photo courtesy UDC

The UDC Firebirds are 9-1, with the only loss coming last month to D-1 and Atlantic 10 squad Duquesne.

It's not too early to start buzzing about a return to March mini-Madness: In 1982, UDC won a NCAA D-II national title with a team that was coached by Dunbar alum and local playground legend Willie Jones and featured a future NBA first round pick (Earl Jones of Spingarn) and a second-rounder (Michael Britt) on its roster.

UDC basketball had fallen a long, long way from those glories by the time Jeff Ruland arrived in 2009. The program had been hit with so many NCAA penalties, injuries, and transfers that the NBA veteran had trouble even fielding a full squad his first year as head coach.

I went to a UDC/Apprentice game in January 2010 and saw something that neither I nor Ruland nor, most likely, any of the other few dozen spectators in the UDC gym that day had ever seen outside of a pickup game: UDC played with only four guys.

The Firebirds had only five players eligible for the game, three of which were walk-ons, then lost a guard to injury in the first half. The squad spent the rest of the day playing four-on-five. The box-and-none defense was Ruland's only option. It was a hideous display.

UDC got crushed.

After the game, Ruland, a local favorite from his days as a Bruise Brother with Rick Mahorn and the Washington Bullets, told me the five guys who started "are all I got" for the rest of the season. The athletic department shipped a soccer player over to add a body. The team finished with a 1-20 record.

But this year, Ruland's got a quorum, and his roster is led by talent cast off from major basketball programs.

Nigel Munson, a former DeMatha star who played the 2006-2007 season at Virginia Tech and tried unsuccessfully to transfer to George Washington, is now a senior at UDC. He watched the infamous "Man down!" Apprentice game from the UDC bench, dressed in street clothes and with his broken arm in a cast.

The leading scorer is Brandon Herbert, a Baltimore product who left the troubled Binghamton University program in 2009 and was at West Chester for a time before joining Ruland at the Van Ness campus.

UDC hits the court again on December 30 at 2 pm at home against Dominican College.

Another sign of progress: Admission to the Dominican game, which was free back when the Firebirds were playing four guys at a time, will cost you $5.

This is Not a Test: District residents who are so inclined can sign up for emails or text messages about emergency alerts. (Yes, sometimes the system announces things like the mayor's State of the District address.) Soon enough, though, the alerts will come automatically, unless you opt out; D.C. and New York are the first cities to get a new federal alert system running. Because we live in the future, you'd only receive an alert while you were in D.C. or New York—go out of town before an emergency, and you won't hear anything about it. At least, not automatically; Twitter and cable TV will be sure to keep you updated, anyway. +2

House Call: The last time Mayor Vince Gray and D.C. Council Chairman Kwame "Fully Loaded" Brown showed up on Capitol Hill, they got arrested. So Capitol Police may be a little wary about a hearing scheduled for Thursday, when the two are set to testify on the District's budget before a subcommittee chaired by our real mayor, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. No word on whether the GOP will be looking into any fictional taxes. -3

Off to See the Wizards: Teal seemed to be the official color of pro sports teams in the 1990s—just ask the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Carolina Panthers, the San Jose Sharks, and yes, of course, the Washington Wizards. The team went back to what ESPN's Gregg Easterbrook likes to call the most successful color scheme in history today, unveiling a logo that nods to the former look ditched in 1995. But they kept the silly name! The good news: The team is still not named the Washington Sea Dogs. The bad news: It's also still not named the Washington Bullets. -2

Hot for Teacher: The dark art of SEO—search engine optimization—gets a lot of attention from people who run websites, and not a whole lot from anyone else; the idea is to figure out ways to get people who search the Internet for information to wind up on your page. In the case of one site, that task appears to have been made easier by a mistake at Bing, where searching for Friendly High School in Fort Washington, Md., accidentally directed visitors to pgpcs.com, which features links to porn, instead of pgpcs.org, the actual domain name of the school's site. That's why we stick to InfoSeek for all our search needs. -1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 81 Today's score: -4 Today's Needle rating: 77

The Washington Wizard isn’t gone—he’s just officially buried in a sea of red, white, and blue, likely never to be heard from again.

Ted Leonsis’ ownership group finally unveiled the much-anticipated new look for the city’s basketball team today, with dim lighting, pop music, balloons, and customized cupcakes giving the Verizon Center's practice court a feel of "high school mixer" meets "evening gala."

Welcoming fans to the future while connecting them to the color scheme of the past was the theme of the day. But Leonsis insisted that the change had more to do with the memory of former winning ways—rather than just how bad the old Wizards colors were. He focused on the word “motif” instead of the discarded option that has seemingly come to grind the owner’s gears the most: a name change. (Why wasn't that on the itinterary today? Because, Leonsis declared, modifying the intellectual property of a team takes at least 25 months and requires multiple changes in other NBA cities.) Fan satisfaction might not be at 100 percent as long as the name “Wizards” is still around, but they can be happy that an effort which took a year and, per Leonsis, "millions and millions of dollars" finally brings a much-needed upgrade.

The main changes: A sleeker font similar to Leonsis' Washington Capitals; a secondary logo featuring a lowercase “dc,” with the stem of the “d” morphing into an open hand reaching for a ball (like the old “double-L” in Bullets); and—of course—bars and stars reflecting the colors of the American flag (well, as close as Pantone 289 and Pantone 186 can get). The design team that worked with the Wizards, including a three-member crew from adidas (Leon Imas, Sumiko Kalish and Mike Bui) and Christopher Arena, the NBA’s vice president for apparel, sporting goods and basketball partnerships, even managed to incorporate the silhouette of the Washington Monument three times without it looking overly phallic.

The tallest and most recognizable part of the city’s skyline can be found in the “d” in “Wizards” on the home jerseys, in the “h” in “Washington” on the away jerseys, and in a third alternate logo that features the monument pointing surreptitiously toward a single star above, over the backdrop of a basketball. Team president Ernie Grunfeld indicated that the concept of a basketball in front of the Capitol was considered—but since Leonsis’ ownership group is called Monumental Sports, the west end of the Mall won out.

The curtain-raising was led by Leonsis, Grunfeld, executive vice president of business operations Greg Bibb, Wizards coach Flip Saunders and greats of the past Bob Dandidge and Elvin Hayes. Players John Wall and Jordan Crawford modeled, mostly giving mean mugs in uniforms—until the ice was broken when they were asked to further show off the wares, which includes a star forming a “W” underneath on the lower outer seam of their basketball shorts.

“The only thing I was upset with was the leak and then all of the articles and all of the write-ups,” Leonsis said of the roll-out, referring to an incident in early March when the current logo featuring a wizard and crescent moon made its way onto an online photo of a NBA team logo jacket, just with the colors replaced. “I would tell people, 'That’s not what we’re doing,' but no one seemed to care about that. They only wanted to generate pixels and feed their own monsters.” (Washington City Paper generated its own monster-feeding pixels, enlisting designers to imagine alternative logos.)

