D.C. Sports Bog - By The Washington Post's Dan Steinberg - April 6, 2008

Nats Beer Story Grows Sadder

Capitol City's sad absence from Nats Park actually contained a bit of intrigue, as detailed this week by colleague Greg Kitsock in the Food Section. There were at one time plans for Cap City to control 16 taps in the stadium, including eight in a left-field beer garden, Kitsock...

By Dan Steinberg | April 11, 2008; 4:24 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Nats
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Fresh Gilbert Quotes (From the Past)

Gilbert hasn't been talking or blogging for a minute. The AP is saying he's discovered a silent alter-ego, with Eddie Jordan lavishly praising Gil's performance and saying "we're all happy" about his silence. Based on past experience, I'd say either Gil maintains this silence for weeks, or starts spinning...

By Dan Steinberg | April 11, 2008; 1:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Wizards
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Caps Way-Back Machine: The Elation

Can't go too much way further back, I guess. In the final installment of today's three-part series of Caps memories, we're heading back to April 10, 1983, 25 years ago from yesterday, when the franchise played its first-ever home playoff game. The fan zeitgeist was captured on page D4...

By Dan Steinberg | April 11, 2008; 12:44 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Caps
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Playoff Beards: The Video

Some pre-playoff Caps thoughts on the upcoming onslaught of facial hair. Obviously we will continue to follow this important story. Don't forget to watch Washington Post Live on Comcast SportsyNet at 5 tonight, in order to relive these two minutes of your life, and also to get yet another blissfully...

By Dan Steinberg | April 11, 2008; 11:14 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Caps
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More Wizards Prizes

Nancy is giving away yet more prizes for Wizards nicknames. I don't ask why; I just promote. She has so many prizes that you'd be well-served suggesting nicknames like "Funny Nickname" and "Original Nickname," just to try to claim a prize. Deadline for submissions is noon today. Targets are Dominic...

By Dan Steinberg | April 11, 2008; 10:44 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Wizards
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Caps Way-Back Machine: Tony's Zamboni

Craig Berube dances with Viacheslav Fetisov. If you can't tell, I'm sort of phoning it in today. But jeez, it used to be nice when Kornheiser would write for the paper, huh? Love him or write snarky blog items to leech off his name, you have to admit that...

By Dan Steinberg | April 11, 2008; 10:14 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Caps
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Caps Way-Back Machine: The Depression

With the hours counting down and me running out of ideas, let's take a spin back to April of 2003 to read Tom Boswell's column from the day the team's last playoff run ended. You know, actually, this is bloody depressing. And one of the greatest things about this...

By Dan Steinberg | April 11, 2008; 9:14 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Caps
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Caron's Birthday Party: The Video

The party was a month ago, but the footage just appeared this week, and there are a few pleasing visuals here. Like Nick Young's outfit, at 4:12....

By Dan Steinberg | April 10, 2008; 4:08 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Wizards
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School Drops Redskins Name

What do burgundy-and-gold fans now have in common with the citizens of Colusa, Calif.? A conviction that the forces of political correctness have attacked them out of spite and a misguided sense of victimhood. After what's described as a "contentious 3-2 vote," the Colusa Unified School District (about an...

By Dan Steinberg | April 10, 2008; 3:37 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (35)
Categories: Redskins
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Mike Green's Haircut: The Video

Two points: 1) No disrespect was intended toward Courtney, Mike's stylist, who cuts a very fashionable mohawk and did great work in tight quarters and with limited time this morning. With a bit more time and communication, I'm sure she would have gotten exactly the 'hawk Caps fans desired. 2)...

By Dan Steinberg | April 10, 2008; 2:01 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Caps
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Pat Sajak Loves the Caps

Pat Sajak at the division-clinching win. (By Toni L. Sandys - TWP) The Stanley Cup playoffs require a wide-ranging level of civic commitment. For Mike Green, that commitment was on display this morning, in the form of an early-morning mohawk. Dozens of fans will be receiving similar 'hawks tomorrow....

By Dan Steinberg | April 10, 2008; 1:10 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Caps
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Nats Fans Crash Opening Night

In the clubhouse. Just when I was beginning to get down on Nats fan, this blog saved the day. It's called "Crashing the Nats New Stadium on Opening Night," and it has just one entry plus a lot of Photobucket shots, but it's easily the best thing I've seen...

