At least that's what an official for the NBC affiliate tells me.

WRC's news department has a long track record, stretching all the way back to Dan Snyder's earliest days as Redskins owner, of working for the team while also reporting on it.

The station's great and dead George Michael got the ball rolling by doing play-by-play for the exhibition games produced by the Redskins Broadcast Network, which is owned by Snyder, shortly after Snyder bought the team. Michael also served as emcee for the Snyder-produced coaches shows aired by the station. Michael, til the day he retired, forced his underlings to work on Snyder-produced infomercials about the team that ran on WRC.

Such a relationship wouldn't be tolerated in any other area of news reportage, but WRC management ignored reality and honesty by denying year after year there was any conflict of interest. Things reached the point of ridiculousness last year, when Czarniak, the most watchable sportscaster in the marketplace by a few 300-yard-shuttle runs, delivered reports about the Redskins on WRC's news broadcasts while wearing golf shirts with Redskins logos.

Nothing wrong with that, said WRC management.

But Czarniak's conflicted costume-wearing days appear to be over. After Czarniak and fellow WRC staffer/Redskins employee Dan Hellie didn't appear on the team's preseason game broadcasts, I asked station management if the news people were still working for Snyder's Redskins Broadcast Network.

Nope.

"We did our own pre-season and post-season broadcasts just for our air," said the WRC official. "That was the extent of [Czarniak and Hellie's] involvement." No reason was given for the change.

But...."post-season broadcasts," eh? The Redskins?

Good work if you can get it!

The goodbye to the longtime WRC-4 sportscaster also served as a memorial to an era where local news operations were a much bigger deal than today. So even WRC's competitors, who have all been whittling away at the resources and time devoted to sports in recent years and handing them over to coverage of yesterday's weather and "American Idol" updates and the like, did strong Michael pieces.

The strongest came from WUSA. After a long segment on the service that had Joe Gibbs and Art Monk's remembrances of Michael taped outside the National Cathedral, sports director Brett Haber ad libbed a sweet appreciation of the glory days of DC sportscasting.

Haber had at least one famous run-in with the departed sportscaster, when Michael screamed about a perceived slight and acted like he wanted to drop the gloves with Haber, then at Channel 5, in the parking lot at Redskins Park. But that was years ago, when Michael was wound tighter than a Titleist. All fences had between them were mended before Michael's death this past Christmas Eve. So Haber, going live from the WUSA desk, didn't have to fake any of the nice words he said about the recently departed former competitor.

But the best part came when Haber turned to Topper Shutt, the WUSA weatherman who has been at the station since 1988, and paid tribute to one of Shutt's not-so-recently departed former colleague, Glenn Brenner.

"It's been [18] years since we lost Glenn Brenner," Haber said to Shutt and the viewing audience, "and as a guy who sits in Glenn's chair every day, I aspire to live up to his legacy."

For any viewer who was around DC when Brenner ruled – he was at the station from 1977 until just before his 1992 death, and served as the sportscasting equivalent of Mozart to Michael's Salieri — Haber's short, sweet speech provided a fabulous Hallmark moment. I worshipped Brenner. Everybody I knew around here when Brenner was on the air worshipped the guy. So Haber's homage made me weepy.

But Haber hadn't grown up here — he's a New York City kid — and I figured while he might have known lots about Michael from "The Sports Machine" hosting, Brenner was DC's own, and during his 15 years at WUSA I assumed he was as insignificant outside this market as he was dominant in it.

So I called Haber over the weekend to ask how he could talk so heartfelty about a guy he never watched and a guy whose presence here, I thought, has diminished to almost nothingness since 1997, when Haber took his first D.C. job at Fox-5. It all came natural, Haber says.

"Glenn Brenner wasn't to me what he was to you or anybody who grew up here," Haber tells me. "I was aware of him, aware that he was the standard for smart funny sportscasters. But when you become a sportscaster in Washington, as I did in 1997, people will teach you about the lore of Washington, and you hear about Bernie Smilovitz and Warner Wolf, and you hear all about Glenn Brenner. If you do what I do where I do it, you know that Glenn and Gordon Peterson built the dynasty that Channel 9 became. So even though I didn't live through Glenn, I understand what he accomplished and why he was so good. Katie Couric never worked with Walter Cronkite, but she damn near knows where she sits. I feel a special kinship with Glenn's memory, and I feel a certain responsibility to remember him and what he did, and that he was special."

Haber says that early in his tenure at Fox-5, producers found a tape of all DC's rival sportscasters in a roundtable discussion about local sports hosted by that station's former sports director, Steve Buckhantz. Also on the panel were George Michael, Brenner, and WJLA's Frank Herzog. "It was amazing," Haber says. "They were all sitting around throwing zingers, and talking sports. It was fascinating for me, because I don't think you would have seen anything like that in any other market."

And Haber says when he moved to WUSA in 2004, Brenner remained a vital presence. "Everybody talked about him," he says. "And occasionally, my style invokes humor, so when a viewer or coworker would say, 'Hey, that thing you did tonight reminded me of something Glenn would do!' That's about the highest praise you can have in this town. I'm beyond uncomfortable acknowledging any comparison with Glenn Brenner, but it's beyond flattering. If I touch on his milieu of incorporating humor and smarts and irreverence into what we do, that's what Glenn mastered, and I'm an apprentice in that field. I'll spend my career looking to perfect what he did."

