D.C. Sports Bog: January 24, 2010 - January 30, 2010
Mike Wise meets Obama, part III
Unless I'm forgetting something, the current President of this country has been to three sporting events in the city since he became boss: Bulls-Wizards, Oregon State-George Washington and Duke-Georgetown. What do these events have in common? All were basketball games. And at each game, Obama ended up shaking hands...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 30, 2010; 8:44 PM ET |
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Afternoon Bog: Obama to Georgetown-Duke game?
Hoyas next? (By John McDonnell - TWP) The rumor mill has been buzzing about the president going to watch Georgetown-Duke Saturday at Verizon Center, and now The Hill says it's true, "according to sources involved in the planning of the event." And posters on Casual Hoya have mentioned an...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 29, 2010; 2:23 PM ET |
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Redskins had 2009's most injured offense
(By John McDonnell - TWP) Throughout the disastrous 2009 season, plenty of Redskins decision-makers raised the flag of injuries, pointing to their atrocious health as one of the main reasons things went downhill. "it's been quite amazing, how many guys that we've lost," Vinny Cerrato said. "And when you...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 29, 2010; 1:11 PM ET |
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Mike Green wrestles with Bobby Ryan
When Mike Green and Bobby Ryan had a brief dalliance near the end of the second period during Wednesday night's Caps win, multiple people--online and on television--suggested that this looked more like a wrestling match or MMA bout than a traditional stand-and-slug hockey fight. Regardless, as with all combat sports,...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 29, 2010; 12:18 PM ET |
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Gilbert Arenas's dad: "He literally cried"
Gilbert's dad. (By Jonathan Newton - TWP) I'm still waiting the first real Gilbert Arenas interview about the past month--figure it goes either to Oprah, Mike Wise or Gazo the Pranksta--but in the meantime, Gilbert's dad is still talking. He was on Wise's radio show Thursday afternoon, and he...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 29, 2010; 11:01 AM ET |
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Evening Bog: Players discuss the Capstronaut
There's some things even I'm embarrassed to ask players about. For that, we turn to TV. (Joking!) Fox 5's Lindsay Murphy did a piece with the Capstronaut, allowing a clear look at his face, if anyone's curious. She also solicited some player reaction. "I don't really know what he's...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 28, 2010; 11:42 PM ET |
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Glory Days benefits from Caps' hot streak
Goat! (By Toni L. Sandys - TWP) There was no more depressing radio spot this fall than the Papa John's ads that ran after particularly nasty Redskins losses. Remember, you get one free topping for every touchdown, and double the toppings after wins. There were at least two losses...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 28, 2010; 9:18 PM ET |
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Bruce Allen wants you to buy Skins tickets
A year ago this spring, I posted the transcript of a video of Jim Zorn and Larry Michael encouraging the lucky few who had bubbled to the top of the season-ticket waitlist to buy said tickets, without delay. Well, the new video is out (watch it here), and there...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 28, 2010; 2:25 PM ET |
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Redskins
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Redding says Bacsik grooved Bonds's homer
(By Justin Sullivan - Getty) UPDATE: Bacsik responds to Redding's interview on Twitter: * If somebody would have asked me, what teammate will say you tried to give up a homerun? After laughing my answer would have been Tim Redding. * For everyone on my page that needs a...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 28, 2010; 1:52 PM ET |
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Mike James talks about the day of the guns
Mike James has been doing a mini-media tour this week, promoting his newly published memoirs, Fight For Your Dreams. In the process, he's told many fascinating stories about his life inside and outside basketball; the book is available at his Web site. Of course, in the process of doing three...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 28, 2010; 11:31 AM ET |
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Stern says Gilbert didn't request a suspension
Since there have been 17 conflicting reports about every single second of the Gilbert Gunz story, it only figures that the suspension dénouement would immediately produce at least two conflicting reports. If you recall, in the moments after Stern's rest-of-the-season suspension first leaked out on Wednesday, there were reports--attributed to...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 28, 2010; 10:28 AM ET |
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The last time the Caps won eight straight
There was a flood of incredible numbers churned out concerning the Caps' hot streak Wednesday night, many produced by the Caps' media relations folks. * Jeff Schultz hasn't scored in 40 games, but everybody else in the Caps lineup has scored in the last 11 games. * The Caps are...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 28, 2010; 9:45 AM ET |
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Cooley: Black Redskins uniforms?