By Dan Steinberg | April 10, 2008; 11:56 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Nats
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Peter Angelos Doesn't Hate the Nats

(By Joel Richardson - TWP) The Orioles are in first place but are drawing flies. Like, not even healthy flies: just those decrepit flies that can no longer fly but can't stop breathing so they just walk around sadly and buzz a little bit until you hit them with...

By Dan Steinberg | April 10, 2008; 11:27 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Nats
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Mike Green's Playoff Hawk

Here's the cut, as performed by traveling stylist Courtney at the DC101 studio this morning. Fans who accept the station's gratis mohawks tomorrow, or the similar option at the Verizon Center tomorrow night, will likely have a more straightforward shaved-sides look. This, though, is what Courtney called a "fashionable"...

By Dan Steinberg | April 10, 2008; 9:59 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Caps
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Gil Gives Away His Shoes

Zak Kapugi, holding Gilbert's shoes. As Gilbert left the locker room after last night's win over the Celtics, he told SportsTalk 980's Jerry Coleman that he was done talking for the rest of the regular season. The playoffs were a maybe. That left others to do the locker room...

By Dan Steinberg | April 10, 2008; 8:19 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Wizards
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Caps Go Culture

Amazing photoshop from All Things Go. (Adapted from previous items for purposes of newspaper excerpting.) The residents of the Verizon Center are undergoing some sort of musical moment this spring. Indie rocker Stephen Malkmus has played a tune called the Caron Butler Blues, telling the Village Voice he has...

By Dan Steinberg | April 9, 2008; 5:31 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Caps , Wizards
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TK Continues to Win Argument Against Nobody

I'd like to be measured here, because soon this will be posted on The Big Lead, and then some producer from PTI will see it, and then maybe that producer will show this to Tony Kornheiser, and maybe he'll call me again and I'll get all cowed and declare...

By Dan Steinberg | April 9, 2008; 3:40 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (28)
Categories: Media
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Redskins Cheerleaders Take On India, Cricket

The Bangalore Royal Challengers. If I could have broken this story before the team sent out the press release and written a first sentence like this, I think I'd be willing to call it a career. Here you go. "The Washington Redskins Cheerleaders, deemed the 'First Ladies of Football,'...

By Dan Steinberg | April 9, 2008; 2:11 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Redskins
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Mystics Take Langhorne

Will Laura Harper be next? (By Toni L. Sandys - TWP) With Crystal Langhorne projected to be a mid-first rounder, and the Mystics picking sixth, the stage was set for the dramatic selection of perhaps the most decorated player in Terps history, who will now slide a few miles...

By Dan Steinberg | April 9, 2008; 1:38 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Mystics
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Today's Top Five: Mo Caps and Flyers

Fedorov vs. the Caps. (Reuters file photo) 1) A massive archive of Flyers-Caps fights, including a massive brawl from before most of the current Caps were born. (Japers Rink) (See more at In Ahead of the Play) 2) A Flyers fan previews the series with this: "All Caps fans...

By Dan Steinberg | April 9, 2008; 12:41 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: What You Need to Know
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League-Wide Red Rocking

Question: What would happen if the Capitals and Devils were to meet in the Eastern Conference finals? Answer: Mass chaos. Rioting in the streets. An utter inability to tell which fans were rooting for which team. Potential inter-fanbase mating. And lots and lots of rawking. Why? Because the teams...

By Dan Steinberg | April 9, 2008; 11:53 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Caps
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Wiz Contest: Win Bobbleheads, Tickets

Take me home tonight. This woman Nancy, who sometimes reads this Bog and has already been inducted into the Bog Hall of Fame, is just incredibly generous with her Wiz swag. Remember last year, she gave away all kinds of tickets to whomever came up with the best 50-word...

By Dan Steinberg | April 9, 2008; 10:58 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Wizards
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Thrash-Death-Metal and the Caps

Courtesy of Express. Full disclosure: I've been a bit out of the loop on the local thrash-death-metal band scene. Luckily, our corporate underlings cousins at Express and its snazzy-if-non-Metro-friendly Web site are well on the case, bringing to full and glorious light darkness the story of Darkest Hour (the...

By Dan Steinberg | April 9, 2008; 10:31 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Caps
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Nats Set a (Non)Attendance Record

Metro reported a "typical" rush hour last night. Typical. (Nikki Kahn - TWP) I can say for sure that I've been burned too many times by anti-bandwagon behavior to start that again. I though the Wiz were done at 0-5; they're now fighting for home-court advantage in the playoffs....