I thanked Haber for his words about Brenner, and then I went to youtube to watch some old clips. Yeah, he was the best.

But now it's all clear: Bowlen set Snyder up!

Turns out Bowlen was still paying off Shanahan's huge coaching contract. The only way he could get out of writing more big checks to Shanny was to get some other NFL team to hire the guy he'd just fired. Kind of like alimony payments, where you keep paying until somebody marries your ex-wife.

So, as soon as Shanahan signs the deal with Snyder that will be announced later today at Redskins Park, Bowlen's off the hook for a big chunk of his ex's nut.

From the Denver Post:

Bowlen will be relieved of roughly $7 million in expenses today when the Washington Redskins announce Mike Shanahan as their new coach. Shanahan, who was the Broncos' head coach from 1995 until he was fired after the 2008 season, completed a five-year deal Tuesday evening with the Redskins, according to two sources familiar with the negotiations.

Shanahan will receive approximately the same average guaranteed salary — $7 million a season — he had during his final contract with the Broncos. He still had three years remaining on his deal when he was fired nearly a year ago.

The Broncos will still owe Shanahan approximately $3.5 million per year in 2010 and 2011 to essentially have him coach the Redskins. Then again, Bowlen will save roughly $3.5 million each of the next two years now that their former coach is no longer unemployed.

Bottom line: Bowlen hoodwinked Snyder again!

And this deal is a clearer-cut hoodwink than that Portis-for-Bailey-plus-draft-picks hoodwink back in 2004!

Before moving on, let me repeat something from above: Shanahan was fired by Bowlen a year ago for losing a four-game division lead in the last four weeks of the season to the San Diego Chargers, a team coached by Norv Turner, who wasn't good enough to coach Dan Snyder's Redskins.

Got that?

(AFTER THE JUMP: Shanahan and Allen won't keep fans from fleeing FedExField? Sherman Smith says the worst came to pass? The Wall Street Journal doesn't think the Skins are the worst team in the NFL? Ben Olsen won't be leaving United after all? The New York Times runs a sad correction to its George Michael obituary?)

***

From the sound of things, the mere hirings of Mike Shanahan and Bruce Allen ain't going to be enough to retain season ticketholders. The members over at Dan Snyder's message board, extremeskins.com, are polling themselves about who's going to renew their tickets for the 2010 season.

The results are informal, but it should be considered that the extremeskins posters are the most devout followers in the burgundy and gold flock. And as of last night, the respondents saying they ain't coming back outnumbered those that would be buying season tickets again by a huge margin. Most of the naysayers threw in some explanations about why they're dropping out, and listed things like the on-field product, lousy game-day experience, cost, economy, availability of single tickets through StubHub and eBay, and, overwhelmingly, disdain for Dan Snyder.

My favorite post came from the extremeskins member who goes by stew, who told the board that he had dropped off the Redskins seasons ticket rolls in 2008, and couldn't be happier with the decision. From stew:

This was my first year not renewing tickets, not buying merchandise, and not shopping at Redskins sponsors stores. Honestly, its been great! I bought a 50 inch big screen, a PS3, and a new L shaped sectional couch, with the money I would have spent on my season tickets. I have enjoyed the hell out of my TV and PS3 and have received compliments on my couch... some of which came while watching the Skins lose.It just isn't worth it right now. Snyder has his hands too deep in my team for me to let him put his hands deep into my pocket. When his attitude and personality change... and there is proof of this, not just what people say, then I will rethink my stance on spending money on this team. Its liberating knowing I am part of his profit loss, and there has been one. I am part of what is getting Snyders attention. If we drafft a QB, I will know that Snyder still has his hands all over my team and I will not support moves like that with my hard earned money. I still love the redskins, but I will not contribute to Snyders profits while he is destroying a franchise that I have been passionate about since my childhood.The good thing about this mythical waiting list is that the games will never be blacked out... the tickets are sold, no need to black out any games... I can watch them all from my 50 inch big screen silly.

If the timing wasn't off, I would have accused stew of basing his lifestyle on my charticle on how to spend the money you won't be spending on Redskins season tickets!

But, the thread and all its vitriol confirmed one thing: Snyder needs to announce he's building a Jumbotron real, real fast.

***

Long recap of the 2009 season in the Washington Post by all the folks on the Redskins beat. The best part comes late, with a quote from Sherman Smith about how he consoled Jim Zorn at year's end:

"I told him all the reasons why people were telling me not to come here all came true," Smith said prior to the Redskins' final game.

***

In this space yesterday, I sorta blasted Wise for the piece, minus the "sorta." But, being a good guy — him, not me — Wise talked to me anyway last night about the kiss-and-kiss-and-kiss-and-tell-and-tell-and-tell column.

He says he wrote it because he's tried to craft an identity at the Washington Post as the "heart on your sleeve" columnist. That path led him to "follow around' the mother of Baylor basketball player Carlton Dotson as she dealt with her son murdering his friend and teammate, and to coax hired goon Donald Brashear to open up about the brutal childhood that led him to throw fists for a living. And to, well, confess to some sort of personal sexual derring do in a column.

