D.C. Sports Bog - By The Washington Post's Dan Steinberg - January 4, 2009

Last Week's Top 10 WaPo Sports Stories: BCYes!

Last week's hottest topic. (By Marc Serota - Getty) Sometime last summer, I started publishing lists of the top 10 most-read sports stories and articles that had appeared on our site over the previous seven days, thinking it would be an interesting exercise to help readers understand what their...

By Dan Steinberg | January 9, 2009; 1:14 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Caps , College Basketball , College Football , D.C. United , Nats , Redskins , Wizards
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Ovechkin, Brashear and Fighting

At last year's Skillz thing. (By Bruce Bennett - Getty) So when I was talking to Donald Brashear about his Russian language lessons, I also managed to ask what he thought about Alexander Semin's recent experiment with the pugilistic arts. "I'm hoping it was his last one," Brashear said....

By Dan Steinberg | January 9, 2009; 11:30 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Caps
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Morning Look: A Palin Caps Jersey

And here, I suppose, is the answer to the Redskins fan spotted rocking the Barack Obama '08 jersey this autumn. Behold, the Palin '12 Caps model, debuted sometime in the past week or so, according to reader Brian, who sent in the pic. If you want to send in...

By Dan Steinberg | January 9, 2009; 7:49 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (30)
Categories: Caps , Morning Look
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Donald Brashear Learns Russian

Brashear hugs a Russian speaker. (By Luis M. Alvarez - AP) Maybe you saw where Alex Ovechkin told a Russian journalist that Donald Brashear is teaching himself Russian via a translator on his cell phone. This seemed worth investigating. "I noticed that Ovie and Semin sometimes talk to him...

By Dan Steinberg | January 8, 2009; 5:13 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Caps
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Nicklas Backstrom Provides Fine Hats

You know that old saying, about how a team that buys hats together wins together, or stays together, or stays warm together, or whatever? The Caps are set. Apparently many of you have noticed these fairly distinctive winter hats several members of the Caps have been wearing this season....

By Dan Steinberg | January 8, 2009; 3:43 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Caps
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Caps Fans Make Karl Alzner's Head Hurt

Making hockey players' heads hurt. (By Toni L. Sandys - TWP) So, 18-1-1 at home, eh? Coincidence, or something grander? "We build off the energy of the fans, and they've been unbelievable this year," Matt Bradley said today. "I mean, it's not a fun building for other people to...

By Dan Steinberg | January 8, 2009; 2:58 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Caps
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Gilbert Contends For All-Star Berth

Which one is the potential All-Star? Trick question. (By Jonathan Ernst - Reuters) To complete the trilogy of locally based all-star game voting farces: 1) The 8-8 Redskins boast something like 12 players who led or were second in Pro Bowl voting at their positions. 2) The second-in-the-East Caps...

By Dan Steinberg | January 8, 2009; 1:55 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: NBA , Wizards
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Quirky Happy Wizards Notes

I saved a few nuggets from Sunday's Wizards win for deployment later in the week, under the correct assumption that the next two games would yield two losses. So here. Try to smile. 1) The Hammerman brothers. Not only did the bring the "Crybaby" sign that made the big...

By Dan Steinberg | January 8, 2009; 12:57 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Wizards
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Can You Root for the Ravens?

(2004 photo by Jonathan Newton - TWP) A fellow D.C. sportswriter recently reported that two of his born-and-bred D.C.-area friends now root for the Ravens. Other acquaintances have passed on similar stories: fed-up with the perpetually middling Redskins, they are shifting their loyalty up 95, at least on a...

By Dan Steinberg | January 8, 2009; 10:54 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (42)
Categories: NFL , Redskins
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Morgan State, Huh?

You think you know a team, right? You think fine, these Terps might not be great, but at least they don't lose to locally based low-mid-non-majors at home, like last year's Terps did. You think these Terps have at least set things up so that a decent ACC showing...

