D.C. Sports Bog

I guess it's not breaking news that a lot of people like to watch Tiger Woods swing golf clubs. Still, for fun, some before and after shots from the first tee. The before ones are the ones with all the people, a couple minutes before the man teed off. The after photos are from a couple minutes after, when all the fans split, presumably to get those amazing peanut-butter-and-jelly pocket sandwiches from the concession stands, which, at $3, might be the best valued pro sporting concession item I've ever consumed.

Anyhow, here's the area to the side of No. 1, before and after.

Funk at the U.S. Open. (By Morry Gash - AP)

After his round today (a one-over 71), local boy Fred Funk discussed the difference between New York and D.C. golf fans.

"Here, I hear 'Fear the Turtle!', and 'Go Fred!' and all that other stuff," Funk said. "And up at Bethpage, I hear, 'Hey, Funk you!' it's a little difference in the crowd. New York, D.C., they're not the same."

I wasn't sure if he was serious about the Funk You thing. He was.

"Oh yeah, absolutely," he said. "I heard it about 9,000 times. I hear it some other places, but in New York they were really going at it--'Hey, Funk You!' and then there's, 'Hey, you Funked up!' "

Funk is trying to compete for the Schwab Cup, as I'm sure you all realize, and this week is sort of a distraction to that chase, but he said he couldn't stay away.

"I wouldn't be here unless it was home," he said. "I always love coming home, and this area's really special to me, and Congressional's special, [but] more the area's special. I just love being a part of it, and I don't want to lose my roots here, and I don't want people to think that I don't remember I'm a Marylander."

Funk yeah.

So in one month, Devon McTavish makes the cover of On Tap and a quartet of United players are shown eating guacamole in the pages of Washingtonian. Can't wait for Emilio and Christian Gomez to pose feeding each other California rolls in the next issue of Capitol File. Anyhow, I love these images, too.

(2004 photo by Morry Gash - AP)

Amid all the hubbub about Tony Romo, most of it manufactured by desperate writers like myself, I did manage to find at least one more real Skins fan out on the course. That would be Mike "Fluff" Cowan, Jim Furyk's famous caddie, a Montgomery County resident and a member of Congressional, who's been to a handful of Skins games over the years.

Fluff moved to the D.C. area to be with a "pretty little woman" he later married, and he's now been here for 11 years. But even before the move, he was a Skins fan, despite being born in Maine.

"I don't really know why," he told me. "I always liked them. I always liked Joe Gibbs, so I liked them for that. Riggins was one of my favorite players, so I liked them for that. Art Monk, another player that I loved. More recently, Darrell Green, although I started liking the Redskins before Darrell Green's time."

PGA pros like Olin Browne and Steve Marino always refer to this event as their homecoming, and it's the same for Fluff; "it's probably my best week of the year," he said of Tiger's Tourney. "I'm sleeping in my own bed, I get to play with my little girl every night, and this is where I play my golf, so it's great watching the guys play where I play. This is a fun week for me."

Fluff said the local fans wouldn't notice him; "they're going to be cheering for my player," he said. But at least one Congressional member disagreed.

"We love Fluff," Cherie Long said. "Everyone does."

(By Manuel Balce Ceneta - AP)

Ok, this photo is more than a month old. And my maturity level is about the same. But still, great photo, no?

It would be tough for a hockey franchise to have a better July 1 than the Caps had yesterday. There was lots of news, and all of it was positive.

* First off, Alex Ovechkin topped Sports Business Journal's list of active NHL Q ratings, beating Crosby by a couple of points. (Sports Biz Journal, subscription required)

* Then the Caps came in at No. 6 on ESPN's ultimate franchise rankings, leaping a massive 39 spots over the year before. The only ding on the franchise was its title history, but that might not remain a ding for long. The Caps were ranked 11th in fan relations and bang for the buck, 10th in coaching and fifth in ownership. The other local ranks: the Redskins stay at 92, the Nats go from 63 to 97, and the Wiz plummet from 35 to 98. (Ultimate Rankings)

* Then was the Mike Knuble signing. The Caps media relations folks summarized the reaction, and I'll summarize the summary: "Really nice move....good signing....best signing of the day....smart, if subtle, move....a great signing." (Welcome to the Show)

* And he's a certifiable Penguin killa. (Japers Rink)

* Plus, on Canada Day no less, Bruce Boudreau played with his golfing hero Mike Weir and got his picture taken with Tiger. Find me a better July day for the Caps. (Wash Times)

* Speaking of Canada Day, "There's been a lot of Canadian lingo going around today," Shaun Suisham said, "between Mike, Mike's caddie Brennan, Coach Boudreau ... there's even a guy here from TaylorMade who's Canadian." What kind of Canadian lingo? "You'd have to be Canadian to know." (The Redskins Blog)

* Speaking of the golf, there's no better write-up of the Romo-Tiger round than this ESPN.com version, complete with an amazing (for many reasons) quote from local guy and PGA pro Steve Marino:

Here's Jessica Simpson singing the National Anthem before yesterday's ceremonial opening shot. Radar says Simpson "gave Roseanne a run for her money," but I didn't think it was that bad. Of course, Svrluga and I couldn't see a lick of this live, because everyone was standing at attention, and also because the tee box was overloaded with people trying to get a glimpse.