"That's who I always want to be," Wise says of being a heart-on-your-sleeve writer. "Sometimes it would cost me logic in my columns, sometimes friends, but that was going to be me."

So when he couldn't come up with anything to write about Tiger Woods' sexual derring do, he just kept looking at his sleeve.

(AFTER THE JUMP: Did Wise get any dates out of his column? George Michael and Ric Flair go live? George Michael's feuds with John Riggins? And Frank Herzog? And everybody?)

"When an opportunity like Tiger comes up to write about," he says, "and I'm struggling inside about why I haven't come up with a funny column or a thoughtful column, and I'm national columnist, well, I start thinking: What am I doing? Why is the post paying me if all I'm doing is going to Redskins games and saying if Jim Zorn is a fruit loop or not?"

The response has been shocking, Wise says.

"I figured I'd get a couple nice emails and couple people would go off on my and then the caravan would pass and that would be it," he says. "But I've never gotten more personal emails for a column ever, even for coming out against the Redskins nickname. On the comments section, I get people with keyboard courage who don't put their names and say things like,'Don't ever compare yourself to anybody!' But people who wrote to me personally at my Post email account were like 95 percent supportive, just unbelievably supportive."

Wise says some of the support was a little too graphic.

"People say, 'Bravo, you've allowed me to confront some things about myself!' and those are great, but then I got a lot of intensely personal emails about how they threw their family away or their marriage away or a guy who said his wife needed to be validated by men all the time. These are strangers. Obviously, I put myself out there and so I'm flattered by it, I guess, but it blew me away."

He hasn't gotten any proposals from women yet, Wise said. He didn't sound unhappy about that.

He'd write the column all over again.

***

Also yesterday, I mulled the sellout portions of George Michael's legacy. But I ran out of digital column inches before following through on my plan to say nice things about Michael for doing more for pro wrestling around here than anybody since Vince McMahon. To make up, here is Michael interviewing Ric Flair during his WRC newscast hours before a 1992 show at the Capital Centre.

No other sportscaster in America would have put the Nature Boy or any other wrestler on the air in character, live or not.

***

Last night I came across "The Unexpected George Michael: The Sportscaster Who Invented Himself, and His Past & Furious Pursuit of Success," an amazing Washington Post profile of George Michael that ran in October 1986. What a story!

The piece, which clocks in at 5368 words, was written by Stephanie Mansfield for the Style section. It goes deep into Michael's disavowing of his own childhood, spent in St. Louis with the name George Gimpel.

It reminded me that there really were two Michaels during his long run at WRC: There was the bitter, paranoid Michael who always felt inadequate compared to rival Glenn Brenner over at Channel 9, and the less uptight entertainer Michael who got comfortable with himself and dominated DC sportscasting after Brenner's death. (Michael gave an amazing live, on-air tribute when Brenner died, in which he cried along with the whole city — even President George Bush issued a memorial statement.)

The bitter, paranoid Michael was in charge when Mansfield's piece came out. He squabbled with everybody.

Here's a passage that goes over a feud Michael was having at the time with John Riggins:

Bring up the name John Riggins and George Michael's face clouds over. His relationship with the former Redskins star, he says, was "one of the least enjoyable aspects" of his time in Washington. Riggins never liked him, he says, because of his friendship with Joe Theismann.

In fact, the two had an argument not long ago at Chadwick's, witnessed by Riggins' attorney and a local television director. Riggins wanted to know why Michael was the only sportscaster who didn't interview him the night he was released from the Redskins. Michael says he couldn't find him. Riggins called Michael a liar, then told the sportscaster to "put on his worm shoes and get out of here."

Michael describes the confrontation in detail, saying "it was fairly hot." Another witness says the story is exaggerated. "John embarrassed him," Riggins' attorney Douglas Woloshin says. "He wasn't in control of the situation."

For the record, the lawyer says, "John never mentioned he doesn't like George because of Joe Theismann. He just doesn't like George."

And George also didn't mind trashing Frank Herzog, the Redskins play-by-play announcer and, at the time, the Channel 7 sportscaster:

And don't seat Frank Herzog next to Michael at the next rubber chicken dinner. "I'd tell him to go to hell," Michael says. "I have no use for him."

Four years ago in New Orleans, he says, WRC weekend sports anchor Scott Clark was ejected from a Georgetown University NCAA basketball game for not having the proper credentials. According to Michael, it was Frank Herzog who blew the whistle. (Herzog denies it.)

"He had him thrown in jail!" Michael booms dramatically. "One day, Frank Herzog and I will meet, somewhere privately where no one will ever know about it. I will carry that grudge for life."

NCAA rules stipulate that credentials to cover the Final Four are given only to members of the press who cover those teams from the beginning of the tournament. Clark, who is leaving the station next month amid rumors of professional friction between himself and Michael, now admits "we were in the wrong on a technicality" when he tried to use another station's credentials. "I didn't go to jail," Clark says.

"That was a such a petty thing," Herzog says, unaware of any feud. Michael, he says, has always been "very cordial." "Besides, that was four years ago."

Says Michael, "Things like that I don't forget."

The story is also a reminder of when sportscasters had real clout in this town, and when newspapers thought it was OK to put the time and effort into stories that could hit you like a train.

The Michael profile does that. Sadly, it is only available through the Washington Post archives. If you have access, use it to retrieve Mansfield's work. Thank me later.

