Dibble, the Nationals color commentator, spoke for every fan yesterday. He went off when second baseman Anderson Hernandez jumped out of the way of a fine throw from pitcher Jesus Colome on a routine sacrifice attempt in the eighth inning and the Nats up a run over Philly.

Hernandez's merkel let the Nats blow yet another lead to give the Phillies a sweep of the four-game series.

"[Toronto pitcher] Roy Halladay may pass us for wins by the All Star break," Dibble huffed. "Have you ever seen a play like THAT?"

In an age when team owners have a lot of control over who announces their games, that's about as off the reservation as a commentator's going to get.

Looks like fans have seen enough, too: Hell if Nationals Stadium didn't look empty during the game telecast.

***

"It's a great day for the Redskins," an attorney for the team, Bob Raskopf, said on Friday.

Not a great day for redskins, however: A federal court ruled in favor of the team in a lawsuit filed years ago by a group of Native Americans alleging that the name "Redskins" is too racially offensive to be afforded trademark protections.

The plaintiffs have had some victories on the merits of their case so far -- in 1999 the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled that the handle was indeed too offensive and canceled the Redskins marks.

But the team appealed, saying that the Native Americans, who began their litigation in the early 1990s, didn't file their trademark challenges in time. So even if the team's name is too offensive, it's irrelevant because the legal shot clock already went off.

And the Redskins technical argument has now been upheld. Clearly, that's the right decision. Because one thing everybody should agree on is: America is a nation of laws. Well, if you ignore all that land stealing and those human-roundups and attempted genocide of native peoples, we're a nation of laws. Kinda sorta...

(Whenever these stories pop up I seek out the best rock song ever written about the offensiveness of the Redskins name: "If You Own the Washington Redskins, You're a Cock," by the great Atom and His Package. The message predates Dan Snyder.)

***

On a happier football note: Women's football has arrived!

But not because of the launch of the Lingerie League. No, women's football has arrived because there's now a ranking system just for the football ladies, put together by something called the Massey Ratings.

And our DC Divas are atop the poll of 49 teams with the IWFL

The undefeated Divas had the No. 2 rated offense and the top rated defense in the land heading into Saturday's game in New York.

DC beat the No. 8 ranked NY Sharks, 21-7, so the No. 1 overall ranking should live another week.

Get on the Divas' bandwagon now!

***

So women have rankings...What's the next step for acceptance?

Betting lines!

Why not? The state of Delaware very quietly passed laws allowing sports betting.

Major sports leagues, mostly the NFL and NCAA, have for decades bullied jurisdictions into not allowing sports books, so Las Vegas has been the only town in the game.

But Delaware didn't have much of anything to lose -- no pro franchises, only a couple major college teams -- so they put it through. The University of Delaware apparently won't be hosting any lower-tier NCAA playoff games from now on.

There's still some legal issues to work through, but if Vegas-style sports books show up in Delaware, the WHOLE WORLD could change.

All the states that waited too long to get into slots -- Maryland, anybody? -- should try to get in early on sports betting and balance their budgets with the bucks of all those dumbasses who think they can beat a betting line.

They can't. But why not have sports books everywhere? The pursuit of happiness should include the chance to make a futures bet on the Capitals or Redskins.

And the Divas!

***

Speaking of betting on women in sports: The Preakness!

Nobody showed up to the infield, thanks to those anti-running-of-the-urinals fascists who banned BYOB at the track.

But what a race! Let's hope for a Rachel Alexandra/Mine That Bird rematch in three weeks!

(Alas, the educated picks John Scheinman gave Cheap Seats Daily readers FOR FREE on Friday didn't come in. But anybody who boxed the Purely Sentimental Rachel/Bird combo passed along in the same space cashed an exacta ticket worth $39.20.)

***

I went to Pimlico on Friday, for the running of the Black Eyed Susan Stakes and to get a look at the contenders for the big race a day later.

