DC Optimist

Nats Succeeded Where Phillies Phailed Horriphically

2009-11-05T00:18:00.000-05:00

While we all wait for the insufferable deluge of how the Yankees “christened” their new stadium or, even worse and somehow more hacky, are in “27th heaven”, given the numeric value of their most recent title, let’s us DC fans all revel in one thing positive that came out of this most wretched World Series match-up: the Nats fared better in the new, now-holy Yankee Stadium during the regular season (as vast, vast underdogs) than these Phillies (as the defending champs) fared during the Series.

Yes, remember back in June when the Nationals took two out of three games at this new "shrine" to baseball from the mighty Yankees? That was pretty great, especially given the 3-0 shutout in the series finale, facilitated by six-plus stellar innings from Craig Stammen. The Phillies of November proved far meeker than the Nationals of June, managing to take but one of three games in this same blessed haven en route to dashing all hopes of any manner of “dynasty” in Philly.

So we’ll have to choke on a few stories about the Yankees’ return to “prominence”, and probably have to deal with a few anecdotes about some perceived “adversity” they faced somewhere along the line, with some clap-trap about the “ghosts” of the old Yankee Stadium permeating the new thrown in for good measure, but whilst we gag on that pablum, let’s remember that at least in some regard, the Nationals triumphed where the Phillies could not.

Mets Worse Than Nats in the Eyes of History

2009-09-30T21:38:00.004-04:00

Maybe you’re a little down about the constant negative/hacky Redskins-related commentary these days, or the latest lame Harlan-wrought snippy shot at the burgeoning Nationals, or the squalid lack of DCO posts since the tragic mid-July termination of our mentor and inspiration. Well, if you’re looking for something to bridge the gap betwixt unequivocally excellent and ‘tism-evoking Caps’ and Wizards’ camps and the start of the NHL/NBA seasons, look no further than tonight’s developments in the Nats vs. Mets contest.

With Justin Maxwell’s gently arcing, "evidently” line drive grand slam into the left field seats went yet another Mets’ September heartache at the hands of the “lowly” Nationals. Whether it’s crushing hopes of a division title, contributing to an epic collapse, or just piling on to an historic under-achievement, it just isn’t quite September without the Nationals laying some kind of embarrassment on the vainly grasping-for-greatness Mets of the last half decade and more.

It is SO worth mentioning that Maxwell’s slam also propelled the Mets into the wondrous category of “Worse Than The 2007 Washington Nationals”. As this blog so eloquently and gleefully declared in those hot, humid, halcyon days of two years ago, the Acta-led Nats of yore bucked each and every prediction of historical awfulness and surged to a record of 71-91, far short of the gloomy predictions, presented by hack after hack, of 120+ losses.

With Maxwell’s full-count, two-out heroics, the Mets and their epically swollen $143 million or whatever payroll earned their 92nd loss. While the calendar may save the Mets from 100 losses, ignominy knows no such Gregorian-enforced leniency. The 2009 Mets are now worse than the team widely predicted to be the worst baseball team of all time, at the hands of the very such squad predicted to achieve that distinction. Oh the irony/shame!

Manny would be/probably is proud.

Manuel Elias Acta November 14, 2006 - July 13, 2009

2009-07-13T18:28:00.003-04:00

This truly is one of the darkest days since this blog’s inception two-plus years ago. The Master, one of our key inspirations and mentors (two fleeting encounters count as mentorship), Man-Act, Chairmanny, is no more.

His philosophy was a guiding principle of this blog, from the first interview I heard him give on the radio, in which he was asked what he would bring to the team. “Positive energy” he replied with no hesitation. It’s what the Nats needed. While we loved Frank and mourned his passing from the manager’s perch, his old-fashioned brand of crusty, occasionally hard-ass (and, to be fair, occasional tear-shedding at the mid-inning pulling of a catcher) style might have better fit an underachieving fully built veteran squad. Occasional lover of ‘tism Mike Wise recently opined that Frank deserved better in his dismissal from DC, and had a point. Maybe he can write the same about Manny. As most everyone admits, the Nats growing pains are far too great at the moment to be cured by the firing of a manager, or even by the (wise) ditching of Joel Hanrahan and Jesue Colome.

And so, in fond, fond remembrance of Acta and his ‘tism-soaked tenure in DC, including that idyllic summer of ’07 with its resultant single Manager of the Year vote, we present some of our fondest Manny Moments as chronicled in this blog, in no particular order:

September 23, 2007

Final Nats home game of the season, and final Nats’ game ever at RFK (my first wedding anniversary as well). Closing out the home portion of the season in which his team bucked all predictions of the historical awfulness that would befall them, ChairManny addresses the crowd afterwards, stating confidently, “I am positive and optimistic [about this team].”

DCO post from that day

April 13, 2007

Ah, the early days of the blog, when posts flowed as easily as an encouraging word from Manny’s mouth to the ears of a young team told by all others they were en route to 125 losses. On this Friday in April, we inaugurated a weekly award, the Manny Acta Optimist of the Week (MAO of the Week, a moniker which begat one of Bobtimist Prime’s most clever posts/logos), given each Friday to the figure in Washington sports we felt most personified Manny’s spirit of positivity for the preceding week. The first winner was then-hitting-coach Mitchell Page, who, in the face of daunting statistical evidence to the contrary, expressed complete faith in the abilities of the Nats’ offense, and predicted their bats would yet come alive. Two years and many hitters later, he is almost vindicated.

Manny himself would go on to capture several of these awards in the time when we still gave them out, a testament to how often he alone was the voice of ‘tism in this town (oh, and our blog too).

DCO post from that day

June 13, 2007

Still just a little over two months into his first major league season as manager, Manny really started to hit his stride on this night against the Baltimore Orioles. Game 2 of what would be a stunning Nats’ series sweep at Camden Yards (a series win that would put the cost-cutting, rebuilding Nationals at the same record as the heavy-spending, maybe kind of trying to win now Orioles) went to 11 innings. In the top of the 11th, struggling hitter and not-long-for-a-Nats-uniform Felipe Lopez, 0-5 thus far that night, got into a little tiff at home plate over balls and strikes. Manny, knowing the consequences of his thinned bench losing even this light hitting infielder, strode confidently to the batter’s box and talked Felipe down, keeping what would have been an imminent ejection at bay and re-focusing his second baseman with a little Spanish pep talk.

Mere moments later, Lopez’s base-clearing triple provided the eventual 9-6 winning margin (remember when a relief pitcher could hold down a late- or extra-inning lead like that?). ‘Tism triumphs again.

DCO post from that day

June 6, 2007

The first meeting of a member of this blog and one of its prime sources of inspiration. Mrs. DCO and I were fortunate enough to briefly chat with the Master prior to our being ushered away from the seats near the dugout and back to our plebian perches. It was a short conversation, but one that featured optimism as its primary subject. At the very mention of the word, Manny’s demeanor switched from the typical fan meet-and-greet to that of Master of Philosophy, as he expounded on the need to live a life rooted in optimism, and to eschew the easy but ultimately unrewarding path of the pessimist.

The autographed ball from that night sits above my right shoulder as I type this, and will remind me of the first time I met this future Manager of the Year and World Series champion.

DCO post from that day

May 30, 2007

An interesting day, as it followed a humbling 10-0 Nats’ loss at the hands of the Dodgers and saw the team similarly fall 5-0 that night. But in the big picture, this day came
as the Nats were wrapping up a 13-7 run in May after the oft-referenced 9-25 start that had the wolves circling, salivating, howling, etc. Bobtimist’s post from that morning will no doubt someday be credited as being the first prescient reference to Manny as the greatest manager in the history of baseball.

This was the day, at the end of almost three weeks of solid, winning Nats baseball, that we felt our seldom-credited guarantee of a non-100-loss season from May 9 might not have been a product of over-zealous homerism, but might have been steeped in something else. Yeah, optimism. Almost tangible in those days.

DCO post from that day

--

My own personal witness to the power Manny had in that blissful summer (undocumented in DCO as far as I know) came late in a game vs. Florida that May. It was towards the end of what were to be two extended rain delays, and only a few hundred fans remained at RFK, most of whom had made their way to the seats near the field. I was sitting not far down the first base line and suddenly a dozen or so fans behind home plate erupted into a boisterous standing ovation. There was the Master, walking past, quickly acknowledging the cheer with an “I’m not worthy”-type bow in return.

We may visit some more Manny Memories in the coming days, even as we (painfully) move on and hope that Jim Riggleman can be Bruce Boudreau to Manny’s Glen Hanlon (yet again drawing parallels between the Caps and Nats. When will it end? The answer is never).

In the end he’s the sacrifice that a 26-61 record demanded. It’s still depressing to see him go, especially feeling as strongly as we do that he will land elsewhere and that his unquenchable positivity will lead someone else to glory. In a way it's as hard to read about this dismissal as it was to read about that whole Caps Game 7 thing vs. Pittsburgh. But, as with that sordid affair, we can get through this.

Possibility for a Different Type of Managerial Discussion

2009-06-16T15:44:00.002-04:00

The prevailing attitude out there indicates that this Nats’ series against the Yankees will determine the fate of Manny Acta’s future in Washington. Maybe it does. But maybe, maybe, the absolute reverse could be true. What if this series somehow plays into the future that onetime Nats spurner Joe Girardi has in New York? Imagine a scenario in which the Nationals take 2 of 3 from the Yankees, or maybe even just take one game, perhaps the first one. What about, dare we say it???, a sweep. The maniacal screams of the New York Post, et al, for the immediate dismissal of Girardi would know no limit.

Living in the NY area and having direct access to the home of sensationalistic sports-related overreaction (not to mention some of the most spectacularly ludicrous trade theories you’ll ever hear) that is WFAN radio, I can attest to the thin ice some perceive Joe Girardi to be on, and it seemed to get thinner after the most recent sweep at the hands of the Red Sox, adding to that 0-whatever record New York now has this season against Boston. Who knows, if Luis Castillo catches a routine popup and the Mets take 2 of 3 in the increasingly watered-down Subway Series, maybe a few more calls for Girardi’s dismissal could have surfaced (then again, if Nick Johnson catches a routine popup in Tampa, maybe there are a few less for Manny’s).

It could happen. Remember earlier this spring, when a similar DC-NY table-turning went down involving a couple of goaltenders? As the story in that series shifted from Lundqvist to Varlamov, perhaps now a different kind of story could shift from Acta to Girardi (we do love any opportunity for a Caps/Nats parallel). If it does, be sure to tell all your friends where you read it first. Then call WFAN and continue to tell them the Mets should “pick up” Adam Dunn.

Nats Fans: Less Flappable Than Nats Beat Writers

2009-06-15T13:40:00.002-04:00

When Bobtimist posted a link on his Twitter feed this morning pointing to a poll in the Nationals Journal, I felt an almost immediate sense of familiarity.

The subject matter of the poll, of course, was whether the firing of the Master of 'Tism himself, Manny Acta, increasingly rumored to be imminent, would be warranted right now. A steady 55-56% of Nats fans have been maintaining that such a dismissal is, at the very least, ill-timed. It's worth noting the wording of the survey question: "Is it the right time to fire Manny Acta?", perhaps indicating that the questioner has already determined the Master must go, and just wonders when the right time is to drop the ax.

