I know I haven't written much about the Caps thus far this preseason, and that's a function of the fact that my "real job," continues to encroach upon what little free time I seem to have left. Still, I couldn't help but notice that my old friend David Singer found time to post not one, but both fights between Washington's Brandon Sugden and New York's Donald Brashear that took place on Thursday night.
Here's Round One:
And here's Round Two:
Now I can't imagine any sort of circumstance where Sugden could possibly be on Washington's opening night roster, but you never know when he might be subject to an emergency call up later this year if/when Washington head coach Bruce Boudreau feels the need. Good on Sugden for making the most of his time with the big club.
Olie Kolzig snags one of his 18,233 saves. Photo by Allen Clark.
I'm not sure anyone was shocked to hear the news yesterday that former Washington Capitals goalie Olie Kolzig had decided to retire after 14 seasons in the NHL. As Kolzig admitted in an interview with Comcast SportsNet's Russ Thaler yesterday, his body had begun to betray him, and it was simply time to face facts and move on to the next phase in his life.
So now, after 19 years, a good relationship has finally gone bad. And like a lot of relationships, it was really over well before any official announcement. Did Kolzig deserve better? Was ownership insensitive? Did Kolzig, who is still one of the most respected professionals in the NHL, take the low road in the middle of the season when he should have sucked it up and been a team player? Is he letting his ego get in the way of him taking on a reduced role with the team just as it begins to enjoy the fruits of its rebuilding program? That same ego, mind you, helped him become a Vezina Trophy winner in the first place.
You could make any of those arguments and find a way to make them right. But in the end, only a few players get to say goodbye the way Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Steve Yzerman bid farewell to the game.
And like a lot of relationships, I'm sure one day the resentment Kolzig feels for management will fade. There's little doubt the night will come when Kolzig will stride to center ice with his family in tow to hear the Washington fans cheer for him one last time as his sweater is raised to the rafters beside Dale Hunter, Yvon Labre and Rod Langway.
But that day is not today. Today isn't right or wrong. Today is just bad.
That sad day is now firmly in the rear view mirror for both Kolzig and Caps management, which means we're that much closer to the night where Kolzig will get that one final ovation. In the meantime, here's hoping Godzilla enjoys the statr of a well-deserved retirement.
I was in my usual seats yesterday at M&T Bank Stadium to watch the Baltimore Ravens beat the Kansas City Chiefs 38-24. The game was a heck of a lot closer than the score indicated with the game tied at 24 with a little more than two minutes to go.
Here's what I was thinking about as I was driving home:
Joe Flacco started hot in the first half and then cooled considerably for a time in the second, overthrowing a number of his receivers, most notably on screens to his running backs. Note to Flacco: Ray Rice is not 6'8". While he rallied at the end, having his best day as a pro, it was the ineffectiveness of the offense in the second and into the third quarter that helped keep KC in the game.
Flacco's only interception of the day, coming in the third quarter, was costly, as Derrick Johnson returned the ball 70 yards to the Baltimore six-yard line. Three plays later, Kansas City was in the end zone.
Superior special teams play has always been a hallmark of Ravens football, but it cost them yesterday. Steve Hauschka missed a 41-yard field goal in the second quarter (I'm guessing head coach John Harbaugh thought about calling Matt Stover at half time); Kansas City scored a touchdown off of a blocked punt; and the kick return team was stymied all day long.
The offensive line consistently gave Flacco the time he needed to throw the ball downfield. And when they didn't, Flacco proved to be elusive, as KC only sacked him once. The run blocking was solid too, as Baltimore's three-headed monster of Ray Rice, Willis McGahee and Le'Ron McClain helped the team to 197 yards rushing. Overall, Baltimore dominated time of posession by a ratio of nearly 2-1.
While the pass rush was great and the run defense was stellar, the defensive secondary looked awfully vulnerable to the deep ball at times. Still, yielding 24 points when the opposition gets six off of a blocked punt and six more off of an interception has to be considered a success.
Later, as I watched SportsCenter to see the game highlights, I was surprised Baltimore wasn't getting more dap from the on-air guys. It was almost as if everyone had forgotten that this was a team that got all the way to the AFC championship last season.
