D�le Frozen Blog

Kategorie Archiv: Fotbal

�len ur�it� D�le�itost of Bytost jeden Leden D��tko

Do pucksandbooks

�ter�, Z�� 30, 2008

Kristus Bourque, Matematika Perreault, a Jan Carlson celek b�t ��asten vyrovn�n� kurz t�bor j�t s duchem �asu Pran� Verz�lky tato m�sic. Bourque is tich� b�t ��asten jeho. A� k nepatrn� d�lat variace akademick� hodnost, celek trojka b�t ��asten div herec spole�ensk� postaven� �asn� d�le do jejich hokej b�hat. D�le jeden nahrbit, J� kostkovan� jejich doty�n� narozen� datle. Celek trojka d�l �len ur�it� narozen� m�sic of Leden. Jak�’ �len ur�it� d�le�itost of aby do jeden hokej herec’ rozvoj? A� k naslouchat �len ur�it� c�l of jeden z hokej’ nej�etn�j�� se�t�l� a ohledupln� koment�tor v rozhlase hmota, its’ spravedliv� kolemv�e.

Dvorana of Pov�st netminder a proslul� spisovatel Obzor Dryden, do jeho n�dhern� p�ehled of hokej’ dr�et se v mezich jeho bez domova, Domov Honba, noty aby do Kanada, jeden hokej herec’ narozeniny is efektivn� ur�ovatel of jeho rozvoj:

“�len ur�it� [ rozvoj] osoustava odm�na those rodi�e kdo ar schopn� v prav� �as jeden t�hotenstv� a� k za��nat do �len ur�it� sko�it a p�ij�t k rozumu its ��astn� dosa�en� do �len ur�it� �asn� m�sice of �len ur�it� nov� rok. Hokej registrace, tebe vid�t, goes mezi n�mi hladit dlouh� doba, a ka�d� d�t� narozen r. jeden darovat dlouh� doba is m�t za to �len ur�it� t�� v�k do c�l of s�zen� v�k hranice. D�le jeden d�t� narozen r., pokra�ujte, Wayne Gretzkys’ narozeniny of Leden 26 is pravd�podobn� a� k b�t jeden l�pe herec v rozhlase nejd��ve �as of hokej tryouts ne� jeden herec narozen r. d�le Prosinec 25 of �len ur�it� t�� dlouh� doba. �len ur�it� Leden d�t� is skoro jeden dlouh� doba starod�vn�, jeden dlouh� doba siln� a v�ce zral�. V v�k �est �i sedm tato popisovat neur�. �len ohavn� v�hoda, �len ur�it� Leden d�t� bytost skoro jeden- �est� �i jeden- sedm� starod�vn� . . .

“�len ur�it� starod�vn� d�t� 3sg.pr�z.od have �len ur�it� nejl�pe n�hoda a� k b�t �len ur�it� nejd��ve asterisk of �len ur�it� honba, a� k vyvolat jeden asterisk’ obratnosti a postoj a nad�je of �sp�ch. �len ur�it� mlad�k d�t� — mal�, slab�� — musit nejd��ve dostat instrukce a� k pluvi�l a nov�j��, kdy �len ur�it� v�k d�lat rozd�l hmoty bez ( nap��klad, v �trn�ct �len ur�it� t�� Leden d�t� is ale jeden- �trn�ct� starod�vn�), on is �asto neschopn� a� k anulovat jeho a jin�’ nad�je, reprografie on s�m, nesn�z jeden strana jeho kop�rka obratnosti do jeden asterisk’ obratnosti, a st�t se jeden asterisk. �len ur�it� t�� m�sto a ot�zka b�t, ov�em, do �len ur�it� �koly.

“-li f�borov� came v jeden nov�j�� v�k, �len ur�it� dojem of narozeniny cht�l bych b�t do velk� m�ry p�er�st. Aby ne f�borov� ale jd�te �asn� do hokej”

A, Dryden �init si n�rok na n�co, f�borov� do hokej is osud.

“dle v�k dev�t budoucn�” on pi�e, “ l�pe herec br�t vlajka vlaj�c� ve v�tru do konkuren�n� �eta, a �len ur�it� konkuren�n� �eta dostat ko�em l�pe autokar a v�ce �erbet �as. . . �len ur�it� diference mezi �len ur�it� prostredn� dev�t- dlouh� doba- d�vn� a �len ur�it� nadan� dev�t- dlouh� doba- d�vn� za��nat a� k roz��it, a roz��it bezohledn�. Do Kana�an men�� hokej do �len ur�it� b�val� 1980s, -li tebe dont’ dot�hnout to daleko do v�k dev�t, tebe pravd�podobn� zvykl�’ dot�hnout to daleko v all.”

Ne docela Darwinian, is ono? �i is ono? V tato dutina, tv�j’ nejsp�e diven� se, �init Kana�an ( a Minnesotan) ( a Seversk� jazykov� skupina) dom�c� skute�n� asi tolik �ele� d�lat pl�ny? Byli �len ur�it� ot�zka nesn�z Dryden, Im’ dosti jist� hed’ odpov�d�t, “ ne -li, aby ne do jak� d�l?”

P��t� J� nesporn� a� k �ek narozeniny do n�jak� vysok� nakreslit z profilu hokej asterisk — specifi�n�, those bydlit do �len ur�it� 500 NHL branka vrub b�t. �len ur�it� kon�it byli polekan�. Hranice m� hledat spravedliv� a� k those whove’ vrub 500 branka a byli narozen r. Leden a �nor, tezaury jm�na nejasn� se r�sovat hojn�: Gretz; Polda Lusk; Phil Esposito; Lelkovat Boss; C�l P�nov�; Otev�en� Mahovlich; Kon�it Celn� uz�v�ra; Lehk� kulomet Shanahan; Jeremy Roenick; Lanny McDonald; Joey G�za; Dino Ciccarelli; Jaromir Jagr.

Blackhawks’ autokar Odm�tnut� Divok� vzn�et se spravedliv� kousek mimo of 500 branka vrub do jeho b�hat, aby ne on was narozen r. �nor. Byli J� a� k m�t roz�i�ovat m� hledat a� k obsahovat narozen� do �len ur�it� nejd��ve �tvrt of �len ur�it� hladit dlouh� doba, �len ur�it� barevn� pruh cht�l bych m�t ob��rn� vykl�dat oceniteln� — Gordie Jakkoli, nap��klad, was narozen r. �len ur�it� nejd��ve t�den of Pochodovat do 1928.

Te�, tebe dont’ pot�eba a� k br�t doprava pry� s n�m �len ur�it� intrikovat model of hokej �ele� pl�nov�n�, pon�vad� vpravd� cvo�ci a asterisk ar narozen r. celek 12 m�sice of �len ur�it� hladit. Alexandr Ovechkin, nap��klad, is jeden Z�� d��tko. M�si�ek Lemieux was narozen r. ��jen. Jeden z �len ur�it� celek brusla�ky �len ur�it� honba 3sg.pr�z.od have dokonce seen, Gilbert Perreault, was narozen r. Listopady. Ser� Fedorov p�ijel a�koliv neur�. �len �asn� dod�n� dle Santas’ san� ( prosinec).