This survey brought to mind another such polling of the mindset of Nats fans, one undertaken just last summer, when things were looking similarly bleak for the franchise. The tide of optimism was strong then, even as the Nationals limped towards that 100 loss plateau they had so valiantly avoided a year prior. Back then, as now, a majority of the fanbase expressed confidence in Manny, 4/5 going so far as to say he would one day lead the franchise to a winning record. Back then, as now, Nats fans showed how strongly they ultimately believe in this team and remain hopeful in its future, in stark contrast to the continual snark, gloom, and overall negativism found in the pages of Nationals Journal and elsewhere.

There is, of course, that voice out there that is (usually) optimistic in the form of our buddy Boz, who so eloquently stated the dignity with which Manny still carries himself, and the support he still enjoys amongst his players. This is not some team implosion, poisonous locker room needing to be purged type situation (a situation, incidentally, that has been prophesied by naysayers whenever an alleged "troublemaker" or "cancer" with a name like Young or Dukes has been signed). It's just another struggling chapter in a re-building ballclub, one made all the more difficult with all that Bowden stuff that went down, and with all this young pitching trying to find its footing.

So, no, the time is not right to fire ChairManny, and we shouldn't assume such an action is or should be imminent. He's been the perfect character guy to keep a positive attitude through all this painful-if-necessary losing, and deserves to see things through to their ultimate, successful, winning conclusion. The fans seem to get that.

We Can (and will, and must) Get Through This

2009-06-12T23:25:00.001-04:00

It’s been a while. Almost a month, actually. The last post on DCO to this point was before a bitterly disappointing Capitals’ Game 7 vs. the Penguins. That ended not quite as we’d hoped, but that game’s repercussions are perhaps as nothing compared to the Game 7 that went down tonight, a Game 7 that will cause we DC fans such pain as perhaps cannot even be fortold yet this early into the crisis.

So, this is bad. Maybe not Tony-Romo-with-a-Lombardi-Trophy bad, but very, very close. We’re in for a dark summer and early fall, my friends, months of gushing talk of “destiny fulfilled” by “the next one”, of “adversity overcome” by the same, of the audacity of free agent Marian Hossa to spurn a young hockey diety to play in Detroit, etc. Further, the next hockey season may well be difficult as any accomplishment by Alex Ovechkin or the Caps will find some beer-swilling yinser from Wheeling or Charleston, or maybe even on occasion Pittsburgh proper, bloviating about “the debate being over” as to who is the more superior player for all time, Sid or Ovie. This dark cloud may even hang over another probable trophy windfall by Ovie at the upcoming NHL awards ceremony, as the above-mentioned cretins will remind us of the one, perhaps two, honors not yet on his resume.

But it is that word, “yet”, that gives us hope, and let’s cling to it even at the onset of this dark night. The well-positioned Caps, not quite as lucky in the obtaining of #1 and #2 picks as these (gag) champion Penguins but close to their level nonetheless, will, soon, bring the discussion/debate back to even ground. They will do this, of course, with a Cup of their own. Perhaps a couple. We at DCO believe this, partially because we have to, but mostly because we really, really do. This tiresome-as-it-is “Ovechkin vs. Crosby” debate is laughingly far from over, being so early in the careers of both, and with each respective team only now rising to elite levels after years of last-place finishes and at least one near-move to Kansas City (looking back now, how sweet would that have been?). Who knows, maybe someday Alex will even rise enough to not be so arbitrarily and automatically attached to the horrible beard-grower in southwestern PA. A few 70-goal seasons should do it.

The Hershey Bears won yet another Calder Cup tonight, so that should blunt this crushing blow to all that is good and not ruined by excessive fawning in the world. All that talented AHL goodness flowing through DC and resulting in championships in the coming years will blunt it further, until June 12, 2009, will be remembered as just another goofy sky-diving birthday for an aging ex-president and not for the atrocity that occurred in Detroit, and the gushy coronation that ensued.

It will take some time, and it may be painful, but we will get past this.

Now how about those Nats?

Of Demons and Darlings

2009-05-13T12:35:00.005-04:00

It’s been almost month since the Caps were so perfectly poised to bury one of those exhaustively referenced playoff demons. That particular hell-spawn was the memory of 2-0 and 3-1 series leads lost (the 2-0 specifically being the winning of two opening road games), typically while being the underdog. The beating of the underdog Rangers, who had taken those two very series lead against the higher-seeded, mostly favored Caps, went a long way to washing the vile tastes of 1995, 1996, and 2003 from our mouths (amongst others).

In a season seemingly dead-set on giving the franchise a fresh start in its post-season history, it was perhaps only appropriate that the one-time consensus Eastern Conference Champion New Jersey Devils would so gloriously choke away a lead with just over a minute left in Game 7 to give the Caps a second round date with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The “coincidence” of this event happening just moments after sageful Sergei Fedorov had buried the Rangers in the Caps own Game 7 should not be ignored.

So yes, the Capitals can expunge another painful part of their past tonight by improving the franchise’s playoff record against the Pens to 2-6. Be ready to hear that record screamed incessantly by insecure Iron City drunkards should their vaunted squad be defeated. Nothing like ancient history to salve the wounds of the present.

A win tonight makes us forget silly things like OT penalty shot pucks skipping playfully around Joe Juneau’s stick and harmlessly into the waiting pads of Ken Wregget, buzz-killing 7-0 Game 1 defeats on home ice, wackily deflected OT goals, Petr Nedved, and, yes, seemingly commanding series leads lost.

There is even more at stake, however. The Caps can do the rest of the league and hockey fans outside of the Pittsburgh/West Virginia area a huge favor tonight in vanquishing those darling Penguins, that team never lacking for a pep talk from whatever hockey pundit feels a warmth in his bosom for Sidney Crosby on any given day.

It’s a chance for the Caps to rescue us all, at least for five months, from a world where any mildly irritating, NHL-decreed-destiny-defying setback for the Pens is characterized as “adversity” (also known as “losing a game” or “incurring a penalty” for any other team), which of course is eventually “overcome”, where any Pens’ minor success is lauded as “resiliency”, where another manifestation of Sid’s petulant, entitled-brat schtick in complaining about hat-trick hats is characterized as the Pens captain being ”ever the competitor”, where instances of trash-throwing on DC ice are met with disdain and instances of the same in Pittsburgh are ignored, where the true resiliency of a Caps' rookie goaltender is questioned even as his counterpart in black and gold allows one laughable goal after another, and where increasingly tired arguments (some admittedly presented here) of which fanbase/organization has more “class”, which team posesses more loyal, less-bandwagony fans, or which team boasts more whiners, fall almost unanimously in favor of the Penguins. It's the Caps on the short end of these arguments now, but a Pittsburgh victory and it will soon be the Bruins/Hurricanes or Ducks/Red Wings/Blackhawks/any team daring to stand in the way of Gary Bettman reverently handing Sid a trophy.

This is the monster the Caps can slay tonight, along with their oft-mentioned demons, and oft-mentioned (usually snarkily) ancient history with the Penguins, a history with which exactly zero current Capitals were involved in any way (regular resident of the healthy scratch list Michael Nylander doesn’t count). It's a chance for a fresh start for us all.

Beat the Penguins, save the (hockey) world.

Hope and Sanity From...

2009-05-01T01:09:00.002-04:00

The Penguins seem to officially be darlings again, almost unanimously picked to advance past the speed-bump Capitals. Remember when the Pens were going to miss the playoffs, and we were all ready to be spared from having to hear Sidney Crosby and his enabler hockey pundits talk about “overcoming adversity” or “facing adversity”, perhaps the most over-used phrases (with “it is what it is” coming in a close second) in all of sport? Those were nice days, days in which we might have dreamed of the Pens merely being relegated to talk of moves to Kansas City, days in which they might have again been abandoned by their supposed non-fairweather fans, who are of course superior to the all-bandwagon crowd filling Verizon Center.

However, in all of the renewed christening of the golden boy and his golden team, there may be a voice of sanity in the unlikely mulleted form of Barry Melrose. We all remember Barry, right? He made a trip to Washington mere days before his 16-game tenure behind the Tampa Bay Lightning bench ended. Well, over at 5-hole.com, amidst a summary of overwhelming predictions of a second-round Penguins’ triumph vs. the Capitals, Barry and Pierre LeBrun stand alone as the only prognosticators willing to vouch for at least the possibility of a Washington victory.

What’s the point, you might rightfully ask? Well, a look back at predictions for Round 1 of the playoffs will reveal Melrose as the only one out of 18 expert predictors (including a monkey, who, incidentally, likes the Caps’ chances) who forecast Anaheim to knock off presumed Cup finalist San Jose. So he predicted, so it came to pass (and note the Capitals vs. Capitals phenomenon amidst the Yahoo! experts).

Maybe this guy is on to something. Maybe he knows something the rest of the expert hockey-predicting world doesn’t. Maybe he realizes that just because a #2 seed took a game or two longer than expected to knock off a #7 seed which possessed one of the East’s best defenses (if one of the worst offenses) and a goalie with series-stealing capability (as we were many, many, many times told), it doesn’t necessarily mean they are doomed by the prospect of facing Brooks Orpik and M-A F.

So, thank you, Barry (and, to a lesser degree, Pierre, since you predicted it would take the full seven games for the Caps to advance and face the Hurricanes in a paradox-causing all-SE-Division Conference Finals), for not falling blindly into another premature coronation of the Penguins. Your prediction is a refreshing WAS in an otherwise bleak world of PIT.

Stop with the Speculation Screeds!

2009-04-24T10:18:00.005-04:00

There is much in the way of myth generating in regard to the figures that rule over the DC sports landscape. It seems that certain players, coaches, front office types, and owners around here make statements without even saying them, plan to perform actions that are never performed, and have certain personality traits that have never been completely accounted for. While they attempt to keep their personalities/decisions/feelings about whatever completely under wraps, the dilligent sports reporters and analyzers attempt to unearth these completely secret aspects of their lives in order to compose screeds on how terrible these people actually are at their jobs. Now, we don't want to discount the intrepid work of these writing professionals. Their thankless job provides the conversations we all enjoy having more than the conversations about Susan Boyle. Yet it becomes frustrating when the unknown decisions, feelings, and actions of these figures receive what amounts to a complete and utter bashing despite those feelings not being correctly interpreted and subsequently rebuked once truth or results prove these bashers wrong.

For example: the Wizards recently had what amounted to an aberration of a season (meaning the whole roster was hurt, not just a key cog or two). They realized that with the opportunity to re-assess their needs, they could address the lingering concerns while simultaneously staying the course of their ultimate structure. So they hired Flip Saunders, the most decorated coach in the market, which, unless Phil Jackson was available, isn't exactly brimming with proven ability. Saunders ran teams similar to the Wiz to great success. Sure, he didn't win a title, but only four active coaches can claim that anyway. Maybe his lack of title would be more motivation to make this squad run on all of its cylinders.