***

The second EagleBank Bowl kicks off today at RFK Stadium at 4:30 p.m. My sense is this year's game got far less advance coverage than last year's, and not just because Navy was in the 2008 Bowl. I'm far more intrigued about how many people show up today, and how EagleBank will spend my TARP money this year, than by whether Temple or UCLA wins.

***

(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

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!

***

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"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.

***

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Above is an ad e-mailed out by the Redskins ticket office this week. As you read this, remember, for chuckles, that just a couple months ago Redskins executive Mitch Gershman was claiming in press releases that the team had a waiting list of "over 200,000."

Sure, the Skins waiting list has long been bogus. But this year it's also become apparent that the NFL's blackout rule is enforced as stringently as its steroids policy.

(AFTER THE BREAK: Where's Chris Cooley in that photo? Clinton Tortoise? Lord Farquaad? Lindsay Czarniak cheers on teams that don't pay her? Is the NY Times reporter on Dan Snyder's payroll, too? Another Have-Nots bowl this week?)

FedExField this Sunday would be a good place and time to test my theory that Dan Snyder has mucked up the Redskins every bit as much as he mucked up Six Flags.

Tickets to Skins games have been overpriced, based on demand, since FedExField opened. I've never been to a game there when tickets couldn't be had for far less than face value. I used to half-joke, based on experience, that if you simply held a $20 bill in the air in the stadium parking lot on game day you'd get mauled by folks trying to unload spare tickets.

But, the bottom is about to fall out of the Skins ticket market, and that could happen this weekend with KC in town: Craigslist had 908 separate ads hawking Skins/Chiefs tickets posted when I checked late last night.

So: Six Flags stock, which sold for $11.92 shortly after Snyder took over the theme park chain in 2005, now goes for 17.2 cents.

I wonder if Skins tickets will be worth any more than that this weekend.

Anybody willing to sell Redskins tickets for 17.2 cents, please e-mail cheapseats@washcp.com.

***

Interesting thing about that photo the Redskins marketing department is using to move excess tickets this week: Two tight ends are up front, Todd Yoder and Fred Davis. But no Chris Cooley. Sort of like the box score to last weekend's game in Carolina.

Seriously, after spending the summer yelling "Look at me! Look at me!" and hoping to become the face of the franchise through any number of off-field stunts, Cooley's disappeared. Cooley had no catches on Sunday, and only showed up in the highlights because he had mimicked Santana Moss's silly first-down routine after a play.

Cooley's used up most of his attention-getting tricks by now, too. The guy's going to have to burn two cows or show two penises to get noticed.

Or, you know, catch some passes.

***

The Skins' lousy season has produced some giggle-friendly new nicknames. Among them:

"Clinton Tortoise," attributed to WTEM hosts Andy Pollin and Steve Czaban; "Albert Buttersworth," all over sports radio; and, the clubhouse leader by several strokes, "Lord Farquaad," for Dan Snyder, which I first saw two weeks ago on Snyder's own message board, ExtremeSkins.com, and has since caught fire.

Damn, that's funny.

***

The New York Times has been writing a lot about the Redskins these days. The Times' coverage of the Dan Snyder administration is very different from the Washington Post coverage.

While the Post and Snyder go at it behind the scenes and in print, the Times' Skins stories, all from reporter Judy Battista, have sometimes been fawning.

Sometimes, they're just plain fictional. (Double-dare you to match the headline with anything in the story!) Battista referenced that latter story, which insinuated for no apparent reason and with no evidence to support the insinuation that ex-Skins GM Charley Casserly was impressed by Dan Snyder's coolness this season, in one of her pieces this week, saying "Snyder was still feeling patient" a little more than two weeks ago."

Says who?

What is it with Times reporters named Judy getting snowed when they cover D.C. matters?

***

Lindsay Czarniak led off her sports report on WRC-TV's 11 o'clock newscast last night with an incredibly enthusiastic segment on the Wizards three-point win over Detroit, pumping up Gilbert Arenas' stats and Flip Saunders revenge. I'd never seen such fervor for a preseason NBA game.

The excitement was catchy, and seemed totally genuine: Czarniak works for Dan Snyder, but not Abe Pollin, and so she wasn't wearing any Wizards' gear as she gushed.

If you follow sports in Washington, I guess preseason is the best time to get excited, before hopes and dreams get crushed.

***

Update on the Road to 11 Losses: We now know there will be no 0-11 season in local high school football.

Anacostia's chance at having the losingest year in D.C. high school football history got waylaid last Friday, as the Indians beat Eastern 36-0 in a matchup of really down programs.

Anacostia, which went into the game 0-6, has scheduled 11 games this year, one more than the standard 10-game season, and far as I can tell, no D.C. school has ever had an 0-11 record. But Anacostia just couldn't find a way to lose to Eastern, which didn't have a football team at all last year because of a lack of players, and so far is 0-4 in the 2009 season.

Eastern, which only has 8 games listed on its schedule, now has its biggest game of the year this Friday when it hosts Spingarn in the latest Have-Nots Bowl: Together, Eastern and Spingarn have been outscored 397-19 and have an 0-9 record.

Somebody's gotta win!

***

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So over that on WRC, Lindsay Czarniak did her sports report Sunday night without ANY visible Skins logos on her person. (Fact.)

