D.C. Sports Bog: March 7, 2010 - March 13, 2010
White House responds to "Barack the Red"
A bit more than 24 hours after Barack the Red was launched, dedicated to the mission of luring Barack Obama to a Caps game, the White House responded to the request. No, I'm not joking. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, of course, had lost an Olympic-themed bet that...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 12, 2010; 5:33 PM ET |
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Wale to play RFK for D.C. United
Having already played Cowboys-Redskins at FedEx, Wale is now ready for the main event: D.C. United-New England Revolution at RFK. "We are thrilled to have Wale perform at our home opener on April 3," United President Kevin Payne said in a release. The performance is at 6 on the...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 12, 2010; 5:08 PM ET |
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2006 All-Mets go for NCAA glory
(By Toni L. Sandys - TWP) Late Friday afternoon, 2006 All-Met Michael Gruner will take the court for Lafayette against Lehigh in the Patriot League final. You'll remember Gruner from the 2006 Maryland state tournament. Remember, he improbably led Whitman to that 4A title, scoring 23 points in a...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 12, 2010; 1:57 PM ET |
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Larry Johnson: Teaming with Portis would "be awesome"
Larry Johnson's visit with the Redskins began with a meet-and-greet dinner Thursday night, and continued with baseline seats at the Wizards-Hawks game that night. Wizards tickets used to be a bit more of a perk than they are just now, but Johnson did get to meet ESPN 980's Lauren Houlon,...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 12, 2010; 12:13 PM ET |
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Kiper: Clausen "an ideal fit for the Redskins"
While five minutes of listening to Mel Kiper argue with Todd McShay makes me want to shuffle off this mortal coil in 4.37 seconds, their most vociferous 2010 disagreement has and will continue to concern the Redskins, so what the heck. Kiper, as you've no doubt heard, is very high...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 12, 2010; 10:56 AM ET |
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NCAA tournament expansion would be a good thing
Mike Wise is writing a column for Monday's paper about why NCAA tournament expansion is a bad thing. And he'd like your help. He's attempting to come up with 65 reasons why expansion would be bad. He asked me to solicit some suggestions. Please leave them in the comments below....
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Dan Steinberg
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March 12, 2010; 9:38 AM ET |
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The end of Agent Zero
I don't think it's possible to overstate my shock when I heard Gilbert Arenas was changing his number from 0 to 6. Gilbert was Zero, not just because of the goofy nickname, but because that infuriating sense of being slighted by the world was the thing that made his...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 11, 2010; 10:11 PM ET |
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Scott Walker already loves Metro
Having mentioned that new winger Scott Walker took Metro to the Caps game on Monday night, I figure I should provide the follow-up. This all comes courtesy of Vya Jairam of the Caps Radio Network, who taped a piece on how Walker's Metro riding will endear him even more to...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 11, 2010; 4:19 PM ET |
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Brooks Laich is a skating scientist
(By Molly Riley - Reuters) "Skating is my meal ticket in the NHL," Brooks Laich told me this week. "If I can skate, I think I can play a long time." Which is why Laich spent part of his Olympic break on the ice with his longtime power-skating coach...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 11, 2010; 3:36 PM ET |
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The demographics of D.C. sports fans
In recent months, I've publicly speculated that the Wizards have D.C.'s most racially diverse fan base, that the Redskins have a (comparatively) aging fan base, and that the Caps have the whitest fan base in the area. Some of this is just good idle conversation to pester other reporters with...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 11, 2010; 1:31 PM ET |
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Caps
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1920s reporter guy and Alex Ovechkin