Aby ne Drydens’ pozorov�n� ar asi tolik iluminace ba pr�v� pon�vad� hokej proudy a�koliv ono does a pon�vad� pom�r a� k druh� ml�de� hry, osudn� obratnost stav�c� �roub do hokej ( v�etn� pozn�vac� a citov� accumen) zd�t se a� k ujmout se do herec rozvoj asi tolik �asn�. . . ��st, Dryden cht�l bych argumentovat ( j� cenit), kv�li �len ur�it� f�borov�. Baseball a kopan�, nap��klad, dr�et jejich doty�n� tryouts do �len ur�it� sko�it, p�eklad �len ur�it� hladit lhostejn� a� k �len ur�it� fyzick� a citov� zralost of ml�de� odd�vaj�c� ��edn�k do those hry.

Fotbal, poutav� dostate�n�, evidovat herec do �len ur�it� final season of �len ur�it� hladit, do t�e m�ry hokej, aby ne snad ��st pon�vad� atakovat fotbal ve skute�nosti is jeden st�edn� �kola snaha po v�t�inu pigskinners, kr�tk� to jest ur�ovatel do jeden herec’ development occurs v rozhlase ro�e� v �len ur�it� v�k of sedm, osm �i dev�t. �i dvan�ct, do aby hmota: fotbal nad�n� hodnotitel typick� brousek do d�le kozinky kdy ona’ st�edn� �kola pod��zen� osoby a poslucha� 4.ro�n�ku na univerzit� a m�t spravedliv� kr�tit si a� k pono�it ona do �len ur�it� v�ha komnata. A ve skute�nosti, its’ ale dal�� jeden dvojice of dlouh� doba of akademie fotbal aby herec zaslou�it si �len ur�it� spole�ensk� postaven� of m�sto hledat.

Its’ ��dn� of n� obchod, ov�em, aby ne ono is �pr�m a� k podiven�: did Paprsek a Mrs. Bourque m�t za to otcovsky vl�dnout’ drah� rozvoj oblouk do Kana�an men�� hokej �asn� d�le a�koliv ona objevil jejich �ele�, �i did ona pouze br�t swept autobus do jeden podrobn� schmaltzy film d�le B�h �ivota jeden chladn� Pochodovat noc dvacet- n�jak�- jedin� dlouh� doba p�ed?

Archiv doAlexandr Ovechkin, Baseball, Kristus Bourque, Fotbal, Hardcore Hokej Fans, Hokej Legenda, Hokej Ob�ad, Jaromir Jagr, Jan Carlson, Matematika Perreault, R�no ��e- jeden-joe, Druh� Hry, Kon�it Celn� uz�v�ra, Hledat, Ser� Fedorov, Kopan�, Kurz T�bor, Pran� Verz�lky, Wayne Gretzky| Permalink| Pozn�mky (2)

Cupcakes a Hokej Nikdy �len ur�it� Dva M�m Potkat

Do OrderedChaos ( lelkovat Kr�it se)

St�eda, Z�� 10, 2008

�len ur�it� Pran� Verz�lky ar do jak� mnoho hokej pundits cejch a�koliv �len ur�it� nejslab�� d�lba do �len ur�it� NHL. Navzdory �len ur�it� �in aby dva of �len ur�it� bez �ty�i Postoj ��e chroupat ar Jihov�chodn� denizens, nikdy m�t v�ce ne� dva Jihov�chodn� �eta ud�lal �len ur�it� nahr�vka do jeden darovat dlouh� doba. Do �ty�i of m�zy ro�n� doby od t� doby �len ur�it� Jihov�chodn� vyvrtnout si a� k duch, ale �len ur�it� d�lba v�t�z ud�lal �len ur�it� posta- ro�n� doba.

Ka�d� hra 3sg.pr�z.od have jeden “SouthLeast” ekvivalent, n�jak� d�lba ch�pat a�koliv m�kk�. . . a�koli a�koliv m�sto hra parita bonus takov� p�ednost ar �nik. Dokonce asi tolik, tezaury d�lba ar ne obsa�en� v �kodliv� komu, �emu �len ur�it� hra, ani do �len ur�it� fans. N�kdy, a�koliv was �len ur�it� bedna kone�n� NHL ro�n� doba, jeden d�lba ch�pat a�koliv slab� poc�novat darovat �len ur�it� nej�etn�j�� compelling konkurence b�hem �len ur�it� b�h a� k �len ur�it� nahr�vka.

�len ur�it� NFLs’ NFC Z�pad moci nu�e dobr� poslat neur�. �len 8-8 �eta a� k �len ur�it� posta- ro�n� doba letos — a �len ur�it� �in aby �len ur�it� Arizona Hlavn� b�h sed�t s�m do nejd��ve bydli�t� ( dokonce dal�� spravedliv� jeden t�den) is, -li J� odvol�n� bezvadn�, �len ur�it� tercie znamen� of �len ur�it� Zjeven� — d�le aby d�lba b�h v�le pravd�podobn� redukovat se na �len ur�it� radiogram s hr�� aby tich� m�t nahr�vka aspekt do T�den 17.

�lov�k vy�� hodnosti Liga Baseball’ N�rodn� Liga Z�pad moci d�vat jeden .500 d�lba v�t�z do 2008, d�le �len ur�it� b�h mezi �len ur�it� Pletich�� a Diamondbacks is jeden nal�znut� boj spole�n� a nerozd�ln� pravd�podobn� a� k mrtvola jen kdy� �len ur�it� ro�n� doby’ c�l bl�it se. Loni �len ur�it� Kolorado Houp�n�’ nepravd�podobn� b�h dob�t �len ur�it� pozornost of fans a media podobn�. Do 2006 aby t�� d�lba vitrina neur�. �len nap�nav� dole- a� k- �len ur�it�- radiogram po��dn�- ro�n� doba definitivn�, a�koliv �len ur�it� Kur�t a Pletich�� st�edov�k� tabulkov� slabik�� do �len ur�it� d�lba dovr�it.

V�t�zi of tezaury slab�� d�lba �asto n�lez nov� duch do �len ur�it� posta- ro�n� doba; ona ar na ��dn� zp�sob jeden- a- plat� do chyba. Chv�le �len ur�it� Verz�lky m�t d�le b�h dle Jihov�chodn� D�lba Chroupat a� k �len ur�it� ��e (its’ humoristick�, a�koli), jejich d�lba- kamar�d do Koleda a Ut�snit zvednout �len ur�it� ��e navzdory bytost “ bl�to” do �len ur�it� Jihov�chodn�. �len ur�it� NFC Z�pad’ Sedadlo Seahawks ode�l� jeden bl�zk� ( -li nudn�) Nad- ��e spravedliv� 19 m�sice p�ed. �len ur�it� NFC Sever 3sg.pr�z.od have been slab� na chv�li p��li�, d�le �len ur�it� Ko�ka Baissista byli �len ur�it� ale �eta a� k archiv jeden z�skat do �nor 2006.

�len ur�it� prozaick� a cons of d�lba slabost ar jist� autobus do debata; d�le ona ar nic kdy v porovn�n� s �len ur�it� NCAA fotbal agentura �koly. Chv�le odborn� k��e cht�t ��dn� jejich cedule ani jejich d�lba — do -li ona did, �len ur�it� Patrik D�lba cht�l bych tich� b�t — dobr� D�lba J�- JEDEN fotbal pl�n b�n� p�lit autobus cupcake cedule.