"Last night everyone could truly see the passion I have for my job. Now that I have had time to gain my composure, I can see that while I don't agree with the unfair line call, in the heat of battle I let my passion and emotion get the better of me and as a result handled the situation poorly. I would like to thank my fans and supporters for understanding that I am human and I look forward to continuing the journey, both professionally and personally, with you all as I move forward and grow from this experience."
As Filip Bondy wrote earlier today, sometimes we're too tough on athletes in the media, and it isn't unusual to see some folks treated by different standards than others. But in this case, Williams clearly went over the line. And if you look back at the video of the incident, it's impossible not to notice that the official took off towards the chair umpire at a pretty impressive clip the second time Williams approached her. I think plenty of reasonable people could come to the conclusion that the official was in fear of getting popped by Williams.
In any case, even after more than $10,000 in fines, this story isn't going to go away. Williams, even though she was clearly in the wrong, has yet to apologize to the only person who deserves an apology: the lineswoman who was the object of her rage.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm not much of a fan of MMA It's not been for lack of trying. More than a few of my friends, including Jon Swensen of Sharkspage, have tried to convert me to the sport, but to no avail. Don't get me wrong, I'll never take a shot at the sport or those who love it. But at the end of the day, it's just not for me.
That's not the case with legendary boxing promoter, Bob Arum. Back on Thursday, FanHouse's Ariel Helwani was chatting up Arum after a press conference at Yankee Stadium promoting the upcoming Manny Pacquaio-Miguel Cotto fight. At one point, the topic turns to MMA, and Arum didn't hesitate in offering his critique of the sport. Be sure to advance the video to the 4:15 mark for the fireworks:
Hats off to Helwani for sticking to his guns and challenging Arum. Truth be told, digging in and standing your ground like that during an on-camera interview is challenging, especially when you're dealing with Arum, one of the biggest names in the history of the boxing game.
On the other hand, it was impossible for me not to come away from watching this video with the impression that the folks in the boxing must be obsessed with MMA, and are perhaps feeling more than a little nervous in light of its rapid growth.
In the end, I look at it this way: While I might not like MMA, I've never come away from a match with the impression that it was fixed. Is there anyone in the world who can say that about professional boxing?
Life can't be terribly easy when anything and everything you do and say could possibly end up on worldwide television. Everyone ought to be entitled to get angry once in a while, but when you're a celebrity, losing your cool comes with a cost. Just ask Dennis Green. Or Jim Mora. Or Tommy Lasorda. The fact is, if you lose your cool, the moment may very well follow you around for the rest of your life.
Well, one of my favorite athletes, Serena Williams, now has her very own moment of shame. If you haven't heard it yet, Williams was assessed a penalty point on match point in her semifinal showdown with Kim Clijsters at the U.S. Open. The problems began with Williams serving to Clijsters at 15-30, trailing by a set and down 5-6 in the second. It was then that the linesman called back-to-back foot faults on Williams, sending her to the brink at 15-40, and apparently over the edge:
As you can see from the video, the officials weren't terribly happy with Williams abusing an official, especially after she had already smashed her racket after dropping set point in the first set. If you listen closely, even John McEnroe, the king of the on-court tirade, couldn't find it in himself to defend her.
Apparently not satisfied with the damage she had done to her reputation on the court, Williams decided to keep digging with a supremely smug performance in the post-match press conference:
Excuse me, but what planet is this young lady living on? Take another look at the video, where Williams tells the linesman that she's going to "shove this ball down her f****** throat." I don't care how angry you might have been. I don't care even if the linesman was wrong on the call, which was apparently the case. You don't physically threaten an official in any sport. Ever. One wonders whether or not this message will ever be received on Planet Serena.
Ever since it debuted in November 2006, I've been a confirmed fan of America's Game, the series chronicling the seasons of every team that's ever won the Super Bowl. I like it so much, I programmed my DVR to automatically record every episode I hadn't already seen, and last night I got my first look at the installment about the latest Super Bowl champ, the 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers.
It was a quality production, but as has been the case whenever the series has looked at a more recent Super Bowl winner, I came away feeling a little bit cheated. Why was that? Simply put, as time has gone on, and the gap between a team winning a Super Bowl and being profiled by NFL Films has shrunk, these films aren't anywhere near as illuminating as they could be.