A “find-and-replace” version of the old Wizards logo did end up making it onto the team’s official new reproduction guideline sheet, but all indications point to it never being used again. Leonsis denied the leak and the resulting pixel monsters played any part in shaping internal opinion.

Dying the Wizard, but not killing him, means the name that has little to do with the District except some alliteration will still inundate box scores and sports ticker bottom lines. Pretty new colors and dashing logos are intended to serve as an opiate to the masses, and of course, to add to team sales receipts. But ultimately, winning is what counts—the rest is haberdashery.

Photos by Kyle Weidie

CBS's cameras were pointed at the handshake lines on the sideline. There, among the victorious Wildcats, I caught a glimpse of The Greatest/Worstest Washington Bullet/Wizard of All Time: Rod Strickland!

He's a survivor. Last April, Strickland got popped for driving under the influence by cops in Lexington, Ky. He had just finished his first season as a Kentucky assistant coach.

Some Wildcat boosters called for Strickland's ouster from the Kentucky staff at the time.

But Strickland has more lives than the average 'Cat. The Lexington bust was at least Strickland's fourth DUI arrest. He'd been arrested on the same charge three times during his days in the NBA, along with jailings for various other assaults and disorderlies.

But, as I was improperly shocked to learn on Sunday, he's still counseling impressionable student athletes.

The Bullets/Wizards were but one of the nine franchises he Hot Rodded for in a 17-year playing career. But—lucky us!—all his DUI arrests as a player came around here.

He was charged in D.C. with a DUI and disorderly conduct in September 1997, with his lawyer saying he was only pulled over during a downtown cruise because jealous MPD members saw him "driving an expensive Mercedes Benz."

Then Strickland beat DUI and reckless-driving charges after getting nabbed in 1999 running red lights and speeding downtown. Strickland plead guilty to a DUI when cops caught him swerving on the George Washington Memorial Parkway in January 2001.

My favorite Strickland story, however, doesn't involve improper operation of an automobile.

On the night of Sept. 11, 2001, while most of the nation mourned, Strick and his posse, which included latter-day disco divo Chico DeBarge, were bustin' loose in the parking lot of a TGIF restaurant in Bowie.

According to witnesses, Strickland et al brawled with staffers from the adjacent rival fern bar, Applebee's.

Rod Strickland. Sept. 11. TGIF. Applebee's. Brawl. Chico DeBarge.

I can't type that stuff enough.

Hey, Frontline: Where's the "TGIF Massacre" documentary?

Go Wildcats!

If a squad were judged by the quality of its bathrooms, UDC would again be national champs

The Caps and Wiz won their last games to end long losing streaks. Big deal. Their skeins only dated back to the beginning of the month.

UDC's men's basketball team hadn't won this year.

Like, not a single game. In all of 2010.

But with Sunday's 84-66 defeat of Virginia State, UDC stopped a 25-game slide that dated back to the middle of last season.

The win gave Jeff Ruland, the awesomely nice former Washington Bullets center and Bruise Brother, his second win in his two seasons as the Firebirds coach.

Nobody was expecting UDC to recapture the NCAA Div. II national title the school last won in 1984. But this year was supposed to be much kinder to Ruland than last, in which UDC posted a 1-20 record.  The squad became something of punchline when, thanks to quitters, academic ineligibles and injuries, Ruland was forced to play a portion of the season with only five players on the active roster.

Somehow, the school's marketing department was unable to take advantage of the sorry state of the basketball team and secure sponsorship from the Five Guys hamburger chain.

Worse, as first happened in a January home game against some institute of higher learning called Apprentice School, whenever the team lost a body to fouls or injury, the Firebirds were reduced to what you could call a Standard Shift lineup: just four on the floor.

Ruland and the Firebirds suffered more of the same at the beginning of the year. Nigel Munson, a former superstar at DeMatha and a transfer from Virginia Tech, began the season on the bench.

But Munson's healthy again, and got his first action of the year in Sunday's game. He led the Firebirds with 17 points. Another transfer brought in by Ruland, Brandon Herbert (formerly of D-1 Binghamton), added 16 points.

UDC plays again Thursday, December 30, at 3:00pm in the home gym against Alderson-Broaddus.

If you've never been to a Firebirds game, you really should make the trip, even if it's just to see the bathrooms.

No joke.

Robin Ficker

I was on the Washington Post archives site recently and noticed in the middle of the page they had a list of the most popular stories currently being pulled from 130 or so years of newspapers.

On this night, the roster looked like this:

In other words, Robin Ficker's hot! Ficker held at least two of the top five spots on the Post's charts. Ficker's been my hero since I first wrote about him a couple decades ago. Most of Ficker's fame comes from his days of heckling NBA players at Washington Bullets games at the Capital Centre, the rest comes from running for office every election cycle.

The Capital Centre's not been in the news much lately, so this charting can only mean one thing: Ficker's running again!

OK, two things: Ficker's running again, and, there's a helluva lot of opposition research going on!

Ficker is indeed on another ballot. This time, he's the Republican candidate going against Craig Rice (D) for the District 2 seat on the Montgomery County Council. Ficker, who along with being an overall nut is a fitness nut and at 67 years old has more energy than a teenager on Red Bull, has tried to outrun Rice by outpedaling him on the campaign trail.  He recently had his daughter, world class triathlete Desiree Ficker, join him on a one-day bike ride that hit all the county's outlying hotspots.

Ficker reports via email:  "We did 60 miles going from White's Ferry, Poolesville, Dickerson, Barnesville, Boyds, Germantown, Montgomery Village, Clarksburg, Damascus, Laytonsville, Brookville and Olney."

And, never one to miss an opportunity to heckle, Ficker, after being told that the Post's digital archives are likely being ransacked for dirt on him, went after Rice the way he would Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan back in the day: "I just learned that my opponent who touts himself as a financial services professional had Montgomery County Circuit Court foreclosure action 2082925V because he missed 5 consecutive mortgage payments in 2007 and had the foreclosure action stopped only by posting a bond of $48,000.  He did not vote in the 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2008! Democratic primaries.  Maybe he didn't like Obama!  Plus he took the maximum meal allowance every day while in the legislature, never itemizing like I always did, which would have enabled him to buy 150 lbs. of rice a day at Costco despite the fact that  there are all-you-can-eat lobbyist functions everyday in Annapolis for Del. Rice, that is."

Rice knows he's not up against your normal county council candidate. The plea for support on Rice's campaign web site makes him sound almost scared: "I face a formidable opponent whom we all know or have heard of...Robin Ficker.  I am sure he will try everything from distorting the truth, to rumor and conjecture, to defeat me." (The ellipses before mentioning Ficker are there to add  trace of doom...I suppose.)

Sure, Ficker's politics are a combination of fiscal conservativism and absolute insanity, but I love the guy. His campaign motto should be: "You Won't Be Bored!"

Vote Ficker on Nov. 2!

It's been said by the guy who types Cheap Seats Daily that "Big Threes don't work in Washington basketball."

