Archive: April 20, 2008 - April 26, 2008
Akron Columnist Dismisses Wiz Fans
This just keeps getting better and better. Jay-Z cutting a special track for the club, ripping on DeShawn Stevenson? Allegations of DeShawn and Damon Jones "jaw-jacking" at Park? Unreal. I'm choosing to believe all are approaching this in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, and that Game 4 won't forever be known...
By Dan Steinberg | April 26, 2008; 8:51 PM ET | Comments (27)
Blog Show: The Soulja Boy Interview
Watch Washington Post Live at 5 today on Comcast SportsyNet. It's gonna be great. Here's the Blog Show portion of your program, featuring appearances by Brendan Haywood and, yes, Soulja Boy. Other marginally related things you might want to check out: Christmas Ape discusses his WaPo departure (On the DL...
By Dan Steinberg | April 25, 2008; 4:28 PM ET | Comments (10)
Dre Blatche and Wiz Dance Man Do Sprinkler
Never gets old. This guy definitely averages more minutes on the Jumbotron than Dom McGuire, Nick Young or O-Pech....
By Dan Steinberg | April 25, 2008; 2:44 PM ET | Comments (5)
Frank Deford's Diagnosis of D.C. Fans
Dilettante this. (By Preston Keres - TWP) In the past few months, I've heard the following criticism of D.C. sports fans, I don't know, maybe 17 billion times: "No one's from here! Everyone has other loyalties! People are too busy to pay attention! The Redskins is all that matters!...
By Dan Steinberg | April 25, 2008; 1:35 PM ET | Comments (19)
Mike Wise Reconsiders Flyers Fans
In exchange for providing me with a recap of yesterday's EITM-Mystics hoops game, I promised Mike Wise I'd provide him with a forum for some extra thoughts on the Flyers and their fans. His controversial Game 3 column about both of the above prompted 354 comments and untold e-mails....
By Dan Steinberg | April 25, 2008; 11:53 AM ET | Comments (25)
Wiz Mohawks and Fades
As you no doubt realize by now, yesterday's morning hair hijinks got a lot hijinkier by the evening. Andray Blatche came in the locker room first, with the early-season Mohawk back where it belonged. "I was ballin' in my Mohawk," Blatche explained. "We all getting ready to go to...
By Dan Steinberg | April 25, 2008; 10:44 AM ET | Comments (3)
Soulja Boy Can't Feel His Face: the Video
Before last night's game, I worriedly asked my editor whether any of our Wiz stories would cover the Soulja Boy angle. Ha! Dude got in the game story. Dude got in Wilbon's column. Dude got in Mike Lee's story. Dude got in Ivan Carter's post-game blog, and in my post-game...
By Dan Steinberg | April 25, 2008; 9:04 AM ET | Comments (15)
DeShawn, LeBron and Soulja Boy in Game 3
(By Ned Dishman - NBAE via Getty) Well, that was different. Crowd made a bit of noise. Wiz made a bit of noise. Gilbert jumped up on the scorer's table before the game even started, waving his rally towel and making a bit of noise. And Soulja Boy got...
By Dan Steinberg | April 25, 2008; 1:11 AM ET | Comments (27)
Radio Fatties Take on the Mystics
Have you been following the Elliot in the Morning vs. Mystics feud? Inspired by an interview with Todd "Andy Roddick Beat Me With a Frying Pan" Gallagher, Elliot in the Morning and DC101 friends challenged the Mystics to a basketball game, and one was scheduled for this morning at...
By Dan Steinberg | April 24, 2008; 4:45 PM ET | Comments (19)
Wiz Discuss Their Hair, in Video
The bad-audio shaky-video version of this morning's Wiz Hair post.......
By Dan Steinberg | April 24, 2008; 4:36 PM ET | Comments (0)
Wiz Discuss Tonight, in Video
A few moving-pictured thoughts from the Wizards after this morning's shootaround, concerning tonight's game....
By Dan Steinberg | April 24, 2008; 3:22 PM ET | Comments (7)
RIP to a Redskins Internet Legend
I never met Stephan Miller, never even heard of his name until today, but he was certainly one of the trailblazers in creating Skins communities on the Internets, an effort that eventually resulted in Warpath Insiders, formerly Capitol Punishment and SkinsFans.com. Tuesday, Miller died when he was bitten in the...
By Dan Steinberg | April 24, 2008; 3:08 PM ET | Comments (2)
Continuing Wiz Playoff Themes
1) Soulja Boy, in the house tonight? "Supposedly," DeShawn Stevenson said. LeBron James told the Cleveland Plain Dealer he's prepared. "I got my 'Roc Boys' dance ready," James said. "Roc Boys", of course, is a song by Jay-Z. And did you know Soulja Boy was actually scheduled to perform...