Mine That Bird looked very small in his stall, noticeably smaller than filly Rachel Alexandra and all the other horses he was sharing a barn with. So I was rooting for the little guy against the big girl. Not just because he's small, but because he's a gelding; that means there's no stud career in his future, so he could be racing for a while.

If Rachel Alexandra was an ungelded boy, the horse would surely be retired right after the Belmont. But he's a she, and there's not as much value for her in retirement, since top stallions can make babies day after day -- Maryland stud hero Allen's Prospect once fertilized 120 mares in a single year --  while Rachel can have just one child at a time.

The big buzz on the backstretch was that former Pimlico owner Joe DeFrancis, who grew up in Maryland racing -- his father Frank is a legend -- might buy back the track from current owner Magna Entertainment, which is now in Chapter 11 reorganization and looks like a goner, at an upcoming bankruptcy auction.

Sell high, buy back low. In the '00s, that's the formula for success.

***

Story tips? Wanna Play the Feud? Tube amps for sale? Send to: cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com

He was awesome.

Hosts Steve Czaban and Andy Pollin brought up the rumored but unspecified injuries to Alex Ovechkin and Mike Green, giving Leonsis an opportunity to blame his team's ouster from the Stanley Cup playoffs on mitigating factors.

He wouldn't take it.

"All teams are banged up," Leonsis said.

Leonsis thanked the fans and sounded sorry for letting them down. He said he's capped the number of season tickets at 13,000 for next year so folks who have been loyal for years but can't afford to buy for every game can still get in.

Not that the cap will hurt his wallet: He said he expects all games in the 2009-10 season will still sell out anyway.

Why do fans like him so?

Leonsis said it's because his organization is "transparent" and "honest" with the fans.

The Leonsis interview will be repeated on WTEM on "The John Thompson Show."

On a related note: WTEM is owned by Dan Snyder. If I'm not mistaken, Snyder has NEVER been interviewed by Pollin and Czaban, hosts of the best and top-rated show produced by the station, which runs in afternoon drive time.

Leonsis: Honest, transparent, beloved.

Snyder: Meh. Nah. Bah humbug.

***
The positive power of exposure was also in evidence when another Snyder employee, DeAngelo Hall, went on WJFK's "The Sports Junkies" during yesterday's morning drive-time.

Hall came to the Redskins last season with an awful reputation. He'd been given away by Atlanta and Oakland, and in the past his alleged no-goodnickness was brought up more than his 40 time or two Pro Bowl appearances as a cornerback.

But hearing him talk with the Junkies, who asked again and again about his purported dark side, Hall was impossibly likable. Even when he was saying things folks could have trouble with. Like when he talked up his old teammate, the notorious dog killer Michael Vick.

Or about how much money he makes, and accusing ex-teammates in Oakland of disliking him only because he "got paid."

He boasted about his own off-field awesomeness, too: "I'm the coolest cat you'll ever meet."

And, after just a few minutes of hearing him talk about himself, you could believe he really was the coolest cat.

All the hosts believed, proclaiming as one that they were now "DeAngelo Hall guys."

I wanna be a DHG, too!

***

Switching Mediums: I have a new favorite TV show: DC Armor game replays, microcast Thursdays at 8 pm on WJLA's surplus digital station, channel 7.3 over the air.

I'd seen snippets of the telecasts before while surfing. But last night I sat through the whole 3-hours-plus broadcast, totally gripped.

The production values were fabulously horrendous. The audio was a quarter-second behind the video, giving interviews the feel of a vintage dubbed Japanese movie. The replays were grainy and choppy and had a Zapruder film quality to them.

The scoreboards in the arena were actually projected tv's shown on white screens set up at each end, the sort of set-up you'd by at Best Buy for your super bowl party then return for a refund after the game.

Even the sponsors were C List: All of the commercials were for some Maryland restaurant/freak magnet called Medieval Times. Tag line: "More Chivalry and romance! Call 1-800-We-Joust!"

The level of play was lousy. One DC Armor kickoff hit the speakers hanging from the ceilings, another went into the crowd at a right angle.

