George W. Bush spent his last couple years in office saying that history will show that attacking Iraq wasn’t an error.

Crazy talk, you say? Well, not if the official scorekeepers working the Nats/Marlins series in Miami are historians.

Read More “A Lot of Revisionist History Going On!” »

The big media story of the day is that the Washington Post wants to sponsor “Salons” that bring political superstars and health care lobbyists together. The idea stems from an initiative piloted by Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth, who wants to build a conference-hosting biz under the Post’s roof.

Here’s how it’d work: Lobbyists would pay big money to the Post for the chance to hobnob with Washington players in a given area—you know, government officials and Washington Post reporters.

In other words, pay to play, or exactly the sort of business that the Post itself has slammed in one investigative feature after another. Media types and subscribers are busy right now voicing their outrage over the proposed scheme, the first installment of which has been canceled. The Post newsroom, too, is up in arms about the get-togethers, and there’s some disagreement as to whether editors were adequately briefed on this biz-side program.

Sure, it looks bad. But whenever these conflict-of-interest brouhahas pop up, I wonder why media watchdog types ignore it when a newspaper’s sports department is involved. Pretty much every sports department at every newspaper plays the game.

Read More “For Newspapers, Conflicts of Interest Have Always Been a Sporting Proposition” »

The Redskins announced last night they’d hired Larry Weisman of USAToday. Does this mean Dan Snyder cares about improving his relationship with the media? Or just one more signal that every good newspaperman’s now going or already gone to PR or government? Or both?

Seems like a great hire. Weisman’s been writing about the NFL for the Gannett paper since the early 1980s. I know him best from his frequent guest appearances over the years on the wonderful “The Sports Reporters” radio show on WTEM, a station which is now owned by Dan Snyder. And Weisman’s great on that. Weisman was never as bombastic or entertaining as host Steve Czaban, but he came off as smart and plugged in.

And in his old typing job, Weisman didn’t pull punches on the man who now signs his checks.

This from a USAToday chat in March 2006:

Ashburn, VA: Does Dan Snider have a clue? You think he would learn from his past mistakes. I wonder if looked at the number of catches El had last year or just the big pass in the Super Bowl. Even more funny is his pickup of T.O. lite from San Fran. 30 mil for a saftey that has taken one too many blows to the head? I give each player no more than two years before Dan cuts them.

Larry Weisman: Look at the bright side. He passes the costs on to season ticket holders and those who park cars at FedUpField. Ever heard that expression about people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing? Remember that Dan Snyder isn’t so much playing with house money as with your money.

“FedUpField”? Nice!

Wonder if Weisman will call him “Mister Snyder” now.

Read More “Cheap Seats Daily: Snyder Hires Guy Who Coined “FedUpField?” »

A source at the Sports and Entertainment Commission tells me that there’s not any hint that next week’s Gold Cup soccer match between the beautiful losers of the USA national team and the Honduran national team will be affected by what’s gone on. It’s on.

I’ve read there’s been a coup down south.

Apparently newly ex-President Manuel Zelaya, who was just thrown out of the country by his military, can’t go home. Coup leaders say that if he shows up in the capital city of Tegucigalpa he’ll be arrested.

The U.S. is in Zelaya’s corner in this one. So why not turn this game into something huge? Let the State Department invite the deposed guy to our Nation’s Capital to watch his old soccer team play our boys. If Zelaya sucks up to the futbol fans back home, and the Hondurans manage to escape with a win, he could fly back with the team and take his job back.

Read More “Futbol Diplomacy: Bring Zelaya to RFK!” »

If only this car could talk. Though it looks like somebody thought it could talk, which is why they shot it full of holes.

In any case, there’s gotta be a story behind the black vehicle identified in its temporary tags as a 1998 Land Rover (VIN #391804) now sitting across the street from Pierce Park in Adams Morgan.

There are magic marker-type writings on the windows that seem to indicate somebody from the 5th District of the Metropolitan Police Department marked the car on May 9. That same somebody tried to cover the shot-up windows and put duct tape over the bullet holes. They’re big holes.

A neighborhood resident told me some shady-looking fellows who didn’t look anything like cops recently dumped the auto off as discreetly as they could. The resident told me the dumpers didn’t appear to be happy when they noticed somebody was watching the drop.

Read More “What’s the Story With the Shot-Up Range Rover on Adams Mill Road?” »

The Michael Jackson concerts that never will be were going to be produced by AEG, owned by Philip Anschutz, the former DC United owner who back when he controlled the local soccer team had a level of visibility in DC similar to what the Wizard had in Oz.