By Dan Steinberg | April 24, 2008; 2:37 PM ET | Comments (4)
Wizards Shaving Heads
This is why you couldn't pay me enough to have me switch my blogging focus from Washington to Cleveland. We all started out in the Cleveland locker room this morning, which had all the humor of Rust Belt decay. Then we gradually wandered our way to the fun side...
By Dan Steinberg | April 24, 2008; 11:38 AM ET | Comments (16)
Redskins Cheerleaders Continue to Dominate
The Post has already written the full story of the Redskins cheerleaders' invasion of Indian cricket, but the Indian press keeps this story churning. As the Indo-Asian News Service put it, The svelte Washington Redskin Cheerleaders, who have created more than a stir with their presence in the Indian Premier...
By Dan Steinberg | April 24, 2008; 11:06 AM ET | Comments (4)
Today's Top Five: Soulja Boy Reps LeBron
Photo yanked from Ohio.com. 1) Soulja Boy is actually a LeBron fan? Sigh. That's not so great. Well, he has a plane ticket here for tomorrow, anyhow. (Brian Windhorst) 2) A cartoon summary of Game 2. Hint: it doesn't end well. (Waiting for Next Year) 3) Gilbert Arenas "needs...
By Dan Steinberg | April 23, 2008; 5:18 PM ET | Comments (9)
Caps TV Ratings Finish on Top
I wrote a sidebar press release this morning about some of the numerical markers of the Caps' popularity surge this month, and here comes another one. Last night's game on Comcast SportsyNet earned a 5.6 rating in the D.C. market, crushing the previous mark, which was all of 24...
By Dan Steinberg | April 23, 2008; 4:29 PM ET | Comments (12)
A Wiz White Out
Cavs fans wear yellow, or gold, or whatever. (By Jesse D. Garrabrant - NBAE via Getty Images) Red Out? That's SO mid-April. It's now late-April, and that can mean only one thing in Chinatown Fuddruckerstown: White Out. "White House?" asked Brendan Haywood. No, no, Brendan, White Out. You know,...
By Dan Steinberg | April 23, 2008; 3:43 PM ET | Comments (8)
Caps Fans With Real Style
Lest I be accused of not highlighting the good in Caps fans, here are the images of some previously mentioned good. Mul-hawk = Very good. Red Dress Man = Very good. Young men in love = Very good....
By Dan Steinberg | April 23, 2008; 12:53 PM ET | Comments (5)
Caps Reflect on Loss: The Video
Some notes from a very, very, very, very, very non-happy dressing room. Backstrom saying "I'm just empty?" We're talking existential despair here. If you'da asked typical Caps fans whether they'd be satisfied with an overtime Game 7 first-round loss back in those worst-in-the-league days, I think the answer woulda been...
By Dan Steinberg | April 23, 2008; 12:01 PM ET | Comments (5)
Wiz: Serious, With a Side of Goof
Booooooooooth. There were conventional signs of abnormal Wiz seriousness at yesterday's practice. Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison and Gilbert Arenas did not address the media. Eddie Jordan looked like he had been sleeping on a bed of nails. Brendan Haywood went out of his way to praise his coach, saying...
By Dan Steinberg | April 23, 2008; 11:08 AM ET | Comments (11)
Olaf Kolzig's Locker
Olaf Kolzig's locker was the only one in the dressing room missing a nameplate last night. His locker also was pretty dang empty by the time the media were allowed into the room. Kolzig declined to speak to reporters. Does this mean anything in particular? Let me refer to...
By Dan Steinberg | April 23, 2008; 10:17 AM ET | Comments (9)
Caps Fans Go Out in Style
Since a lot of words have been said about Philly fans in recent days, it's probably worth mentioning that, despite Ted Leonsis's comment about how proud he was of the Caps fans in defeat, the post-game scene in the arena last night wasn't necessarily a shining beacon of classiness....
By Dan Steinberg | April 23, 2008; 10:04 AM ET | Comments (46)
Running out of Red Jokes
Highlights from the Capitals fifth consecutive entreaty for fans to slather their bodies in all manner of strange red garments. * Red mullets? Well, sure, there were dozens if not hundreds of those. More rare was the prized red mul-hawk: half mullet, half Mohawk, all Capital Centre. It was sported...
By Dan Steinberg | April 22, 2008; 8:01 PM ET | Comments (5)
Mike Brown: Stay on the Bench, Please
Um, paging Scottie Upshall. (By Aaron Josefczyk - Reuters) Complaining about the refs and diving is a highly subjective business, eh? Flyers fans boo Ovechkin for diving, while Caps fans have great fun pointing out how the Flyers have whined about the officiating. Scottie Upshall accuses Ovechkin of diving,...