The crowd was announced as 1,389, which seemed accurate only if you removed the "1."

But play-by-play man Mark Gray didn't let the profound tickytackiness poison his commentating.

Gray, the longtime host of WOL's sportstalk show "The Sports Groove," gave fans a game call that could make you think you were watching a World Cup final. After the final gun, Gray told viewers they'd witnessed an "historic night!" What he meant was the expansion Armor had won their first home game ever.

As if the telecast wasn't enough of a time-machine, at game's end the station cut to an episode of "Rockford Files" -- already in progress!

Old School! Have I died and gone to 1975?

I can't wait til next Thursday!

***
All the buzz and the money are riding with Rachel Alexandra, the first filly to be favored in the Preakness in a couple decades.

But John Scheinman, also known as the Last Turf Writer in Washington Post History, isn't buying into the hype. He never buys in.

Two of the biggest betting scores Scheinman made while on the Post's racing beat came when he bet against fan favorites and chalk: Barbaro in the 2006 Preakness and Smarty Jones in the 2004 Belmont (and on longshots Bernadini and Birdstone, respectively).

"Going against Barbaro in the Preakness was just not done," Scheinman says. "Everybody was thinking he was the second coming, but he didn't even make it to the clubhouse turn. I carried the ticket and felt like I had blood money in my pocket. When Smarty Jones was [going for the Triple Crown], I would have been happy to lose that bet on Birdstone. I was happier cashing that ticket."

He can't wait to bet against Rachel Alexandra.

"A lot of smart people are saying Rachel Alexandra's win in the Kentucky Oaks made them think of Secretariat in the Belmont Stakes," he says. "I was at the race, and I didn't see a machine. I saw a really good filly chasing down a lone speed horse running its eyeballs out, beating that horse into submission, then galloping away from three deeply inferior horses. That's not Secretariat in the Belmont. Now she's got to beat 6 or 7 or 8 horses the quality of which she's never faced. I don't see it."

But here's what Scheinman does see: Mine That Bird, Pioneer of the Nile, Musket Man, and Big Drama.

"I'm going to box 'em," he says. "All the women at the track for the Preakness will bet on the filly. But if she finishes where I think she's gonna, which is fourth or fifth, then I'm gonna blow up that triple."

You heard it here first, degenerates! And if Scheinman's picks don't come in, you get THE REST OF THE YEAR FREE!

***

My personal view, this Depression needs another Seabiscuit: So if either Rachel Alexandra or Mine That Bird takes both the Preakness and Belmont, everybody wins.

Everybody but Scheinman, anyway.

***
Story tips? Wanna Play the Feud? Tube amps for sale? Send to: cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com

A little after 7:30 p.m., a shot from Pittsburgh's Sergei Gonchar goes off bodies in front of the net and Sidney Crosby pushes the loose puck in. Eight seconds of playing time later, Penguin Craig Adams scores his first career playoff goal. It's 2-0, but the game, series and season feel over.

In one rotten hour, what had been a fab month in local sports was over.

When's Redskins camp open?

***

Ted Leonsis always talks about the "10-step plan" that the Caps have been following. He means the rebuilding scheme that got them to verge of a conference final for the first time in 11 years.

But last night, an early victim of his plan came back to bite him.

In 2004, with his team losing most games and eight-figures a year, Leonsis got GM George McPhee to trade or release every name player but Olaf Kolzig. One of the dumpees was Sergei Gonchar, a former first-round Caps pick, who was sent to the Boston Bruins for Shaone Morrisonn.

Morrisonn is the guy who took a dumb penalty midway through the first period, and midway through the power play Gonchar set up Crosby for the game's first goal. Pittsburgh never looked back.

Amazingly, the main topic on WJFK's postgame show was on how quickly McPhee should be fired.