‘Course, fellow former multi-billionaire and United investor George Soros wasn’t exactly Ted Leonsis, either.

And fellow former owner (but non-billionaire) Vic MacFarlane was in the news all the time. How’d that work out?

This story says Jackson’s desire to get out of working with Anschutz is what killed him.

AFTER THE JUMP: More bad Nats news, R2D2 updates, DC Grays promo, Doris Day was a Maury Wills groupie? Who knew?

Read More “Cheap Seats Daily: DC United/Jacko Nexus?” »

Mike Ratel’s got a trailer for “On Your Mark, Get Set, Mow!”

But without some more funds, the rest of his lawnmower racing movie will end up on the cutting room floor.

Ratel, who lives on Upshur Street NW in Petworth, alleges that a project that has roots in trying to let the world know about a subculture where frustrated Dale Jr.’s tweak their ride-ons until they can cut the grass at 50 MPH has grown into something deeper. He wants to tell the story of the Mikulas of Sparta, Mich., who, along with being the First Family of lawnmower racing in their region, are also big-time fundraisers for Huntington’s Disease, a degenerative illness that has killed five members of the clan.

Read More “Petworth Documentarian Wants Cash to Complete Lawnmower Racing Doc” »

Via DCSportsFan.com: Spingarn football coach Paris Adon won’t be back next season.

I’ve been following that school’s football woes for several years. There is probably a coaching job somewhere as bad as Spingarn’s. But not worse. Can’t be.

Adon, like every Spingarn coach I’ve met, had heroic qualities. I went to Spingarn’s first football team meeting last summer. The Green Wave was coming off an 0-9 season, its first year with Adon as coach, and had been outscored 415-44.

Only 11 kids showed up that day, and a couple of them were ineligible to practice or participate in any extracurricular activities because of grades.

The scene depressed the crap outta me.

Read More “Another Spingarn Football Coach Leaves” »

The Nats bullpen gives away another game. I heard a post-game interview with Manny Acta last week after another bullpen-blown game saying he’d pulled the starter not because of the percentages or some righty/lefty matchup, but because the guy had thrown “108 pitches.” Somebody should tell Acta he ain’t managing a minor league team, protecting bonus babies for the big league club. This IS the big league.

Bob Feller threw 38 complete games in one season, and he played forever! And walked through five feet of snow just to get to the mound!

Butt seriously: This pitch count crap has gotten totally out of hand. Taking Scott Olsen out in his first outing back from a shoulder injury, like Acta did last night, is one thing, though Olsen was rolling and had given up one hit in his last four innings before getting yanked.

But whenever there’s a question of whether or not to go to the bullpen, Acta errs on the side of a new arm, as much as those decisions have burned his team and its fans. If he wanted to protect limbs for a living, he shoulda become an arborist.

And 108 pitches is all a guy’s good for anymore?

(AFTER THE JUMP: COOLEY’S DEAD MEAT, NO NATS POSTGAME SHOW? UP-TO-THE-MINUTE WATERSPORTS COVERAGE THAT THE WASHINGTON POST DOESN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT, KOBE DOES SIX FLAGS, JUST GIVE ME A HOT DOG…)

Read More “Cheap Seats Daily: Manny Acta Saves Limbs, Loses Games” »

Mark Steven, a founding moderator of the Redskins-owned message board, extremeskins.com, is now threatening to start a board to compete against Dan Snyder.

Steven, posting and moderating under the screen name Om, wielded a lot of power on extremeskins back in the day. Steven was among the group of founders who sold out the board to Snyder in 2005 in exchange for teensy favors from the team. Extremeskins.com was the first existing fan message board ever bought by a professional sports franchise, and the acquisition was seen in some quarters, present company included, as being part of Snyder’s plan to control all media.

After Snyder’s takeover, which left Steven on the team’s payroll, the extemeskins moderator then used his powers to champion fan rebellions against any and all Snyder bashers, present company included, with no apparent regard for how conflicted it made him look.

I was among the tens of people who found the whole situation fascinating, and at least tried to read all of Om’s posts.

But Steven left the site last year, announcing a general dissatisfaction with the way the board was being run since Snyder’s acquisition, and started his own blog.

And today Steven dropped what the tens of us who care regard as a bombshell: He’s about to go live with a competing message board for Redskins fans.

Read More “Cheap Seats Daily: Breaking News: Guy Who Sold Out Redskins Message Board to Dan Snyder to Start Competing Board?” »

The BCS’s got nothing on women’s football. Look what happened to the DC Divas.