But the quick and brutal collapse of the Gilbert Arenas, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison regime ever since Arenas got all firearmy with a teammate made us all nostalgic for the serenity of those days when Chris Webber, Juwan Howard and Rod Strickland embarrassed the same uniform. Legal issues undid that trio, too.

Awesome Trivia #1 about Webber-Howard-Strickland: The franchise's original Three Musketeers never won a single playoff game.

Awesome Trivia #2: The Bullets gave up four first-round picks, counting Tom Gugliotta, to the Golden State Warriors to get Chris Webber in 1994. For no playoff wins. Munch on that for a while.

Awesome Trivia #3 (which only qualifies as Awesome Trivia to those who don't have cable TV and go years at a time without attending an actual NBA game): Juwan Howard is still in the league! At 37, he's been in and out of the Portland Trail Blazers' starting lineup this season — playing center. And to think he was run out of town here with the slouch label more than a decade ago. And I wouldn't even bid $12 for a pair of Howard's sweat pants at an auction benefiting a great charity.

***

Allegedly 108,713 people attended last night's Wizards-free NBA All-Star Game in Dallas.

If true, that means that 12 times as many folks saw that game live and in person as the average TV viewership of a Washington Nationals baseball game on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) in 2008.

But I still think the Nats' long-term prospects are better than the NBA's.

***

Kyle Shanahan made his local media debut on Saturday during "Inside the Redskins," a Dan Snyder-produced infomercial hosted by Redskins communications staffers Dan Hellie and Larry Michael.

(AFTER THE JUMP: Nepotism is no longer bothersome? Brendan Gaughan crashed Dale Jr.? You use Gaughan's crash of Dale Jr. to bring up John Sr. and the Hoyas whitelessness again? Is DCSPORTSFAN.COM being sold or what?)

Shanahan, the team's new offensive coordinator and a longtime son of big boss Mike Shanahan, came off awesomely well. He looked too young and too skinny to boss NFL players around, sure, but Kyle seemed confident without any of his dad's offputting cockiness or tan. I'm for Kyle!

***

Former Georgetown basketball player and Allen Iverson roommate Brendan Gaughan was among the pack of crashers that took out Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Saturday's Nationwide race at Daytona. Gaughan's Hoyas' career was notable mainly for his one start, coming in a 1996 Christmas tournament in Las Vegas during his senior year.

Gaughan went straight to NASCAR after leaving Georgetown. He races for Rusty Wallace's race team, and his car is sponsored by South Point Hotel and Casino, a Vegas gambling outfit owned by his father, Michael Gaughan.

Normally, I would point out once again that Gaughan was that rare white kid who wore the Hoyas uniform while John Thompson II was coach, and that Michael Gaughan owned a casino that John Thompson II was trying to buy into at the time the Georgetown coach gave the younger Gaughan his token start.

But, because of the lambasting I took from color-blind Hoyas supporters the last time I mentioned Gaughan's situation, while I was also pointing out that the booming Georgetown women's program now also has a whiteless aura about it — the Gandhi-like commenter Yeller told me I should be "ashamed" of myself for "publishing this filth" — I will not bring that stuff up here.

I would also normally note that Georgetown's basketball program even under Thompson was the picture of integration next to Gaughan's current endeavor, NASCAR.

But, again, I'm not going to go there.

***

Media consolidation seems soooo 2007.

But a thread appeared on the great DC Sports Fan message board over the weekend declaring that the site, which has been the premier clearinghouse for local prep sports news and gossip for a couple years now, was about to be sold to big media outfit for big bucks.

But just as speculation from posters grew about who was going to be the new owner, and somebody declared something along the lines of "My dad's the lawyer working out the sale," the thread was yanked out of the readers' forum.

Very intriguing!

Who would buy a high school sports web site? The Washington Post, which just debuted the similarly all-encompassing high-school outlet, allmet.com? Jim Brady, because that would give him a turnkey operation as far as high school sports is concerned as he launches a site to compete with the Washington Post? Dan Snyder, because he can?

Hmmmm.

And is there really any money in web sites yet? In any case, congrats to the dcsportsfan.com folks if they are getting paid. They've worked real hard.

***

Full disclosure: I freelance music reviews for the Washington Post.

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

After spending years in a shamed self-exile, McGwire's confession came as he sniveled through an interview with Bob Costas for the MLB Network.

While saying he wished he'd never done drugs and wished he'd never played baseball during the steroids era Dead Balls Era™, McGwire also blamed baseball's lack of steroids testing for his decade-long (he says) drug-taking. He said he didn't take a lot of 'roids, and they didn't help his hitting. The forbidden fruit of the day just kept him healthy, McGwire said.

He looked sad and lost. I liked McGwire better when he said under oath that he didn't want to talk about steroids.

Baseball fans in DC sure benefited from his drug taking. During batting practice at RFK Stadium in 1999, before a Cardinals/Expos exhibition game, McGwire hit two balls to the roof. Nobody there, present company included, had ever seen anything like it, because nothing like it had ever taken place. Within a matter of seconds, McGwire had reduced every tape measure shot ever hit there — even the ones Frank Howard hit which are commemorated with painted seats in the upper deck — seem like Texas Leaguers.

I'd never witnessed any athletic feat of any sort quite like McGwire's.

But, as McGwire pointed out yesterday, the drugs didn't put those balls on the roof. Other than, you know, keeping McGwire healthy enough to do it.

I remember watching McGwire after his feats of inhuman strength. He went back behind the batting cage and canoodled with his batting practice guest that day, Goldberg, the pro wrestling champion and a guy who always looked like a fellow synthetic testosterone connoisseur. Wrestlers don't have to cry or apologize for shooting things into their bodies. In any case, McGwire dwarfed Goldberg.

(AFTER THE JUMP: What's this mean for Mike Lupica? Even Thomas Boswell got caught up in the Dead Balls Era™? Another forced Google hit for Dead Balls Era™? Whatever happened to A.J. English? Not Alex English?)

The McGwire interview just continues the pain for Mike Lupica. He's the author of "Summer of '98," a book about the McGwire/Sosa home run duel and how that season enhanced Lupica's relationship with his three sons. From the Publishers Weekly blurb on Lupica's work:

In his columns, Lupica often deals with strikes, the atrocious behavior of some overpaid athletes and all the tawdriness of sports business and hype. But, in this book, he gives himself completely over to the beauty of baseball as both a game and as an agent of bonding between fathers and children.

Amazon has 37 copies available "from $0.01."

Washington Post columnist Tom Boswell, who blasted Jose Canseco for suspected steroid use as far back as the late-1980s, threw away his suspicions and picked up pom poms a decade later.

Here's a bit of his story that ran on Sept. 14, 1998:

Yesterday, baseball produced a moment that, for me, may have been more enjoyable than McGwire's 62nd homer: Sosa hit his 61st and 62nd. Hit them in a crucial game in the wild-card race won, 11-10, by the Cubs in the 10th inning. He hit them at Wrigley Field as the wonderful ivy-addled loonies went nuts. Both balls were crushed at least 480 feet.