***

The Washington Post reports the Washington Wizards held a pre-draft workout for Marquette guard Wes Matthews. His dad, also Wes Matthews, was a first-round pick for the old Bullets in 1980, ending a three-year run of busts in which the team used their top pick on, in order, Roger Phegley, Joe DeSantis and Matthews.

Abe Pollin's loyalty was such that he let General Manager Bob Ferry keep his job for another 10 years.

***

Girl vs. Boys: The filly Rachel Alexandra will not only compete against the world's best three-year-old colts in Saturday's Preakness, she'll be expected to beat them.

The track released its opening betting line yesterday, and Rachel Alexandra, who didn't run in the Kentucky Derby, was atop it at 8-5.

Derby winner Mine That Bird is the second choice in the 13-horse field at 6-1.

***

Speaking of the Freakness: The New York Times ran a story about the end of BYOB at the Preakness. Both Cheap Seats readers will find nothing new in the article, but the accompanying photo is Pulitzer worthy.

And if that shot doesn't make you nostalgic for the Running of the Urinals, there's no hope for you.

***

Don't Speak Ill of the Deadskins. In a fine thread called "Least Favorite Redskin of All Time" on the team-owned message board, posters recalled the players they most wished had never worn burgundy and gold.

Among the usual suspects -- Deion Sanders, Michael Westbrook, Heath Shuler -- a poster going by Leopard11 chimed in with "Dan Turk."

The poster was still mad that Turk, a mostly dependable former long snapper from 1997-1999, made a bad snap in the last minute of a 1999 playoff game against Tampa Bay.

Somebody must have informed Leopard11 that Turk died of testicular cancer less than a year after the miscue, prompting this retraction:

i take that back Dan Turk was not a bad player just made one bad snap not a biggie but was a playoff game. I totally take that back he was a good Redskin.

***

Davids don't always whup Goliaths: Last night Bishop Ireton lost its lead to Paul VI and a chance at a rare athletic championship in the conclusion of a game suspended on Monday because of weather.

Playing in the WCAC, the powerful DC-area Catholic schools league, Ireton over the last 40 years has won just four titles in all boys sports -- three in soccer and one in lacrosse. Yet Ireton was leading Paul VI 3-2 in the top of the sixth inning of the WCAC baseball championship, played in Bowie on Monday, when the skies opened up and umps called off play.

Standard rules call for a game to be declared official after five innings, so Ireton normally would have been granted the biggest win in the school's history and its first baseball crown. But before the title game, coaches agreed that because of the stakes they'd play a full seven innings no matter what.

And when the teams gathered again last night in Annandale to take it from the top of the sixth, or top of the VIth, Ireton quickly lost its lead and the game, 4-3.

Again, this being the Catholic schools league, you'd think the Man Upstairs wouldn't play favorites. But Paul VI coach Billy Emerson apparently takes Monday's timely rainshowers as a hint that God was on his side's side.

"We kind of thought the Lord was looking out for us because he stopped momentum right there,” Emerson told dcsportsfan.com.

Clearly.

***

Story tips? Wanna Play the Feud? Tube amps for sale? Send to: cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com

The story appeared on Page E3, inside the sports section.

Beyer details how Magna, after years of crying about how unless slots come to the racetrack the racetrack will go away, didn't even file a sufficient application with the state for a license.

As a result, Magna has been kicked out of the running to even get any machines at Laurel Park or Pimlico.

Instead, a shopping mall in Anne Arundel County will get the slots Magna allegedly coveted.

Though Beyer makes Magna's elimination from the licensing process sound permanent, there are probably several more court cases to go before it's a done deal.

Bad as it looks right now, given the power of the racing lobby in the state, I'd bet the tracks, if they really do want slots, eventually do get slots -- no matter how big a mess Magna has made.

Racing's bigger problem over the long term, the way I see it, comes in the Post's placement of Beyer's story.

The fact that an amazing, newsworthy column written by the most important turf writer of all time gets buried on the bottom left portion of an inside page -- on a holiday, no less -- sure seems like a harbinger of racing's apocalypse. Slots or no slots.