Hled�t celek, aby ne dovolen� o�kliv� situace c�tit do tv�j �sta

Jednotliv� druhy zbo�� objevit se ka�d� dlouh� doba kolem powerhouse pl�n dopln�n� jejich ro�n� doby sunderpowered odp�rce, a kolem �koly aby n�jak srovnat 7 �i 8 domov hr�� do jeden 12- honba cedule. Ano, �len ur�it� kr�tk� �koly dobrodin� finan�n� machinace dle jejich d�le- bitva obch�zka- dole, a �len ur�it� kon�it jm�no posouzen� �asto pomoci jejich pl�n ( bolav� b�t nal�hav� is l�pe ne� ne b�t nal�hav�). Aby ne jeden poc�novat b�t p�esv�d�en o aby �len ur�it� J�- A�koliv ar�na’ pl�nov�n� �ekl odp�rce altruistically; dosti, ona pot�eba jeden �erstv� vzduch z�skat a� k dojem fans, d�rce, a �len ur�it� BCS.

Ov�em, ono nahodil� retrospektivn� soubor kdy �len ur�it� nast�vaj�c� snoubenec palooka doesnt’ doprov�zet �len ur�it� psan� p�smo a b�t nevolno �len ur�it� t�k� obl�benec (Appalachian Stav a ECU p�isko�it mysl); n�kdy �len ur�it� cupcakes st�t se “ spravedliv� mou�n�ky” N�jak� mohl ��ci aby �len ur�it� obracet se of �len ur�it� ba�kora �eta bitva tvrd� a z�skan� — �i, do t�e m�ry m� J�-AA almanach d�le�it� Delaware, losing aby ne rozr�vavost �len ur�it� bejeezus bez Maryland do Akademie Obora mohl d�lat �eta rozhodnout aby �len ur�it� odvolat se of degradovat- zru�n� odp�rce is p�ed�it hodnotou �len ur�it� d�vat v s�zku of neur�. �len embarassing por�ka. To jest jeden mo�nost; aby ne J� sm��let dob�e o’ vid�t �koly prosto cedule dokonce d�le dole �len ur�it� nad�n� pou�t�t o�ka a� k n�lez aby bezstarostn� W.

S takov� nadch�zka ro�n� doba, neur�. �len bezstarostn� v�t�zstv� nad jeden bujn�- m�t za to odp�rce poc�novat po�kozen� �len ur�it� z�skan� �eta do bl�hov� ml�d� herec do mysl�c� �len ur�it� ro�n� doba v�le b�t jeden cakewalk. Tato ��slo is bez p�evl�daj�c� mezi oko�en�n� odborn�, 99% of koho v�d�t jak? tvrd� jeden musit pr�ce ka�d� p�esunout, ka�d� dole, spravedliv� a� k konkurovat a�koliv jeden m�sto. Aby ne v �len ur�it� akademie hladina, kde herec ar spravedliv� u�enost aby jejich st�edn� �kola srdnatost zvykl�’ chr�nit �sp�ch do �len ur�it� NCAA, jeden ne- snaha z�skat �asto hlavn� ��st programu a� k jeden ohromuj�c� por�ka �len ur�it� n�sleduj�c� t�den. A ano, Z�pad Virg�nie, tv�j 48-21 shellacking of Villanova ( j�-AA) milenec do klop�tnut� a� k ECU 24-3 �len ur�it� n�sleduj�c� t�den is jeden hrozn� p��klad.

Asi tolik ��ci jak� tebe v�le kolem �len ur�it� Jihov�chodn� D�lba, �i kolem d�lba ch�pat a�koliv slab� do jak�koliv m�sto hra. JEDEN m�kk� d�lba poc�novat hlavn� ��st programu a� k nap�nav� apretura; a dokonce kdy ono does ne, �len ur�it� �eta �init ne cht�t jejich odp�rce asi tolik jeden poc�novat tvrd� obvi�ov�n� jeden dominanta �eta do jeden d�lba of rovn�- loupit. Definitivn�, �innost slab�� odp�rce do �len ur�it� prozaick� does ne po�kozen� �len ur�it� rozvoj of herec kdo, hlavn�, j� dov�dat se aby dobyt� jeden honba do konce v�le p�ij�t na mysl a� k �asto nav�t�vovat je.

D�lba J�- JEDEN fotbal �koly slu�ba cupcakes a�koliv odp�rce? Ne b�t zav�z�n, Bolest’ sk�kat dezert. . . darovat mne �len ur�it� Jihov�chodn� M�lk� m�sa m�sto.

Archiv doBaseball, Koleda Vich�ice, Orient�ln� Asociace, Fotbal, Hokej, MLB, N�rodn� Hokej Liga, Jihov�chodn� D�lba, Ut�snit Ark�� Blesk, Pran� Verz�lky| Permalink| Pozn�mky (5)

Neur�. �len C�l Oblast Hrub� ur�ka

Do pucksandbooks

Pond�l�, Z�� 8, 2008

Hannas’ k�iklav� povode� b�t v �estined�l� us a�koliv ono did Sobota, J� was klih a� k �len ur�it� b�idlice of vys�lat televiz� akademie meruna. Skute�n�, Im’ tak chyb�j�c�- bezvadn�- po�as� ly�a� d�le podzim Soboty. �len ur�it� BYU- Pran� honba was jeden h�eb�k- kousat, s jeden hrdinn� koncovka in�en�r do Slupka’ QB Jake Kuf��k. On holub do �len ur�it� c�l oblast s 2 n�up lev� strana a� k draw jeho smola� �eta v jeden dutina of �len ur�it� 15th- bujn� Kagu�r. On h�zen� �len ur�it� fotbal nad jeho rameno — tvrd� neur�. �len n�padn� akciden�n� sazba of bohatost �i showmanship — a bezprost�edn� milovat jeho radost teammates. �len ur�it� zebra �innost �len ur�it� honba, jakkoli, cht�l bych m�t ��dn� of aby, a ona dl�d�n� Kuf��k do unsportsmanlike b�t vodi�em: 15 loket cvo�ek v rozhlase Slupka dodate�n� dutina nam�hat.

Ono was balvan. Honba nad. Spravedliv� do t�e m�ry aby. Ve skute�nosti, ono was jeden z �len ur�it� nej�etn�j�� hrub� ur�ka koncovka a� k jeden fotbal honba Dovedu odvol�n�. ESPNs’ Lou Les�k pozd�ji slavn� aby nejen was neur�. �len dodate�n� n�pad dodate�n� dutina ud�lal pom�rn� dramatick� dle 35 loket, aby ne �len ur�it� pen�le rovn� odlehl� jak�koliv pon�t� of �len ur�it� smola� dosud neprojeven� existuj�c� do jeden honba- z�skan�, dva- dutina konverze dle j�dro �len ur�it� BYU 5- dr�et bohatstv�. A�koliv �roubov� hever b�h, tato zebra mu�stvo v�n� fu�ersk� pr�ce ono. Do jejich neopr�vn�nost ona druh p�ipom�nka mne of NHL rozhod��.