Yesterday, Sosa matched McGwire in every way. When Sosa came to the plate with one out, nobody on base and the Cubs trailing by two runs in the ninth, my 11-year-old son Russell was literally jumping up and down in front of the TV.

Big winner yesterday: Barry Bonds. Let the feds try to put him in jail now, with everybody else already outed. He's in, well, the clear. (How slow are the wheels of justice moving in the U.S. vs. Bonds, anyway?)

The court of public opinion, if no other judicial body, has already convicted McGwire's rival Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, Manny Ramirez, and Rafael Palmeiro of using drugs. Since baseball locker rooms are real small and baseball contracts are real big, common sense tells us now that everybody used the so-called performance enhancing drugs.

Now we just have to wait for Cal Ripken to come out and confess to being a P.E.D.-ophile. Just say you took 'em and let us close the book on (here it comes!) the Dead Balls Era™.

***

Where are they now? Well, here's former Bullet AJ English.

A small story on the wires about a Delaware high school basketball game caught my eye.

At the Appoquinimink boys basketball game against Howard on Tuesday evening, junior A.J. English III, who was on the bench in street clothes while serving a suspension, left the court and went into the locker room along with his brother A’Jen, a sophomore starting guard, at the conclusion of the first quarter and neither player returned.

They're sons of AJ English, who the Washington Bullets got with a second round pick in 1990 draft. English had a quiet two year career in the pros — and is remembered in NBA circles only as the guy who was always confused with the far more successful Alex English.

I, for one, still confuse the two. Which is the only reason I read the story. But the part about brothers standing up for each other as the English boys did got me intrigued, and through some Googling it seems AJ III is a hot prospect for Appoquinimink who got in a spot of trouble with the beautifully named basketball Coach, Spencer Dunkley, and that got his former Bullet dad, who goes by A.J. Jr. in these matters, into a tussle with the coach in the local media.

First, after a loss, Appoquinimink coach told the local paper, the Middletown Transcript: “Can't play with them. Can't win with them. Won't play with them. Don't need them. Please put that in the newspaper. Thanks, that's all I have to say."

So the high school beat reporter went to the former Bullet. And got this:

A.J. English Jr. had this to say about Appoquinimink High coach Spencer Dunkley’s quotes after a 62-61 loss to Middletown:

“That doesn’t deserve a response,” A.J. Jr. said. “My maturity level allows me to take the high road on that. Any coach knows you keep that kind of stuff in the lockerroom and out of the newspaper. How can any kid trust him after that?

“He showed his inexperience by making those statements.”

Appo's leading scorer A.J. English III was on the bench as time wound down and his team was down a point.English Jr. said A.J. III was suspended until Monday, Dec. 21 and is uncertain if he'll return.

I do get giggles out of the lengths some parents go to for alliterative kids names, tho. "A'Jen" seems a stretch. Guess "Alex" wasn't on the board.

***

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

So Snyder has apparently asked that the flight-tracking services no longer divulge where the plane's going. When you punch in Redskins 1's digits over at flightaware.com now, you get this message:

DSWA LLC (DULLES VA)
This aircraft (N904DS) is not available for tracking per request from the owner/operator

***

Dan Snyder, of course, has more than flight-trackers to blame for watering down the Mike Shanahan story. For Redskins marketing purposes, NBA Commissioner David Stern picked the worst time to announce he'd banished Gilbert Arenas. Within hours of Shanahan's introductory press conference at Redskins Park, it was all-Gilbert, all-the-time on local sportsradio. The Arenas' story got the above the fold slot on the Washington Post's front page that would have gone to the coach. Arenas knocked Shanahan below-the-fold on the sports page, too.

***

Moral #1 of the Gilbert Arenas tale: Quirky always end bad.

Moral #2: Big Threes don't work in Washington basketball.

We now know that none of the high hopes fans had for a lineup that put Arenas, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison on the floor will be realized. That's the greatest flop since Chris Webber, Juwan Howard and Rod Strickland wore the same uniform. When Webber retired in the spring of 2008, I looked back over the years that trio spent in town. Good golly, was their fall epic.

Strickland and Howard and Webber spent much of their Bullets/Wizards careers getting arrested for driving offenses. Strickland's been confirmed as a louse in the years since he left, and Howard went on to have a solid and amazingly long post-Wizards career. He's still at it, and is now in his 19th NBA season, playing with Portland. Howard had 13 points in Tuesday's loss to Memphis, and is averaging about 5 points and four rebounds a game on the season.

But Webber doesn't get nearly enough credit for his jerkitude. He was a dick as soon as the Bullets traded four first-round picks to the Golden State Warriors to bring him here in 1994. (Yup, four first rounders — the Warriors got Tom Gugliotta, who was the No. 6 overall pick in the NBA's 1992 draft, plus three future #1 picks.)

One harmless example: Early in his first season here, Webber went to the Washington Times to complain about the food served on the team’s chartered flights. “I don’t eat beef,” he said.

Owner Abe Pollin ended up buying the team its own plane a few years later. Webber didn't reform, and was all but given away to Sacramento not long after he was pepper-sprayed and busted on petty traffic and drug charges by Prince George’s police in January 1998.

The big three of Strickland, Howard and Webber never won a single playoff game.

But, they never pulled a gun on anybody, either.

***

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

But not this Washington. Greg Nickels, the mayor of Seattle, Wash., has officially dedicated today to Baylor.

Baylor was in Seattle for a couple years of college ball. So if he gets a day named after him there, Baylor should have a day named after him in D.C., too. And a street named after him. And a building. Maybe even a neighborhood. Why not the whole town! (Instead, all he's got is Ginuwine — a D.C. native whose real name is Elgin Baylor Lumpkin.)

Butt seriously: Baylor's the best basketball player this city ever produced — and that's saying something — and he remains a legendary figure to an elderly generation of black folks. His lack of any real presence in his hometown is a crime. He's 75 years old now. Because the white media ignored his side of town, Baylor never got his due when he was a schoolboy god at Spingarn and local playgrounds in the early 1950s, though he was literally changing the way the game of basketball was played.

Give Elgin Baylor his due now, D.C.!

Who do I call?

***

More evidence that the Redskins don't have god on their side.

(AFTER THE JUMP: Christians don't turn the other cheek on "redskins"? Dan Steinberg calls off the Kornheiser/Wise war? Without telling me? FIOS is great, unless you're a Caps fan? Chris Webber, down and out, still gets razzed for that timeout?)

The Supreme Court just declined to hear a case filed by a group of American Indians who had argued that the term "redskins" is too offensive to be afforded trademark protections.

A lower federal court ruled that the plaintiffs waited too long to file the suit, because they were of legal age when the Redskins registered their trademarks in 1967. The Supreme Court's refusal to look into that decision means Dan Snyder's marks are safe, for now.

But the various courts of public opinion are now starting to weigh in on the case. And some men and women of the cloth want folks to know that they think "redskins" should go.

This from the Church Report, a newsletter that describes itself as "Christian. Conservative. Concise.":

United Methodist leaders are disappointed the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal challenging the National Football League’s use of the mascot and term “Redskins.”