Don't get me wrong, these documentaries are first class, and the effort put in by the people at NFL Films is more than evident in the finished product. But I can't help but feel that these documentaries would be better if we waited a few more years after a team won a Super Bowl before putting the interview subjects in front of the cameras.
Here's one example of how that's already worked. While everyone knows that Joe Namath led the New York Jets to victory in Super Bowl III, there were a boatload of other talented players on that team, including Gerry Philbin, a defensive end who recorded 14.5 sacks for the Jets in 1968. And when NFL Films decided who to interview about that magical season, Namath, Hall of Fame wide receiver Don Maynard and Philbin made the cut.
And thank God for that, because it was Philbin, a no-nonsense Buffalo native who doesn't suffer fools gladly, who made the show.
Instead of engaging in the usual Namath hero worship, Philbin unloaded on his former teammate, criticizing his work ethic. But that wasn't all. Philbin also went to great pains to mention that Namath's teammates had conspired to elect the quarterback as team captain not in recognition of his leadership abilities, but rather in order to inspire him to start taking more responsibility in the way he conducted himself on and off the field.
Now, if the Philbin interview had taken place in the Spring of 1969, only a few months after Super Bowl III, would he have been as willing to take a shot at his star quarterback as he was almost 40 years after the fact? Given Philbin's demeanor, I'd have to say he very well might, but we shouldn't doubt that distance from an event can often provide additional insight and perspective that simply isn't possible in the immediate aftermath.
So what's my suggestion? Instead of pumping these documentaries out every year, why not wait 5 years after a Super Bowl win to produce them? Who knows what sorts of stories might ripen with the passage of time?
The fine folks at the DC Pro Sports Report asked me to fill out a questionnaire on the upcoming Washington Capitals season, and I was happy to oblige.
1. Will the Capitals three-peat as Southeast Division Champs? If not, will they make the NHL playoffs?
Barring significant injuries, the team will repeat as SE Division champs.
2. Do you foresee a Washington Capitals Stanley Cup appearance this season?
The potential is there. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia will be the major roadblocks.
3. If and when will youngster Semyon Varlamov wrestle the starting goalie spot from Jose Theodore?
Since he became head coach, Bruce Boudreau has always gone with the hot hand in net. At the same time, he's not just going to hand this job to Varlamov, the kid is going to have to win it. If Theodore manages to keep the job out of camp, I can't see Boudreau letting him have two bad games in a row before going back to Varlamov. Theodore will have to play the best hockey since his MVP/Vezina season in Montreal to keep the job.
4. Seems each year there is a surprise offensive player? Who would you project to be that player this season for the Caps?
If I already knew it wouldn't be a surprise, would it? Then again, it would be nice to see Eric Fehr break out and justify the high pick that was spent on him. Some of the stats I've seen on him based on production/ice time seem to indicate that the potential is there.
5. What player or type of player do you think the Caps need to make the push to win the Stanley Cup?
A lot of folks have bemoaned the loss of Donald Brashear, but every team in the NHL could use some more sandpaper along the boards and in front of the net. Washington is no different.
6. What impact do you think 2008 first rounder John Carlson will make this season with the Caps?
Washington is playing the long game in terms of player development. They didn't rush Karl Alzner last year, and they won't rush Carlson this year. He'll see some time with the big club, show plenty of promise, but will probably top out somewhere around 25-30 games.
7. Finally, predict the Southeast Division in order from top to bottom.
The rest of the teams in the division have show some incremental improvement, but not enough to upset the top two:
1. Washington
2. Carolina
3. Atlanta
4. Florida
5. Tampa Bay
The next time you hear someone running down a college athlete for leaving school early in order to go pro, be sure to mention the case of Oklahoma University Tight End Jermaine Gresham. Projected to go as the top tight end in the 2009 NFL Draft, Gresham instead opted to return to Norman for his senior year.
Had he decided to turn pro, Gresham was a sure first round pick, and probably would have gone at least as high as the top tight end in the 2009 draft, Oklahoma State's Brandon Pettigrew. He signed a 5-year, $14.6 million contract with the Detroit Lions, $9.4 million which is guaranteed. If you're smart, that's the kind of money that sets you up for the rest of your life.
Unfortunately, nothing in this world is really guaranteed, which Gresham found out the hard way last week when he injured his right knee in practice, a mishap which has knocked him out for the rest of the season. He's now looking at five full months of rehabilitation.