Its’ opr�vn�n� aby do jeden nejmen�� jeden dek�da, c�l oblast do akademie a m�sto fotbal m�t degenerovan� zv��e do �p�my aleje, pravdiv� diskot�ka of delirium. Do �len ur�it� bydli�t� of v�rohodn�, organick� oslava popravit s nenucenost a zbaven� �eho �toky d�le sportovn� chov�n�, orchestrace lo� komediant� 3sg.pr�z.od have st�t se b�h, j�t s duchem �asu j�sav� �asto pe�liv� propracovan� chovat se jejich l�pe odp�rce. Ono was rovn� Les�k J� domn�vat se kdo told jeho Notre D�ma herec dlouh� doba p�ed a� k �in do t�e m�ry ona’ been kone�n� oblast d��ve kdy ona vrub, aby ne p��li� m�lo sou�asn�k herec did, a asi tolik vy��, sm�rodatn� ��edn� m�sta acted do �len ur�it� NCAA. Aby ne do odezva ( mnoho p��li� opo�d�n�) s zd�nliv� soud- drz� p��snost a� k �len ur�it� hmota, �len ur�it� NCAA 3sg.pr�z.od have p�ijmen za vlastn�ho jeden formovat �len ur�it� d��tko ven s n�m �len ur�it� koupel voda cesta k poru�en� dole posm�ch. A do �len ur�it� bedna of Soboty’ konat ob�ady mu�stvo do Pran�, ona spravedliv� ode�l� jejich mysli.

A asi tolik do jeden cit fotbal d�le Sobota ta s kosou jak� ono 3sg.pr�z.od have ob�en� do n�jak� dlouh� doba.

Aby ne na druhou stranu �len ur�it� hodit do po�tovn� schr�nky- tv�j- pivo- do- ned�v�ra odezva a� k �len ur�it� Slupka a Kagu�r’ v�sledek, jak� obchod mne nej�etn�j�� kolem ono is aby jak� st�t se Sobota do Pran� could nikdy st�t se do hokej, a aby’ jeden blaho majetek. N� honba trp�t ne dle po�etil� lo� komediant� aby ne snadnadm�rn� skromnost Dle �v�dsko ( �i Manitoba) s ctihodnost, �erpat ono. To jest jeden blaho majetek.

Tebe vid�t, hokej 3sg.pr�z.od have jeden k�d kolem ukazovat autobus neur�. �len odp�rce. Celebrovat tv�j duplik�t pon�kud p��li� bohat�, a neur�. �len loket sendvi� ( �i hor��) doprov�zet ne dlouh� hl�ska after. But it’s also the case that hockey players generally do not seek individualized expression of euphoria. Perhaps that’s because the game requires the contributions of virtually all of a team’s players on the ice to author success. Notwithstanding the rare end-to-end, unassisted tally, the player who scores in hockey raises his arms in triumph’s recognition and instinctively turns to seek out his teammates who helped make it happen.

Which leads me to reflect a bit on the manner in which Alexander Ovechkin celebrates many of his goals. That is exuberant! But it’s not showboating, is it? It is genuine and infectious and joyous to watch and it is outreach to, an engagement with, the fans in attendance. We wouldn’t want every NHL player copying Alex’s patented leap into the plexiglass, but we’re thrilled with the boyish joy and non-taunting manner in which he carries it off.

He leaps, he lands, and then his smile stretches from Washington to Moscow as he is enveloped in his teammates’ collective embrace. He almost seems to scream with joy as well (I think he does). And then he makes his way to the Capitals’ bench to share the moment with the rest of the team. It’s about as beautiful to behold as many of his goals themselves.

But Saturday’s tragedy in college football offers us in hockey a moment to reflect on opportunities to upgrade our officiating. And God knows we need that. As much as player conditioning, training, commitment, and general skills have improved in hockey over the past 20 years, is it your sense that the officiating has improved in commensurate fashion? Are game officials comparably better skaters than their peers of 20 years ago, for instance? That isn’t my sense. That’s food for thought.

But I’d also like to see some public accountability for officials night in and night out in the NHL. We don’t have that now. Members of the media determine three stars of the game each night; I’d like to see them also offer up some manner of evaluation of the men in stripes. They don’t have a dog in the fight, after all.

This evaluation would be included in the official game sheet. The league (allegedly) conducts its own audit of each officiating crew, but those results are never made public, and what I’m looking for is public accountability — an evaluative act that serves as a symbol of hockey being a watchdog against egregiously poor officiating.

Sort of like those small newspapers that still publish the names of community members cited for public intoxication.

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Football, Morning cup-a-joe, Other Sports, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (22)

The State of the Washington Sports Union, August 2008

By pucksandbooks

Thursday, August 14, 2008

We who find succor and solace in the refrigerated mustiness of rinks do enjoy the occasional night out at the old ballyard, and last night, amid yet another stunner in this greatest-ever weather in the history of Washington Augusts, two hockey bloggers enjoyed that experience at Nationals Stadium. Despite the on-field product offered there. The Sporting News’ Eric McErlain and I cracked open roasted peanuts, occasionally followed yet another Nats’ mauling, and did what two sports-loving friends do best in one another’s company: survey and solve Washington’s sports’ problems over a few beers.

Creative and caring about our home though we be, we may not be able to aid these present Nats. There is rebuilding and then there is this team: godawful, and embarrassingly non-competitive. There were no delusions about this team flirting with mediocrity this season, I don’t think, but Nats’ ownership and management, I also think, had some level of obligation to assemble something remotely attractive in this the maiden season of baseball in Washington’s beautiful new ballpark. The final last night was Mets 12, Nats goose egg.

When the Capitals were rebuilding they were rather surprisingly competitive, and even fun to support. Having Ovechkin certainly helped, but there were other heart-and-soul types to rally around, and even on the toughest of nights two seasons ago one could see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

There are two jewel ballparks separated by about 40 miles in our region, and both most nights are half empty (or worse). It’s not so good. Last night was for all intents and purposes a road game for the home Nats, there were so many Mets’ caps and jerseys outfitted on patrons. I moved past souvenir stand after souvenir stand with lone workers in each conspicuously inactive. The baseball product here now, despite its gorgeous, sparkling new home, isn’t selling. And in such conditions, beleaguered franchises acquire the parasitic, preponderant presence of enemy fanbases.

There was as well conspicuous youth to last night’s “crowd”: offices that months ago had purchased blocks of Nats’ tickets have surrendered them, night after failing night, to summer interns and the teenage children of associates. On pretty summer nights for them it is better than hanging out at the mall.

Then there is the television dilemma: even family members of the Nationals aren’t following at home.

No one affiliated with the Nats now ought to be proud, and a revolutionary redrawing of the master plan (such as it is) ought to be well underway.

That ought to include, high on the list, re-pricing seats behind home plate to get some volume of humanity seated in them. Bad baseball is one thing; craven greed showcased with it is appalling. Put another way: the new stadium, funded as it is with bonds, can’t endure many more summers like this one.

Meanwhile, interestingly enough, across town the Capitals were hosting a third open house for hundreds of new ticket plan purchasers. A funny thing has happened to hockey here just since last fall: tickets are becoming scarce. (It would wise for Yahoo’s Ross McKeon to take in one of these open houses at the Phone Booth.) An OFBer was there last night, and around about the 4th inning I received a text relaying how few Verizon Center seats were tagged as available for the 08-’09 season. Almost certainly the Caps are holding back some seats for walkup sales, but it’s become abundantly clear that SportsWashington is investing with their wallets in this team what they did with their fashion red last spring.

Bank on this, too: media for the team’s training camp next month will blow away anything and everything that’s preceded it, including Jaromir Jagr’s first camp here. Gustafsson — father and son — will be in attendance. The hardward-hauling greatest hockey player on earth will daily hold court. There’ll be a bit of interest in the performance of the camp’s netminders.

The Wiz made news this summer by inking all of their name free agents — the ones who’ve guided them to annual first-round failures. More importantly for Capitals’ fans, the hoops and arena owner looks increasingly frail in his few public appearances.