This entire "1920s reporter from Dallas interviews Alex Ovechkin" thing is...I don't know what it is, really. The video is garbled and not entirely funny, Ovechkin's answer is brief and nondescript, and the "reporters" are then shown to the dressing room door. But since it seems like something I...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 11, 2010; 12:12 PM ET |
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"Barack the Red" campaign is a go
Ian Oland is a fan of just about every sports team in the D.C./Baltimore area, and he has nothing against Georgetown. Seriously, he wishes the Hoyas nothing but the best. And even though Barack Obama was supporting a Duke grad during his trip to see the Hoyas, something about...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 11, 2010; 9:59 AM ET |
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Mike Green scores, wipes out
(By Toni L. Sandys - TWP) "It's amazing when you shoot what happens," Mike Green said on Wednesday evening, after his two goals helped the Caps notch an overtime win over the Hurricanes. And "amazing" is certainly the right word for what happened after Green's goal. The NHL headlined...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 11, 2010; 6:11 AM ET |
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Seth Greenberg's halfcourt shot
LeBron? Dwight Howard? Vince Carter? Monta Ellis? All have hit amazing trick shots in recent months, but I'll take the middle-aged bald Jewish dude in the sweat suit, thanks very much. (Because he has a D.C. connection, not because hes a middle-aged bald Jewish dude.) During Virginia Tech's Wednesday...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 10, 2010; 10:36 PM ET |
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College Basketball
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Maake Kemoeatu is a large man
Six notes about nose tackle Maake Kemoeatu, the Redskins' newest free agent addition. The Achilles Kemoeatu tore his Achilles' tendon on the first day of training camp a year ago, and was on crutches for weeks, although he had some sort of gadget that was supposed to vacuum blood...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 10, 2010; 3:58 PM ET |
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Scott Walker Metros to Verizon Center
The best Caps nugget I've seen over the past 24 hours came from Brian McNally's Twitter feed: After Scotty Walker's wife took the family car back to Raleigh, Walker took Metro to Verizon Center for Monday night's game. "It was good," he told CSN's Lisa Hillary on Tuesday. "Everybody...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 10, 2010; 2:35 PM ET |
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Brian Pothier discusses his homecoming
"You're on a team and in a community, your kids are in school, you have a house, everything's normal," Brian Pothier said Wednesday morning at the Verizon Center. "And then in 10 seconds, you get the news that you're not gonna be there any more. And it's kind of...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 10, 2010; 1:33 PM ET |
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Sexy Semin, a Plush hockey jersey and more
Nationals Inquisition posted this photo of a Nats fan at the Tigers game wearing a Tony Plush Regina Pats jersey. You won't likely see a better jersey this week. Or lifetime. If I'm not mistaken, the owner appears to be Nats superfan Hugh Kaufman, owner of an Obama 44...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 10, 2010; 11:26 AM ET |
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DeAngelo Hall: Redskins "look like a real organization"
(By Jonathan Newton - TWP) If you're talking about the Redskins this month, you're talking about how they shocked the world by laying so low during the first days of free agency. If you were to talk about this in a light-hearted manner on a national radio show, you...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 10, 2010; 8:28 AM ET |
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Boudreau uses the word "reckless" again
(By Graham Hughes - AP) Welcome to Interview Semantics 101. I'll be your host for a few minutes of ridiculous word parsing. Feel free to wait in the lobby if it gets too annoying. I might be joining you there myself. Remember when Bruce Boudreau said Alex Ovechkin was...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 10, 2010; 7:37 AM ET |
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Could Caps score their way to a Cup?
During my chat on Tuesday, I stupidly started nattering out about how there was no reason the Caps couldn't score their way to a Stanley Cup. Correctly, a reader asked me on what basis I was making that claim. I didn't really know. But now that I've gone back and...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 9, 2010; 5:21 PM ET |
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Skins payroll rank trending down?