While a report from the Tulsa World says his NFL future is intact, I have to wonder out loud whether or not Gresham is having second thoughts about his decision right now. In essence, he left one full season of NFL wages on the table in exchange for one more kick at the can at Oklahoma, money that's gone forever.
Sure, he'll go back into the hopper for the 2010 NFL Draft, but a lot can happen between September 2009 and April 2010. Other players can have breakout seasons, maybe an injury doesn't heal the way it should or even becomes a chronic situation that plagues a player for the rest of his career.
So the next time a player turns pro early, don't call him greedy. and immature Instead, maybe they're demonstrating more maturity and understanding about how life can go wrong than most of us ever will.
Ovechkin's pledge to defy his own contract and go AWOL if the NHL decides not to take part in future Olympics ups the ante considerably on both sides of the debate.
"I don't care," Ovechkin defiantly stated. "I'll go play in the Olympic Games for my country. If somebody says to me you can't play, see ya."
Even if it meant the Washington Capitals would suspend him?
"I don't care," he said.
... Ovechkin said it was likely other Russians would have a similar mindset toward playing on their home soil in 2014.
"Who can say you can't play for your country in the Olympic Games? I think it's ..."
Unfair?
"It's not unfair, it's stupid," he said. "Somebody don't like it, see you next year."
That led my former NHL FanHouse colleague Bruce Ciskie to write, "So, if you're the Washington Capitals, do you just let the guy go for two weeks, or do you put your foot down?"
Not wanting to miss an opportunity to follow up, I sent a note to Nate Ewell with the Caps asking if the team had any reaction to Ovechkin's vow. His answer: "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Which, when you think about it, is an eminently reasonable answer with more than 4 years to go before the opening ceremonies in Sochi. After all, isn't the world supposed to end in 2012 anyway?
Besides, this problem really isn't owned by the Caps right now. Instead, it's totally the responsibility of the NHL owners and their Commissioner, Gary Bettman. For a solid explanation as to why owners of sports franchises aren't crazy about seeing their players at the Olympics, click here for Mark Cuban's take.
NHL owners have already made it clear that they'd prefer to end the NHL experiment with the Winter Games, while the NHLPA has made it just as clear that the players want to go. Now you have the league's reiging two-time MVP making it all too clear where he stands: Sochi or bust.
Looks like that next CBA negotiation is going to be a doozy.
Yesterday I wrote about the debate over allowing checking in women's international ice hockey, and today I'm taking a look at another area where gender and sports intersect -- Olympic Ski Jumping. From the dawn of the sport, ski jumping , one of the six original sports in the Winter Games, has been a guys-only endeavor, but now a group of female jumpers want in on the action. As far as I'm concerned, they make a very convincing case:
While they failed to get the sport added in time for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, the fight continues, as FIS, the international skiing federation, has petitioned the IOC for inclusion in the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Meanwhile, a legal fight over a spot in Vancouver has made its way through the courts in Canada, details of which you can get through this interview at Pajamas Media.
As far as I'm concerned, I don't know what the problem is. Any argument that ski jumping is too dangerous for women doesn't wash for me, and, truth be told, there's considerable evidence that what the IOC is really afraid of is that the women might start outjumping the men. That's an odd position, because after all, I always thought the point about competition was, well, competition.
I don't doubt Botta's sources and I don't doubt his enthusiasm for the Lighthouse Project, the redevelopment plan that Islanders owner Charles Wang believes is necessary for the team to stay on Long Island.
I don't doubt that keeping the Islanders where they are is what NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman wants too. After all, despite the team's woes on the ice -- they haven't won a playoff series since 1993 -- this is a franchise that won four Stanley Cups, won 19 straight playoff series and put five players, a head coach and a team executive in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Moving a franchise with that sort of pedigree is not a headache Bettman wants, especially if he wants to avoid larger questions about the financial viability of the NHL and other franchises.
And, finally, I don't doubt that losing the Islanders would be a tremendous blow to Long Island's civic pride. I should know, as I grew up about a 10-minute car ride from the Nassau Coliseum and rooted for that team as a child. When it comes to big media in New York City, they had little reason to report on anything going on in the suburbs on Long Island, but even the big shots in Manhattan had to pay attention to the region when the Isles were piling up Stanley Cups while the Rangers were well into their fourth decade of playoff futility.
