Archive: March 30, 2008 - April 5, 2008
DeShawn, Rubik's Cubes and Slick Rick
When the apocalypse descended out of that massive high-def scoreboard last night to smite the Wizards, with virtually the entire starting lineup simultaneously writhing on the floor in agony as their lead vanished, I initially worried that DeShawn Stevenson's birthday party that night might be ruined. But as Stevenson...
By Dan Steinberg | April 3, 2008; 5:43 PM ET | Comments (10)
Boudreau on the Big Screen
Absent any fan photos....(By John McDonnell - TWP) I wasn't at Tuesday's Caps game, but I was told the following thing happened: late in the game, Ovechkin's image was shown on the big screen. He attempted to rile up the fans, who, suitably riled, responded with boisterous cheers. Soon...
By Dan Steinberg | April 3, 2008; 3:31 PM ET | Comments (11)
D.C. United Lands an MTV Star
Freddy Adu might be long gone from so-called Estadio RFK, but JoJo's influence lives on. D.C. United's newly acuired defender Mike Zaher--whose acquisition can be read about on Behind the Badge and Soccer Insider--once played the leading man in JoJo's video for "Too Little Too Late." Many of his teammates...
By Dan Steinberg | April 3, 2008; 2:43 PM ET | Comments (14)
Wizards Fans Like to Dance
Never let it be said that Wizards games lack excitement. Well, fine, you can say that, but never let it be said that Wizards games some guy who shows up every single night and waits for the fourth quarter Dance Cam in order to break out an unending supply of...
By Dan Steinberg | April 3, 2008; 1:42 PM ET | Comments (17)
DeShawn's Birthday Party: The Photos
Feel free to write this in the comments--"why are these guys dressing up and acting silly two hours after they lost a crucial basketball game in back-breaking fashion while i'm paying my hard-earned money for tickets and papa johns pizza and they should be home watching tape and beating...
By Dan Steinberg | April 3, 2008; 12:14 PM ET | Comments (28)
Are the Wiz Better With Gil?
Loved the shoes (Jonathan Newton - TWP). Seems to me there are two different versions of this question. As a viable D.C. sports enterprise, there's no question they want as many players who emerge from the locker room at odd points wearing custom-made shoes and enter games to standing...
By Dan Steinberg | April 3, 2008; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (11)
Gaaaack: The Video
Here are two different ways to lose a basketball game: In the first way, you can go out West, short-staffed, and go against the best player in the world and one of the best teams in the NBA, and you can take that team to overtime despite yet another mid-game...
By Dan Steinberg | April 3, 2008; 9:34 AM ET | Comments (11)
The Caps and Scoreboard Watching
Won't be watching the Bruins or Canes tonight. (By Preston Keres - TWP) There are four NHL games tonight. Three of them have massive implications for the Caps' playoff future. Entering the night, the Caps do not control their own destiny, as the saying goes, although at least they...
By Dan Steinberg | April 2, 2008; 5:31 PM ET | Comments (4)
These Caps Are Loose
Unshaven Ovechkin. So the night after scoring his 63rd goal in front of the craziest hockey crowd D.C. has seen since Alex Ovechkin was in high school, the MVP did his off-day interviews today looking a bit, well, unkempt I guess. Unshaven. Unfrozen. Unsomething. "We win, I don't want...
By Dan Steinberg | April 2, 2008; 4:51 PM ET | Comments (3)
Larranaga Stays
One clap for every year of the extension. Dang, Mason shocks a big conference power again. Larranaga stays, turning down what the Providence AD called "a very substantial package" and signing a three-year extension, now through 2015. That makes the Big East 0-2 against Mason in the coach-luring sweepstakes...
By Dan Steinberg | April 2, 2008; 4:01 PM ET | Comments (5)
Joe Gibbs's Favorite Movie is Young Frankenstein
Mr. Mel Brooks Gene Wilder, in Mr. Young Frankenstein. The Washington Times, as you might have noticed, published a long Daniel Snyder Q&A and accompanying article ,whose most notable feature was the bizarre decision to refer to Snyder as "Mr. Snyder" throughout, apparently non-ironically. If I ever do that,...
By Dan Steinberg | April 2, 2008; 3:30 PM ET | Comments (9)
Cristobal Huet on Cheese
Endorsed by 100 percent of D.C.-based French professional hockey goalies. Because we couldn't let the regular season end without asking the Caps' new(ish) French goalie about cheese....I'm taking journalistic license here by moving the quotes around chronologically to make this into a sensible first-person cheese tale. "Cheese is definitely...
By Dan Steinberg | April 2, 2008; 2:11 PM ET | Comments (9)
Boudreau Takes Shots
Bruce Boudreau taking shots on his son Brady. To all you female Caps fans who've been e-mailing me asking for more tales of hilarity from the Caps locker room, today's the best you're gonna get, and none of it is particularly hilarious. Like, here's an example, when Alex Ovechkin...
By Dan Steinberg | April 2, 2008; 1:03 PM ET | Comments (0)
PETA Wants Nats Naming Rights
I'd like to see it called "Tofurkey Park." Not content with veggie chili at the ballpark, PETA sent a letter to Stan Kasten asking to "rent the right to call Nationals Park 'GoVeg.com Field' until a permanent sponsor is found." The chances of this happening are about the same...