UPDATE: While this chart, and the numbers below, accurately reflect USA Today's salary database, I'm told they told don't accurately reflect reality. So I guess you might want to disregard all of this, depending on how much you trust Gannett. Apologies. As the Redskins slow-played the beginning of free...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 9, 2010; 4:36 PM ET |
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Milan Jurcina on coming home
Jurcina gets a welcome-home hug from Alex Semin. (Via Caps 365) When Milan Jurcina was traded to Columbus in late December, he packed up some of his belongings and moved to Ohio. He never bothered to empty out his D.C.-area apartment, though. "I've got so much stuff," the defenseman...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 9, 2010; 3:33 PM ET |
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Strasburg's spring training debut on MASN
Stephen Strasburg threw 27 pitches in his Spring Training debut, but only 15 were strikes. This is March, the time for ruby optimism on emerald chessboards filled with sapphire kings, so forget about those pesky balls. Here's one nugget for each of the 15 Strassy strikes that were shown...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 9, 2010; 2:45 PM ET |
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Juan Dixon on Vasquez's place in history
As Greivis Vasquez continues to rack up individual honors and stats in the waning days of his Maryland career, people will continue to speculate on his place in Terps history. The latest writer I've seen tackle this subject is the Examiner's Rick Snider, a longtime Terps beat writer. (See...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 9, 2010; 10:22 AM ET |
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Frank Herzog retires
Chatting at 11:30. Submit questions here. "Sportscaster Frank Herzog, longtime voice of the Redskins, is retiring this month," Reliable Source reported Tuesday morning. "In a memo to the WTOP staff Monday, Herzog, 65, said he has two grandchildren to spoil and a "wife who has endured, without complaint, 41...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 9, 2010; 9:10 AM ET |
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Ovechkin's mom gives him a haircut
Alex Ovechkin once had a well-publicized sponsorship deal with Hair Cuttery; no idea whether it lives or not, but OvieStyle.com -- the Web site devoted to promoting Ovechkin's hair-styling ways -- is clearly defunct. No matter. There's a new hair cutter in town, according to Versus's Charissa Thompson. "That's...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 8, 2010; 11:26 PM ET |
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9:30 Club bouncer makes Caps broadcast
It's always fun when two local icons from very different walks of life collide. Monday night, it was iconic 9:30 club doorman/night manager Josh Burdette -- seen here as a Verizon Center fan -- and iconic Caps TV guy Joe Beninati -- acting here as the play-by-play man for...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 8, 2010; 10:51 PM ET |
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Local Poll Week XV: Terps on Fire
(Photo by John McDonnell - TWP, editing by Ian Oland. Follow his twitter feed.) We're nearing the end of another fairly above-average year for the District/Maryland/Virginia hoops programs. The top eight teams in this poll now all have at least 20 wins and fewer than 10 losses. Barring a...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 8, 2010; 4:46 PM ET |
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Atlantic 11
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Olympic coaching made Caps appreciate Boudreau
Meeting with local reporters last week, Caps GM George McPhee had a harsh assessment of some of the coaching during the Olympic tournament. "I was surprised that there were only a couple of teams that were really well coached in the tournament," he said then. "I was surprised by the...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 8, 2010; 2:13 PM ET |
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Leonsis says trades show Caps "mean business"
With the NHL trade deadline and the NFL free agency opening coming on back-to-back days last week, we got yet another chance to compare the approaches of Ted Leonsis and Daniel Snyder. This, though, might be the first time in the history of the world that their approaches converged. First...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 8, 2010; 12:35 PM ET |
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NHL
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Blatche vs. Garnett: "I can feel his lips"
Michael Lee aptly described the late-game run-in between Kevin Garnett and Andray Blatche from Sunday night, as the Celtics stormed back in the fourth quarter to beat the Wiz. Here's from Mike's game story. "We beat ourselves by getting them energized, which got their crowd energized," Saunders said. "Dray...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 8, 2010; 12:09 PM ET |
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Leonsis remains optimistic on Wizards purchase
Continuing the effort to record every last utterance Ted Leonsis makes about his potential purchase of the Wizards, here's the Caps owner's Monday morning appearance on the Junkies. "I watched the Wizards game last night," he noted. "I was very pleased. It didn't go the team's way at the end,...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 8, 2010; 11:33 AM ET |
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CAA final is Georgetown-Maryland, by proxy
(Photos by Scott K. Brown - AP) There are at least four fascinating subtexts to Monday night's CAA final between Old Dominion and William & Mary. 1) Battle for the 757. Watch the ballers like Iverson and Vick line up to take sides. 2) William & Mary were a...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 8, 2010; 10:33 AM ET |
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Strasburg's evening news debut
Don't quote me on this, but the last time I remember the Nats being on the evening network news, it had something to do with the "Natinals" mess. That was 11 months ago, during the franchise's immature phase; now, we're on to the "delirious hope for the future" phase,...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 8, 2010; 9:12 AM ET |
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Scheyerface, one final time
(By John McDonnell - TWP) With all the attention paid to Maryland's win and the resulting celebration last week, I neglected to give any attention whatsoever to Jon Scheyer's final appearance at Comcast Center. It's been a wild ride, which I tried to capture last year during Operation Scheyerface...
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Dan Steinberg
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March 8, 2010; 7:31 AM ET |
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