So over that Sonny Jurgensen didn't tussle with Jim Zorn in his postgame interview. (Fact.)

So over that starting this week, the Virginia Lottery has changed first prize for its $20 Redskins scratch tickets to two (2) Redskins season tickets, and second prize to four (4) Redskins season tickets. (Fiction!)

Butt seriously:  What kind of buffoon is going to pay $20, the most heinous sum in the history of lotteries, for a chance to win Skins season tickets that pretty soon won't be worth $20? Commercials for the scratch tickets ran throughout the Redskins radio broadcast yesterday, and the uglier the game got, the more absurd the prizes  seemed. Who wants ANYTHING associated with the Redskins right now?

Coming soon to a courthouse near you: Dan Snyder sues lottery winners who turn down their Skins season tickets. (Fiction.)

But, good god, are the 2009 Skins over. (Fact.)

(AFTER THE JUMP: Skins' suckage is the lead local story? The national newspeople take break into Tiger Woods coverage to dump on the Skins? Jurgensen takes it easy on Zorn? Sam Huff can't stomach Albert Haynesworth? Will Haynesworth make everybody forget Dana Stubblefield? Bad news is good news for extremeskins.com? Who is this "Synder" fella? Nats get swept again? The Nats Tragic Number is down to what? It's hockey season?)

"There's no way to overstate just how bad this is," said anchorman Craig Melvin to open the evening news broadcast at WRC, a place where news employees actually work for Dan Snyder and are known to wear their fealty to the Skins owner on their shirtsleeves. (Czarniak told the Tony Kornheiser Show last week that somebody above her, either station management or Dan Snyder, forced her to wear Redskins clothing on the air.) Several minutes of doom and doomer about the loss in Detroit followed on WRC.

Fox 5 also led off its 10 o clock news with the Skins: "Disappointment, anger frustation..." said anchor Will Thomas. "Keep going!" co-anchor Maureen Umeh chimed in.

Earlier in the day, Jurgensen also seemed at a loss for words during his post-game locker-room interview with Zorn. The Hall of Fame QB dropped the attack-dog style he'd used on the Redskins coach in recent weeks. There was no fight left in Zorn.

"We must change," Zorn told Jurgy.

At the exact moment that Zorn and Sonny were moping it up on Dan Snyder's radio station, WTEM, the Detroit Lions players were being shown on national TV walking around the perimeter of Ford Field accepting fans' congratulations like they'd all just broken Cal Ripken's streak.

***

The Redskins are a national cause for concern, too: NBC interrupted its FedEx Cup golf tournament broadcast to alert viewers that the Lions had won for the first time since 2007.

"It'll be a long week for the Redskins," said the NBC anchorwoman.

***

There were some fantastic radio moments between Skins play-by-play man Larry Michael and color commentator Sam Huff during yesterday's WTEM game broadcast when the neo-Stubblefield, Albert Haynesworth, made his first sack of the season and stayed on the Detroit turf. Huff is tired of the $100 million man's slothful demeanor on gamedays.

Michael: Haynesworth is down!

Huff: He's tired...

Michael: And he has not moved!

Huff: Tired

Haynesworth was eventually taken off the field by medical personnel on a cart.

***

Drama can be good for business: Dan Snyder's message board, extremeskins.com, is claiming its all time record for traffic was broken after the game by a factor of 1 and a half.

As soon as a thread expressing all the bad feelings was closed, another one was started. Typical was one titled: If You Shared an Elevator With Dan Snyder Tomorrow...........What would you say to him?

"I'd fart," said the poster Arkawi, the only guy to get in before moderators shut down the thread.

The traffic flow at Snyder's web site was no doubt helped by the traffic tie-up at Snyder's sports talker, WTEM-AM. For whatever reason, host Al Galdi took a paltry amount of callers in his two-hour or so post-game show, despite running out of ways to say that the Redskins had lost early into the program. One of the few listeners who managed to override WTEM's filibuster and get on the air railed against the owner and tagged Vinny Cerrato as Snyder's "personal sock puppet."

WJFK, meanwhile, didn't even have a postgame show to let fans decompress. Instead, the area's newest sportstalker aired a live broadcast of the Pittsburgh Steelers/Cincinnati Bengals game.

Via email, WJFK boss Chris Kinard explained his station's programming choice: "By contract with Westwood [One, an NFL syndicator], we have to carry their late afternoon game. It's part of the deal to carry Sunday and Monday Night Football. We had a postgame last week when the Ravens game was blacked out locally, and will do expanded pre and post coverage whenever possible."

Kinard, who says he also noticed how few callers were allowed on WTEM after the game, promises to let fans vent to their heart's content today.

"We're going to open the phone lines all day," he says. "Should be interesting."

***

The Washington Post dealt the Redskins owner the lowest of blows yesterday. From an introduction to Michael Wilbon's Sunday column in support of not firing the coach: "Jim Zorn is Daniel M. Synder's sixth coach."

"Synder!"

Somewhere along the way, for reasons I'm not sure of, "Synder" became the go-to nickname for hardcore Redskins fans when mocking the team's owner.

"Schottenheimer" was spelled correctly in Wilbon's piece.

***

Nats lose! Nats lose!