McErlain last night shared with me a terrifically insightful assessment of the standing of the Burgundy and Gold here. “They’ve more of a college football hold on the region,” he said. It’s absolutely true. The Skins are to D.C. what the Cornhuskers are to all of Nebraska, what the Buckeyes are to Ohio and the Wolverines are to Michigan: quasi religious.

Not everybody wants to go to church on Sunday, however.

Filed in Baseball, Blogs, Eric McErlain, Football, Internet, MLB, Media, Morning cup-a-joe, Other Sports, Redskins, The Sporting News, Verizon Center, Washington Capitals, Washington the Hockey Town| Permalink| Comments (15)

Bettman’s Apocalypse A Distraction from Hockeyless Summer

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)

Thursday, July 31, 2008

As July winds down and August draws near, hockey fans everywhere are itching for the NHL to return. This time of hockey drought is difficult; sure, a few storylines remain, like Mats Sundin (the NHL’s version of the Brett Favre saga) and for Washington Capitals fans the team’s salary cap management decisions. But this is undoubtedly a period of minimal hockey excitement; we even designed a Washington Capitals’ third jersey to fill this hockey-light time.

Well Puck Daddy’s Gary Bettman Art Contest is another such welcome distraction from the withering heat of hockey-less summer. Our entry was inspired by Colonel Kurtz and “the horror . . . the horror” of Bettman’s tenure as NHL commissioner. If you are Photoshop-inclined, the submission deadline is noon tomorrow (August 1). Have fun!

Gary Bettman Apocalypse Now (mock-up by Mike Rucki)

Filed in Football, Frivolous Summer File, Gary Bettman, NHL Salary Cap, Puck Daddy, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (0)

Devin Thomas, Profile in Courage

By pucksandbooks

Saturday, July 26, 2008

OFB wishes a speedy recovery to Redskins’ rookie wide receiver Devin Thomas, who was carted off the training camp field this week with a strained hamstring.

No timetable has been established for his return.

We presume that Capitals’ center Boyd Gordon is well mended from his own groin injury — he competed in the Stanley Cup playoffs this spring with a torn groin.

Filed in Boyd Gordon, Football, Other Sports, Redskins, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (15)

NFL Preseason: Stupid Is as Stupid Does

By pucksandbooks

Monday, July 21, 2008

I confess I’ve never understood the length, breadth, and brutality of the NFL preseason. With athletes in all sports — including intercollegiate ones — now training year-round, the practice by pro football of spending a month-and-a-half-plus in helmets and pads, beating each other’s brains out, out in summer’s worst heat, strikes me as nothing short of insane.

The topic is salient as the Redskins, already underwhelming most observers with their 2008 prospects, and guided by a new coach who’s never coached before — (they may well finish last in their division) — lost one of their most important players on defense on the very first play of practice on the very first day of training camp yesterday. For the season. Later in the day, they lost another defensive end, also for the season, a reserve, who ruptured his achilles tendon. One might be inclined to chalk this up to really bad luck, except that as NFL preseasons have lengthened and intensified most especially in the last 10 years, as players once sized for the defensive line now roam at safety, and as linebackers now run not much slower than wideouts, the triage has multiplied. More NFL players, including front-liners, are certain to go down over the next six weeks — they always do. And the NFL doesn’t care.

In a very real sense contemporary pro football has become a game of brutal attrition. It’s positively preposterous to try and forecast a season ahead before first figuring out who survives all the way through August.

Phillip Daniels is a 12-year NFL veteran. In taking reps (well, one, anyway) yesterday with the ‘Skins, he was preparing for a season opener more than 45 days away. What in the world are the Redskins — and the rest of the NFL — doing scheduling such stress and duress?

I’m not the only one wondering about this madness.

Indicting the sport most might be its collegiate counterpart: without a single “preseason” game the NCAA pigskinners seem to open up with high-value heart-stoppers each and every Labor Day weekend. Consider too that unlike the collegians, NFLers have no limit on the amount of hours they can put in in a week training, studying film, and participating in offseason “mini-camps” and “voluntary workouts,” which of course are voluntary in name only. I think the Redskins have about a half dozen of those throughout the calendar now. By virtue of the commitment NFLers make around the calendar to their profession, there’s just no defense for the prolonged training camps of today.

One of the reasons the camp injuries are as dire as they annually are is because the camps are contested in extreme conditions — high heat and humidity. You also now have hundreds of three-hundred-plus-pounders competing in them, and you don’t have to be a cardiologist to know that those folks generally don’t prosper exercising in extreme heat. With their heads encased in oven-like shells.

Once upon a time, the NFL started training camps in August, conducted its season, which ended in January, and then spent late winter and spring and early summer healing up. And the football played then was rather good; some, like me, thought it better than today’s.

Today there is no offseason, in the NFL or really in any other sport, so why start the head-bashing, knee-destroying, and tendon-rupturing while embers from the 4th of July are still aglow?

All teams play a minimum of four preseason games, and starters are expected to play nearly a half of each game because . . . teams charge regular season prices for the ghoulish meat grinder-slaughterfests. I don’t doubt that a healthy majority of NFL clubs have lobbied the league office over the years to try and get the preseason shortened — motivated by a basic sense of survival. But now we’re getting to the heart of the matter: season tickets owners in Washington don’t have the option of not spending hundreds more on the meaningless slate of exhibitions. And the hundreds more on parking.

And always the games are atrocious to watch. Even if you hate baseball you should watch it instead of the NFL’s July and August dreck.

I’m not ignorant about football players needing their “reps.” And I realize that a handful of rookies need to be evaluated in game-like situations. But given the gazillions the NFL spends evaluating college players year-round, and in combines and such, you can’t make the argument that teams need half a summer to evaluate their new personnel. Or that grizzled vets need months’ worth of reps in triple-digit temps.

The NHL with its preseason has actually taken an alternative strategy with that of the NFL, and shortened it in recent years. Teams will commence camp in mid-September and have just three weeks of training and exhibitions before the arrival of opening week. Talk to any NHL manager and he’ll tell you that his players will show up in mid-September in shape and ready to skate. We can quibble over whether the preseason should extend more than 5 games, but it’s clear that the NHL, unlike the NFL, isn’t motivated by negligent and malicious greed, for hardly anyone attends NHL exhibition games. And by virtue of having a viable feeder development league in the ‘A,’ with annual promotions for virtually every club from it, hockey’s exhibitions are defensible events as auditions of the up-and coming.

Moreover, hockey clubs aren’t obligated to dress their stars — Ovechkin might skate two of the September games, for instance.

It’s really striking when you consider how relatively blessed the NHL is when it comes to being able to dress, durably, its stars from opening night on through the postseason. It’s a fierce and rugged sport to be sure, but it’s managed by men who care about the welfare of their charges and enact training schedules to protect them.

Filed in Football, Morning cup-a-joe, Other Sports, Prospects, Redskins, Training Camp, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (7)

Morning Cup-a-Spirit: This Bigotry Against Babes, I Won’t Stand for It!

By pucksandbooks

Monday, July 14, 2008

To read the reactions left only here related to the Caps’ plans, announced over the weekend, to introduce SpiritBabes to the team’s home games next season, you’d think management announced that Verizon Center was hosting 41 brothels next winter.

It’s too warm in there for brothels anyway.

Would that the peasants took up pitchforks and torches in these numbers when the league bleep-canned hockey jerseys for Reebok’s tuxedo vests a year ago.

Count me among those with a more inclusive spirit — one who will approach the scheme with an open mind. I take the owner at his word (”I am a family man with a wife and daughter“).