The Divas kept their season going with a 27-17 win over the Pittsburgh Passion in the first round of the IWFL playoffs on Saturday at the PG Sports and Learning Complex. The Divas went into the game as the top-ranked team in the IWFL, after having assumed they’d secured home field advantage throughout the playoffs with an 8-0 regular season.

But despite the victory, the undefeated Divas will have to play the conference championship game on the road. The Divas knew they’d have to play the conference championship away from their usual home field, since the PG complex was already booked with junior olympics events on July 11, the date mandated by the league.

But they thought their travels would be short. After the win over Pittsburgh, Divas management had announced its matchup with the Militia would be held at the Broadneck High School stadium in Annapolis, and started selling tickets for the game.

But then the Divas learned that the Massey Ratings, the computer ranking system used by the IWFA to determine seeding, had suddenly foisted the Militia to the top spot in the league.

Apparently the New Englanders’ 34-14 win over the Dallas Diamonds in their first round game wowed the digital judges a lot more than the Divas’ 10-point victory.

Read More “Cheap Seats Daily:Women’s Football Rocked By First Rankings Brouhaha! DC Divas Screwed by Computer!” »

I had a fabulously odd meeting with Gary Clark over the weekend. The former Washington Redskins great wanted to talk about a column I wrote about an all-day tailgate party and gala that he had announced would be held at RFK Stadium on August 29. The soiree was named, among other things, the “Ultimate Tailgate Party and Tribute to Joe Gibbs and his Gridiron Warriors,” and was hailed by organizers alongside ticket solicitations as “the greatest sports event ever held in the Capital City of Washington, DC.”

My story was called “The Greatest Redskins Party You’ll Never Go To.”

Clark didn’t like the story.

During our meeting, Clark told me, “You’re on crack!” several times. He kept taking off one of his gigantasaurus Super Bowl rings and waving it in the air or putting it on the table in front of me.

Read More “Cheap Seats Daily: Gary Clark Will Set the ‘Ultimate Tailgate’ Record Straight Soon” »

Awesome trivia about Austin Kearns: Kearns had his first RBI since May 7 during Saturday’s Nats loss to the O’s. He’s hitting .197. Awesomer trivia about Kearns: He makes $8 million this year.

Awesomeist trivia about Kearns: He’s not hurt!

Kearns is one of the many Cincinnati Reds brought to DC by disgraced and departed GM Jim Bowden. It’s like he’s still here.

***

Adam Dunn’s two-run, one-bouncer off the warehouse at Camden Yards yesterday let the Nats not get swept in Baltimore. Dunn’s was the 50th homer to land on Eutaw Street in the stadium’s history. I’m pretty sure the only guy ever to hit the warehouse on the fly is Ken Griffey, who did it during the home run derby at the 1993 All-Star Game. Nobody’s ever hit it in a real game. That’s awesomely trivial, now that I think about it.

And, now that the Dead Balls Eraâ„¢ is over and Nobody’s Using Steroids in Baseballâ„¢, the wall might never be reached. Shame.

***

The Old Grey Burgundy and Gold Lady?

Read More “Cheap Seats Daily: Dunn Hits the Wall? NY Times Hawks the Redskins?” »

The road to the Sup-Her Bowl runs through Landover: The undefeated DC Divas host the Pittsburgh Passion in the first round of the IWFL playoffs. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex.

The Divas, the top-ranked women’s football squad in the land, beat the visiting Passion, 27-7, in a matchup of the same squads early in the season, giving #4-ranked Pitt its only loss.

Along with being quarterback and team captain, Allyson Hamlin (seen above) is the daughter of the Divas owner.

Lest you think there’s some favoritism at play, however, Hamlin’s dad bought the team well after she’d established herself as being among the greatest QB’s in women’s football history.

If you haven’t been a Divas home game, go now. Tickets are cheap ($5-$20), the product is way better than you (guys) expect it to be, and the mood inside the stadium, as marching bands play and little cheerleaders cheer, is small-town in the best sense possible.

The Divas game-night package is so fab, in fact, that if you’ve already been out to see ‘em play, you’re probably already planning on going back tonight.

For ticket info and directions, see www.dcdivas.com.

Photo courtesy dcdivas.com

Susie Kay, the founder of Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund, has just announced that she is dissolving the charity, which for years has been one of the most celeb-laden and powerful sportscentric fundraising groups in the city.

Kay’s announcement after the jump.

Read More “Cheap Seats Daily: Breaking News: Former Charity Powerhouse Hoop Dreams to Fold” »