By Dan Steinberg | April 22, 2008; 3:49 PM ET | Comments (43)
Ted's Son Gets Beer Shower
Well, all my wandering and I missed Ted Leonsis's son and his friends getting a beer shower. From today's Inside the Owner's Box: Now there are six minutes left in the game. There is a TV timeout, and Raul Fernandez -- one of my partners -- says to me, "Look,...
By Dan Steinberg | April 22, 2008; 2:01 PM ET | Comments (12)
Playoff Week on (Game) 7th Street
Do it for this guy. There have been five occasions in which the Caps and Wizards/Bullets made the postseason in the same season: those wondrous springs of 1988, '87, '86, '85 and '84, when I was in like elementary school or something. There have been zero occasions in which...
By Dan Steinberg | April 22, 2008; 1:14 PM ET | Comments (5)
Caps Way-Back Machine: Dale Huntered
Dale Hunter. (File photo) Remember April 16, 1988? Here's a WaPo game-day headline to jog the memory: CAPITALS TRY TO LAY IMAGE TO REST AGAINST FLYERS TONIGHT; Series Victory Would Go a Long Way Toward Erasing Bad Playoff Memories Huh. Probably could have recycled that one today in a...
By Dan Steinberg | April 22, 2008; 12:29 PM ET | Comments (1)
Now That's a Playoff Mohawk
Wandering through the concourse during first intermission. Didn't look all that great for the Caps at the time. Saw a flash of red out of the corner of my eye. 'Twas brothers Richie and Donny Early of Towson, rocking as much red as I've ever seen rocked. Richie's mohawk-with-shaved-in-initials...
By Dan Steinberg | April 22, 2008; 11:44 AM ET | Comments (10)
Caps Talk Game 7: The Video
Some video comments from the Caps dressing room about playing in Game Sevens. A few introductory remarks: 1) This video does not lie; it was quiet, reserved, bordering on morose in the Caps room last night. I suppose that's because Bruce Boudreau told the boys they had five minutes to...
By Dan Steinberg | April 22, 2008; 11:01 AM ET | Comments (1)
DeShawn's Face Gets Felt
This might be a good time for DeShawn to start not feeling his face, because everyone else in this series has already completely lost face feelings. For example, and with thanks to Odenized, we have TNT's Ernie Johnson not feeling his face. And LeBron James not feeling his face....
By Dan Steinberg | April 22, 2008; 10:01 AM ET | Comments (16)
Flyers Fans Were Not Happy
I should point out that, for all the hints of Philly fan malevolence, I saw not one trace following the loss, and I circled the entire concourse twice. Not even a hint of a trace. Which is not to say that nothing happened; that's just what I saw. I...
By Dan Steinberg | April 21, 2008; 10:52 PM ET | Comments (12)
Caps Fans Brave Philly
This is what the escalator emptying onto the second level of the Wachovia Center looked like 20 minutes before the puck was dropped: orange, orange, orange, black, pink (with Flyers logo), black, orange, black, orange, orange, orange (repeat, and then repeat again, and again), orange, orange, orange, black, navy...
By Dan Steinberg | April 21, 2008; 7:56 PM ET | Comments (6)
The Caps Are Excited
Snippets from a fairly loose post-skate Caps dressing room this morning.......
By Dan Steinberg | April 21, 2008; 3:16 PM ET | Comments (2)
Caps Don't Stop Believing
Another place where belief wasn't stopped. Not sure that I've previously mentioned this, but the Caps have been regularly playing Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" in the dressing room after wins. This is, of course, a highly appropriate anthem that has also become highly non-original since the White Sox's World...
By Dan Steinberg | April 21, 2008; 3:09 PM ET | Comments (2)
Last Week's Five Stars
Having quit the Internet for much of what turned into the most exciting D.C. sports blogging week of calendar year 2008, figured I'd say hello to the five stars of the last week. Yeah, blogging is supposed to combat the ills of recycling mild news that's six days old,...
By Dan Steinberg | April 21, 2008; 2:24 PM ET | Comments (0)
Flyers Fans Drink Vengeance
So I rode up to Philly this morning with Mike Wise, choosing Caps and the possible bodily harm inflicted on Mike Wise over Wizards and the possible bodily harm inflicted on DeShawn Stevenson. Wise makes for better copy. Haven't seen any Flyers fans just yet, but we did listen...
By Dan Steinberg | April 21, 2008; 1:13 PM ET | Comments (12)