Yet, there were echoes of doubt from the analyzers and writers of sport, all of whom were doubtful Flip Saunders would ever wrangle in that insane clubhouse killer Gilbert Arenas, whose zany ways would drive any coach batty. How did they determine that Gilbert would be a problem for any coach he didn't choose via flipping coins? Not through any statements from Gilbert, or any actual proof of his past issues with coaching, but through speculation. Naturally the union of Arenas and Saunders is already off to a fantastic start, with Flip commending Gilbert, and Gilbert lauding the new constructor of his plays. What happened to the impossible-to-coach Gilbert driving every coach insane? We don't think many coaches would hate having a guy who can drop thirty, dish out ten-plus dimes, generate free throws instantly, and hit massive game-winning shots, yet sports analyzer Michael Wilbon figured Saunders would not be able to generate results from this mercurial player, and as a result, the hiring was terrible, awful, laughable, dump-onnable, etc.

Yet yesterday's formal introduction of Flip went with tons of mutual appreciation from Saunders and his new point guard, who will obviously transform into a quicker, more dynamic Chauncy Billups under this new tutilage. Speculation was wrong there, which made the immediate hating of the hire, transcribed through panic-ensuing screeds problematic.

We have the same problem with the sports reporters' treatment of the Redskins' upcoming draft. Now, we aren't going to go all Larry Michael and ask for the heads of these NFL Sources that keep reporting the impending doom and gloom eminating from the unwanton desires of Dan Snyder. We just find it troubling that far-reaching results of player transactions have already been documented despite any sort of genuine happenstance of a Mark Sanchez selection. The skins haven't made any trades, haven't formally swapped any contracts, nor have they stitched together any uniforms with these new players' names on them. So why, again, does Mr. Wilbon tap out another screed about the Redskins' front office inabilities, when none of these crippling transactions have actually been made? Sure Wilbon crows about how idiotic the skins are for not trading down, like they should, yet he fails to mention that the skins did in fact trade down last year. They have traded down to acquire picks a number of times. Just because the skins wine and dine a potential prospect (the same way they wined and dined another potential prospect) doesn't mean that their decision has been curly-R stamped in burgundy and gold. Plenty of speculated skins selections have not happened in the past, why must we assume the ravenous desires of the owner will always be sated, even if no official statements of these desires are ever actually made? If the supposed loud overtures of desire for a rookie quarterback are never actually resulting in his selection, why should you, Denver, Colo ask Jason La Canfora (of all people) for a new team to root for? And what happened to the last quarterback Dan Snyder supposedly lusted after?

We just ask that you all try to save your imminent frustrations for actual football/basketball play. Or consider this extremeskins thread created by DCO homeboi da#1skinsfan. That is, if you are in the mood for more speculation.

Needless Piling-On Is Becoming Tiresome

2009-04-22T16:16:00.002-04:00

The Nationals have won two in a row (perhaps paving the way for the Caps’ to win two in a row, seeing how the collective fates of the franchises are intertwined, at least in our eyes), stingily holding on to one-run, ninth inning leads on consecutive nights.

Still, the resounding attitude towards the club is defined by snark, as illustrated by the blow-up over a couple of missing “O’s” on a couple of uniforms and, most disappointingly, if subtlely, a needless, uninformed shot in a Washington Post piece not even about the Nationals.

The article in question was written by Keith Richburg and was about the alleged over-the-top home-run-friendliness of the new Yankee Stadium. Of course, to put it in proper context, a shot at the Nationals is in order:

“Nationals Park in Washington, in its second season on the Anacostia River, featured 18 homers in the first six games -- more because of the Nationals' pitching than the wind or sloping stands.”

Haha, see, the Nationals are so bad that naturally it’s just their pitching and only their pitching that has caused this home run explosion at their second-year park. Of course, a closer look at the numbers, and not just a lazy reach-back for another “Nats stink” dig, reveals that the Nationals themselves actually hit eight of those home runs. So, perhaps an improvement in the team’s hitting, and not just a sluggish start by its pitching staff, has something to do with this gaudy total, huh? Again, though, this does not fit in with the motif that the Nats just flat out stink in every way and must be ridiculed with no mention whatsoever of any positive developments.

It really seems that in the heart of every baseball writer is the desire to pen cheeky “ho ho ho, our home team is so bad, those bums, heh heh heh, what are ya gonna do” types of columns. Everyone wants to wax on about their own “lovable losers”. And when they can't write full columns prematurely predicting historical catastrophes for the home team, they write little zany one-liners in unrelated columns. Anyone who loves optimism like we do should not let it go unnoticed.

Fortunately, our man Boz still gets it, even if he does throw in a completely unnecessary crack about “Natinals”. But at least his is a delightful piece of positivity in a ~~newspaper~~ world of smarm and sarcasm.

Changing the (Hot) Goalie Conversation

2009-04-21T00:33:00.002-04:00

Remember two whole days ago, when normally ‘tism-centered Tom Boswell bemoaned the Caps’ “April Curse” of running into that dreaded playoff nemesis, the “hot goalie”? Oh, Henrik Lundqvist was the absolute worst the Caps had ever seen, having not won the Vezina three times and being the latest to inevitably join playoff tormenters with names like Wregget, Barasson, Hextall, etc.

That looks to be changing, and maybe now it is a Washington Capitals opponent who will have to deal with the phenomenon that we Caps’ fans have been forced to suffer for so many past (emphasize past) playoff series.

Let’s be honest: how many Rangers’ fans and members of the New York media were salivating, absolutely drooling uncontrollably and thinking things like “desperation” and “easy series win” when it was announced, shortly before Game 2, that rookie goaltender Simeon Varlamov would be taking over netminding duties for the Capitals? Why, a win in that very Game 2 must have re-enforced the notion that the Caps had taken their last, best shot and failed, they were done, they had pulled out all the stops and were still defeated. Bring on the Bruins in the second round, right?

As we know by now, that Game 2, one-goal-allowed performance by Varlamov was merely a precursor to the shocker at the Garden last night, the sublime shutout performance (despite the best efforts at jinxing throughout the entire third period by the Rangers’ broadcast team) by the not-legal-drinker who apparently already knows how to ignore/enrage Sean Avery. The goaltending future of the Capitals arrived a year or two earlier than forecast last night, and it could not bode more well for this team’s current playoff run.

Sure, it’s two games against the Rangers, with their flaccid scoring rate of 2.56 goals per game in the regular season and their holding of the distinction of being the only NHL playoff team with a negative goal differential (210 for, 218 against). But it counts. It doubly counts because Varly pitched a shutout in “the world’s most famous arena” (as MSG always reminds us), and was un-intimidated by those suddenly boastful Rangers’ fans who crowded behind every MSG announcer and in front of every MSG camera to chant nonsense like “sweep” prior to Game 3.

It’s now the young Russian’s series. He now boasts more gaudy numbers than the vaunted King Henrik. While DCO may admittedly be a blog more geared towards (positive) emotion than cold hard statistics, let’s take a look at the latter in the series thus far to shake things up perhaps just this once, or whenever it serves the cause of DC-sports-related optimism.

Save Percentage
Varlamov: .982
Lundqvist: .936

Goals Against Average
Varlamov: 0.50
Lundqvist: 2.33

It’s a different game, and a different series now. We look forward to numerous reports from Washington and national media declaring that there is a new hot goalie in the NHL playoffs, and that he minds the pipes for the Capitals, seeking to put to rest yet another playoff demon. The King is dead. Long live the Czar.

Caps Finding Creative Ways to Battle Demons of Playoffs Past

2009-04-18T18:18:00.003-04:00

Remember back when the Caps made that little run to the Stanley Cup Finals over a decade ago? Remember all that talk of burying demons of playoff failure past, specifically those particularly spiteful demons who would cause the choking away of 3-1 series leads? They were dead. Gone. Exorcised, to use the popular cliché of the time, in the wake of a trio of 3-1 series leads successfully held on to in wins over the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, and Buffalo Sabres (they had a pretty good goalie too, no?).

There may be, however, another, similarly insidious demon that has until this point lived latently, only mildly detected in the hearts of die-hard Capitals’ fans: the demon of Winning The First Two Games On The Road Only To Lose The Series. Such a gruesome fate has befallen two Capitals’ teams in the past, two teams looking to slay the dragon of first-round underdog-ness. The ’95-’96 team took the first two games in Pittsburgh then lost the next four. The ’02-’03 Jagr-infested iteration won twice in Tampa before again dropping the next four, against a John Torterella-led squad no less. Kind of see where we’re going here? (Disclosure: I have a personal interest in seeing this matter settled, having been present for key games in both series: the epic, miss-school-the-next-day 4 OT Game 4 loss to the Penguins on April 24, 1996 [curses upon Petr Nedved for now and for all time], and an overall letdown of a Game 4 loss, 3-1, to the Lightning on April 16, 2003).

Clearly, there is only one way to settle this demon’s hash once and for all, and we chastise ourselves, as the theoretical leading purveyors of optimism in DC (if only because of our blog’s name and not because of our frequency of posting), for failing to see it before now: the Capitals must BE the favorite who drops the first two games at home before coming back to take the series against a lesser foe. Perhaps then, and only then, will all past playoff shortcomings be expunged, moreso if the Caps happen to win one of their games in four overtimes or more.

So, there may yet be a greater (subconscious) reason for the Caps dropping these first two games in a building in which they have, for six months, owned the opposition. It could be a step towards, finally, for good, putting behind all those bad memories from the past two decades. If that's the case, these painful losses in games we thought would be pushovers will have been worth it.

Not over. Definitely not over.

Caps Set to Defy Naysayers Again

2009-04-13T15:38:00.001-04:00

A throwaway line from a Capitals Insider post on Saturday night may hold more meaning than its parenthetical aside nature originally intended. The line:
“(Weird, meaningless fact: The Caps' season began and ended with a 7-4 loss.)”

That season-beginning loss, of course, was what turned out to be a minor setback in Atlanta. The Caps went 50-23-8 after that game, compiling the fourth-best record in the NHL. We weren’t worried about that loss, and we aren’t worried about this meaningless season-closing contest against the non-playoff-bound Panthers.

Then, as now, prophets of doom reacted to a 7-4 defeat with their well-prepared statements of optimism-hating: Jose Theodore stinks and was a disastrous signing, the defense is incompetent, George McPhee assembled a team incapable of winning anything.

So perhaps it was appropriate that the regular season was bookended by losses of the same score, to remind us how the naysayers were proven wrong in October, and how they can be proven wrong again in April, May, and June. The Caps rebounded nicely from that dark night in the early fall to put together a historical season. There’s no reason they can’t rebound again and put together a historical post-season.

Nationals Inching Closer to Victory

2009-04-11T17:51:00.002-04:00

The first victory of the Nationals’ season is imminent as the team has gradually reduced its non-winning deficits through the first four games of the season. Since Opening Day, the Nats have not won by 6, 5, 2, and finally 1 run. Last night’s almost-had-it game against the Braves even took 10 innings for the ultimate result to be had.

