NHL vs. NBA

On Sunday night, the NHL and the NBA will go head to head for viewers. What was the thinking behind this, I wonder? Granted, technically, some may argue that these two leagues are not going after the same audience. But who are we kidding? Even casual fans tune in to watch the playoffs and the likes of Kobe, the Celtics trio plus Rondo, Pronger and Leighton, and the Blackhawks defense. To suggest that these fans wouldn't cross over is selling both sets of fans short.

Pucks, Ponies and Putts, Oh My

And they call football a game of inches.

After watching the Canadiens eliminate the Capitals by inches, and watching Tiger miss the cut for only his sixth time as a professional, I suspect a closer-than-close finish in the muddy Great Pony Race on Saturday.

First, let’s start with the Caps and their elimination on Wednesday. If Caps winger Mike Knuble had been an inch farther outside of the crease (his placement in front of Canadiens netminder Jaroslav Halak negated a goal), or if Halak’s pads had been a half-inch narrower (come on, those pads look maaaasssiiivve), we might be looking at a different outcome. But such is life. Meanwhile, the playoffs continue and the Bruins and Flyers played a heck of an overtime thriller in the opening game of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. After all, the only thing more thrilling than overtime playoff hockey is a Game 7 of overtime playoff hockey.

The Great Pony Race has a filly and a female trainer. But don’t bring this to their attention because all parties involved—trainers, jockeys, and owners alike—don’t think it’s a big deal. What might be a big deal is that with so many double-digit-to-1 shots in this sloppy and muddy Derby, it’s setting up to be an unpredictable finish, of inches.

Finally, in a true game of inches, Tiger Woods missed the cut for only the sixth time in 241 pro starts, shooting a 79 on Friday at the Quail Hollow Championship in Charlotte. This warrants the question: Have off-link distractions caught up with Tiger or did Tiger simply have a bad day? I suspect we will have to wait to see how he fares in his third tournament back to draw any type of conclusion.

New-Look Redskins?

The 2010 NFL Draft is complete, starting in essence with the trade for quarterback Donovan McNabb and ending with linemen Erik Cook and Selvish Capers in the later rounds. Another item on the Redskins’ off-season checklist has been completed, adding to an already promising inventory:


Fire Coach Zorn. Check.
Fire “whatever-role-he-played” Vinny Cerrato. Check.
Hire a GM, Bruce Allen. Check.
Hire a Coach, Mike Shanahan. Check.
Air feel-good TV promos about the top-to-bottom change in attitude. Check.


Now, we’re ready to see if the off-season attitude changes will make any difference on the field.

No Freedom of Speech in Washington

The signs have returned to FedEx Field.

In case you missed it, Redskins owner Dan Snyder banned signs from the stadium. Today, just 2.5 hours before game time--also known as "not enough time to create a sign for today's game"--he lifted the ban, saying that fans had a right to carry them as long as they weren't inappropriate and they didn't block the view of other fans.

Here's a thought: If Dan would work on improving the organization, he wouldn't have to worry about censoring his critics, er, fans.

Redskins v. Raiders

Which team has the worst ownership? Dan Snyder vs. Al Davis

Pros:

• He's not a cheapskate, however, he needs to spend his money wisely--not on over the hill veterans but on vets in their prime and up and coming players. In short, he needs to stop chasing "big" names.

Cons:

• Dan Snyder needs to hire a GM (and fire Vinny Cerrato).
• He needs to hire a coach not named Zorn
• There needs to be a philosophical change in the way things are done in Washington. Everyone needs to play for their jobs every off season. The Redskins need to stop babying some so-called stars. If you can't practice, you can't do OTAs, you can't show up for training camp, you can't be a Redskin.

Al Davis

Pros:

• Al Davis is another owner who has no problem opening a checkbook. But he needs to make wise financial moves. Drafting Jamarcus Russell so high was not one of those moves.

Cons:

• Unfortunately, Davis is starting to lose some of his edge, healthwise, and really should relinguish some of the day to day duties, and decision making, to someone else in his organization.
• The open letter to Lane Kiffin.

Counting Down the Days 'Til Football Season

Every summer around this time I begin to stew—and it has nothing to do with the heat in Maryland.

I start to become agitated (dare I say, a feeling of withdrawal) from of a lack of football. Sure, the NHL and NBA have just wrapped up exciting seasons. Hockey produced a seven-game Stanley Cup Finals between two of its premier teams, while Kobe and Phil celebrated another Lakers title. But all I can think about is football.