Swept away...again. This time by the Atlanta Braves. At 52-103, the Road to 100 Losses is but a memory.  If I'm carrying the one correctly, the Nats' Tragic Number, guaranteeing the team the worst record in the Majors, is down to two — any combination of Washington losses or Pittsburgh Pirates wins, and our team's got the top draft pick all over again.

Good thing it's hockey season!

***

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Here's the opening:

Sonny Jurgensen: You had one offensive touchdown...

Jim Zorn: Thank you.

Sonny Jurgensen: You've got to get into the end zone...

Jim Zorn: Yes.

Uh oh.

Dan Snyder and Jurgensen are cigar smoking buddies. Jurgensen wanted Jeff George. So it's a good bet that in private Snyder's getting everything the Redskins listening audience got from Jurgensen and then some.

(AFTER THE BREAK: Albert Haynesworth don't play that? Folks want to trade in Jim Zorn et al on something with less mileage? Even the all-news station is piling on? Snyder's dastardly deeds have trickled down to 'Bama? Everybody but the Washington Post thinks Michael Jordan's a jerk? ANOTHER blonde DC sportscaster?)

***

Watching Albert Haynesworth take a knee or lying down on the job for no obvious reason, I was reminded about what my hero Boudreaux said in 1999 about Dana Stubblefield, a defensive lineman who went from all-pro to narcoleptic bum after taking Haynesworth-like money from Snyder to come here from San Francisco. Boudreaux's words: “I can hear him saying [to Dan Snyder], ‘Football? You pay me $47 million…and you want me to play football? Mister, a man with that kind of money don’t play football!’"

Boudreaux is a genius.

***

Knowing what we now know, it's time to re-read Erik Wemple's pre-game insider analysis of what was going to take place in the Meadowlands. He nailed it.

Right?

***

The fans around here aren't happy with what they saw. Over at Dan Snyder's web site, extremeskins.com, one of the smarties proposed a "Coach for Clunkers" program, to trade in the same ol' coaches and players and give newbies a shot.

WTOP this morning offered listeners a chance to join the mob. "If you'd like to jump on the pile, call us!"

The only thing boring about the Redskins are the games!

***

What kind of flash point is Dan Snyder? Well, the Birmingham News ran a column about him as a pariah and a symbol of everything that's wrong with everything over the weekend.

The Birmingham News!

***

So Michael Jordan's still getting coddled by the Washington Post? Well, check out the write-up of Jordan's Hall of Fame speech that ran in Saturday's Post, and the write-up in Yahoo Sports.

The commenters to Michael Lee's Post story all echo the Yahoo version, which was basically that Jordan is a troubled meanie.

It got so bad that Michael Wilbon came in to try to soften the damage from the Yahoo piece a day later, with a column praising Jordan's bizarre bullying — he flew in a high school classmate to help make the old varsity coach look bad — for its "unvarnished" qualities.

Ok. In any case, after reading elsewhere about what a jerk he was, go watch this Jordan dunk over Patrick Ewing from back in the day. Still chilling after all these years. He wasn't human on the court, so why expect him to be humane off it?

And, Jordan ain't the only one holding grudges: Abe Pollin has never let go of the bitterness from his alliance with Jordan.

***

This is what diversity looks like: Former George Michael intern Lindsay Murphy joins Fox-5's Redskins wrap-up show, joining former George Michael protege Lindsay Czarniak on WRC and Sara Walsh at WUSA in DC's blonde sportscaster corps.

Get with the program, WJLA!

***

The Washington Post ran three photos of Woodson's win over Lake Braddock in the sports page on Saturday. The section named a Woodson player its star of the day. That's fine. As long as sports sections name high school stars of the day, there'll be a market for newspapers. (Really!)

But the other two shots had caption writers humiliating specific Lake Braddock players. One caption had the Lake Braddock QB throwing "an incompletion" and another photo of a Woodson running back as he "runs over" a Lake Braddock defender. Both Lake Braddock players were named in the captions for no good reason.

Whoever wrote these captions went out of his or her way to embarrass kids. This is the sports journalism equivalent of child abuse. Not nice!

***

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While some team lawyer nobody ever heard of named David Donovan did radio and print interviews attempting to counter James Grimaldi's well-told tales of ticketing malfeasance, Snyder stayed quiet in some undisclosed secure location.

Snyder's refusal to personally rebut the awful press reminded me of a conversation I had a few months ago with crisis PR guru Eric Dezenhall. I asked Dezenhall what, if Snyder were a client, he'd do to improve the Skins owner's public image among the locals.

But Dezenhall, who worked on image rehab for Enron's Jeff Skilling and alleged-molester-era Michael Jackson, guessed that Snyder might not want any such help from him or anybody else.

“Some people may like to be liked by the community," Dezenhall told me, "some people just like to be liked by fellow billionaires."

Sure seems the latter's the case here.

***

Will all the talk about the Redskins waiting list please stop?

In the instant-classic Washington Post series, there were frequent references from the team that the list was "160,000" strong.

Yet earlier this year, the Redskins put out a press release with Mitch Gershman, the team's chief operating officer, offering a much bigger number.