But the question I haven't seen too many people ask is whether or not the Lighthouse deal is a good one for the taxpayers of Nassau County, the Town of Hempstead and New York state. Yes, I've read plenty about how the project will create construction jobs and become a magnet for ancillary economic development. But as Will Leitch pointed out in his excellent piece over at New York about how there isn't any reason to get rid of the Meadowlands, we always hear those arguments:
Giants Stadium cost just over $70 million (financed by bonds backed by state racetrack proceeds) in 1976. Many new stadiums are publicly financed by selling the myth—and it is a myth—of utility and profitability down the line.
The reality, on the other hand, is that building arenas and stadiums to support sports franchises are a luxury -- and it isn't obstructionist to ask whether or not it's a luxury that municipalities can afford, especially in light of competing priorities during a serious economic downturn that has pushed government budgets at all levels to the absolute limit.
That's not an idle question for me, as my entire immediate family still lives in my hometown on Long Island. While I was growing up there, it was impossible to go a few weeks without hearing my parents, neighbors and parents of my friends complain about the tax burden there, one that's always been among the highest in the nation.
I'll admit one thing: I don't know the answer to that question, which is properly up to the local officials and taxpayers on Long Island. In my heart, I hope they can get a deal done. Unfortunately, my head suspects that paying the price to keep the NHL on Long Island might come at the expense of other public priorities. Keep your fingers crossed.
I'm not much of a fan of MMA. While I'll watch if I trip over it, I don't exactly carve time out of my schedule to catch a match, even if it's a headliner. Then again, that doesn't mean I can't pass along this clip of the oddest MMA knockout you'll ever see:
Over the weekend at the Globe and Mail, Matthew Sekeres took a look at the current debate roiling women's ice hockey over whether or not it was time to introduce checking into the sport. And while I respect the view of hockey professionals like U.S. Women's National Team Head Coach Mark Johnson who oppose the change, it would seem to me that it ought to happen sooner rather than later.
In the sports world we live in today, women box, enter the octagon, play rugby and drive high performance race cars. Heck, they even fly fighter jets. In light of that, I'd have to say that continuing to ban checking in women's ice hockey is awfully paternalistic. As someone who has played rec hockey against women, I can say with plenty of confidence that not only are they able to dish it out, they can take it too.
Over the weekend, I was sorry to read the news at the New York Times that NYI Point Blank, the operation started by former Islanders PR head Chris Botta with the support of the team, was facing an uncertain future. While I was never a fan of Botta's blog box, his achievements at Point Blank were undeniable, and I was happy to cast my vote for him for the Unsung Hero Award given earlier this year by the Hockey Barn Writers Association.
To make a long story short, after a year, the team has decieded to scale back its financial support, and Botta told the NYT he has yet to secure the sort of sponsorship he'll need in order to continue. As most free agent bloggers already know, the work most of us do is a labor of love, one where the returns are mostly intangible, even though there are notable exceptions like David Pinto at Baseball Musings who have managed to make it a business on their own.
But it isn't just independent bloggers who are finding it difficult, if not impossible, to make a profit in the online content business. On the same day Jeff Klein's piece on Botta and Point Blank ran in the NYT, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was passing along the following story at Blog Maverick:
This summer, in response to the changing sports media landscape, I wanted to create a “media pool” for the Mavs. I wanted to assemble a group of unpaid interns that would acquire video, write game reports, track unique stats, do interviews, interact with fans, and then compile all of this incremental media and provide it free to any and every outlet we could think of. If a middle school newspaper or website wanted up to the minute Mavs reports, check. We had em. Social networks ? All the content you need. Of course we would update our Mavs.com, mavswiki.com, friends.mavs.com websites and offer the content to any and every blogger out there.
The good news is that we would create fresh content and make it available in realtime. Call it “Event Driven” media. The bad news is that there was no way we were going to be able to charge for it. Nor was there any assurances that we could generate enough traffic for the content that we could reasonably believe that we could earn any advertising revenue. In fact, it probably would have cost us more to try to sell advertising via ad networks (contracts, monitoring, reports) than we could recoup in ad revenues.
Given we were lightyears from this being a self sustaining business, and that with the economy in the shitter we didnt have excess financial resources to subsidize this effort, I decided to use unapid interns.