I was all prepared to write about my first one-on-one chat with Hershey Bears’ head coach Bob Woods on Saturday when this fracas broke out later that day. No wonder Washington is consistently regarded as a sex-appeal-less city.

In reality, though, all the NHL is doing is catching up — modestly, I might add — with football’s spirited sidelines. Or Fox News. In a culture of seriously foxy FoxNews, is this really anything to get all that worked up about?

But by late yesterday we’d received pointed clarification from the Capitals on the matter: “The squad won’t be ice girls in the traditional sense . . . It’s also not a dance squad, a la the NBA. It’s more of an evolution of the entertainment team we have had in the past” [the one that most in the stands thought was remarkably annoying - I'm all for evolving that].

Still, I found it riotously funny to learn that Bruce Cassidy had contacted the team’s sales department Sunday seeking a full plan for next season. And Smoken Al Koken — has he been revived since Saturday’s news?

Actually, you can make a compelling argument I think that hockey, particularly in markets like Washington, is much more in need of some sultry spirit than is the NFL. Mr. Leonsis, in defending the move on Sunday, noted that it was with new revenue in mind that the team pursued the idea. In case you hadn’t noticed, television ain’t exactly throwing mad dough at the NHL’s 30 clubs these days. Meanwhile, the league’s salary cap has mushroom-clouded by more than $15 million in just the three seasons since the lockout.

It’s swell that we’re all in love with this rockin’ garage band called hockey, but the band still has to be paid, and if Hooters-Lite (not Hustler) wants to underwrite the Friday night jam session, I think the beer will still taste cold. Count me as one who wants a hockey team’s practices, scrimmages, and camps to remain free and open to the public, year round.

Anyone remember the millions the NHL spent on its post-lockout relaunch television advertisements — you remember the ones, the “My NHL” spots featuring the hockey locker room beefcake, rather shirtless, massage-motivated by a Fox News anchor in the pre-game? I remember thinking the first time I watched it, ‘My, how shirtless this hockey player is, and my, how little I now want lunch.’ Now that was profane, and brought to you by Bettman & Co. I’m confident that Ted doesn’t have quite that in mind.

I’m not sure what revenue the Washington Redskins’ cheerleaders bring in to the team, but whenever they make community appearances you seldom hear of Puritanical protests accompanying them or of anyone having a real lousy time at them. In fact, once in a while, the tight end marries the babe. Maybe the SpiritBabe will marry the bachelor blogger.

The Capitals, and hockey in Washington, need increased exposure (if you’ll pardon my word choice). If the Caps’ SpiritBabes are going to be out and about town during and after seasons hence, perhaps toting along a few congenial players with them, it’s bound to improve the team’s visibility, as well as that of the sport.

And in our recessionary times, where is the acknowledgment of the idea’s job creation ???

There’s been all manner of hyperbole associated with this past weekend’s high-pitched hue and cry reaction. For instance, some have alleged that the aisle ladies in their shimmer and shake will distract from the play on the ice. On nights when the Caps lay an egg, I agree — and let’s hope so. On those nights especially I’ll be glad for Verizon Center’s new state-of-the-art, high-rise, high definition, center ice scoreboard. But really, if the Alexanders are barreling down the ice on a two-on-one scoring chance, how many men’s and women’s eyes will be fixated on tight fannies in the stands?

And what of the selectivity of outrage in this instance? When it’s Mites on Ice, all are quiet, despite the fact that with that exhibition the laughter is generated at the expense of really, really short people. But raise the specter of pretty girls prettying up the District’s rink, and all hell breaks loose.

The only genuine harm that can come from this scheme is if, to quote the wit of one of the few in this town with a sense of humor, who imparted it in the maelstrom of message board madness yesterday, “they come down to the Johnny Walker Club after the game and are attracted to out-of-shape middle-aged men.”

When Messrs. Vogel, Parker, Rucki and I were taking in the World Championships in Moscow in the spring of 2007, we had no shortage of aisle-jiggling accompanying our blogging endeavors (see photo above). I think I can speak for the four of us in saying that we got our work done just dandy. In point of fact, the real distraction in terms of Moscow hotties diverting our gaze came with the middle-of-the-night trollop parade through our hotel’s lobby (where we were blog drafting), aided and abetted by bellhops on the cash take.

Baltic beauties in boas and hip-high black boots. Naughty, naughty Nikitas! Sorry, that was the indulgence of reverie.

Anyway, over in Moscow, we learned that NHL scouts were in favor of off-ice girls.

Perhaps since Alexander Ovechkin has to spend the next 13 seasons skating here we should let him be the arbiter in the matter.

Filed in Football, Hardcore Hockey Fans, Hockey Art, Hockey Rituals, Ice Girls, Mike Vogel, OFB in Russia, Other Sports, Puck Bunnies, Redskins, Spike Parker, Verizon Center, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (22)

The Ashburn Diaries, Winter 2008

By pucksandbooks

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Morning Cup-A-Joe Like the Capitals recently, the Redskins find themselves in search of a successor coach. Any and all similarity of operations ends there. What is ensuing now in the Great Search is, predictably, high burlesque, a lavish local sports soap opera.

The Capitals had both a qualified general manager and an appropriately removed-from-hockey-decisions owner involved in their search. The Redskins have neither. There is no foundation for believing that a genuinely gifted hockey mind available on the market wouldn’t have entertained an overture from George McPhee to guide the bench of the young and gifted Caps. But the Capitals’ coaching search was efficient and painless and apparently successful precisely because there was in place a plan of succession. Such planning is the byproduct of business competence. There is abundant reason to believe that Tier I coaching choices won’t return Daniel Synder’s telephone calls. Snyder, like a pornographer, runs a successful business by the barometer of profitability margins.

The general manager’s role in contemporary professional sports, I’ve written before, has evolved remarkably in the past 15 or 20 years, with law schools today clogged with aspiring pro sports executives. We in Washington this past summer, with the Michael Nylander Edmonton-D.C. dust-up, saw first-hand the value of having an executive law trained in a matter of contracts and negotiations. What is it about Daniel Snyder that innoculates him from local press criticism for failing to staff the Redskins with this most basic and increasingly important business role? Clearly, Joe Gibbs’ rerun on the sidelines purchased the owner some years of deferred scrutiny on this front, but with his dismissal of Charlie Casserly years prior, it became standard operating procedure for the boy owner to seat himself in the role of talent evaluator and contract negotiator. The results speak for themselves.

I got a good chuckle from the early replacement speculation stories with their inclusion of Bill Cower’s name. As if such an accomplished coach would deign work for our egomaniacal, control freak tyrant. Notice his name hasn’t been uttered since. Caller ID no doubt ended that courtship. The linear chronology of the search is a bit sketchy, and my suspicion is that this is premised on the Skins’ themselves floating out star quality falsehoods. The architect of the collegiate dynasty out West, Pete Carroll, allegedly surfaced not long after Cower. Yeah, right.

Here’s a list of plausible replacements for the Cerrato-Synder two-(empty)-headed monster to cull from:

Tyronne Willingham;

Wayne Fontes;

NFL interns;

Whoever’s coaching DeMatha — maybe.

The latest, if you believe local press accounts, involves the Mooch, Steve Mariucci. At least he has late ’90s compentency on his CV. His more recent run with the Lions went such that no one’s bothered to ask him to coach since. Now we’re back in plausibility.