(AFTER THE JUMP: Lying about demand for tickets isn't consumer fraud? Lindsay Czarniak doesn't have to take off her Redskins logo any more? The Skins PR staff knows what goes on at Redskins Park? That deadbeat grandmother's got the real Dream Seat? Did fan love save Colt and chase Chase? The Redskins still have a white guy on defense? Williamses and Hoyas take a beating on Cutdown Day? DeMatha has how many guys in the NFL? The Nats lose when I leave town?)

“We work hard to hold the line on price increases," Gershman said in the release, "and are obviously sensitive to the economic realities faced by our fans. We have fantastic fan support as evidenced by the more than 200,000 people on our waiting list for season tickets."

The 160,000 figure is just as phony as Gershman's "more than 200,000."

There is no waiting list the Redskins follow when selling tickets.

The Redskins were sending junk mail during the offseason offering anybody who wants tickets — general admission seats, not club seats — the chance to buy them. And, anybody who thinks ANY Redskins games sell out: Just go to the damn box office at FedExField on game day, see all the tickets for sale, and get back to me.

From the Post stories, it's clear the only ticket waiting list the Redskins have is a list of fans the team is waiting to serve with subpoenas for not keeping up with the payment schedule in premium seat contracts.

On a related note: How can the Redskins get away with using these fictional waiting list figures while marketing the club seats? Doesn't that distort the demand for their product?

If that ain't fraud, what is?

***

I have a hard time feeling sorry for Pat Hill, the deadbeat grandma that got the legal ground-and-pound from Dan Snyder.

I mean, have you seen the photo of Hill's living room that ran alongside her story on the front page of the Washington Post?

Why would Hill or anybody else pay money to leave that couch?

Forget club seats at FedExField. I want to sign a long-term, high-dollar contract for a spot on Hill's couch, just to watch Skins games on television.

That's my dream seat!

***

Other than ticket scams, the Skins' roster cuts were the big news. A non-cut, of Colt Brennan, might be the biggest of these stories. Tough to think that the lovefest between the backup-QB wannabe and the fans didn't factor into the team's decision not to release Brennan.

Brennan had a quarterback rating of 49.5 during the preseason games. That's awful. But "The Cult of Colt," a thread in his honor on Dan Snyder's message board, extremeskins.com, has received 398,119 hits and had 11,282 comments appended, making it the most popular live thread on the board by about tenfold.

So Brennan sticks around on injured reserve while rival Chase Daniel gets cut.

Daniel, remember, registered a QB rating of 115. But his personal extremeskins.com thread, "The Church of Chase," had only about 20,000 hits as of this morning.

The moral: If you're going to ride Snyder's bench, you gotta sell jerseys.

***

Reed Doughty shrugged off back injuries from last season that threatened his career last year and made the team.

So...the white safety streak lives on!

Plainly, for years and years paleskins just haven't played defense for the Redskins — except at safety. You can look it up. The only white defenders to crack the lineup in this century have been safeties.

Doughty is the latest in a string of white boys — Curtis Jordan, Brad Edwards, Pat Eilers, Matt Stevens, Matt Bowen and, ahem, Adam Archuleta before him — to white man the Skins last line of defense.

I'm intrigued!

***

An actual bulletin on the front page of Redskins.com over the weekend: "Larry Weisman has learned the team plans to put Colt Brennan on injured reserve."

Larry Weisman is a Dan Snyder staffer who does PR for the team. So, the bulletin could just have easily read: "The team has learned the team plans to put Colt Brennan on injured reserve."

Which, now that I think about it, could be newsworthy this week, at least to those folks who think Dan Snyder didn't know his team was selling thousands and thousands and thousands of tickets to a couple scalpers, and didn't know that his team was suing grandmothers and other fans into bankruptcy.

***

Speaking of Dan Snyder's news operations...

WRC has dropped the phoniness: Redskins' worker-bee/WRC sportscaster Lindsay Czarniak delivered her sports report during last Thursday's 11 p.m. newscast wearing the same licensed Redskins shirt she wears when she moonlights for Dan Snyder's Redskins Broadcasting Network.

In previous post-game newscasts this preseason, Czarniak had changed into something without a colorful Redskins logo, better to camouflage her relationship with the team, and to hide the sort of conflict of interest that news organizations used to regard as poisonous.

But, based on the logoed attire she sported after the Skins/Jacksonsville game, WRC management no longer minds if the world knows its news department is in bed with Dan Snyder.

Tom Sherwood? Jim Vance? You guys OK with that?

***

Eddie Williams got released, bringing the number of Guys Named Williams cut this preseason to a team record three, or two less than the team record (five) for number of Guys Named Williams signed this preseason. The survivors on the main roster: offensive linemen Edwin Williams from Maryland and Mike "Biggest Loser" Williams.

Mike Williams hung on by the skin of his waist, which is actually substantial, as he's dropped 100 and some pounds by dieting and exercising. Speaking of lost LBs: Biggest Loser couldn't pick up rushing linebackers or anybody else in pass protection this preseason.

If he didn't have such a great backstory, he'd have been dropped.

***

Real life imitates Madden Football: The human Alex Buzbee got cut over the weekend, a couple weeks after Madden '10 dropped the digital Alex Buzbee from its video game roster.

This means Georgetown's half-century-long streak of not having any players in the NFL will continue.

Big Jim Ricca, who signed with the Redskins in 1951, was the last Hoya footballer.