This, of course, means that the young team with so much new blood is starting to gel, and that the Master’s proclamation that they will “be fine” deserves to be heeded, and that the team deserves better than the incessant snark delivered upon it by haters of optimism and hacky writers looking for the next bad baseball zing.

Also encouraging is the clear truth that the Nationals’ offense will be able to produce enough runs to win many games this year. The run totals through the first four games may appear pedestrian at first, but there are hits and opportunities to score many more buried in those stats that speak to a squad that will score much once they’ve worked through these early tough times. The key, of course, is not surrendering quite so many in return. Kind of reminds us a little bit of another young Washington team with so much potential offense that ultimately exploded to grandiose proportions, all the while nurturing a young defensive (pitching?) corps that has proven at least adequate to keeping the opposition scoring totals down. We have seen those clear similarities for a while.

Victory is coming, and we not alone in this belief. ‘Tism yet lives out there.

Nats End Extended Spring Training in Florida, Haters Rampen Up the Snark

2009-04-09T09:43:00.005-04:00

The Nats emerged from their first few early-regular season workouts with some strong contributions in the realm of hitting and bullpen work, two aspects of last year's team that were glaring weaknesses. Now that the Nats have started to realize the potential of their potent lineup and unmatched depth in the outfield reserves, and they have found reasonable bleeding stopping from the arms in the pen, the settling down of the starting pitching and the adequate playing of the starting defense ought to settle into place now that the team has left Florida. In fact, so different is this team from last year's squad that so far, only one starting fielder is on the disabled list, and instead of a false-hope-inducing 3-0 start, the team has already ~~erased hope~~ bypassed that by losing their first three in the barren stands of Miami. Simply put, this is a different Nationals squad from last year's last-in-the-majors team.

So why has this team already been buried by unfunny cynics and baseball writers alike despite only being three games into what will ultimately be a redeeming season? The genuine impatience is so palpable that Stan Kasten is heard traversing decrepit landscapes off of 95 North to invite cretins to don their XXXXXL Chase Utley jerseys in our stands, despite the fact that these people shouldn't be allowed to roam outside of their personal living-room tailgate. Even the newly unveiled statues at Nationals park bear snarky reviews that lamely reference the temporarily-troubled ways of the hometown team. The praise of the new punch in the lineup has been replaced with punchlines by often-reaching scribes looking for easy ways to rampen up the doom and gloom and make everyone avoid the nice little Southwest shrine that bears the team name instead of a corporate logo.

It would be lovely to have a brand-new team that never had its entire innards gutted during an unfortunate fire sale at the hands of 29 inept major league co-owners who served as the team's runners, but that is the legacy the Nats bear. As we have noted, the Nats are victims, and these tough rebuilding years serve only to erase the poor upbringing that plagued the team once the unit was adopted like a troubled puppy from Montreal. The patience that needs to be utilized when cultivating a genuine ballclub cannot be damped into hasty hatred so early in the season. One wonders whether the Nats simply tack an entire Washington Post to their bulletin board of motivation, because the paper (outside of our homeboy Boz) does little else than crush the team with every sentence (but of course they don't because no one buys newspapers anymore).

But through these hardships that have beset the team, glimmers of 'tism have emerged like a phoenix in the shape of the new screech rising from ashes. Adam Dunn has already crushed a homer and rallied the 'house toward winning ways. Elijah Dukes has shooken off a tough Spring to become a viable contributor. Austin Kearns has figured out how to hit in his first three starts. Jordan Zimmermann has yet to show off his impressive array of pitches. And despite the fact that the DCO wasn't invited to participate in their fantastic advertisements (we even have our own dance! C'mon!), MASN2 has debuted some truly awesome Nationals commercials. It might even be a bit too early in the season to bury this team and its stadium and its capacity for fan fullfillment and the viability of baseball in the district, etc. Nope.

In fact, we are so confident that this season will turn itself around soon because we now have the Master providing his special brand of 'tism to these snark-infested internet waters with his own(?) blog! And what nuggest of 'tism is the first to be noted from the master?

"we'll be fine."

Manny proves that he is a natural at posting as well as managing. Now can we get a link?

Young Set to Win Second Comeback Award

2009-03-27T10:08:00.000-04:00

Dmitri Young is evidentally set to join the Nationals’ 40-man roster, per a good old fashioned handshake agreement with the dearly departed Jim Bowden.

Young, of course, thrilled we lovers of optimism with his stirring 2007 season, earning himself all-star honors (and a subsequent snubbing) and a richly deserved Comeback Player of the Year Award.

While the 2008 season was essentially lost to Young because of various health problems, we at DCO are heartened by his return this year, which should ultimately earn him a Grover-Cleveland-like second non-consecutive Comeback Award. Look for Grover to be added to the Presidents’ Race next season in honor of this accomplishment.

The DCO Salutes T.O.

2009-03-05T10:34:00.005-05:00

With the amount of T.O. news getting ready to bludgeon the public in the coming hours, we here at the DCO would like to take the time to thank the former 'boy, and former iggle for all of his contributions. While many have bemoaned Terrell Owens' presence in the hallowed halls of the National Football League for his flamboyance, his demand for attention and passes, and his carousing with Desperate Housewives, we here at the DC Optimist think one of his more unheralded contributions has gone unlawfully unnoticed. Owens, by the grace of god, single-handedly destroyed both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys playoff chances during his reigns in their respective uniforms, and for that, he cannot be thanked enough.

It all began with his celebrated tenure in Philadelphia. Working like a secret undercover agent, Owens decimated morale in the Eagles' locker room, belittled fellow diva Donovan McNabb into choking at every opportunity, took to camera whoring when his enormous contract seemingly wasn't enormous enough, and then, when it seemed like the world would completely implode on itself and the Eagles might win the Super Bowl, forced his way out, leaving the team's receiver core still without it's most productive target, and thus impotent and failure-prone. In the process, he enraged the admittedly easily-enraged Iggles fanbase, something we here at the DCO strive to do with every post. Owens work made the Eagles look cheap in the eyes of potential free agents, and naturally, players of his ilk stayed as far away as possible from that decrepit city, like many of the more sensible individuals in this country.

Naturally, Owens' problems with co-workers was lost on the bumbling Jerry Jones, who couldn't possibly see what a destructive force Owens was and like the inept personnel director he is, happily lead T.O. into Dallas so he could continue his masterwork of crushing locker room jollyness. While the earth was revolting at the sight of Tony Romo winking with his hat backwards, Owens went to work making sure that scourge of football was properly reminded that he isn't s**t. Romo was lambasted by Owens in every glorious opportunity, especially during Romo's impressively epic failures, like every playoff game number 9 ever suited up for and bungled.

It was the presence of T.O. combined with the natural unintended comedic brilliance of Jerry Jones' personnel moves that lead HBO to once again film Hark Knocks in the Cowboys' locker room. This development has always lead to the profiled team completely ruining itself, as the hour long in-depth scouting reports aired weekly often showed things to teams that couldn't be found studying game film. Although viewing Hard Knocks was especially troubling for this blogger, as it is strange watching a program where you wish every participant would suddenly become debilliatingly injured, it was hard not to notice the seeds of destruction that Owens had planted. Rookies looking to make T.O.-like money, have T.O.-esque commercials, etc., looked up to the receiver and his highly publicized tantrums. Why wouldn't they rally against their awful quarterback? And if HBO cameras weren't enough to parlay, Owens usually took his act to the pressers, including the undeniably fantastic "That's my Co' Back" post-playoff flameout that has been the finest post-football game press conference ever assembled. These seeds, combined with the Cowboys own drafted and acquired free agents, amounted to their suckiness.

With Owens now hitting the free agent market, many teams may be taking another look at his sort-of productive numbers, and possibly taking him and his brilliant destructive ways into their locker room. We hear the Giants may be looking for a replacement for the also-troubled Plaxico Burress. Wouldn't T.O. enjoy ripping apart another NFC East team from its insides? We'll be waiting to find out; with our popcorn of course.

REMAIN CALM

2009-03-04T12:41:00.003-05:00

Sweet merciful 'tism, a couple of lackluster non-wins, a little patented McPhee silence leading up to a trade deadline, and in some quarters you'd think the Caps were battling it out with the Islanders for draft position. The Caps will be fine, well secured in their first-round home-ice-advantage position of Division Leader. We're not looking at a Mets-like collapse here by any means, or even a Broncos-like collapse. The lead is 11 points, perfectly solid.
As for the trading, McPhee wisely continues to look long term. No need to deal a first-round pick + for someone like Olli Jokinen. Oops, sorry Flames.
Relax. Everything's going to be fine.

Honoring One GM, Awaiting the Latest Brilliance of Another

2009-03-03T11:22:00.007-05:00

As mentioned in the most positive DC-sports-related twitter feed available on the right, we at DCO salute recently departed Nationals’ general manager Jim Bowden, he who literally put his own health aside to tend to this fledgling franchise, and hope that when the Nationals reach their full potential he is recognized for his role in assembling this team.

No team-assembling action is closer to this blog’s heart, of course, than Bowden’s hiring of this man:

Manny may ultimately be the legacy of Jim Bowden, in the way Bobby Beathard gave us Joe Gibbs. The Master of ‘Tism is DCO’s spiritual inspiration, reminding us all that the power of optimism can accomplish things as great as keeping a lowly regarded and injury riddled 2007 team from plummeting to the depths of historical badness, to things as subtle as helping alleged malcontents like Elijah Dukes become true MLB superstars someday. Federal investigations aside, Bowden has left us this lasting gift.

We salute this departed GM as we await more trading deadline aplomb from the offices of George McPhee. GMGM of course drives speculative sportswriters, bloggers, and blog commentators mad with his signature non-disclosure of in-the-work ~~thievings~~ trades. Who foresaw last year’s complete and utter fleecing of other professional-level hockey teams to acquire division championship-delivering goaltender Cristobal Huet, mentoring wise veteran (and object of a blogger’s wife’s affections) Sergei Fedorov, and noted pugilist Matt Cooke (now sadly wasting away in playoff-grasping Pittsburgh)?

The silence is typically overwhelming this time around. What difference maker(s) will be had for a song (perhaps the controversial “hockey song”?) either today or tomorrow? We've already seen one Verizon Center team exercise good trade deadline judgment. Is there any doubt the Caps will follow suit?

Caps' Success is Begetting Bitterness, Lunacy

2009-03-01T14:41:00.001-05:00

A curious thing may be developing here as the Capitals continue to slay dragons atop various division and conference standings: they are drawing some ire. It’s as if the team is supposed to be a perennial punching-bag, a franchise everyone else can comfortably turn up their noses at, and lazily bring them up as a candidate for contraction. Now that such talk can no longer conveniently be turned to whenever the team’s name comes up, some people are throwing daggers and slinging mud.

First, let’s look at Boston coach Claude Julien, and his pouting after Alex Semin beat the Bruins with a slapshot from well beyond the blue line: “I've heard them say that they're in our heads. They do a lot of talking. They're one-goal games. They could have gone either way. By all means, I don't think they scare us.” The simple fact is three out of the four games between the two went the Caps’ way. Sounds like perhaps some overreaction to Brooks Laich’s comments prior to the game about a victory over the Bruins scoring some psychological points should the teams meet in the playoffs: "Maybe they finish ahead of, maybe they don't. But now they're wondering, you know, 'We can't beat those guys.’” Maybe we wonder about Julien’s coaching acumen if he chose to complain about Laich’s apt analysis after the game instead of maybe using it as a means to try to coax his team with the shrinking first-place lead into actually beating the Caps in regulation for once.