The discrepancy in paychecks notwithstanding, one wonders if WaPost’s Jason LaConfora these days pines for the integrity and veracity associated with his old Caps’ beat.

At least in the blogosphere, Snyder is on the receiving end of enough criticism that some of it borders on unfair. He is not, for instance, singularly responsible for Metro’s malfeasance. But at a time when all major college football programs are voraciously recruiting wide receivers 6 ‘2 or taller, the Redskins of recent seasons have insisted on signing smurfs. As with his coaching nostalgia, Snyder is still living in the ’80s. In an Era of the Tall, guess who thinks it’s wise to go small?

Another relic of the ’80s is Danny’s right-hand Yes Man, Vinny Cerrato. His most notable accomplishment prior to arriving in Ashburn? Coordinating the recruiting of 17- and 18-year-olds for Lou Holtz’s Fighting Irish . . . in the ’80s.

This spring, as college juniors and seniors audition at NFL combines in front of scores of talent evaluators who’ve paid their dues, and are held accountable for their decision-making, it’s necessarily the case that Snyder and Cerrato will be perched hard by the likes of Bill Belichick. That’s a fair showdown of pigskin wits.

In this winter of mild Mid-Atlantic temps, and with his Good Shepherd returned to his NASCAR flock, Daniel Snyder is, perhaps at last, dangerously exposed. He’s the Oz in front of the Burgundy curtain. And an in-kind fraud.

Filed in Bruce Boudreau, Daniel Snyder, Football, Front Office, George McPhee, Media, Morning cup-a-joe, Print, Redskins, TV, Ted Leonsis, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (3)

Training Camp for Washington Sports Editors

By pucksandbooks

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Morning Cup-A-Joe Near 8:00 this past Saturday night, Washington’s mainstream sports editors confronted an annual dilemma: the end of another Redskins’ season. Joe Gibbs’ second retirement from football offered our local press horde a brief stay of execution from the Burgundy and Gold beat, but today the harsh reality sets in.

Their dilemma is existential: what now?

To the disappointment of Wizards’ fans, and the horror of Dan Steinberg, Agent Zero recently hinted at the likelihood of shutting it down this season to recover fully from his knee injury. Nats’ pitchers and catchers don’t report south for weeks. We’re many months away from Tiger’s return to town.

Customarily, this season in the D.C. sports calendar dictates that sports editors assign their staff the research and drafting of obituaries for American sports legends solidly on life’s back nine. Long lunches. And vacations.

We at OFB, however, think that with the arrival of Redskin-free Januaries, henceforth and inaugurating with this one, the region’s hockey bloggers, in a joint endeavor with the Washington Capitals, ought to conduct a training camp for MSM sports editors.

To introduce them to the sport of hockey.

In a very real sense, it’d be analogous to the fantasy camps the well-heeled, middle-aged, and portly participate in across all sports. Making no judgment on the physical well being of our MSM editors, it’s abundantly clear that their cognitive acumen with respect to hockey is, shall we say, under exercised. As such, the heart of our camp would feature a fully developed Capitals University for the editors. JoeB is particularly busy at this time of year, but given the claims of this cause, I’d anticipate some creative schedule juggling on his part and ultimately his cooperation.

Orientation would have to start with the most basic of basics: a Mapquest route from WaPost and the various network broadcast studios in the District to Kettler Capitals. Initially, the editors would be picked up and led to the facility by various Caps’ players in a caravan, but as part of a camp final exam, the editors would have to demonstrate their ability to navigate their own way to the Capitals’ new home.

Early on, too, it would imperative to dispel some false assumptions long held by the editors. For instance, on Day One of camp we’d have one of the region’s meteorologists present Dopler data conforming that no reporters covering Caps’ games actually freeze from the experience. Indeed, at Verizon Center, there’s the greater likelihood of visitors suffering heat stroke. It is simply not true that the Caps travel to Saskatchewan to contest their games outdoors December through March.

As part of camp, the editors would be taken on field trips to the region’s rinks — Reston, Ft. Dupont, Columbia and Cabin John — where they would be asked to view the thousands of youths, male and female, clogging the weekend clocks morning, noon, and night with the playing of hockey. They would be asked to sit in the rinks’ stands among players’ parents and interview them about families’ devotion — in finances, time, and travel — to the sport of ice hockey. The tongues the hockey families would speak in would be foreign to the editors, and so bloggers and Caps’ communications professionals like Mike Vogel would be strategically stationed in the stands to facilitate translation.

Back at camp, VIP speakers would address the editors. An emissary from the Canadian Embassy would allege that his home is not in fact a 51st American state or territory, but instead a sovereign nation which celebrates the awe-inspiring playgrounds that nature etches across his home’s landscape for half the calendar year. Executives from cable television providers would arrive and testify to the fact that indeed thousands of Washingtonian households spiritedly subscribe to NHL CenterIce and the NHL Network.

High priests of puck like Don Cherry and Barry Melrose would lunch and cocktail hour with the campers and lead chalkboard Xs and Os and endearing narratives of the sport’s legacy. Melrose would even suggest that here in Washington there is a viable Jack Adams candidate.

Craigh Laughlin and Joe Reekie would lead a discussion of conflict resolution in hockey, and how the United Nations Security Council is not involved.

A professor of comparative literature and linguistics from the University of Maryland would attend and identify the sliver of contemporary professional athletes who commonly speak to the press in complete sentences, often thoughtfully. He will introduce the editors to the concepts of humility and modesty that commonly lace these orations.

The District’s Chief of Police would brief the editors on the needlessness of bringing along weapons of self defense into the players’ rooms during interviews.

Necessarily, camp would conclude with a screening of ‘Slapshot,’ and accompanying consumption of beer would be mandatory.

To prepare for camp, we who conduct it might want to view the film ‘300,’ for in this quest we face the same odds for victory as the Spartans.

Filed in Barry Melrose, Don Cherry, Hockey Movies, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Lisa Hillary, Media, Morning cup-a-joe, Other Sports, Redskins, Washington Capitals, Washington Post| Permalink| Comments (9)

Is He Really Retired This Time, and Will WaPost Still Cover the New Hampshire Primary Today?

By The OFB Team

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Is Joe Gibbs really retired for good, and will hockey fans in this town read anything beyond game coverage on the Caps in the Post this month?

Filed in Football, Other Sports, Redskins| Permalink| Comments (7)

All This City-Wide Sports Misery, Its Birthyear was 1993

By pucksandbooks

Monday, December 10, 2007

Cup'pa Joe

Early Sunday evening, keeping an eye on the New England Patriots’ further encroachment on the history books, I thought about being a sports fan in D.C. during a reign of general competent management by a majority of the area’s sports teams, accompanied by general on-field/court/rink winning. Nothing dynastic, mind you, just a generally consistent, healthy dose of winning boasted by most of the teams in town.

These were, necessarily, hypothetical thoughts I was having.

Now consider what the good folks in Boston are enjoying these days. In October the Red Sox won their second World Series in the past four years. The remarkably rebuilt Celtics are serious contenders for the NBA title this season. And the Patriots? Perhaps a perfect season, and heavy favorites to win what would be their fourth Super Bowl title this decade. The Bruins are Beantown’s weak sister, but even they’re five games above .500 this season. It’s an embarassment of sports riches in Beantown.

Meanwhile, here, we have Daniel Synder, the no-name Nats, and really bad ice.

At least we’re getting a nice new stadium next spring.