But they have vowed to continue the church’s struggle opposing team names and symbols that demean and offend Native Americans.

“This is a very disappointing development, but we stand with Native Americans, especially Native American children, across the country who are continually confronted by racially offensive sports mascots,” said Jim Winkler, top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society. “We oppose any and all uses of racial sports mascots as contrary to The United Methodist Church’s position condemning racism and recognizing it as a sin."

The United Methodist Church has denounced the continued use of Native American names as nicknames for sport teams as “racist and dehumanizing,” according to the 2008 Book of Resolutions.

I know Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I'm not up on my Book of Resolutions.

***

The Great Dan Steinberg should go to work for Bob Arum or Don Corleone. Steinberg showed himself this week as the top matchmaker in town, with the power to build up feuds and call 'em off when the spirit moves.

He got the long-simmering Tony Kornheiser/Mike Wise rivalry to boil over on Tuesday with a post Steinographing how Kornheiser had gone after Wise on his WTEM show.

Because of Steinberg's post, Wise was getting hammered by readers and listeners to his WFJK radio show to come back at Kornheiser. And so he did. And Steinberg was there, Steinographing every word!

Then yesterday, just as the Kornheiser/Wise brouhaha was making Redskins/Cowboys look like Regis/Kelly, Steinberg counseled the involved parties and Bog readers that the hottest DC media feud in, well, at least several days wasn't worth it.

"[W]e all basically realize that this is beneath us, and that you, the reader/listener, have better things to worry about," Steinberg wrote.

Cold water!

I didn't get the word that Kornheiser/Wise had been called off in time. So I tried to exploit the feud to talk about me. Uh oh!

***

Turns out some folks who have cable ain't getting all the Caps games. Apparently if you live anywhere in the D.C. market and have cable but don't have FIOS, you get to watch every shot Ovechkin takes. But if you have top-shelf FIOS service in certain parts of Maryland, you don't get to watch every shot. Games are blacked out on FIOS networks, say angry fans.

It's all to techy for me and my rabbit ears. I don't have cable of any sort, so I don't get any Caps games on TV other than the NBC national telecasts. I get my hockey by listening to the great Steve Kolbe on radio or "watching" the games on ESPN's "GameCast."

The tension you get following ANY game on a computer screen — football, basketball, baseball, and even hockey — is amazing. Sounds weird, I know, but try it and get back to me.

I never thought anything would top baseball on the radio for me, but GameCast and its brethren services (yahoo, MLB, etc.) are as addictive as Grand Theft Auto.

'Course, I've never played Grand Theft Auto — I'd have to unplug my rabbit ears to get the game console in. But I hear it's, like, really addictive!

***

Chris Webber's restaurant, Center Court with C-Webb, has closed.

This from the Sacramento Bee's write-up of the former Washington Bullet's travails:

A recording on the restaurant answering machine said that Chris Webber is calling a time out for his sports bar and restaurant at 3600 N. Freeway Blvd.

He said Webber is "calling a time out!"

Get it?

Maybe Elgin Baylor shouldn't have a restaurant named after him...

***

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

Hayes was the star power forward on the Baltimore/Washington Bullets during the 1970s. The team went to the NBA Finals four times in that decade.

FOUR times! The NBA Finals!

Four times! (OK: Hayes was only there for three of 'em. But, still...)

And, of course, the Bullets won one of those title tilts, during the 1977-78 season.

The late-model Bullets, playing under another name, are already in last place in the division, six games out of first place after playing only nine games, and, as Eastern Conference champs Cleveland come to town tomorrow, hope is scarce.

The cure? Easy! Just get it over with and change the damn name back to "Bullets," Abe Pollin! What could it hurt?

Happy Birthday, Elvin!

***

Speaking of names that should change: The Redskins won't lose trademark rights just yet.

The Supreme Court disclosed yesterday that it won't hear an appeal filed on behalf of an American Indian group that sued the Redskins, saying the team's name is offensive and therefore under federal law shouldn't be afforded trademark protections.

Redskins lawyers, including Dave "Yeah, That's the Ticket!" Donovan argued successfully that the plaintiffs waited too long to file the suit.

(AFTER THE JUMP: Another Redskins trademark lawsuit bubbles up? Why doesn't Dan Snyder just change the name? Maryland Nighthawks come back with a new name? With sign ban lifted, Redskins fans are back to complaining about players? Redskins fans worry that FedExField guards will turn "hi-def" cameras on them looking for bad sign carriers? Birthers take their fight to basketball? Ex-high school star WASN'T 24 years old when he played prep hoops here?)

So, the case was never decided on the merits of the charge that "Redskins" is illegally offensive. But, according to the Wall Street Journal, another, younger class of plaintiffs, who will argue they found the the team's name offensive as soon as they came of legal age, will make the very same allegation in a similar suit.

Just change the damn name now and get it over with, Dan Snyder. What could it hurt?

***

Speaking of Redskins victories: The Skins' surprising, exciting win over the Broncos has let fans be fans again.

"The weather was great, the tailgate was fantastic, the team showed more resilience than I've seen all year and they managed to score more than 17 points for the 1st time in close to 20 games," writes Dave Alperin of his game-day experience.

Alperin hasn't been this happy after a day at FedExField in quite a while. He's a pivotal figure in the 2009 Redskins fan uprising, as the season turned into a sort of Prague Spring for the folks who line Dan Snyder's pockets. Alperin is the guy who first alerted me to Snyder's sign ban, after he had stadium security aggressively search him at the gate before the Tampa Bay game a month ago.

Snyder's jack-booted thugs confiscated an anti-Snyder sign and assorted agit-prop he had fashioned at home the night before that game, after reading FedExField's rule book to make sure such stuff was indeed allowed under the rules.

Alperin told the guards he'd read the rules on Snyder's own web site, redskins.com. But as they were throwing his handiwork into the trash pile full of other fans' anti-Snyder art, Snyder's guards told him the rules had just changed. No more signs.

But there's been a change of heart, or at least a rules change, at Redskins Park, either because management was listening to fans or because Snyder realized how bad it would look to have the stadium ban still in place on the same week he's holding a "best sign" contest for Redskins fans at a local bar as part of a "Beat Dallas!" promotion for his radio station.

Whatever the reason, Snyder rescinded the sign ban before the Denver game.

But in typical Snyder fashion, the Redskins lost whatever PR benefits they would have gained from the move by waiting to announce that the ban had been lifted until just a couple hours before kickoff, when fans planning to attend the game had already left their homes.

"I heard about the rescinding of the sign ban after I got home from the game," says Alperin via email.  "There were a couple of signs that said 'Fire Vinny' below me in our section but I think most people didn't get the message until it was too late to take action.  Lots of t-shirts.  'Snyder Sucks', 'Worst Owner Ever', etc.  My daughter and I wore the 'Anti-Synder' shirts and security did not hassle us at all."

Alperin also note that "there were more replays and fewer commercials." Maybe the times really are a'changin'.

