took a look at the monuments and split since then; Jagr, Neon Deion, Jordan, Gonchar, Shuler, Kwame Brown. Now Jagr is a turncoat Ranger, Deion is the most consistent because he is still a horse's ass, Jordan is head boss elsewhere, Gonchar has been supplanted by Mike Green as best offensive defenseman in the world, Shuler is being groomed for a future presidential run, and Kwame Brown is, well...... Kolzig has watched them all come and go while minding the crease at the Caps Center and then MCI; oh I mean Verizon.

I just want to thank Olie for everything, most importantly that Cup run back in 98 which was the high water mark of the franchise thus far. It feels weird talking about hockey in May because it has been so long in this town. However, I'm already looking forward to opening day for the Caps. We are going to get to lift the pennant to the rafters for winning the Southeast and I think they should hoist it a little higher than the other Southeasts and Patrick division winners because it was probably the sweetest. That should be the appetizer. Right after, we should lift number 37 to the rafters. Not any higher that Langway, Labre or "da Hunta," but as soon as possible. Like Dale da Hunter, Olie is one of the few guys I would be happy to see lift the Cup, even if he is not wearing a Caps sweater.

Spygate: are you tired of it yet? (But a little more)

It is great that Matt Walsh has finally turned over the tapes that told Goodell pretty much exactly what he knew in September, at least as far as Goodell is letting us know. If you know that Big Pat Bill was taping signals early in the decade as well as in September of 07 , can we pretty much deduce he was taping signals all the way through the decade even if Matt Walsh didn't save all the tapes?

I want this blog to be mostly about DC sports (the greatest but most excruciating sports in the nation,) but there is one question that needs to be answered. Why hasn't the commisioner, or one of his subordinates, or a reporter, or one of his or her's interns talked to Mangini? He is the whistle blower. He called the NFL to report what has been going on. In the midst of worrying about what play is being called, managing injuries and cramps in early September, thinking about whether to adjust the gameplan and looking to see if Pennington is going to audible at the line did he happen to see the sun glance off of a camera lense that didn't happen to be owned by the press? If so he should be working for the secret service or FBI. He knew what was going on because he participated in it while coaching under Big Pat Bill. So why not talk to him, because it almost seems logical?

The "Mangenius" comes from the growing Belichick family tree of coaches. Is Romeo Cremmel taping teams as well? How about the Mangenius? Furthermore, has this been going on before Big BB came to the Pats? Did he learn this from the original coaching tree that he came from? Not the Walsh tree or the Holmgren tree but the Parcells tree? Its a stretch but don't discount it. Gibbs and George Allen were always paranoid about Landry taping their practices. Is it that far out of the blue that Parcells, also a Hall of Fame coach, was taping them as well, and passing on his tactics to the young, grumpy Big Bill? Its just a thought thanks for reading it. It may sound paranoid but it was free. Arlan Specter charges you a lot more on April 15th to figure out why Philly can't win a championship when we all already know the answer.

Snyder and Davis in bed; who set the alarm?