As it is, his little rave-out after yet another loss to the Caps reminds us of Donovan McNabb’s equally insane insistence that the Eagles were better than the Redskins despite the latter’s sweep of the former in the season series. The after-the-fact bitterness in both cases illustrates the animosity our teams can expect to face as they rise (or prepare to rise) to heights the rest of the sports world seems to think they should not.

Speaking of such sentiment, by now we all know about Don Cherry’s insane Ovie-related rant. The bald absurdity of it all is self-apparent, and the motive behind it all even more so with the mentioning of poor down-and-out Sidney Crosby immediately before the Ovechkin celebration bashing began. People are on to the overrated-ness of Sid, realizing the greatness of Ovechkin, and Cherry and other Sid anointers are unable to deal with it.

It’s interesting that Cherry held up soccer players for ridicule because of some of their goal celebrations and then likened Ovehckin’s celebrations to those. We think a far more telling comparison between the two sports would be comparing this:

To this:

Now we get the analogy. Thanks, Don.

As has been pointed out pretty much universally since this nonsense hit the airwaves, the timing of Cherry’s idiocy is curious, coming at a time when Ovechkin’s star is very much on the rise and the sheen is coming off Sid exponentially as his whining, tantrum-throwing, and baffling suspension-less cheap-shotting increase (also curious that many of the Ovie clips shown have been around for at least a couple of years, and only now apparently has the outrage come forth in Cherry’s Canadian-centric mind). NHL players, at the very least, are starting to fully embrace the anti-Sid movement. Hopefully NHL marketers will come to their senses as well, and maybe even NBC will start to show a few more games not featuring the Penguins.

In the end, we at DCO are heartened by these anti-Caps developments, as it indicates that the Capitals will likely not be inundated with irritating darling-ism, such as been heaped upon every Penguins’ team since Cherry’s Messiah broke into the league and lost the Calder trophy to Ovechkin. Maybe they’ll just be allowed to go about their business bringing a Cup to DC, and to making the town a permanent residence for other trophies with names like Hart, Richard, Ross, Adams, Norris, etc.

Celebrating Christmas in February!

2009-02-27T08:46:00.002-05:00

If you happen to be one of the new subscribers to the most positive twitter feed in the region (see newest widget to your right, and add away), you will notice a marked enthusiasm from us about the Redskins' latest delving into the waters of free agency. Despite what many of the sayers of nea were harping on regarding the cap situation, the hightened salaries, poor economy, presence of Vinny Cerrato etc., Dan Snyder still managed to obtain the highest-regarded player in free agency, Albert Haynesworth, while still retaining that lovely late season playmaker D'Angelo Hall, and STILL remaining in the running for totally-welcome-back pulling guard Derrick Dockery. Noticing needs for a more destructive defense, big D (meaning Snyder, not the Sportscenter-ticker-dominating 'boys) didn't stand pat, nor did he tear anything down, nor sacrifice any future, nor disrupt any past gains. No, he went out and made this team better for its millions of high-price paying fans, doling out even more millions to improve a product we have always felt was on the cusp of greatness.

What is there to gripe about when it comes to signing Haynesworth to the biggest contract for a defensive player in league history? If you asked one of the quibbling Jasons from the Post, they may reply with details of the salary cap problems that the skins were supposed to be mired in for centuries to come. They may liken giving this contract-year guy enormous dollars to giving the scourge that is Dana Stubblefield enormous dollars (yet denying him his proper performance-enhancing drug budget). They may dismiss the signing as ornament-grabbing business-as-usual for D-Snydes and his raquetball cronies, who think a large, expensive band-aid will fix what years of maligned drafting and fluctuating management have wounded.

But if you ask our contingent of 'tism, we would express nothing but the deepest of excitement for this move and its ramifacations throughout the league. With this signing, the retention of a now-healthy Jason Taylor and Cornelius Griffin, and the tendering of draft picks Anthony Montgomery and Kedric Golston, the skins have formidable-ized their defensive line, which in the past had been a softer spot of their still-top-five-in-the-league defense. The re-upping of Hall enhances that continuity portion of the team that everyone continues to think is barren. That fantastic secondary ought to have plenty more opportunities to intercept Tony Romo once these QB eaters begin their weekly blocker sheddings and pain causings. Pockets will collapse, and mistakes will be increased. Turnovers (and dropped turnovers if you are Carlos Rogers) will increase, field position will enhance, and FedEx Field game announcer Mark Kessler will likely bring back his decrepit "It's thiiiiiiiiiird down aaaannnddd llloooooooongg!" chant, which will now not result in an instant first down for the opposition.

With the Haynesworth signing, the skins can concentrate their full complement of draft picks on another maligned portion of the team: the offensive line. The harrumphing at the hog-less ones has been heard (ha-literation!), and with a draft that seems to be pregnant with O-line talent, a first-round selection in the realm of combine Columbiner Andre Davis or Michael Lewis-inspiring Michael Oher ought to add more blue-chip talent to a rugged veteran line eager to teach. If you read Lewis's Oher biography-slash-Joe Theisman broken leg autopsy book "The Blindside" you may recall current skin John Jansen supplying Oher with clothes and shoes during the kid's insanely huge development period. The draft-stock dropping Davis is another in the long line of Crimson Tide Tackles, whose lineage includes current pro-bowl, and happily restructuring tackle Chris Samuels. I envision Samuels taking the troubled Davis under his giant sack-preventing wing, schooling the youngster on how to be awesome when not hurt. I envision either of these SEC giants to fit in nicely as a result of these ties. Plus, if there are enough dollars left to bring back Dockery, not only does that fill that gaping Guard hole, but it also returns a locker room good guy to the skins. The youthful exuberance of Chad Rinehart and Stephon Heyer ought to remain properly tutored by Joe Bugel, and should be ready for insertion if an unfortunate bump or bruise happens.

But most of all, these signings return the skins and their wonderful fanbase to those great, Christmas-like days of previous years, when you went to sleep to John Clayton theorizing and woke up to burgundy-and-gold-wrapped presents filled with newly-signed hope and promise. If you don't even feel a tingle of excitement, friends, we can only call you scrooge. Don't the skins boast some of the highest team revenues on the planet? Don't they charge you pretty much a small fortune to attend games, purchase hooded sweatshirts, and drink beer? Why shouldn't they splurge on what the team needs the most? Anybody with a problem with competitive spending can go quietly hum "ba humbug" to him or herself at their new favorite team's now-packed games. We'll stay singing "Deck the D-Halls", or some other potential Chris Paul-inspiring holiday song.

Wiz Trade Deadline Grade: A

2009-02-21T13:28:00.004-05:00

There is a contingent of people in the local sports press who may have written off the temporarily moribund Wiz. They have been called every "inept" synonym the thesaurus holds during their current cold streak. It seemed like every facet of their structure, from the decision makers to the coaches to the scouts to the few un-injured players left on the squad, should all be let go, replaced with expiring contracts, first round draft choices, and Ja Vale McGee's fully developed future self. With this season a lost cause, why not take apart the entire thing, scrub the salvagable parts, and replace everything with young, cheap, and Hollinger-approved.

The general consensus among those who attempt to report on the Wiz was, whatever deal was on the table, take it, you don't want to lose out on that potential number one pick. But the Wizards, and us here at the DCO, felt differently. The Wizards head-of-everything Manager Ernie Grunfeld felt that this team was perfect as constructed, and none of those trades that all of the NBA would have loved to execute were viable. And for this faith-in-the-Wiz philosophy, Ernie Grunfeld and his pat-staying Wiz have earned a coveted "A" grade from our own team of brilliant draft analysts.

While our draft analysts tend to often be correct in their respective analyses, there really aren't experts on the whole, knowing of Abe Pollin's exact thoughts thing. But we do know that if this potential trade would have been made, a trade both the yammerers of the media and, apparently, executives of NBA teams discussed ad nauseum, it would have destroyed the entire public's desire to ever take in an NBA basketball game.

Trading Antawn Jamison to the Cleveland "Crabaliers"(copyright Carter), would have made the entire National Basketball Association Incorporated become fraudulant. It would have taken something as perfectly American as loyalty seem forbidden. If Ernie Grunfeld would have listened to this contingent of unimaginable opinions, he would have squeezed any viable worthiness out of the league for good.

Yet Grunfeld, harboring DCO HOF-worthy steadfastness, resisted the marketing machinery. He kept his currently slumping Wiz team intact, knowing that full recoveries would lead to that winning tradition, built by Grunfeld et. al. He didn't give those a**holes Antawn. Not even if the referees fix the outcome completely will the Wizards hand-deliver the Cavaliers anything. NOPE!

As someone who "WITNESSED" the last time the Cavaliers played and lost to the Wiz, I know that there is only one team in the NBA that continues to remain either morally, or outcome-ly victorious in this match-up; and it's the Wiz. Again, the Wizards stood victorious. The Cavs couldn't even get a referee to rule favorably for them and execute that trade. One wonders whether David Stern himself blew a whistle during the phone call between the teams, and had Boobie Gibson execute the trade from the free throw line. We are positive that LeBron was crying while refreshing that NBA trade rumors page on worldwide dot com. Again, the Wizards emerge victorious over the least-appealing team in the NBA.

Naturally, the Wizards have been inspired by this tism-riffic victory. We know that current Wizards boss Ed Tapscott begins every game with an inspirational quotation. This not-trade likely didn't have to lead Tap to resort to his must win quote, namely the "us must trust us" verse from KRS-One's "Ova Ya Head." Nope, the Wiz responded to their non-makeover by steamrolling their last two opponents, emerging from the basements of the league, and looking as spoiler-riffic as ever. Maybe it was Kane's verse first verse from "Anotha Victory" that emblazoned the whiteboard before their last game and victory ("Come, get some, you little bums"), both their second straight overall win and their second straight at the well-groomed Izod Center (not copyright Berman). Cuz the Wiz made quick work of the Jarvis-less and Vince-Carter-ability-less nature of the Nets. Before that, they were firing up Verizon Center with their dismissing of the worse-off T-Wolves. Want to see development in the youth? Watch the current version of Javaris Crittenden popping eyes everytime he ignights a fast break. Check to see if it's McGhee, Andray Blatche, or career-highing kid Domenic McGuire catching his alley-oop toss. This team's reserves are legit.

And all of this luxury tax rigamorow? Not even an issue once next year kicks off, you know, when Gilbert, Brendan, etc etc become healthy and the Wiz return to excitement? The present, and the future, have become brighter. And you don't have to boycott a sporting league in the process.

Jay Beagle Set To Score First NHL Goal

2009-02-11T17:16:00.002-05:00

With the late-breaking news that Alexander Semin will not play tonight vs. the Rangers, the stage is set for another Capitals AHL call-up success story (unlike the Rangers imminent AHL call-up disaster).
As any reader of any regularly posting DC-sports-themed blog could tell you, Beagle is the seventh player to make his NHL debut on the Caps this season.