This year, however, I am trying desperately to focus on other things while awaiting the start of training camp. Here is how I’m spending my lazy days of summer.

June

• Thursday night, I ate my way through Camden Yards—as I usually do—starting with the cashews, crabcake sandwiches and ice cream, and ending with sausage and peppers and several Coronas with lime. Oh, did I mention that my husband and I sat behind home plate for the rubber match between the O’s and Mets? I root O’s; he roots Mets. I had taken him to Camden for his birthday, which wasn’t so happy after the Tweets came back late in the game to win. (The Mets are in second place in the NL East and the Tweets are in the AL East’s cellar, but who cares about the big picture?)
• In June, as I do year-around, I watch several hours of the NFL Network (This is the best idea since sliced breaded wheels and computers). On Saturday, they ran a list of the top defenses of all time. Good stuff.
• The U.S. Open, filled with rain, heartfelt stories of Phil Mickelson and his wife’s cancer battle and Tiger, have kept me plenty busy over the past few days. (I’m still missing football, but not as much.)
• Wimbledon starts this week. Federer has a lot riding on this tournament, but with no Nadal, it may lack some excitement on the men’s side. (Whatever happened to the American men, by the way?)
• For Christmas (December 13, to be exact), I’ve booked a trip to Oakland to watch my Redskins take on my husband’s Raiders. Did I mention that I purchased tickets in the Black Hole? I’ve been on the Internet making travel plans. (This really makes me miss football.)
• At some point this month, I will eat my way through Nationals Park—haven’t chosen a game yet—starting with Ben’s Chili Bowl.
• I’ll watch lots and lots more of NFL Network programming.
  

July

• My Redskins season tickets will arrive. I’ll spend a week looking at the tickets, reading the glossy inserts, and plotting which jersey I’ll where to which home game. Sean Taylor for the home opener, followed by my Art Monk Hall of Fame T-Shirt, and then my Clinton Portis jersey, and so on.
• Baseball’s All-Star Game and all of its festivities will fill in a handful of empty days.
• On July 30, Redskins training camp opens.

August

• More training camp, followed by more NFL Network.
• On August 8, the Redskins will hold Fan Appreciation Day where a bunch of us football-starved fans will show up a Redskins Park and cheer on an intra-squad scrimmage as if it was fourth-quarter, with the Redskins down by seven, against Dallas in December.
• Around this time, “Hard Knocks” featuring the Bengals will begin. I love this show.
• I will eat my way through another Orioles game—this time, focusing on Boog’s BBQ.
  

The Heidi Game, Revisited

Clearly, the bar where I had dinner Wednesday night has never heard of “Heidi” or the infamous Heidi Game or the Oakland Raiders or the New York Jets. Because if it had, I suspect it would have made a different decision in playoff programming.

The bar had two televisions, one with the Celtics-Magic game, a playoff game in which Boston dominated most of the way and went on to win by 18 points, tying the series at a game apiece. The second television had the Capitals-Penguins game. This game was an overtime thriller, won by the Penguins on a ricochet off a Capitals player.

At some point, inexplicably, both TVs were switched to Celtics-Magic basketball. When I asked the waitress about the channel change, she checked and found that two folks, one at either end of the bar, had requested the basketball game. Understandably, these were both playoff games and both worthy of television action. But here’s the problem. Both TVs clearly could be seen from all areas of the bar. The Celtics and Magic were playing a blowout game. The Caps and Penguins were in overtime. And, most importantly, this bar was located in Maryland—25 minutes from where the Caps play, or otherwise known as Caps Country!

So while the Caps were slugging it out with the Penguins in an overtime playoff game—and there are folks out there who would say that there is nothing more exciting than playoff overtime hockey, except for maybe Game 7 playoff overtime hockey—this Maryland bar was pledging its allegiance to Boston Celtics-Orlando Magic basketball. Just as four decades ago, as the Jets led with a little more than a minute to go, NBC’s brilliant programmers decided to turn away from the game to accommodate it’s evening schedule, which included an airing of the children’s classic, “Heidi.” The rest, as they say, is history—the Raiders scored 14 points within the closing minute, but some viewers were left watching pigtails instead of pigskin.

Makes you wonder if someone at NBC was behind the controls on Wednesday night?