I really don't want this to be a negative blog. Redding looked solid today and the bullpen followed up. It was good to win three of four from a team that was hot coming into the series, and Wednesday's game was as good as it gets winning off Lopez's blast in the bottom of the twelve after going into it down by one. 4 and a half down a month into it ain't bad a year removed from when the Nattos were supposed to be the worst team in the history of the game.
There is something about the Nattos. Maybe its the new ballpark but you felt the same excitement at RFK. Perhaps it was the ghosts of Redskins past and Dexter Manley planting his facemask squarely into Danny White's. Perhaps it was beating up Jerry Glanville's Falcons as seat cushions showered the field as we moved on to trounce the Lions and then the Bills (as was the fashion at that time even though it wasn't at RFK but we all knew it would happen.) But it isn't. It is the prospect of a future watching the Nats play. Getting the Guzer looked like the worst play even after he toyed with the Mendoza line for a season, and even worse when he got knocked out for a year. Nick "the big D" Johnson looked even worse when he missed almost a season and a half. Belliard didn't seem so money, but I'll take him to pinch hit off the pine over just about anyone in the league. The only reason I say that is because Jim Bowden picked up Felipe Lopez, who right now is doing as much as you could ask for in a leadoff hitter, even supplanting the Guz as leadoff despite the fact that he is the MVP of the team right now. And then the prospects. Zimzam took the day off after 200 plus played. Nats fans are salivating over Detwiler, Smoker, Marrero, etc. to get up to the bigs and if we fall to far behind and its August maybe we get to see them along the Anacostia. I just hope we get to see them two years from now.
Maybe there is a reason that there is such excitement around he Nats and not the Skins. Stan Kasten is the President of the Washington Nationals. He oversaw a stadium that is absolutely beautiful; you can watch the game while walking to the bathroom or to grab a wide array of food. ( You don't have to worry about getting up to get a beer, peanuts, cotton candy, etc because vendors come to you even without a licensing fee and no contracts.) Danny likes to charge premium price for absolutely nothing other than seeing the Redskins play. Why? Because we love the Redskins. (The Nats haven't done the same because the Lerners are not cheap and actually hired a credentialed President because they knew they could not do everything themselves.) Danny likes to hire the coaches himself and that's why we ended up with a QB coach as the guy who is going to oversee the entire team. The Nats hired Manny Acta(fool) who is a young guy who meshes with the players and has thus far pushed the team farther than they were supposed to go for a year and a quarter. That's a little bit longer then I give Zorn because he doesn't have that same Cowher disposition and jaw that Cowher does.
To hire a coach or manager you usually need a GM; Nattos have one, the Skins not so much. The good thing about being a Raiders or Cowboys fan is that your owner is probably going to die soon unless botox keeps Jerry Jones alive like Lex Luthor. DC is probably going to have Danny for a while. This sucks. If you put Jerry, Al and Danny in a lineup and asked who doesn't fit it would be Danny because he has never done anything in football until he accumulated enough money to buy a football team. Because he bought a football team he was pretty sure he was qualified to be a GM. Let's see how that has worked out so far.
Lets ignore previous years when Danny was GM and focus on this year. And by past years I mean all the draft choices we gave up for Brandon Lloyd who we cut this off season but still owe millions to. When he traded down to get two 2cnd round choices (one of the three in) it was brilliant. It seemed like he finally got it. But he picked three pass catchers instead of filling the five different positions he needed filled. The most unnecessary guy he picked just happened to bang the dog this weekend. Before we even get into that let's talk about Stan Dixon"s comments about our second pick in the draft Fred Davis: "We'll have some (some!) two tight end sets" so "we will fill in Fred as we go." Awesome.
This is the guy we picked second in the draft. No not "we," but Daniel Snyder, despite the fact that we already have a starting tight end. Sometimes we might use a a second one, but apparently Dixon coaches the TEs too and Randle El just got the playbook on Friday. I hope Danny is paying him overtime with all the WRs he drafted, not to mention the new TEs.
So we have Fred Davis despite the fact that Cooley is a Pro Bowler with a brand new contract. Davis has a lot to prove. He slept through the entire third day of minicamp. Ricky doesn't even have a contract yet! Zack Bolno is the Skins director of communication; he probably got hired by Danny so you know he is good. His comments: "this matter would be handled internally." How? Are you going to suspend him from OTAs because pro players love to participate in those. Fine him? You actually haven't paid him a dime yet so that seems a little ridiculous due to the fact that he has no contract.
If anyone is really worried about Fred Davis it seems like it is ok because he was found by Redskin security personnel. Even his brother talked to his roommate (not his brother) and commented to the press "knowing Frederick the way I do he was probably just out late and overslept, he probably just didn't hear the alarm." Awesome, imagine how hard it will be to wake up after he has a few million to shuffle around the night before game day.
There is a reason to be excited about the Nats. We might not be looking forward to the fall unless this team that seems to care excels but we will see what happens next fall. The outlook on the Skins can be described in Zorn's words about Fred Davis missing the entire day of minicamp; "he thought somebody else was gonna wake him up I don't know." Neither do the President of the team or the GM. You only have to write one letter to give your opinion and a stamp is cheaper than a ticket; address it to the owner.