My Sunday evening thoughts, prompted by envy of New England, centered on this query: precisely when was the arrival of the present sports downturn in D.C., and is there any probable hope for better times in the foreseeable future?

Let’s first stipulate that by virture of the Unholy Trinity of the Hardwood — Abe Pollin, Susan O’Malley, and Wes Unseld — there was no competency to be achieved there, post ‘79. So unlike Boston, we in D.C. couldn’t have all the major sports teams firing on all cylinders. The Bullets-Wiz of the ’80s and ’90s remained Hechingers while the rest of the NBA went Home Depot. But D.C. in the ’80s had the Super Bowl Skins and a couple of 100-pt. Caps’ clubs (who also always made the playoffs). Title-winning Georgetown hoops, too, was quite strong then.

(Being baseball-less until recently, we Washingtonians who sought summer sport had to borrow the O’s, and they, too, won a title in the ’80s (their last), and showcased the superstar shortstop, Cal. Then Peter Angelos arrived and we all had to stop liking them.)

I thought about Joe Gibbs’ sudden, shocking retirement in March 1993, (he pulled a Vermeil) (without the incessant sobbing), and wondered if I might not mark that as the anchor for D.C.’s lodging in the Bermuda Triangle of sports hell. Turns out, 1993 was an infamous year for us here. While Gibbs departed then, leaving the ill-prepared Skins staggering in a leadership void and launching them into 15 years of lousy-to-mediocre coaches, and mostly lousy seasons, one Peter Angelos arrived (via an ambulance he chased) as majority owner of the Orioles. Likely we didn’t realize it at the time, but the descent was on.

March 9, 1998, was a particularly bleak day for D.C. sports: Washington Post Caps’ beat reporter Bob Fachet passed. A legend was lost and soon thereafter hockey, institutionally, incurred nominal — but not professional — coverage by the paper.

Nineteen ninety six was no peach of a year, either. That year the Redskins bid farewell to the NFL’s most charming stadium, RFK — also one of the most intimidating for visiting teams — and took up residence in a place called Raljon (really), an immense, aesthetic-free mausoleum breeding nightmare Beltway traffic, seat licenses, and, eventually, the arrests of spectators who’d dare try and enter Raljon without ponying up an American Express number for parking fees. It was like replacing Jackie Onasis with Britney Spears.

(It would be most interesting to poll Redskin season ticket holders today and ask which they’d have preferred seeing 12 years ago: millions spent adding 20,000 seats and luxury boxes to RFK, as part of D.C. bid for a future summer Olympics hosting, or the super-sized sinkhole in PG County.)

But as malignancies against winning go, we in D.C. were just getting started. Continue reading ›

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Roadside Refuse in New England

By The OFB Team

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Filed in Redskins, Schadenfreude| Permalink| Comments (1)

Gimme Shelter (in the Rink)

By pucksandbooks

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Cup'pa Joe Just a hunch, but after what we saw Monday in court in Richmond, I suspect we won’t much hear the Baha Men’s “Who Let the Dogs Out?” played over the NFL’s loudspeakers beginning the Sunday after next. (Like I knew who the Baha Men were; ah, Google.) Call this the Knee-jerks of an increasingly disaffected contemporary sports fan.

An ESPN Radio personality took to Fox News last night and reported that since the year 2000, more than 300 NFLers have been arrested. More than three hundred. This ESPN personality referred to this state of affairs as the league’s “climate of criminality.” Ya think?

Will we need an additional CourtTV channel merely to cover the criminal jurisprudence of the modern, non-hockey-playing pro athlete?

It would be interesting to go back in time, to ESPN’s founding year of 1979, and compare a week’s worth of SportsCenter stories then as they related to athlete criminality versus that of about 25 years later.

Mark Twain is alleged to have famously said that he wanted to be in Cincinnati on the day the world ended, figuring it would end there considerably later. But what if Twain could have been introduced to the contemporary Cincinnati Bengals, who own their fair share of the more than 300 perp walks? “I want to be in Newark on the day the world ends” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

In the current climate of sports criminality, we can really admit any further discussion of closing Gitmo?

On relativity: I’m going to be in the Midwest this Labor Day weekend, keeping an eye on my beloved Fighting Irish footballers. Years back, the then perceived ruffian Miami Hurricanes visited Notre Dame Stadium, and ND students t-shirt marketed the matchup as “Catholics vs. Convicts.” Steve Walsh I believe was the ‘Canes QB then. But beyond being a bit boorish for the times, did the ‘Canes of ‘90 really have anything on the gridiron grossness of today?

I have it on reasonably good authority that the NFL’s Security Office employs no small number of successfully recruited, or retired-from-but-still-in-their-prime, FBI personnel. Apparently they are very, very busy in the leadup to the NFL draft. A pro league might do well to hire a Bureau vet to head up its security office, but a veritable army of them?

He’d never admit it, but if anyone in America is grateful (in muted fashion) for the current mess in Atlanta and Virginia, it’s David Stern. Doesn’t the Pacers-Pistons brawl of 2004, and all of the talking head tongue wringing it ocassioned, seem like a calamity of about 22 years ago?

A generation or so ago pro tennis was plagued by bad actors on its courts, and today it’s known for the comparatively quiet and respectful demeanor of its athletes. I get mildly optimistic thinking about this example. But then I think: there’s a world of difference between Ille Nastase screaming obscenities at a linesman and say a QB electrocuting or hanging canines.

Filed in Basketball, Football, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, Other Sports, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (11)

Only God Can Save Baseball in Baltimore

By The OFB Team

Thursday, August 23, 2007

History — of the lurid, malicious, nauseating, revolting, and unfathomable kind — was made at Camden Yards Wednesday afternoon.

Photo by Nick Wass/AP

According to ESPN, Texas’ 30 runs, 27-run victory represent the great smackdown in baseball since 1897. That’s the nineteenth century — two centuries ago. To put the Rangers’ 30 runs in a single game in perspective, if you had Paris Hilton passed out in a frat house of 30 on a Saturday night immediately following mid-term exams, only 29 brothers would score (one or two on average would be gay). Lest you think we’re making up this sordid number, here’s the boxscore.

Just to be clear: it wasn’t the ‘27 Yankees who demolished O’s pitching Wednesday; it was 54-70 Texas.

This will be the Orioles’ 10th consecutive losing season under Peter the Ungreat.

Peter Angelos

Success or failure in a professional sports organization begins at the top; in this regard, Caps’ fans are quite lucky. And with this in mind, Skins’ fans shouldn’t chuckle too vociferously at the O’s mess Wednesday; their band leader is every bit as bad, and likely worse, than the Inner Harbor’s trial lawyer who should himself be on trial.

Filed in Baseball, Daniel Snyder, MLB, Other Sports, Redskins, Schadenfreude| Permalink| Comments (13)

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Kategorie Archiv: Fotbal

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The State of the Washington Sports Union, August 2008

Bettman’s Apocalypse A Distraction from Hockeyless Summer

Devin Thomas, Profile in Courage

NFL Preseason: Stupid Is as Stupid Does

Morning Cup-a-Spirit: This Bigotry Against Babes, I Won’t Stand for It!

The Ashburn Diaries, Winter 2008

Training Camp for Washington Sports Editors

Is He Really Retired This Time, and Will WaPost Still Cover the New Hampshire Primary Today?

All This City-Wide Sports Misery, Its Birthyear was 1993

Roadside Refuse in New England

Gimme Shelter (in the Rink)

Only God Can Save Baseball in Baltimore

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