Yet fans who showed up will remember the game itself more than whatever alterations were made to stadium operations.

Here's how Alperin ended his game-day recap: "This game also showed me that as much as I love [Clinton] Portis, I don't think he is an effective running back anymore.  He just has had too many carries over his career."

Now THAT's a fan.

***

Another sign, so to speak, of the distrust Redskins fans have for management: I got an email from another ticketholder who told me that at the gate before the Denver game FedExField security guards were telling fans "that 'hi-def cameras'" had been installed at the stadium and that security staffers "would be using the cameras to monitor signs" and going after folks with any signs that weren't suitable.

I asked the team yesterday if what the guards were allegedly saying was true, and Snyder spokesman Karl Swanson quickly emailed back: "We have always had cameras in stadium and parking lots.  They are there for security purposes, not monitoring of fans or signs."

The only part of the allegation that I found suspicious was that guards were saying "hi-def" cameras were being used for the surveillance. As Swanson himself has told fans over the years whenever they complain about the stadium's analog minitron that occasionally shows replays: FedExField isn't wired for hi-def.

***

Basketball birthers shot down: Mouphtaou Yarou, a Villanova freshman who played high school hoops locally at Rockville's Montrose Christian, is officially not 25 years old.

Last week, the Sporting News reported that in paperwork from the 2007 Africa Cup tournament, where he was a participant, Yarou's birthday was listed as June 26, 1984.

But, on Friday, Villanova officials said they'd gotten a copy of Yarou's birth certificate, and that while his birthday is indeed June 26, the year was 1990. He's only 19.

Something I learned today: If he were in fact 25, he would not be eligible to play under NCAA rules. I know missionaries and military vets and multi-sport stars can play at older ages. This just in: the NCAA's rules are stupid.

***

Listen up, Wizards and Redskins: The Maryland Nighthawks got it over with and changed the damn name: The Nighthawks, a local minor league basketball outfit, sat out last season, but are about to return as the Maryland GreenHawks, the most eco-friendly professional sports franchise.

Boy wonder general manager Adam Dantus tells me the squad will sport literally and figuratively green uniforms and sneakers.

All the details will come out when the Greenhawks are officially unveiled tomorrow during a ceremony at, ahem, Bethesda Green.

One tidbit about the GreenHawks that already has leaked: Byron Mouton of Maryland fame will head up the roster. He will heretofore be known as Greenron Greenton.

OK, I made that up about Mouton changing his name. But, in minor league basketball, anything's possible.

***

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

Six Flags' reorganization is nowhere near complete, and god only knows what's beneath the surface of this debacle. But from the sound of things, when all's said and done Snyder will still be chairman of Six Flags board of directors when that company comes out of bankruptcy.

How can this be? In Snyder's world, what do you have to do to lose your job?

One small aspect of the fiasco: Would somebody PLEASE explain to me how Snyder was allowed to pay a whopping $175 million for Dick Clark Productions using private equity money from Red Zone Capital, a fund he controls, then turn around and sell 40 percent of Dick Clark Productions to Six Flags, using public equity money, which he also controlled? And Snyder did this deal, remember, in 2007, while Six Flags was on the way to the bottom and he was already blaming the company's woes on its billions of dollars of debt.

Snyder made the Dick Clark Productions sale around the time he made a licensing deal between Johnny Rockets, another Red Zone-owned company and controlled by Snyder, and Six Flags. Again, would SOMEBODY please explain to me how that's allowed?

I mean, I make a lot of fun of Lindsay Czarniak and Dan Hellie working for Snyder's Redskins Broadcast Network and WRC News at the same time. And that really does bug me. But Czarniak and Hellie's conflict of interest ain't a hair off the ass of the conflict of interest Dan Snyder had in dealing with himself during Red Zone's sale of a huge chunk of Dick Clark Productions to Six Flags. Let alone the Johnny Rockets deals.

How hard a bargain do you think private-money Dan Snyder drove with public-money Dan Snyder in making these deals?

(AFTER THE JUMP: More on Dan Snyder, Red Zone and Dick Clark? DeMatha sends more jocks to college? Remember Harvey Grant? The DC Armor are gonna just disappear? Somebody's still kvetching about the El Al/FedExField comparison?)

And what bang have Six Flags investors gotten out of the tens of millions of stockholders' bucks Snyder threw at himself during the 40 percent sale of Dick Clark Productions? Who's looking out for who?

Who knows what the Dick Clark Productions ownership situation will be when this comes out of bankruptcy.

But, again, it looks like Snyder will still be in charge of both Red Zone and Six Flags at that time. Maybe he'll have a chance to buy Dick Clark Productions from himself during the bankruptcy, then sell Dick Clark Productions to himself all over again.

Seriously, in Snyder's world, what do you have to do to lose your job?

***

From our Hyattsville bureau: DeMatha's library will be packed tomorrow to unveil the latest batch of athletes that the sporting powerhouse will send up to the next level.

Among the more notables in the jock octet featured in the scholarship signing ceremony:

Jerian Grant, son of Washington Bullets 1988 first-round pick Harvey Grant, will announce he will attend Notre Dame. That'll make him the first DeMatha basketball player to commit to South Bend since Hall of Famer Adrian Dantley back in 1973.

And, Casey Thrush will be the first DeMatha student to accept an NCAA hockey scholarship while still in high school, representing the Stags' desire to dominate yet another prep sport.

This signing ceremony, which is surely bigger than any signing ceremony any other local high school will have this year, does not include DeMatha football players. DeMatha already sends more folks to the NFL than any school in the country. They're doing something right in Hyattsville.

***

The return of the DC Armor for a second season is looking bleaker and bleaker. This update from oursportcentral.com's Weekly Pro Sports League and Franchise Report:

American Indoor Football Association: The future of the D.C. Armor in the AIFA is in doubt. The team played before very small crowds in its inaugural 2009 AIFA season and it is unknown whether the franchise will attempt to play a 2010 season in another venue or simply be discontinued.

Somebody's gonna miss you, DC Armor.

***

JTA, which describes itself as the "Global News Service of the Jewish People," and a media organization I have long suspected is controlled by Jews, had some fun with Cheap Seats Daily's comparison of the security at FedExField during the Prague Spring for Redskins fans to the security of El Al Airways.

I had gotten a call from a friend before the Eagles game a few Mondays ago, who told me about getting the once over and then some from a guard at the FedEx gate. So I wrote:

The only first-person account I got was from a friend who called me from FedExField just after being searched at the gate like he was boarding an El Al flight.

He asked the frisker, “Are you looking for anti-Snyder paraphernalia?”

“As a matter of fact, I am,” the guard told him.

That caught the attention of El Al account manager Ron Glickman, who wrote us to say that "the checks that one would go through for an El Al flight are a lot less hands on" than what I wrote about FedEx. El Al, Glickman said, hasn't done done any [body checks] in the past year in the entire United States.”