Mel Kiper doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground

Mel Kiper gave us a B+. Someone has to look into what the hell he is talking about. He calls the draft pretty well but he can't predict anything long term. Its a different twist but the same plot; the Redskins screwed up the draft again but kinda different. This time we accumulated more draft picks, and did absolutely nothing with them. When I watched us trade down for a couple second round pick I got excited even though we passed on the DE from Clemson. This is because I sometimes drink the kool-aid from the Post and Vinny Cerrato (of course on instructions from the very official Mr. Snyder) who made them say that all the talent was in the second and third rounds. (From here on out Daniel Snyder will be reffered to as Dan, Danny, or Ricky based on the fact that he sucks, but I want to make this a family blog and I cannot refer to him as Mr. Suck or any of the other names I have for him. Plus Mr. Ricky doesn't know that the first round picks usually are better than second or third round picks because he likes to pick guys from Florida that Steve Spurrier thinks are money.) I was excited for a hot hour or two (draft time is adrenaline time) and then we picked three guys who just catch balls. We really needed a big WR but we didn't need 2 and we definately didn't need a backup for Cooley. Yeah there may be an occasion or two where we want to go with two pass-catching-TEs, but I bet you there are more circumstances where you want a guard who will be pretty much be 95% that the guy he is assigned to won't rip J-Cam's knee in half.
Cole the hula-hoopin QB might be phenomenal. The fact that he is listed at a little over 6 ft. and about 205 might deter you from drafting him in most cases. I'm gonna guess he's not phenomenal. Oh yeah, the major surgery after he played a tough college team in the BCS might kind of slow things down too.If you are going to have an offense designed around your top young star, namely Jason Campbell, who is a big 6'4" guy who you want to run the West Coast, do you really want a small dainty dude who set records running the run 'n shoot? That's right your father's and Jerry Glanville's run 'n shoot. The same run 'n shoot system that Barry Sanders ran under with a crap offensive line proving that if you really think about it, the guy that came into the league around the same time with the star on the side of his helmet would have no records if Barry hadn't retired in his prime. But seriously who runs a West Coast in the East? Lets see how well that works in Philly late season. Its called a "west coast offense." We play in the NFC East.
That was a bit of a tangent, but this draft sucked. There are so many holes all over the entire roster. Rodgers might be back by September but that is up in the air. We drafted a safety late, but other than that we have three on the roster. We might as well run onto the field with ten players every time on defense to honor the late, great Sean Taylor.
You might as well trade either trade either Randle El or Moss for Jason Taylor because we have a bevy of WRs but still need somone to compliment Carter. Maybe trade them both because perhaps just this one time Cerrato and Mr. Ricky we drafted a phenomenal set of players. It looks like this draft was right up Mr. Ricky's alley. He filled no holes that Zorn might or might not know need to be filled. However, Danny has him perfectly set up to fail so he can fire him at the end of the year and hire the guy he has wanted to hire since Gibbs said "enough!" The Cowher watch starts now.

How 'bout Mike Green?

It was a hell of a year for dem Caps. To win seven in a row to make it is almost unfathomable. Losing the series to the Flyers (and for the most part the refs) was almost an afterthought to the final two months of the regular season, which had this town infected with Caps fever. Every game was a playoff game for two months, almost as long as the entire playoffs take place and we won and it felt damned good. Even the refs can't take that away from us. All of the accolades are well deserved. Boudreau should win the Jack Adams Award for coach of the year without a doubt. Backstrom won the Calder almost hands down. I say almost because perhaps there is one other who should be considered but won't be. OV should win the Pearson for most outstanding player but he has competition with Malkin who's only redeeming quality is that he is not Sidney "the princess" Crosby. Malkin did well carrying that team through the season and now that Crosby is back they look dominating besides the loss tonight where they phoned it in. However, he had Sergei "Benedict Arnold" Gonchar feeding him or letting him deflect it in which helps. Gonchar is known as an offensive defenseman, which holds two meanings if you are a Caps fan. But we have a better offensive defenseman who actually likes to smack some people around and play defense. In fact he lead all defensemen in the league in goals as a rook . He should have been a finalist for the Calder. OV should be a lock for MVP. Boudreau is the coach of the year hands down. Backstrom is iffy for the trophy, but i feel like he and Greenie should have gone one-two in that contest. Hopefully Nicky wins it for the both of them.