Ouch. If the owner of a team can't make it work financially, it's hard to think of who might actually be able to make a go of it.
One of the bigger upsets at the U.S. Open over the weekend was the five set defeat Off Wing favorite John Isner hung on Andy Roddick on Saturday. On Sunday, much of the coverage seemed to be expressing some shock over Isner's 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5) victory, but if you were watching closely when the two met at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in 2007 and 2009, perhaps the outcome wasn't all that surprising.
If you were at Legg Mason in 2007, it's more or less impossible to forget Isner's charmed run that ended with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) defeat at the hands of Roddick in the tournament final. Even though he was victorious that day, Roddick readily admitted that he had trouble handling the serve of the 6'9" Isner, describing it to the press gaggle as like facing off against a normal player who was standing two feet inside the service line.
The import was pretty clear: if Isner could improve the other areas of his game to go along with his monster serve, he could become a force to be reckoned with.
I got a good belly laugh out of Sunday night's episode of Mad Men. If you haven't already seen it, there was a plot line where one of the account teams at Sterling Cooper was positively giddy over the prospect of draining the pockets of a potential client and trust fund baby who was determined to see Jai-alai become the next great American sport.
So, you're not famiiar with one of the more famous exports from Spain's Basque region? No worries, as you can get all the basics from this clip that appeared on the Discovery Channel back in 1990:
For me, any mention of Jai-alai is a serious blast from the past. In the U.S., the sport was at its height in the 1970s and 1980s, which is when I became familiar with it through television advertisements for a fronton -- that's the name for the arena where the sport is played -- in Connecticut called Milford Jai-alai.
About all I can remember of the spot was a goofy proto-disco syth soundtrack cut with shots of plenty of action and gambling. I seem to remember asking my Dad once if we could go, but he wasn't prepared to schlep all the way out to Connecticut faced with the real prospect that his son might get bored within five minutes of arrival.
In any case, after not thinking about the sport for a couple of decades, I was curious as to what might have happened to Milford Jai-alai. Alas, Milford Jai-alai is no more. From what I could gather, the fronton closed down at the end of 2001, and was demolished six years later to make way for a Lowes. Just about all that's left of the place is this photo set on Flickr. To get a better idea of what it was like to visit, this 2000 feature from the Yale Herald is a good place to start.
As for the game, this feature from the New York Times seems to indicate that the sport has fallen on hard times, with one observer commenting that the game will probably be extinct within the decade. Even Jaialai.com, which you would think some hobbyist would have grabbed out of love of the game, redirects to the Web site for Connecticut OTB.
And when that does happen, Patrick will more than likely be on the fast track to becoming one of the most well-compensated athletes in the world. Everybody knows that in NASCAR the ability to attract and hold sponsors can be as important as winning races. Patrick, despite the fact that she's only won a single race in her IRL career, is already the most high profile driver in American open wheel racing. There are few new worlds left to conquer, and NASCAR is all that's really left in North America.
According to the published reports, Patrick wouldn't leave her ride with Andretti Green Racing, but would rather run a limited number of races on NASCAR's two junior circuits as part of Stewart's team in addition to her IRL duties. If/when she makes that first appearance, it's going to be a category five media frenzy, and companies are going to kill each other to sponsor her ride.
Once again, keep in mind that Patrick isn't actually leaving IRL just yet. While she might not have anything left to do in IRL off the track, there is a little bit of unfinished business she would probably like to take care of in Indianapolis next May. I don't think she'll bolt to NASCAR full time until she's had a few more kicks at that can.
POSTCRIPT: For those of you who came looking for Danica Patrick pics, click here. And when you speak of me, speak well.
A couple of minutes ago, Bryan Berg, one of my Facebook friends, posted a link to the above jersey that's for sale over at Jersey Mall. Being a long-time New York Mets fan, it wasn't hard to tell that this supposed "authentic" Mitchell and News throwback 1969 Tom Seaver home Mets jersey was an obvious fraud.
The first alarm bell: the shoulder patch on this jersey was featured during the 1986 Mets season, Seaver's last year in baseball when he split time between the White Sox and the Red Sox. By that time, the Mets had long switched to stitching player names on the reverse of the jersey, where this example only sports #41 on the reverse.
So what did Seaver's actual 1969 uniform look like? Here's an example from Dressed to the Nines:
The actual 1969 New York Mets uniform.