And Glickman's quotes, in turn, inspired JTA blogger Eric Fingerhut to wonder what entering FedEx would be like like if in fact El Al did take over security:

You'd get to the gate and they'd ask: "So, did you write your sign yourself? Did anyone help you to write your sign? When did you write your sign? Has it been with you since you wrote it?...

That guy's funny!

***

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

"We feel frustration and we feel sorry for our fans," Snyder told a crowd at an event the Redskins organized. He was standing at a podium in front of a gang of players in jerseys and behind a placard that said "Children Come First." As I noticed during a shot of the owner's box in last week's Monday Night Football broadcast, Snyder looks smaller these days than he ever did. (Seriously: Check out this video from WUSA.) Reminds me of what happened to Rev. Dimmesdale in the Cliff's Notes version of The Scarlet Letter.

(AFTER THE JUMP: 2% of WRC viewers are "Thrilled!" by Dan Snyder's mini-contrition? The Bathroom Diaries are looking for a few good places to squat? Have they considered FedExField's beer-friendly head? The EagleBank Bowl adds a conference? Wes Unseld gets a street named after him? Will it be clogged in the middle at all times?)

After leaving the stage, Snyder talked briefly with reporters, but Brett Haber reports for WUSA-TV that the owner refused to answer any questions about the treatment of the fans he feels sorry for, the ones he's taken signs from and ejected for yelling anti-management slogans or wearing anti-Snyder shirts.

Still, just in case this press stop signaled the dawning of a new era of glasnost at Redskins Park, I contacted the team to request a turn at interviewing Snyder.

Longtime Snyder spokesman Karl Swanson, who hasn't been as available to me as he once was, wrote back quickly, just like the old days.

"I’m not sure I’d call being stopped on a sidewalk by a couple of reporters an interview," Swanson said, "but in any event he does not plan on any formal interviews during the season."

Hey, informal's cool with me, Dan! Have you seen my wardrobe? Informal's pretty much the only game I can play!

But I'm guessing Swanson's telling me my request has been denied.

WRC-TV posted some video of Snyder's comments on its Web site last night, along with a "Sound Off" function where viewers could rate what they watched.

The scoring, as of this morning:

Thrilled: 2%
Sad:  3%
Intrigued: 4%
Bored: 8 %
Laughing: 17 %, and, the big winner,
Furious: 66%

***

The Bathroom Diaries, which bills itself as "The World's Largest Database of Restroom Locations," is now taking nominations for the 2009-2010 Golden Plunger Awards. These honors go annually to the best restrooms around the globe.

I think the FedExField bathrooms deserve serious consideration.

The Bathroom Diaries Web site lists past winners of the Plunger. Sure, they all look less viral than Snyder's loo. But, far as I can tell, no previous Plunger honoree had guys with big tubs of Bud Light waiting for you as you flush.

And as both my readers know: FedEx is the home of BeerInTheBathroomsGate.

(Check out the mission statement from The Bathroom Diaries, a site founded in 2000 by Lynchburg, Va.'s Mary Ann Racin that now lists over 12,000 places to do your business: "Few would visit a country without some advanced information, yet our tender bits are exposed to uncharted territories with no help or assistance.  At our most vulnerable, we are blind. Well, no more.")

***

The EagleBank Bowl has broadened its horizons. Organizers have announced they will accept schools from the Big 12 Conference beginning next year.

The game was originally designed to feature one of the service academies against an ACC squad each year. But that setup relied on the military schools fielding bowl-eligible football teams. Navy did its part last season, winning enough games in the regular season to earn a matchup with Wake Forest at RFK in the inaugural tilt. Air Force is a member of the Mountain West Conference, and its obligations to the MWC, which include mandatory appearances in bowls which that conference has contracts with, have proven more cumbersome than EagleBank Bowl planners counted on.

And then there's Army, which just isn't bowl material most seasons. Army is supposed to be the academy invitee to this year's EagleBank Bowl. But Army's on the bubble, at best, for bowl eligibility. Six wins are required. Army is now 3-5, and will lose this weekend at Air Force.

Army could well beat VMI and North Texas later this month. That would put the team at 5-6 heading into the season finale.

That'll mean its bowl eligibility, and a lot of EagleBank Bowl dollars, will be decided against Navy. Army will be a massive underdog going into that game.

The new deal with the Big 12 will take some pressure off organizers to find eligible teams. And Navy can still play every third year.

(The Big 12 pact doesn't kick in until next season. If Army loses out and things get really rough this year, the EagleBank folks can always add a Gary Clark Party to the agenda to get local folks really interested.)

***

Wes Unseld, known during his NBA days for clogging thoroughfares, now has one named after him. Baltimore officials announced that the 200 block of what was once known as Hilton Street will now be called Unselds Way.

From the street-renaming announcement, I learned a couple things about Unseld that I probably should have known. First, he and his wife have operated a private school in Baltimore, the Unselds School, since the late 1970s. Also, Unseld has lived in Baltimore since coming to the Bullets in 1968, having stayed there even after Abe Pollin moved the team to Landover in 1973.

So for all the years Wes Unseld was a fixture in this market, he never lived around here.

***

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

Over the years, there aren't many things I've written about more than Monk and Mann's training center.

For a decade, the beloved former Redskins said the Carver Theatre building was going to be rebuilt by their non-profit organization, called the Good Samaritan Foundation, and promised that the building would become an epicenter of goodwill in a neighborhood historically lacking in it.

It never happened. But every time I wrote that the training center still wasn't open — almost like "Saturday Night Live"'s repeating that Francisco Franco was "still dead" in every fake newscast — officials of the organization continued insisting that their actions would soon back up Monk and Mann's words.

It's not like they didn't use Good Samaritan Foundation to make themselves look good. Monk's son even spoke of the organization in the speech he gave during Dad's Hall of Fame induction in August 2008.

(AFTER THE JUMP: Still more on the neverending story? Karl Swanson holds no grudge against the Washington Post? Roger Phegley DIDN'T mess up the Bullets forever and ever? Clearing on the Road to 100 Losses?)

And, of course, they used the promise of a job training center on the other side of the river to raise money, literally millions of dollars in federal grants and through gala dinners and celebrity golf tournaments. Congress kicked in at least $775,000 in the 2003 and 2004 federal budgets, which, according to bill granting the sum, would be used “to acquire and renovate a building to expand outreach and mentoring services to at-risk District of Columbia youths.”

Now, we know there won't be a training center.

A charter school bought the property from Monk and Mann's organization and opened it up as a middle school. There isn't even a Good Samaritan Foundation anymore.

To learn yesterday that the training center won't ever happen, after all that talk from such major local figures, and all that money they collected from well-wishers to accomplish their allegedly noble goal, is just amazing. I can't say I didn't see this sort of bailout coming. But I'm stunned.

I hope they come up with a decent explanation for what went wrong.

In the meantime. I'm gonna have to go dig out my copy of the 1988 Super Bowl, with Monk and Mann making huge plays as the Skins crushed the Broncos and gave me the greatest day of my sports fan life. Good god, they were awesome football players.

***

Cleaning out some sports pages:

From Sunday's Post: Karl Swanson still talks to the Washington Post! Who knew?