(Video via MyFoxDC)

(By John McDonnell - TWP

One of the great shames of baseball's steroids era was not only that dozens and dozens of guys were cheating, but that dozens and dozens of other guys who weren't cheating didn't say anything. Speaking out makes you look like sour grapes, like you're making excuses, but that's the only way to actually end the thing.

The same thing could be said about college recruiting; every fan assumes that nearly every big-time program cheats, and every journalist makes snide but knowing asides, and every assistant coach whispers about what every other assistant coach is doing, off the record, but most of the power-brokers don't just come out slinging the C word around. Now I don't know that Gary Williams will be the guy to break open the pinata of cheating in college basketball recruiting, but he sure seems like he's getting close. He was on ESPN 980's Sports Reporters this afternoon, and what started out as a nice retrospective on the scrappy 08-09 Terps team turned into something else when Williams was asked about recruiting one-and-done guys.

"We recruit 'em, but whenever we do we get yelled at for recruiting 'em," he said, referring to the WaPo series on the Terps. "You know, I got yelled at for not cheating this year. It's unbelievable. They were yelling at me because I wouldn't cheat."

"The second part of that Post story was phenomenal," Andy Pollin said, sarcastically.

"That's amazing, I mean, that just blew me away," Thom Loverro of the Wash Times chimed in.

Now, before we continue, I think this is a fairly narrow way of looking at what was a fairly broad piece of reporting. The second part, I always thought, had to make you like and respect Gary Williams more than you did before reading it. But regardless, the conversation continued.

"But I mean, that's where it is," Williams said. "I've been in it a while now, I guess 31 years as a head coach, and there's a lot more cheating going on right now than I've ever seen before."

This is when I knew it was gonna be bad. We were on the 12th fairway, Tiger and Tony's third hole, when I saw a father and daughter in matching Romo jerseys perched around the green. That would be Joe Ramirez from Mechanicsburg PA, along with his five-year old daughter Dallas. Yeah, Dallas.

"Better than naming her Washington," he said.

And this, sports fans, is why you don't invite the Cowboys quarterback to play with the tournament host in Bethesda, even if they are both friends with Hank Haney. Honestly, for a good part of the day, it felt like being at FedEx Field on a certain late fall Monday evening, with a certain black and gold fan base emerging from dark vans like cockroaches, the kind of cockroaches that wear those gloating little smirks and whisper bad things about your treasured civic institutions under their breath.

The numbers today were exponentially smaller, but the Cowboys stuff was everywhere in that mob of people following Tiger and Tony. Just everywhere. Fathers, sons, daughters, old friends, new friends, hats and shirts and jerseys and visors. Everywhere. It rankled the soul, made your Gatorade Tiger Focus stick in your craw. It should be a mark that never leaves Tiger's resume, no matter how many times he says he loves D.C.

"I got chills -- so close to greatness," one fan said, after a particularly nice approach shot. By a quarterback.

There were a lot of famous people in a very small stretch of real estate during this morning's opening ceremony at the Tiger Tourney. Of the people you care about, I'll list Tiger Woods, Bruce Boudreau, Jason Campbell, Antwaan Randle El, Rock Cartwright, Shaun Suisham, Leon Harris, Jessica Simpson, and I believe Mrs. Tiger.

"I'd like to acknowledge what may be the biggest act of bravery I've seen this week," said Harris, the emcee, while introducing Romo to a few cheers and many more boos. Then he introduced "our leader of Redskins Nation," which turned out to be Campbell, who got a roar, louder than any for Tiger Woods, by my ears. So at least that happened.

Tiger took the mic eventually, and referred to his thrilling duel from the tips with Romo, whom he gave two strokes and from whom he took a few ducats.

"I had the pleasure of playing Tony Romo today," Tiger said after the round. "Added to my spending fund, which was nice."

Romo had used up his two strokes by the turn, and while one of their playing partners suggested that they renegotiate (no, not Congressman John Boehner, who was wearing shorts and a bronze-medal tan; the other guy), they just kept on blasting away. Romo did manage at least one ironic fist pump while shouting "Come on!" which made Tiger smirk.

"We have a couple mutual friends so we had a little side bet going there," Romo said after the round. "He won the bet."

(Boehner, by the way, swings right-handed but putts left-handed, with his body facing the hole. It's bizarre.)

(Some wise soul managed to write "Go Redskins" in Romo's yardage book, which was one of the better moments of the day. The best, though, was the guy in the Art Monk hat standing directly behind Romo on the 7th tee. "Hit it like it's December," the guy said. That guy deserves an award. So does the guy following them around for nine holes wearing the "Dallas Sucks" t-shirt.)

As for the Skins golf, I'll write more later, but Campbell and Randle El weren't exactly fair competition for Tony Romo. I'll let Rock Cartwright speak about, say, Campbell.

"He stinks," Cartwright said. And how about Randle El?

"He stinks too."

Suisham was more diplomatic, when asked about Campbell.