By Dan Steinberg | January 7, 2009; 10:48 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (22)
Categories: Atlantic 11 , College Basketball , Terps
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Drink a Shot of Tuff Juice

Sometimes, we all need a little Tuff Juice. This is Rey, the creator. A gloomy evening had been shaken and stirred into a gloomier night, and the only people left in the bar were the diehards. These were my kind of people, the kind who still appear in the...

By Dan Steinberg | January 7, 2009; 5:28 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Wizards
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Clinton Portis: "Is it Really Hope?"

(By Marcio Jose Sanchez - AP) Here are a few clues that let you know you've stumbled upon another choice Clinton Portis radio appearance: 1) Host John Thompson tells Portis, "Boy, you're crazy," not once, but twice. 2) Portis refers to himself in the third person at least three...

By Dan Steinberg | January 7, 2009; 2:29 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (29)
Categories: Redskins
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CSN Broadcast Breaks Down LeBron's Traveling History

So much to love here. The fact that the Comcast SportsyNet producers chose such an anti-Monarchial question for use in their broadcast last night. The fact that Phil Chenier apparently attempted to actually answer the question. The fact that "blatant" is so blatantly misspelled. The fact that it's 3-1...

By Dan Steinberg | January 7, 2009; 1:41 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Media , Wizards
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Chris Cooley Endorses Vinny Cerrato

I stupidly forgot that even though the Redskins have stopped playing, their players have continued to give enlightening radio interviews. Two keepers already this week. In the first, Chris Cooley concluded his season of Elliot in the Morning appearances on DC101, and after the usual "what went wrong" patter, Elliot...

By Dan Steinberg | January 7, 2009; 12:08 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (21)
Categories: Redskins
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Riley Cote Discusses His Brashear Fights

Last thing on this topic. I think we can all agree that the Flyers refrained from engaging Bruce Boudreau in a war of words after the coach's mildly incendiary comments this week about Philly enforcer Riley Cote getting "beat up" by Donald Brashear. I gave up on that line...

By Dan Steinberg | January 7, 2009; 11:01 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Caps
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Boudreau Stays the Course, Richards Says "Maybe Dirty"

Ovechkin stays the course. (By Toni L. Sandys - TWP) So Bruce Boudreau tonight revealed his answer to Jim Zorn's incessant calls to "Stay Medium." Boudreau goes with the fairly similar but possibly less weird "Stay the Course." "All the time, all the time," Boudreau told me, concerning his...

By Dan Steinberg | January 6, 2009; 11:39 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (30)
Categories: Caps
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Caps and Flyers Fans Don't Hate Each Other

"Nobody likes the Flyers," pleaded some fan in the 400 level early in the second period tonight, after a security guard made him take off his "F--- Philly" t-shirt. "Don't put it back on," the guard said, without smiling. "Let's Go Flyers!" the Philly fans chanted throughout the night....

By Dan Steinberg | January 6, 2009; 9:01 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (56)
Categories: Caps
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M & M's Believe the Skins Wear Maroon

So M&M's is running this promotion where you can order the little discs of sweet chocolate goodness adorned with the logo of your favorite NFL team. Because there's no better way to express your team loyalty than by eating your team's logo. Anyhow, I was noodling around on the...

By Dan Steinberg | January 6, 2009; 4:19 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Redskins
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Flyers-Caps Rivalry? What Rivalry?

Rivals? Nah? (Playoff photo by John McDonnell _ TWP) So to quote Bruce Boudreau one more time, "There are a lot of teams we don't like, and the Flyers are one of them....I don't know how much they like us, but we don't like them." Pretty cut and dried,...

By Dan Steinberg | January 6, 2009; 3:12 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Caps
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Jim Zorn Listens to Dr. Laura

Dr. Laura: Zorn's a fan. (Reuters file photo) One of my favorite press-box diversions this Redskins season was the old "Guess Jim Zorn's Political Inclinations" game. On the one hand, he's best friends with a prominent Republican voice (Steve Largent), goes mountain biking with a White House entourage and...