And, J. Freedom du Lac provides an oral history of the Bullets 1979 trip to China.

The highlight of the proceedings for me comes with du Lac dusting off Roger Phegley.

Phegley, then a first-year forward with the Bullets, delivers period-piece quotes about the voyage, among them: "You'd take a picture of the huge crowd with a Polaroid, and that baby would develop right in front of their faces and the Chinese would just freak out."

Dig!

The story made me reconsider Phegley's local legacy. I've always thought the beginning of the end of the Bullets dynasty — Awesome Trivia: the team made four NBA finals appearance in the same decade a feat matched by only the Celtics and Lakers — came when the Bullets used a 1978 first round pick on the unknown from Bradley.

I mean, Phegley really was a bust with the Bullets.

But, looking back at the detritus chosen shortly after him, and it's tough to make a case that then-Bullets GM Bob Ferry screwed up by picking Phegley. Marty Byrnes, anybody? Frankie Sanders? Buster Matheney?

Sure, it had Larry Bird, but the Class of '78 was for the dogs.

(Here's a photo from the story of Phegley, Abe Pollin, Wes Unseld, Jerry Sachs...and some woman who doesn't rate a mention. If that's Irene Pollin, you know the Post got at least one phone call about the omission.)

Nice to see du Lac getting back to basketball. Back when he was at the Sacramento Bee, du Lac famously broke the news that Chris Webber  was rubbing naughty bits with Tyra Banks. The story got the Kings' serial underaccomplisher to, as Phegley would say, freak out on the media in general and du Lac in particular.

(Full disclosure: When du Lac was the Post's rock critic, he let me review a Jonas Brothers show for the paper, and we've since become friendly enough that he lets me call him "Josh.")

***

Nationals get blanked in Philadelphia.

Now at 50-94, the Nats' Road to 100 Losses starts looking like a driveway.

With the shutout/blowout, the Nats also re-took the Major League lead in Worst Run Differential, having been outscored by opponents by 131 runs on the season.

***

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

The most interesting reading in the 14-page pullout comes in one of its few advertisements. Main Line Animal Rescue, a Philadelphia group that apparently specializes in saving "Bully Breeds" of dogs, bought space in the section.

The ad copy, placed alongside a photo of what I assume is a pit bull:

Attention Football Fans: Philadelphia is playing Washington on October 26.

Every time Michael Vick is tackled during the game, Main Line Animal Rescue will donate 5 bags of dog food to your local animal shelter.

"Because there are no second chances on an empty stomach."

Consider volunteering at your local shelter on the day of the game. Spend some time walking, or brushing, or bathing, or hugging a homeless Pit Bull.

Not exactly the bounty on players' heads that led to the famous "Body Bag Game" between the Skins and Eagles in 1990, but, still.

My sense is the outrage against Vick has waned so much and so fast that by the time the Eagles get to DC, there'll be a lot more talk about the wildcat offense than dog killing.

(By the way: The other ads in the Post's football section are: four small spots for imported car dealers, one for a job fair, and a half-pager, the biggest in the section) announcing a blowout chain saw sale. Men! Men! Men!)

***

(AFTER THE JUMP: Wilbon already blames Snyder for lousy season? Kornheiser speaks no Snyder? Unseld whupped Yao's dad? The Asian Bias™ in golf affects White House visit? The Nats Countdown to 100 Losses starts now? Pedro Martinez already has more wins than most Nats?)

***

Back in the regular sports section, the Post runs a column, headlined "Hot Topic," that has  Michael Wilbon downgrading his record forecast for the 2009 Skins from 11-5 to 8-8. Wilbon says he ordered the recount because of his paper's fabulous series on the Redskins selling tickets to scalpers and suing down-on-their-luck grannies.

But where the heck did 11-5 come from in the first place?

***

Wilbon's PTI partner Tony Kornheiser restarted his radio show yesterday. I listened to most of the two-hour broadcast, but didn't hear any discussion of Dan Snyder's ticket issues. Far as I and Wilbon can tell, those are still the hottest topics in town. Kornheiser now works at WTEM-AM, owned by Snyder.

After Kornheiser's show, I flipped to rival sportstalker WJFK-FM, for Washington Post columnist Mike Wise's program, in time to hear Wise's sidekick say, "Call us if you hate the owner!"

WJFK isn't owned by Snyder.

***

The Bullets/Wizards are in China again. A delegation led by Wes Unseld, Gheorghe Muresan, Caron Butler and Randy Foye (a newcomer who is only less familiar in the provinces than in DC) showed up in Beijing to remember a pioneering barnstorming tour of the Far East arranged 30 years ago by Abe Pollin.

No team had ever been to China before the Bullets. Awesome trivia from Unseld: The former Great Wall of the Bullets' front line remembers playing all those years ago in Shanghai against Yao Ming's dad, a year before the future Houston Rockets center was born.

Pollin helped make the world a lot smaller than it was back then.

***

Which makes this a perfect time for an update on...the Asian Bias™ in Golf! Greg Norman, who was in town for a White House visit yesterday, sees that golf's future is in the East. The Australian legend is captaining the "International" squad in the upcoming (and always bogus) President's Cup, a silly nationalistic links exercise that was founded in Northern Virginia at the Lansdowne resort but will be held next month at Harding Park in San Francisco. While meeting with the president, Norman was taking a lot of stuff from golf fans for using his captain's choice to put Ryo Ishikawa, a 17-year-old from Japan, on the un-American President's Cup team. Ishikawa will join Y.E. Yang of Korea.

The USA squad's proof of the Asian Bias™ comes with Anthony Kim and, of course, Woods.

Last week, 17-year-old Byeong-Hun An of Seoul, South Korea, became the youngest golfer ever to win the 2009 U.S. Amateur championship. The tournament record for youth was previously held by Danny Lee, also a South Korean native, who was just 18 when he won the 2008  U.S. Amateur. Lee broke the record set by the Godfather of the Asian Bias™ in golf: Tiger Woods.

The 2009 U.S. Women's Amateur Championship was won recently by Jennifer Song of Daejon, Korea.

Cheap Seats Daily, intrigued as all get out by the Eastern dominance of what just yesterday was the lily-whitest sport in the history of man, promises to continue to hype the Asian Bias™ until Lou Dobbs treats our reports like real news.

***

The Nats lost to the Phils, 5-3.

Let the Countdown to 100 Losses begin! Washington is now 47-91, and would have to go 16-8 to avoid a third season in a row with triple-figure losses.

That ain't gonna happen: 18 of the remaining games are against teams above .500, including nine vs. either the Phillies or Dodgers.

Pedro Martinez got the win for Philadelphia. If memory serves, Martinez hadn't thrown a pitch this season before last week. But he now has a 4-0 record. Before yesterday's September call-ups, which included Shairon Martis (5-3 with the Nats prior to being sent to the minors), Washington had only one pitcher on the roster with more wins in 2009 than Martinez — John Lannan, now at 8-10. Amazing...

***

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