Official Redskins blogger Matt Terl took great pains on Wednesday to tell the fan base that there is no news regarding a new team uniform. None. "I've asked around a little bit at Redskins Park, and no one has heard anything about any changes to the helmet, the jersey, the...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 28, 2010; 8:55 AM ET |
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Evening Bog: Riggleman's pants, Dibble's pushups
You can choose whatever reason you want for watching this video of Jim Riggleman and Drew Storen's appearance on My Fox D.C. Maybe you want to see Storen discuss his love of pitching under pressure, and of bobbleheads. Maybe you want to hear Riggleman's thoughts on the new additions,...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 27, 2010; 10:43 PM ET |
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Jim Bowden interviews Mike Rizzo
Bowden and Rizzo, inside the war room. (By Mitchell Layton) So former Nats GM Jim Bowden--co-hosting a SIRIUS XM MLB Home Plate show with Seth Everett--interviewed current Nats GM Mike Rizzo Wednesday morning. That's like Vinny Cerrato interviewing Bruce Allen on the radio. That's like Glen Hanlon interviewing Bruce...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 27, 2010; 3:23 PM ET |
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Zimmerman: "No way we'll lose 100"
(By John McDonnell - TWP) The Nats' winter caravan has inched its way onto the Beltway, which means you'll have plenty of chances to ask Rob Dibble for his autograph, talk with Drew Storen, and read transcripts of Nationals radio interviews on the D.C. Sports Bog. The festivities got...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 27, 2010; 1:27 PM ET |
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Media
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Eric Fehr skates with the people
"Just finished public skating with my nephews at Kettler," Eric Fehr wrote on Twitter earlier in the week. "It was packed with people and caps jerseys. Good to see everyone wearing our colors." The surprising part about this, to me, wasn't that there were lots of people at Kettler wearing...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 27, 2010; 12:16 PM ET |
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Wizards get mistaken for MLS team
Perhaps this is an indication of how seriously the Los Angeles area regarded Tuesday night's showdown with the Wizards. Just before showing the game highlights, the "ABC7 Eyewitness News team" went ahead and treated viewers to the Kansas City Wizards's logo. The Kansas City Wizards play in MLS, and...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 27, 2010; 11:39 AM ET |
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Ovechkin ranked 37th most powerful athlete
(By Jim McIsaac - Getty) Bloomberg BusinessWeek just published a list of the 100 most powerful athletes in America, with on-field measures (success, popularity) and off-field measures (awareness, trustworthiness, appeal, endorsement and influence). It's not a list filled with D.C. names--I could find just two one--but Alex Ovechkin fared...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 27, 2010; 10:53 AM ET |
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Lakers crowd comes to Wizards game
A bit o' gold. There are a lot of empty seats at Wizards games lately. When a team like the Celtics or Lakers comes to town, those empty seats get filled by people wearing the wrong colors. That's a fact of life for a losing team in Washington --...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 27, 2010; 10:01 AM ET |
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An Ovechkin slapshot to Jack Hillen's mouth
(Photos by Paul J. Bereswill - AP) UPDATE: Via Islanders Authorized, Hillen is out for 6-8 weeks "with a broken jaw and damaged teeth. After taking an Alex Ovechkin slap-shot to the face last night, Hillen was rushed to hospital for further evaluation. He was in surgery last night...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 27, 2010; 8:14 AM ET |
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Caps
| Tags: Alex Ovechkin, Capitals, Jack Hillen, slapshot
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Evening Bog: Portis in German, Lerner on e-mail
Other things that have happened. * The above video discusses both the Mike Shanahan hiring and the Clinton Portis-Jason Campbell flap. In German. With awesome introductory music. Still not sure how to say "Portis Pockets Straight" in German, but maybe that'll be next month's episode. * Noted: The ESPN...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 26, 2010; 9:07 PM ET |
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Mike Wise calls Peter Vecsey an "old, bitter man"
In the interest of closing the loop, figure I should present Mike Wise's comments on the New York Post's Peter Vecsey. After Vecsey ripped him in print, Wise responded in true 21st century fashion: on his radio show. This was the final segment of Wise's show on 106.7 The Fan...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 26, 2010; 3:16 PM ET |
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Eighteen years ago today
Eighteen years ago today, the Redskins won the Super Bowl. It was their third Super Bowl win in 10 years. In the 18 seasons since, they've won three playoff games. "Someone born during the Redskins' last Super Bowl would just today become old enough to buy a lottery ticket,...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 26, 2010; 2:06 PM ET |