***

From our Hyattsville bureau: At least six DeMatha alums stuck around in the NFL as of cut day — Brian Westbrook, of course, stays with the Philadelphia Eagles; little brother Byron Westbrook and Edwin Williams make the Redskins active roster; Seattle keeps John Owens and Josh Wilson; and the Atlanta Falcons have Quinn Qjianaka.

Think about it: Six guys from one high school football program — DeMatha's — are in the NFL this season; yet no player from one college football program — Georgetown's — has been in the NFL in MORE THAN FIFTY SEASONS.

That's amazing.

***

Nats’ record with Tom Boswell on vacation: 14-6

Nats record with me on vacation: 2-9.

We now return you to football season...

***

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But, it's only preseason, the team won, he's only in the second year of Jim Zorn's offense, he's had several offensive coordinators in his career, he...ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...what? where? Oh, sorry...I nodded off going over all the defenses of Campbell.

1-7 stinks. But it ain't that surprising.

***

Speaking of same ol': George Michael's gone, but his legacy lives on at WRC.

Michael worked for Dan Snyder but never told his viewers that. Now, we have Lindsay Czarniak, the station's co-lead sportscaster since Michael's departure, wearing licensed Redskins products on the air while working for Snyder's broadcasting department. And we have her partner Dan Hellie co-hosting "The Jim Zorn Show" with Larry Weisman, a Dan Snyder staffer who writes press releases disguised as news stories for the team. Just as the Redskins web site teases Czarniak's work on preseason games, the team teases Hellie's work on "The Jim Zorn Show."

Snyder owns both broadcasts.

Hellie and Czarniak, despite the infomercial work and how silly it makes the WRC news operation look, are still allowed to report on the Redskins for WRC's news shows.

That's the way the station's boss wants it.

AFTER THE JUMP: Still whining about WRC reporters being BFF's with Dan Snyder? Will Tom Sherwood give speeches for the mayor? Snyder creates Trickle-Down-Gouge-enomics? Beckham can't score in DC? Dunn and Zimmerman are copycat sluggers?

Michael Jack, president and general manager of WRC-TV/NBC4, said so in a press release from the Redskins Park in February that announced that Channel 4's journalists were now beholden to Snyder, and would work on the FIVE (!) weekly Snyder-produced Redskins infomercials the station will broadcast: “We think the NBC brand and our No. 1 rated newscasts, combined with the Redskins brand, will be the perfect fit as we look to produce year-round programming,” said Jack, who probably learned a lot about the profitability of selling out to the Redskins from Michael before canning the sportscasting legend last year.

In the same release, Janice Schmidt, a Redskins senior vice president,  gushed that the team was "pleased to expand our relationship" with WRC, and how great it was to see "the No. 1 television station and the No. 1 sports team in Washington joining forces."

Why stop with just selling out to the Redskins, Mr. Jack? Why not have Tom Sherwood give speeches for Mayor Fenty? And get Pat Collins to go gang-banging for MS-13!

Is Jim Vance OK with all this crap?

I'll stop typing these conflict-of-interest rants just as soon as I get my invitation to the WRC news department's Redskins salon! I know it's coming!

***

The FanZone, a private parking lot near FedExField did gangbuster business.

The FanZone positioned itself as the anti-Snyder Parking Lot. It was marketed by WJFK, Dan Snyder's competition in the sportstalk radio realm, with longer hours, no tailgating restrictions — and a discounted price.

"While some tailgating has been toned down" read the pitch, "we’re taking it to the next level! We're opening early and staying open late."

A season pass cost $300, or $50 cheaper than Snyder's cheapest parking pass.

There's no mention of FedExField or the Redskins anywhere in the solicitation.

The FanZone passes sold out for the season in no time flat.

Nobody in their right brain would pay $300 for parking in middle-of-nowhere PG County before Dan Snyder bought property there. Now, all because of Snyder, $300 is a bargain!

Forget supply-side or demand-side! Snyder's the leader of the Gouge-Side School of Economics.

***

More than 22,000 came to RFK to see David Beckham and his Los Angeles Galaxy mates not score against DC United on Saturday. Remember when Beckham sold out the stadium and had Craigslist all atwitter with scalping offers? Seems like only yesterday.

There are few things sadder in the sports page than the box score of a 0-0 match. The Washington Post's Steven Goff reports that United was without Coach Tom Soehn because of a suspected case of swine flu. It's the new sports hernia.

***

Texas Monthly has an incredible feature on Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach. What a guy. There's no local connection to this story, 'cept I went to school there, and Leach is the first Techster the national media has cared about since longtime DC resident John Hinckley. But even if you've never been to Lubbock, you'll love Leach and the story, or I'll refund the time and money you spent reading it.

***

The Nats only got 26,307 for Friday night's loss to Milwaukee, despite the Lerners flooding the market with $1 tickets. I figured a much bigger crowd woulda showed on the day the team introduced The Future. The weather must have mussed everything up.

Then only 19,000 and change showed up for Saturday night's loss, despite all the goodwill from the Strasburg signing and even though it was Frank Howard Bobblehead Night.

On Sunday, the Nationals ended the long post-signing losing streak and avoided yet another sweep.

Ever notice that whenever Adam Dunn hits a homer, Ryan Zimmerman does, too? It's spooky.

***

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