By Dan Steinberg | January 6, 2009; 1:38 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Redskins
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Flyers Coach on Boudreau's Comments

Bruce Boudreau has had plenty to say about the Flyers in recent weeks, so it seemed only fair to give Philly coach John Stevens a chance to respond. I swung by Philly's optional morning skate this morning, and was there for Stevens's remarks to a small gathering of media. You...

By Dan Steinberg | January 6, 2009; 12:31 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Caps
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Brandon Noble and The Fire Cerrato Petition

(By John McDonnell - TWP) Considering it's been active for more than two weeks, you might say the number of folks who have signed onto this Fire Vinny Cerrato petition is kind of disappointing. I mean, 421 signatures? You can see more signatures on random objects people use to...

By Dan Steinberg | January 6, 2009; 10:59 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Redskins
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Local Poll Week VIII: If the Keydet Fits

(Photo by Preston Keres - TWP. Logo and editing by Ian Oland - A11 media.) VMI is storming up this poll. Even got a first-place vote this week. And the Keydets are now tied for the best winning percentage in the DMV, just ahead of Georgetown. Remarkable. Almost as...

By Dan Steinberg | January 5, 2009; 3:37 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Atlantic 11 , College Basketball
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DeShawn's Velvet Interview

Just to put some punctuation at the end of this Cavs-Wiz game, and hopefully attract a few more outraged Clevelanders, here's DeShawn Stevenson's third-quarter interview with Comcast SportsyNet's Chris Miller. DeShawn discusses his "bean-pie" suit (which Brendan Haywood called "stuntastic"), his consecutive games streak and his feelings about LeBron James....

By Dan Steinberg | January 5, 2009; 2:44 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Wizards
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Capitals Urinal Art: A History

I got a casual e-mail from die-hard Caps fan "N---" last night, alerting me that I might want to check out the Verizon Center restrooms tomorrow night. You know, just in case. Turns out, this was the 35-year-old mastermind behind the years-old campaign to provide male Caps fans with...

By Dan Steinberg | January 5, 2009; 1:08 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (29)
Categories: Caps
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The Skins Offseason: Eat Sushi, Cheer for Eagles

One of these men is an Eagles fan. (By Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP) In the excitement of not working very much during the holidays, I forgot to post some other postseason plans revealed by various Redskins last week. They were all pretty much what you'd expect. Like, Pete...

By Dan Steinberg | January 5, 2009; 11:27 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Redskins
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Morning Look: Cavs Bench vs. Wiz Fans

Check out the hot NBA action! I took some grief last week for calling the Wiz-Cavs playoff series the best D.C. sports moment of 2008, and indeed, maybe that was going too far. I'm chatting about my best of 2008 list at 11; submit your questions here. Even Brendan...

By Dan Steinberg | January 5, 2009; 10:04 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Morning Look , Wizards
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LeBron's Travel: The Video

This first video is almost better than the actual game footage for analyzing LeBron and his travel-slash-crab dribble in last night's Wiz win, although there's no replacing the utter shock in Steve Buckhantz's voice when he realized LeBron got called for traveling. By the way, I realized late last night...

By Dan Steinberg | January 5, 2009; 9:09 AM ET | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Wizards
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LeBron, DeShawn and the Travel

Dear David Stern, Could you kindly cancel all those upcoming Wiz games against teams from Florida and other random Southern outposts, and just have them play Cleveland every game? I mean, I'm all for schedule integrity, but today's meaningless (for D.C.) Wiz-Cavs game featured a coach ejection, DeShawn Stevenson...

By Dan Steinberg | January 4, 2009; 5:48 PM ET | Permalink | Comments (37)
Categories: Wizards
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D.C. Sports Bog: January 4, 2009 - January 10, 2009