By Dan Steinberg | April 8, 2008; 4:21 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Nats
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Donald Brashear Has a Blog

Brash and friends. (Toni L. Sandys - TWP) Wow, two in a week. First Chris Cooley, now Donald Brashear. Dmitri Young simply has to be next. Anyhow, this is called a soft launch or something, but DonBrashear.com is up and running, complete with some sort of cartoon image of...

By Dan Steinberg | April 8, 2008; 3:23 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Caps
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Caps Playoff Beard Preview

Pre-playoff beard. (A video version of this entry will run on Washington Post Live Thursday afternoon, between 5 and 6, on Comcast SportsyNet.) (Also, by watching the video below, you'll note that I might have agreed to grow a playoff beard. If any of you are doing so and...

By Dan Steinberg | April 8, 2008; 3:03 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Caps
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Brendan Haywood is a Bracket God

Your winner and new champion. (AP Photo) The (men's) college basketball season is over, and we have our celebrity NCAA bracket winner. His name is Brendan Haywood, and some of you ridiculed him for not picking North Carolina, his former school, to win it all. Well, who's laughing now?...

By Dan Steinberg | April 8, 2008; 12:55 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: College Basketball
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Caps Mohawk Talk

This kid was spied by a Caps employee at Saturday's game. The letters are actually shaved in. And yeah, in the dark one, that's actually Ovechkin's signature on his head. Very nice. And very appropriate, given Mike Green's history with the 'hawk. I know the Green mohawk talk appeared...

By Dan Steinberg | April 8, 2008; 11:03 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Caps
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Video from the Caps' Clincher

Some video moments of the scene at Verizon on Saturday night, courtesy of Comcast SportsyNet, Washington Post Live (airing 5-6 pm daily) and super producer Adam Littlefield. By the way, if you want to engage in more Caps vs. Flyers fan banter, you can check out The 700 Level's rejoinder...

By Dan Steinberg | April 8, 2008; 10:13 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Caps
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Local Poll Finale: Georgetown Wins

Why are we still talking about local college basketball? How else will we provide next year's preseason Atlantic 11 rankings? And didn't you want to see Mount St. Mary's get its chance at some Atlantic 11 glory? Here's some trivia: which local schools went further in their post-conference tournaments...

By Dan Steinberg | April 7, 2008; 7:01 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: College Basketball
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Bram Weinstein to ESPN

Bye Bram Bram Weinstein, he of the "Covering the Redskins.....I'm Bram Weinstein!!!!!!!!" radio call, actually used to do television in Nebraska after he finished school (Springbrook/American). I didn't know that. But I guess that makes the news that he's leaving us for Bristol and the ESPN News Anchor chair...

By Dan Steinberg | April 7, 2008; 6:23 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Media
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Is D.C. Now a Hockey Town?

Matt Cooke wanted into the dressing room this afternoon, looked at the masses of media persons, and smiled. "Back in a Canadian city, eh?" he said. Now I've never been in a Canadian city for the playoffs (although I did take my Honeymoon in Canada) and I would have...

By Dan Steinberg | April 7, 2008; 3:38 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Caps
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Caps Fans vs. Philly Fans

So let's see, the Flyers. They play in Philly, right? Home of the 17-on-one crowd fight? The Tie Domi vs. fan in the penalty box fight? The "Most Intimidating Fans in Hockey" official team promos? The dozens of signs taunting Crosby? The message board tales, like so? There was...

By Dan Steinberg | April 7, 2008; 1:14 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Caps
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By the Numbers at Verizon

A few numbers to remember from last week's glut of local games. 1988: Last time the Caps and Wizards made the playoffs in the same season. Twenty-four hours: Amount of time it took the Caps and Wizards to clinch playoff berths at home this weekend. 5-1: Caps and Wizards...

By Dan Steinberg | April 7, 2008; 12:01 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Caps , Wizards
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Caps Fans Are Excited, Weird

Trevor White, saying hi to the Caps. This blog post adapted from this article in Sunday's paper. Highlights from Saturday's "Rock the Red" party downtown: * Two woman who admitted to me that they were intentionally wearing red panties. * Trevor White from Silver Spring, in his traditional garb...

By Dan Steinberg | April 7, 2008; 11:08 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Caps
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DeShawn's Party: The Video

The video version of DeShawn's birthday party, courtesy of Comcast SportsyNet, Washington Post Live and BogTV. Please watch till the end to see Nick Young dancing....

By Dan Steinberg | April 7, 2008; 10:32 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Wizards
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Network News

D.C. Sports Bog: April 6, 2008 - April 12, 2008