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The Caps and smelling salts
After the first period of Saturday's Caps win over the Coyotes, the CSN broadcast showed a clip of Alex Ovechkin taking a whiff of smelling salts and grimacing. See above. Now, smelling salts have long been available on hockey benches, and are used as sort of a ritual by...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 26, 2010; 11:38 AM ET |
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'Cuse fan taunts Hoyas in victory
In case you were feeling unsure about whether to support Georgetown this year, this video from a Syracuse fan celebrating Monday night's win ought to do the trick. There's a bit of naughty language, so I've been asked to link to it rather than embed it, but there's no...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 26, 2010; 10:55 AM ET |
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Peter Vecsey unloads on Wise
Chatting at 11:30. Submit questions here. UPDATE: Wise responds. Because the Saga of Gilbert's Gunz hasn't been weird enough, we now have New York-based columnists using the incident as pretense to bring up years-old media beefs with Washington-based columnists, served with a side of nastiness. "As usual, Washington Post columnist...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 26, 2010; 9:52 AM ET |
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Bloodied Caps fan: "I thought I was a goner"
Larry Cafritz has Caps season tickets in Section 107, but for his father's 80th birthday celebration, he had a party of 13, and needed more tickets. The Caps helped him get 13 seats together, high in Section 104. That's where the Cafritz Party was seated a week ago Sunday...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 26, 2010; 9:27 AM ET |
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Crittenton plea creates more contradictions
One of the most absurd parts of the never-ending Gilbert Gunz stories is the utter refusal of any accounts of the incident to match up. I mean, the Internet age demands some basic understanding of truth so that we can then move on to the noisy pontificating and fear-mongering. How...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 25, 2010; 9:33 PM ET |
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Local Poll Week IX: Hoyas and Terps, again
(Photo by Gail Burton - AP, editing by Ian Oland. Follow his twitter feed.) At the top of this poll is Georgetown, which is in the process of playing four Top 10 teams in six days. At the bottom of this poll is George Washington, which is 1-4 in...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 25, 2010; 5:02 PM ET |
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Atlantic 11
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Georgetown, the Coyotes and drinking games
I'm not sure I have much to add to the exciting news that the Phoenix Coyotes beat some Georgetown students at Flip Cup during a visit to Rhino on Saturday night, but I'd feel bad if I didn't try. Mostly because it immediately called to mind the GW vs. Georgetown...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 25, 2010; 3:07 PM ET |
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Wax museum avoids Gilbert purge
(2008 photos by Preston Keres and Jonathan Newton - TWP) With the image of Gilbert Arenas continuing to be purged from much of the Verizon Center, I was curious about the wax Gilbert who resides just a few blocks away, at Madame Tussauds. After many requests, the museum--located at...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 25, 2010; 2:24 PM ET |
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Mike Knuble's busted pinkie finger
Thomas Boswell wrote a very nice column about the Caps over the weekend, but the best part came at the end, with quotes from Mike Knuble and Bruce Boudreau, concerning the former's busted pinkie. Knuble, 37, holds up the pinkie with six screws -- a double-sized still-swollen thing that...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 25, 2010; 1:05 PM ET |
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Caps discuss Caps rap
The Caps Rap was released on the day Jim Zorn was fired, so I never so much as mentioned it. But last week, Fox 5 came out to Caps practice and asked a few players about their uncredited roles in the music video; see the Fox report above. "We...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 25, 2010; 10:19 AM ET |
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Mark Brunell? Really?
When his Redskins career was finally ending back in the mid-1870s, I never would have guessed that Mark Brunell would one day star in a most memorable NFC Championship Game image for a team heading to the Super Bowl. But that's the great thing about sports. One year's washed-up...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 25, 2010; 9:51 AM ET |
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Caps rank well in national jersey sales
I mentioned last week that I was somewhat surprised by the list of leading jerseys purchased at the Caps' team store this season. (That list, in case you forgot, went Ovechkin, Backstrom, Green, Varlamov, Laich.) For comparison's sake, the NHL provided me with the leading Caps sellers on NHLShop.com. Alex...
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Dan Steinberg
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January 25, 2010; 8:57 AM ET |
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