As it turns out, you can actually buy a 1969 Tom Seaver throwback from Mitchell and Ness, and here it is. But when you look closely, while it might be an official "throwback" that doesn't make it authentic:
At least that's the conclusion I came to after reading this story in today's edition of the Washington Examiner:
[N]ow three Montgomery County cheerleading gyms are locked in an ugly legal battle that involves accusations of poaching cheerleaders, stealing funds, setting up false Web sites and starting a whisper campaign that a rival coach is a pedophile.
[...]
The legal fight started whenXtreme Acro and Cheer sued one of its former coaches, Nicolas Sweeney, for breach of contract. Xtreme's owner, Judi Eicher, said Sweeney was the "face" of the gym who stole money and poached the gym's cheerleaders for a new facility he was starting on his own, called Fearless Allstars, while on the clock.
"He just ripped her off," said Sarah Hall, Eicher's attorney. "He tried to walk out the door with her business."
I've been watching the YouTube antics of the folks who produce the Auto-Tune the News Web videos for a couple of months now, but this is the first time I've seen them deal with anything from the world of sports. In this latest installment, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and born-again dog lover Michael Vick and ESPN's Scott Van Pelt get victimized. And don't miss the very special guest appearance by T-Pain:
The world of sports would seem to be a juicy target for the Auto-Tune crew. Here's hoping they spend an episode or two exclusively skewering television sports.
Over at On Frozen Blog, my friend Mike Rucki is annoyed over the whole Versus/DirecTV conflict, a feeling that's been fueled by the less than impressive performance that the two companies have been turning in via Twitter.
As for me, I have to admit I'm a pretty happy DirecTV subscriber, and I mark the day I turned in my Comcast (the parent company of Versus) cable box as one of the happier days of my adult life. But given that a total of seven Caps games are going to be on Versus this season, I'd hope that DirecTV would give serious consideration to coming to an agreement sooner rather than later.
Of course, this is money we're talking about, so we shouldn't expect this dispute to get resolved until a few minutes before the puck drops on the Versus NHL season premier on October 1.
I just got an email from ESPN-980 AM in Washington with the official announcement of Tony Kornheiser's return to the radio after his two-year stint on Monday Night Football came to a close. While I was a pretty regular listener of his back in the mid-90s, and was a dedicated PTI viewer from the start, I think I'm going to take a pass this time.
What's changed? For one reason or another, PTI has fallen off my must-watch list, and to be completely honest, Kornheiser's schtick has been wearing thin with me for some time now. Of course, Kornheiser isn't doing anything other than being Kornheiser, but for some reason, I seem to be happier setting my DVR to record Dan Patrick's show off of DirecTV every morning and watching it at my leisure.
A couple weeks back, I asked my friend Joe Ovies from Raleigh what he thought of Patrick, and he said he thought the ex-ESPN hand was the best interviewer in the business. And since I started to catch the simulcast of his show on DirecTV beginning last month, I have to agree.
When I saw all the talk about Versus going dark on DirecTV earlier today, popped over to the schedule page to take a look at just what games I would potentially be missing. As somebody who follows the Capitals, it's pretty clear that I'll be missing out on more than a few nights.
But what really caught my attention was the current poll the Versus folks were running on that same page:
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said "PG+" would be a "members-only website with interactive features and exclusive content" available to subscribers for 36 dollars a year or for 3.99 dollars a month.
It said "PG+" would not replace Post-Gazette.com, the newspaper's current website, but would feature "a new stream of exclusive blogs, videos, live chats and behind-the-scenes insights into the news of the day."
If there's any newspaper in the U.S. that could get away with this, it would have to be the Gazette. Think about it for a moment: thanks to several waves of migration of natives who are incredibly loyal to the city of their birth, the Post-Gazette probably draws a massive amount of traffic from outside its circulation area -- with much of those eyeballs desperate for news about the Steelers and the Penguins.
With that in mind, I could easily see the Post-Gazette keeping their basic game night coverage on the free side, while moving supplementary coverage behind a pay wall. If you want an example of how it could work without much disruption, just take a look at ESPN.com, where the WWL provides a ton of free content with a significant portion of content inside a pay wall for their subscribers.
I wonder if we're going to have to pay to read Seth Rorabaugh?