The successes of Karl Alzner and Simeon Varlamov have garnered plenty of well-deserved attention, though let us also not forget the more subtle triumphs of those Hershey Bears such as Sean Collins (first NHL goal was the morale-killing opening score of a 7-4 rout of the Lightning on January 1), Andrew Gordon (presented himself well in that injury-ridden Caps legendary 5-4 OT win in New York on December 23), or Oskar Osala (scintillating single shot in a 3-1 victory over the conference-leading Bruins on December 10). Also, while he did not make his NHL debut this season, let us never forget Chris Bourque and his first NHL goal in that same game as Collins' goal, which prompted some, um, bold proclamations from your favorite optimistic bloggers.

What similar glorious success awaits Beagle? This blog sees him as yet another valuable contributor from a farm system with seemingly endless quality depth.

America's Hot New Philosophy

2009-01-24T11:27:00.003-05:00

If you, like me and apparently the entire freakin' country, were trolling the streets of the district like zombies on an everlasting trek for brains, you might have seen or heard the hot new buzzword that has swept the nation: optimism.

Maybe you saw it emblazoned in the most friendliest of corporate manner on your local metrobus? Maybe you heard one of the countless pundits who you now have grown a strange sudden interest to say it? Or, maybe you heard it in a place we here at the DC Optimist have been chanting it for the past two years or so: in the DC sports landscape.

In today's paper, maybe you had to divert your eyes from the dizzying highs of the winning part of the sports region (Barry Svrluga's poignant profile of the popularity surge in Alex Ovechkin and his first-place hockey team) to witness the never insurmountable lows of last-placitude (Chico Harlan's report on a luncheon involving Nationals brass and the people). But buried in the suffering of that report is that hot little buzzword permeating the region, and it was uttered by none other than this site's patron saint, Manny Acta. When discussing how totally better the Nats will be next year, Acta described himself as "optimistic, not realistic."

In that delicious quotation, Acta went ahead and again won our hearts and cemented himself as the quintessential manager to ever fill out a lineup card.

But that's not the last of the 'tism fest that is sweeping the local sports nation. During this euphoric Caps' renaissance, we profiled the utter rightness of rookie defenseman Karl Alzner. After receiving this quote via email earlier from my co-optimist, I realized that gee, even when he is sent down, Karl Alzner handles it the right way. Per Tarik El-Bashir's Capitals Insider: "Ever the optimist, Karl Alzner doesn't mind being back with the Bears."

Take notice America, and potential TV show producers looking for the perfect blog to make a TMX-like show about, optimism is taking this nation by storm. And with the way that has trickled down to the areas of our sporting locale that seem to need it most, you can thank yourself for knowing where it originated. Tism is king.

Flyer Than the Rest of Em

2009-01-15T14:59:00.005-05:00

I for one, have no problem with the democratic process. I am happy with the results of the presidential election, and whatever is coming up in light of that decision. I find voting to be a heroic act by those flexing their god-given freedom of selection. However, as we discovered eight and four years ago, oftentimes, the wrong mother-effer is picked number one by the voting public. With the big swearing in getting ready to absorb everyone in the district and outlying region's attention and Metro breathing room, it was nice to see that another major mistake made by voters was being rectified last night in Pittsburgh.

I don't know if you read another one of those seemingly ill-timed Mike Wise 'tism defibrillator charges that was printed in the paper yesterday, but it was something about how Washington Capital and Hart Trophy pwner Alex Ovechkin is essentially inherently superior to that oft-injured other occasionally mentioned in the same breath guy, and the NHL just can't bear to realize that. The results of the NHL's dubious marketing scheme led to a duo of out-of-contention teammates from Western Pennsylvania absorbing more votes than their far superior rival from DC. As was the case when W was elected twice, the voters got it wrong twice, and yesterday's convincing performance by the Caps was a personification of that. Instead of being seen chipping in on game-tying, -winning, and -sealing goals, the number-one vote getter was seem limping off the ice, trying in vain to dive into a game-salvaging poor referee call. Simply put, yesterday was Ovechkin's inauguration. Oh, and as for the #2 vote getter? Became suspiciously absent from the post first-period portion of the game, where the Caps wrestled away their rust and began their steady 6-cylinder firing. If there was any doubt that the preferable candidate was not properly chosen by the public, Ovie's third period sealed that doubt, much in the same way the Wizards seal down that number one overall lottery pick in their nightly efforts.

While I wasn't one of the supposed millions who somehow elected the guy pretending to be hurt all the time as the number one all-star, I may be able to understand if they find shock that their decision was made poorly. I'm sure those people who saw Katrina wash away much of New Orleans, the country toil in an unjust war, and grammatical atrocities becoming the latest bumper sticker slogans became ashamed as well. And they took action by electing Obama, right?

Yep, a far-reaching Washington-related timely metaphor. Sorry to steal your latest PTI bit, Kornheiser. I must say that I was inspired to put this piece together by another local superstar, Rapper Wale. After hearing it for the first time likely forever after everyone else did, I found what has to be pumping out Mike Green's Laborgini speakers: This Anthem. While it is known to the hockey savvy that Ovechkin plays in signature CCM skates, last night it became obvious that Ovie wears "Nike Boots."

Karl Alzner Does Things The Right Way

2009-01-05T10:24:00.007-05:00

It was sometime during the lull of a Capitals home win, with the lull coming solely from the almost mundane feeling of an assured guaranteed victory, when I started thinking, "How come there is almost never any lapses of concentration, any complete screw-ups that lead to inevitable Ls anymore? Why doesn't this Caps team screw up anymore?" I mean, when teams are injury depleted, they end up thinking about lottery picks, which overpaid dude on their roster they should deal, how they can rebound when after a promising start every offensive weapon spent time on the shelf. Not these first-place Capitals. And especially not at the insanely popular and populous Verizon Center, where nobody other than the Caps ever wins a game, and instead only attends try to luck themselves out of another Ovie highlight. It is strangely settling. So, it was during this over-extended thought that I found a person who embodies that stable-throughout-the-organization infallibility and I found it in Karl Alzner.

When he was drafted --- during a DCO-attended draft party, where the of-course-they-were-awesome uniform change was introduced, and Bobtimist Prime awkwardly attempted to elicit funny from serious professionals --- Alzner was lauded for his all-around game. His top-to-bottom housing of defensive essentials and leadership qualities, his captainship of championship Canadian National juniors, winning defense awards in junior; basically he had everything.

And while it took a few weeks for his arrival in DC, and this unfortunate rash of injuries, it is clear that he embodies this bizarre, mistake-free nature of the 2008-2009 Caps. I mean, he has yet to take a penalty in an NHL game. He does the right things. So often in fact, that we think he does things the right way in every aspect of life.

Did you know Karl Alzner also:

- always uses his turn signal, especially when he is like, travelling south on 16th street and he is in the right lane and someone is parked and he has to get over

- rarely crowds to doors of the Metro, when he gets on, even if it is in like the boondocks of Wheaton station, he heads middle, freeing up that space for people to enter and exit the train. Only in the instance where he is getting out of the doors in a crowded train to let people on does he crowd the doors. All of this is done without holding the doors up like a jerk. Plus he

- knows EXACTLY where that intersection in Dupont is, without looking smarmy about it, or questioning your decision mentally or verbally about your location choice. He doesn't even joke with tourists about the location of J street, which would befuddle them.

- PROMPTLY moves his CORT truck, which unfortunately may have douple-parked you into a spot on P Street. He wouldn't even make you have to call his supervisor twice or lean on the horn in your finest imitation of Verizon Center's Horn Guy.

- If there were ever an occasion where he choked out of two game-winning baskets, including one terrible attempt at eliciting favortism that was for the first time in history correctly called by an official, Alzner would never ever deny the obvious-to-everyone-on-the-planet fact that he travelled and that for the first time in history, he was called for it. Nor would he even come close to crying to the officials if ever he was called for a mistake.

No, Karl Alzner does the right things when duty is called upon him. I was talking with the DC Optimist about this, and he thought similarly. Like how he likely gives out money to the less fortunate, homeless folk out there on Fun street before the games. Even that funny dude with the raps about how he needs a beer. I mean, like he's not suckered by the bums, but he'll hook up one of the more-clever ones like that dude. Like, if he were loaned something, he'd return it, and his home wouldn't be adorned with "Ned Flanders' Property." But, he'd also loan that stuff out without question, as was the case with Ned Flanders' TV tray.

Despite being a fantastic stay-at-home defenseman mainly adept at getting the puck out, he still plays physically. But that physicality would never translate to picking fights with defenseless people. While he does not get penalty minutes, ever at all, if he were, in some bizarro-world where leading rookies in ice-time, and becoming a key penalty killer translated to 19 penalty minutes and a game misconduct, it wouldn't be during a 6-1 loss to the Florida Panthers.

If Karl Alzner was behind you in line at McDonalds and realized that you were fifty cents short of getting a 20-piece McNuggets meal, he would have gone a head and placed two quarters on the counter.

That lost wallet, that he would better serve to throw away? He's dropping it off in your mailbox just in time to pay off those gambling loans, like if he were to find Rick Tocchett's wallet.

He'd help a stranded person; he wouldn't abandon them during crucial-final-three-games-of-the-season moments. If he were sacked and ended up giving up the game-winning fumble to allow perrenial fakers like the friggin' Eagles into the playoffs, he'd never faintly grasp his helmet with two dramatic, pained hands, bantering to an audience of idiots who might determine this pathetic display of worthlessness as a result of playing hard and hurt.

No, Alzner does things with the correct amount of rightness. So if you may still have some question as to what happened to that mistake-prone Caps team of old, just be ensured that the Capitals, as the did when they let this fledgling online outlet of 'tism walk amongst their employees, have done so many things right lately. And Alzner embodies that.

Calder for Bourque?

2009-01-01T12:13:00.003-05:00

After the Capitals’ stirring road victory over the Sabres on Tuesday, we at the DC Optimist feel it reasonable to ask: should Chris Bourque garner consideration for the Calder trophy, given to the NHL’s most outstanding rookie, for his game-changing first period goal in Buffalo?

It was a crucially important game for the Capitals, if all this talk of demon-exorcising from Bruce II is to be believed. It was a game in a building in which the Capitals traditionally met an ugly demise, against a team that, for whatever reason, seemed to have the Caps’ number over the years (Eastern Conference finals notwithstanding). To paraphrase the reigning Jack Adams winner (en route to a repeat), these are the games the Caps have to start winning, the venues the team has to start conquering, if they are to be champions.

This could be the confidence-building win that, ultimately, pushes the Caps towards that over-the-top territory they are so desperately seeking and, given the utterly ridiculous AHL-resembling of their roster due to injury after injury after baffling injury, they ultimately deserve.

All that being said, how could the league not take notice of Bourque’s first career goal, that adeptly buried long rebound that gave the Capitals a 2-0 advantage, leading directly to Craig Laughlin’s traditional proclamation that another Caps’ goal would mean “lights out” for the opposition. Ultimately, this game-breaking goal led to just that.