By Dan Steinberg | April 2, 2008; 10:53 AM ET | Comments (13)
Indie Rockers Love Caron Butler
Indie rock god. (AP Photo) I first learned that former Pavement and Silver Jews indie rock/genius person Stephen Malkmus had a weird Caron Butler thing from Kyle Gustafson, who writes about both indie rock and the Wizards for DCist and who covered Malkmus's show (with the Jicks) at the...
By Dan Steinberg | April 1, 2008; 5:01 PM ET | Comments (13)
Don King Supports Blog Show
If having Don King repeatedly scream the name of your eight-minute taped regional cable segment about the Internet while waving American flags isn't the oddest moment of your professional career, you've had a pretty dang odd career. Catch Blog Show tonight as part of Washington Post Live, airing on Comcast...
By Dan Steinberg | April 1, 2008; 4:33 PM ET | Comments (2)
Nats Have a Uniform Glitch
You're gonna have to stare awhile. (Drew Hallowell/Getty) Only the truly deranged could have noticed this, but the letter "I" in the middle of Matt Chico's uniform did, in fact, appear to be upside-down last night. An old image search reveals that Chico's road jersey last year was like...
By Dan Steinberg | April 1, 2008; 4:11 PM ET | Comments (5)
The Next Five Days Downtown
This actually happened at yesterday's Wizards game. (Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty) Last night's Wizards loss was a gimme, and hardly changed the playoff math. If the Wizards beat the five bad-to-mediocre teams left on their schedule (Milwaukee, Miami, Indiana and Philly at home, and Chicago on the road), they'll...
By Dan Steinberg | April 1, 2008; 3:54 PM ET | Comments (4)
Larranaga to Providence?
(By Joel Richardson for TWP). Jim Larranaga has reportedly interviewed with Providence, his alma mater, and has, according to the Providence Journal, "emerged as the favorite for that coaching job." (Of course, the ProJo just yesterday was reporting that "media reports that he's emerged as the favorite are premature.")...
By Dan Steinberg | April 1, 2008; 2:31 PM ET | Comments (21)
Caps Host Red Out
This " color out" business can occasionally get confusing. In honor of tonight's meeting with the Carolina Hurricanes--easily the biggest home game involving any pro D.C. team in calendar year 2008--Caps fans are being asked to wear red, which the team is calling a "Red Out." It's the second...
By Dan Steinberg | April 1, 2008; 1:34 PM ET | Comments (13)
Chris Cooley has a Blog
Chris Cooley has looked at some of the "Official Web sites" of his NFL peers, and discovered a pretty obvious truth: they're boring. His newly launched blog, he decided, would be different. "We didn't want to do a Web site where a player pays a company to put it...
By Dan Steinberg | April 1, 2008; 11:05 AM ET | Comments (4)
Maryland Women: Success or Disappointment?
The post-game scene. (AP Photo) So the top-seeded Maryland women lost to Stanford last night, meaning the decorated senior class won't have a chance to play in a second Final Four. So, as our last local college basketball team of any sort wrapped up its season (barring some sort...
By Dan Steinberg | April 1, 2008; 9:20 AM ET | Comments (14)
Gilbert Likes Contests
Gilbert Arenas hasn't played a game of competitive basketball in calendar year 2008, and his return date has been marred by more delays and more heartburn than Opening Night at the Ben's Chili Bowl stand, but in the meantime he's managed to perfect two other skills: finding his way...
By Dan Steinberg | March 31, 2008; 6:43 PM ET | Comments (4)
Nats Park Reviews
Yup, it's a baseball stadium. A new one, too. Obviously, the most important review in the history of the world--from an architectural critic who believes the new stadium offers "a great experience but, alas, a lousy building"--was exceedingly negative. Not being an officially licensed critic, here were my thoughts:...
By Dan Steinberg | March 31, 2008; 4:10 PM ET | Comments (9)
Giant Racing Teddy Attacks the Braves
As previously mentioned, I thought Giant Racing Teddy might win yesterday, because if the opening of a new stadium isn't the right occasion, there might never be a right occasion. The fans would have gone berserk with happiness. Instead, Teddy ran into center field and cavorted with the confused-looking Braves,...
By Dan Steinberg | March 31, 2008; 3:01 PM ET | Comments (3)
The Best Sports Weekend in D.C. History*
This photo sums up the past weekend perfectly. (Courtsey of Under the Shell). Due to daddy day care demands, I did not post a word between Thursday late afternoon and Monday late morning. The three days I skipped just happened to form one of the most amazing three-day periods...
By Dan Steinberg | March 31, 2008; 12:46 PM ET | Comments (18)
D-Steve's Birthday Party: Biz Markie
So I guess there was some sort of big sporting event in D.C. last night. I hear it went over pretty well. But this wouldn't be the D.C. Sports Bog if the first story of the day didn't involve a three-day old press release heralding DeShawn Stevenson's upcoming birthday...
By Dan Steinberg | March 31, 2008; 11:01 AM ET | Comments (7)