Not to alarm Caps fans, but there is this slight possibility that Bourque may be snubbed despite his objectively pure qualifications for the award. Therefore, we pre-emptively cite the example of equally
snubbed would-be MLB All-Star-Game-MVP Dmitri Young.

In the 2007 version of the game that can still end in a tie (is a Donovan McNabb joke at this point considered dated? Can we still make that tie-related joke?), Young stoked a 9th inning rally with a two-out infield single. The eventual triumph of the National League would not have been possible without it, yet Young was denied most valuable player considerations afterwards.

Similarly, this magnificent rebound goal by Bourque made possible this victory in Buffalo so badly needed for the Caps’ Cup-seeking psyche. While Nicklas Backstrom may nominally hold the game winning goal for this contest (courtesy of that meaningless post-empty-netter tally by Buffalo’s Clark MacArthur with 11 seconds left), it was Bourque the Younger’s tally that ultimately, truly won this game for the Caps.

Finally, since it’s the New Year (irrelevant, but who cares, let’s press on), we'll play a game of If The Playoffs Began Today. If the playoffs began today, the Capitals would play…the Penguins in the first round. You remember the Penguins, right? That team of baby darlings that so charmed us last spring with their little playoff run, and who were such a ~~lazy~~ popular pick amongst hockey experts to repeat as Eastern Conference Champions, and who are apparently completely unable to deal with the nasty little injury bug as well as the Caps have. Yes, those Penguins.

Talk about exorcising demons. A clean first-round sweep of the Pens would do more to bolster the post-season confidence of the Caps and their fans than any number of 3-1 series leads held on to in 1998 could ever do. All this assumes the Penguins make the playoffs, of course, and don’t fall into the pit of expectation-choking-away that befell the Dallas Cowboys in the past month.

Regardless, give Chris Bourque his due for the goal that may well push the Caps to the next level. A text-based postgame conversation between myself and DCO’s Bobitmist Prime on Tuesday acknowledged that Chris faces stiff Calder competition from Karl Alzner and Simeon Varlamov, but we can, and should, all hope that his heroics will ultimately be recognized league-wide.

Larry Brooks (kind of) Makes Amends

2008-12-30T15:05:00.002-05:00

One day after we called for a Pulitzer for Dan Wetzel based on his marvelous accounting of the Great Dallas Implosion of 2008, we are treated to more journalistic magnificence from an unlikely source: the New York Post’s Larry Brooks.

Today Brooks argues, with 100% accuracy, that the NHL is doing itself and us all a great service with its never-ending Sidney Crosby glorification. He says that Alex Ovechkin could be a useful talent to promote (amongst others also shut out by the blinding light of Sid’s supposed combination of the greatness of Gretzky-Mario-Howe), and might even be the game’s best player (heresy alert!), despite what the well-documented fraudulence that is fan all-star balloting might indicate.

Whether this latest article is Brooks’ way of apologizing for his November 25, 2007, ill-conceived, ill-mannered, illogical assertion that Ovechkin should sign somewhere other than Washington (read: New York) as a restricted free agent, or is some under-handed way to somehow try to resurrect that long-settled issue, we at DCO always welcome any calling-out of the NHL and its Crosby hype-machine malarkey. Of course, that anti-DC rant of a year ago (recycling the tired and apparently now-defeated argument that DC is a backwater hockey town, unworthy of any stars, and that New York should have them all, etc.) precludes us from bestowing any honor like the DCO Hall of Fame upon Mr. Brooks, but we appreciate his jocking of Ovie nontheless.

Besides, is this really the poster boy image the NHL wants (yes, this is from well over a week ago, but we must never let it die):

Wiz on Fast Track to Playoffs

2008-12-30T10:03:00.003-05:00

With yesterdays first consecutive win of the season for the formerly-struggling Wiz, talks of playoffs are heating up. How else could you analyze their brilliant sealing off of the vaunted Houston Rockets, who had found a way to fell the Wiz in seven straight ballgames before last night's obvious-that-the-bad-days-are-done W? After the hilarious comedic stylings that followed the Wiz's previous win over the so-much-worse-off (right down to the team name) Oklahoma City Thunder, where ESPN took time away from praising Lebron's latest commercial to pair highlights of poor basketball play with Benny Hill music, cracks from name-mispronouncing highly-paid yappers, and history-bearing stats, it seemed that a win against a team that even bears a slight resemblance to vauntedness would be impossible. This might especially be true considering these same Rockets entered Verizon Center and encountered the Wiz during a short cold snap, where the Wiz managed to miss something like their last eighty shots (and not all of them by DeShawn Stevenson!) before ultimately coming up short in the fourth quarter.

But odds-defying is something this inspired Wizards ballclub seems to encounter naturally. Just check the way the Wiz came close to defying the fixed odds of their Christmas day performance of the Cavs in their last loss, which seems so long ago. This whodathunkit nature translated to this brilliant victory last night in, of all forms, DeShawn Stevenson, who ignored all of the negativity surrounding his postively terrible season by hitting the absolutely huge fourth quarter shot, where he faded right on the baseline and gave the Wiz that insurmountable four-point lead. Stevenson's face finally lost that feeling, after he lost his starting spot, shooting confidence, ablility to effectively do anything, etc. We here at the DC Optimist see that bucket as evidence that this team has transitioned from historically terrible all the way to playoff contender. Could tonight's matchup with the also-vaunted New Orleans Hornets, where DeShawn hit another insane bucket at the end of the game last year be more evidence that the early-season hiccups of the losing variety are in the past?

Credit for the surge in winningness ought to also be doled out to new head coach Ed Tapscot, who has taken to rewarding the young, hungry and effective players with playing time. A Manny-like penchant for relaying inspirational quotes has both us and his newly contributing players inspired. Domenic McGuire does so many little things (and big things, especially defensively), that his inability to hit a jumpshot is inconsequential. Tap has also found ways to incorporate pups Andray Blatche, Nick Young, and occaisionally, Javaris Crittenden. Impressive work all around, as giving the Wiz youth the time to develop their game with playoff positioning a priority. Soon, once the Wizards finally receive a complement of players of the non-injured variety, they will be ready to overcome even the most seemingly insurmountable odds. Something they have shown an adept ability to do.

Skins' "Collapse" Really Not That Bad

2008-12-29T14:17:00.002-05:00

Give Dan Wetzel a Pulitzer. Maybe the award is only for newspapers, and Yahoo! Sports online contributors are not eligible, but give this guy something for his brutally accurate and downright lyrical piece entitled “Cowboys, not Lions, were top flops.”

It’s so rare that a couple dozen paragraphs put such a profound perspective on an NFL season. While the Jason LaCanforas of DC gleefully revel in a Redskins 8-8 season and never cease to remind us of the “disastrous” decisions made by the ‘Skins collective braintrust, Wetzel reminds us of how much worse off the Cowboys are.

Some gems from this beautiful calling-out of the frauds in Dallas:

“The Detroit Lions became the first team to go 0-16 in league history but the most disastrous season in the NFL this year belongs to the Cowboys.”

“[The season] was a train wreck of melodrama, mistakes and misplaced priorities. For Dallas to finish 9-7 and out of the playoffs with that much talent is an epic failure.”

“Tony Romo continued to fall apart after Dec. 1” (my birthday; what greater gift?)

“Repeated late season collapses – the Cowboys have lost their last nine regular-season finales, and have done nothing in the playoffs – are in this team’s DNA.”

Perhaps most importantly, Wetzel reminds us:

“At midseason, owner Jerry Jones even mortgaged some of the team’s future to get more talent. He traded a first-, third- and sixth-round draft pick to Detroit for receiver Roy Williams. Like most of Dallas’ moves, it didn’t pan out. Williams caught just 19 passes in 10 games.”

So it seems there are other owners/pseudo-GMs out there capable of making poor decisions about trading draft picks! One would be correct in mistakenly thinking such dundering was limited to Washington, with all the previously referred to optimism-hating abounding in local publications.

There you have it: Dallas is worse than 0-16 Detroit, making the 2008 Cowboys The Worst Team of All-Time (relative to expectations).

Remember when the ‘Boys were 3-0, virtually anointed by ESPN as a 16-0 Super Bowl contender, lauded as unstoppable, with all melodrama left far behind them, and a lock to destroy a weak Redskins team at home? A less lazy blogger might dig up some damning quotes from the likes of Chris Berman, Peter King (what’s he going to do with no Romo or Favre in the playoffs, by the way?), et al, but that blogger doesn’t live here anymore (as evidenced by his first post since before Thanksgiving).

What about more failures much more spectacular than the Redskins 8-8 record?

The Broncos lost their last three games to gag away a division title, which they eventually lost to an 8-8 team.

The Bucs lost their last four to go from 9-3 and in command of their division to 9-7 and in the same could-have/should-have boat as the Cowboys.

The Jets, those Titan-killers of November 23 that spawned so much all-New-York-Super-Bowl frenzy, lost four of their last five as Brett Favre nicely evened out his TD/Int ratio to miss the playoffs, sending Peter King and John Madden into a depression from which they may never recover.

Washington at 8-8 doesn’t seem that bad anymore. That 6-2 start was just a teasing taste of things to come. Plus, now the Skins get another crack at the Lions next season, and a revenge date with the Rams. They finished where many thought they might, unlike that team of fraudulent false gods in Dallas.

Wizards Lead Most of Christmas Night

2008-12-25T23:01:00.004-05:00

An impressive Christmas night performance by our lightly regarded Wiz, who often spent the night in the lead of the ballgame against their apparently-more-NBA-friendly rivals. However, it wasn't enough to overcome the most one-sided officiating performance in recent history. Instead of having to overcome their tough opening stretch of games, injuries, poor play, porous defense, DeShawn Stevenson's presence, etc, the Wiz had to overcome both the influence of corporate partnerships and apparently something the NBA refers to as officiating last night in their 23rd almost-win. In case you were busy smashing your head against the wall instead of watching the Wizards umpteenth consecutive non-clinching fourth quarter, the Wiz were called for a phantom foul on a three point shooting player wearing 23, then they were called for charging on two consecutive plays, both of the questionable variety, sandwiched between a delightfully ticky-tacky loose ball foul with the game on the line.

There was no doubt that the fortunes of the Wiz were pre-determined, therefore it is unnecessary to look at the final score, since the illuminati-like team of Phil Knight and David Stern apparently phoned in the final score as soon as the Wiz held the lead with under two minutes remaining. The team the Wizards were playing against did nothing to secure a win other than hurl themselves to the floor (as per usual) in some of the poorest acting performances this side of "The Hills," with the "Closer"-like refereeing squad feigning influence by these pretending-to-be-hurt fakers.

Interesting note that before the game, the Wizards' opposition altered their uniform choice so as to appease one of their players and the release of his new, soon-to-be-on-sale-at-Marshall's shoe release. Interesting how exposed as terrible that player would have been if the NBA and Nike hadn't fixed up that fourth quarter and allowed the unfortunate Wiz to end that team's decrepit-home winning streak. Another interesting note that was happily buried in referee-abetted red tape: How another dude with the James surname was unstoppable, while the one from all of the lame commercials was busy complaining to the officials that his charges weren't called.

While the Wizards have had their fair share of moral victories this season, we here at the almost-monthly-updated DC Optimist feel that this moral victory is the most savorable. There was no way the NBA, TNT, Nike, et al were allowing their unfortunately uniformed darlings to fall against a Wiz team seemingly inspired by 24 consecutive hours of "A Christmas Story," which continued to air on the other Turner network. Mike James, likely leaving his now-famous progeny under worthy supervision, was shooting the Cavs's eyes out, and Antawn Jamison, who doled out impressive buckets almost as often as phantom fouls, earned an "A+++++++" grade tonight. And new starter Domenic McGuire is showing how nice it is to not have DeShawn Stevenson play as many minutes as he had earlier in the season with his improving defense, rebounding, passing, and dunking.

So even if after that pathetic excuse for a fixed outcome you have determined that watching NBA action is equivalent to watching a glorified Harlem Globetrotters performance (with terrible comedy courtesy of the anointed one during the commercial breaks!), and you will never tune in again, you ought to reconsider. Because with the odds-defying that the Wiz must overcome every night, that big win number five ought to be a more impressive victory than Ralphie's sudden beatdown of the yellow-eyed Scut Farkas.

Caps In Good Company Route-Wise

2008-11-23T01:25:00.000-05:00

What to make of tonight's 7-2 brutalization at the hands of the San Jose Sharks? Should we mourn and wallow in this "well, they just have our number" sentiment because of San Jose's utterly flukey ten-year-or-whatever dominance over the Caps? Should we grovel before the specter of yet another NHL black jersey?

Nah. Let's play a little game of There's Someone Worse Off Than Us. Which would you rather be tonight: a fan of the Caps, that team with the ludicrously loaded lineup of talented youngsters kind of flying under the radar towards a deep playoff run, with a couple of those key youngsters plus one cagey rejuvenated veteran on the shelf with injuries, bowing humbly by five goals to the best team in the league, oooooorrrrr, would you rather be a rooter of those Texas Tech Red Raiders, that #2 football team in the land and quite the darling little pick to end up in the national title game, who were historically spanked by a team rated three spots below them, likely ending any hope of a championship this late in the college football season?

We'll take the Caps and their early season drubbing, knowing the team is really better than this, and that with a lineup featuring a few less injured superstars, they are still a legit contender. It's a late November loss to a team that has yet to lose in regulation at home (damn you, gimmicky overtime rules, for cursing all of us who write/blog/whatever about hockey with the need for that "in regulation" qualifier"). It's still something that can be avenged in June.

While we fully acknowledge the severe reaching of this version of There's Someone Worse Off Than Us, we nonetheless refuse to apologize for the striking similarities to the pummelings on the scoreboard, despite the distinct non-similarities to the pummeled teams circumstances.

MUST READS ON THE WEB

2008-11-13T15:30:00.000-05:00

We know you are thinking, "Whoa, since when did the DCO pop up on my RSS feed twice in one week?" Well folks, it's time to celebrate, as for the first time since this blog's inception, a strong, emphatic, positive, enlightening W immediately followed a Wizards post on the DCO! To wit, there is master-scribe Mike Wise, patently preaching for the playtime plugging in of newest Wizard heartthrob JaVale McGee. What a piece from this reformed calmer-downer of the region's hyperbole-spewing set. As if your fill of awesome Wizards stuff wasn't completely sated by that gem, here is this relevant web link from our BFFs at Bulletsforever, who took the time to send me questions, likely to figure out when I might actually post again. Be sure to click on all of their advertisements as well.

Inspiring Wizards Advertisements

2008-11-12T11:47:00.002-05:00

Oh Eddie Jordan, you and your undermanned, undergunning, yet never underachieving Wizards have once again struck the earth and dug yourselves another DC Hole of 0-5 to attempt to emerge from heroically once the writing off by the media has finally occurred. What to do now that Brendan, Gilbert, and A.D. are suffering ailments, the Hollinger and fiyastarter ratings sink you to the basement, and the emerging place from this deficit must begin in Utah, where pretty much no one wins? Such early season despair may cause Wiz fans to panic; where might they find the inspiration to trust in the efforts of Eddie's group to bounce back to their better than average ways? Why, if you are practitioners of 'tism, and ride the iron horses of the Metro rail, you might find inspiration in these enormous, seemingly nonsensical advertisements for a giant oil company. Some of the companies weird inner thoughts they hope for the country to share in an effort to conserve energy remain bizarrely chosen (we remain particularly inspired by the lady who will "unplug stuff more."). While the plea from the gentle elderly fellow with his strong beard to "Use less energy" fits right in with this blog's recent output, we see the inspiration in these messages as maybe applying to the Wiz, who are participating in their own cute little Metro ad campaign. Why not combine these two philosophies into one, and thus create the ultimate in energetic ad campaigns, only rivaling the 2003-2004 "Pure Energy" campaign moniker the Wiz used. Below are some prototypes:

Alex Semin Enshrined in DCO Hall of Fame

2008-11-01T00:17:00.001-04:00

What does it take to bring a blog out of its posting slumber? How about a Sovetsky Sports interview with Alexander Semin, brought to us by the Puck Daddy blog? About halfway in to this Q and A session with rising Capitals’ star only now catching NHL-wide attention, a question is posed regarding Semin’s place in the Ovechkin/Crosby/Malkin rivalry, asking Alex S. where exactly he fits in with this trifecta.

What a nice little middle-of-the-interview softball question. It’s the perfect opportunity to throw about some Mary-Worth-worthy platitudes, stuff like “It’s just an honor to be mentioned with those guys” or “I don’t think I’m quite there yet” or any manner of throwaway compliment to Sid's "vision", etc. But Alex knows what he has to do, what must be done. Risking the wrath of every darling-loving NHL analyst and Wheeling-dwelling Pens fan, he states: “What’s so special about Crosby? I don’t see anything special there.”

THANK YOU.

After these two sentences, we have no choice but to admit Alexander Semin to the DCO Hall of Fame. He will become Co-Director of the re-christened Stevenson-Semin Accurate Player Assessment Wing. As we all know, the Wizards’ Deshawn Stevenson gained admittance to the DCO HOF last March with his similarly establishment-bucking comments on the Sidney Crosby of the NBA, Lebron James. His hype-defying analysis was enough to garner him a wing of the DCO named in his honor. Today, Semin shares in that honor for the brave Russian’s own calling out of a Chosen One.

But wait, Semin didn’t stop with just those two sentences? He went on? Take a gander at this:

“I think that if you take any player, even if he is "dead wood," and start promoting him, you'll get a star. Especially if he scores 100 points. No one is going to care about anyone else. No one is going to care whether he possesses great skill. Let's say you put someone in front of the net and let him deflect pucks in, and he scored 50 goals; everyone will say "Wow!" and then hand him a $10 million per year contract. That's what they like here. “

Sounds familiar, no? Take a player, christen him “The Next One”, promote the living hell out of him, convince the more highly impressionable amongst us that he’s “the face of the NHL”, and bam, star. Semin’s seemingly rare ability to see through such nonsense will be of great value to the Accurate Player Assessment Wing. Perhaps Stevenson and Semin can combine forces to encourage some brave soul within the NFL ranks to follow suit and declare Tony Romo to not be one of the greatest quarterbacks in history. Perhaps this individual will defy the Peter Kings of this world to find the Dallas quarterback not divine, and in fact quite prone to the turnover and completely addicted to the playoff-game-blowing play. Deshawn paved the road for such brave whistle-blowers. Alex has followed. Who’s next? The DCO HOF awaits.

Theodore Improved (and let's never speak of this game again)

2008-10-22T16:54:00.000-04:00

It wasn’t exactly your standard 2-1 loss, but at least we can take from it the positive of improved play from Jose Theodore. 28 shots, 26 saves, a nice .929 save percentage good enough for third star honors.

Better yet, he stopped a quality scoring opportunity very early in the game. You know, those early opportunities that found their way past him in a couple of previous games. With that big early stop, confidence was gained, solid play followed.

There’s really no need to dwell on the rest. Months from now we’ll just remember this as a quaint little trip to Calgary, a once-in-nine-years defeat that had a few interesting quirks. The nine minute power play. Eight consecutive penalties to the same team. A bevy of 5-on-3s against that same team. Heroic penalty killing for the Caps that eventually endured one 5-on-3 too many.

Sure the power play is a little fizzle-y right now, but Bruce II acknowledges this. Something about being “too damn cute.” He’s right. We all know the Caps are capable of creating poetically beautiful hockey plays. There’s nothing left to prove in that department, so we trust they will henceforth be encouraged to shoot more and dance less with the man advantage.

Jose Theodore: suddenly solid. Calgary game: behind us.

Caps Open With Same Record as Defending Champs

2008-10-10T23:20:00.000-04:00

Yes, the Capitals now sport the same 0-1 records as defending Stanley Cup champion (and odds-on favorite to be repeat Stanley Cup champion) Detroit: 0-1. The Caps laid their proverbial egg on the road against a supposedly bad Atlanta team. The Red Wings laid their egg at home against a Toronto team that was bad before Mats Sundin went all indecisive-like and bolted the Leafs, on the night the Red Wings raised their championship banner. If a team can come out flat on a night like that, surely the Capitals can be forgiven this uninspired season opener.

Concerned about goaltending? Freaked out that Jose Theodore gave up four goals on 17 shots and Brent Johnson wasn’t much better in relief giving up three on 14? Well, consider that the sorely missed, $5.6 million goalie Cristobal Huet gave up four goals in New York tonight. It happens. Now is not the time to be issuing a final verdict on the Theodore era, or re-hash arguments over which goalie George McPhee should have signed when. Also, let’s recall the argument, well-traveled last year, that Bruce II coached this team to much success over many months with a less-than-stellar Olie Kolzig and this same Johnson in the net the whole time.

Remember when the Redskins lost their first game and didn’t look too good doing it? No need to panic then, and things have been pretty ok since then. We see the same happening here. And Huet comes back to town tomorrow. That worked out well last time:

Wizards in Mid-to-Late Season Form

2008-10-08T09:18:00.001-04:00

Hey wizards fan, maybe you too were as excited as the DCO offices were that the Wizards were finally kicking off some preseason basketball action, action that was televised on Comcast Sportsnet featuring the bumbling, yet lovable duo of Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier. Maybe you were so excited that you cooked a steak with a lovely butter and garlic sauce sided with a blue cheese spaghetti dusted with bacon bits (oh Rachel Ray, your bacon-goes-with-anything philosophy is the stuff lives are based around). Maybe you had just cut a slice of your steak and inserted it into your mouth slowly as to let the succulent beef and butter sauce effectively enhance your cholesterol when suddenly the deliciousness that was crafted through your thirty-minutes of hard work vanished as Antawn Jamison, the rock of the lineup, the 20 and 10 big man, the heart and soul, the 08-09 Wes -- according to Abe Pollin, etc, crumpled to the floor after slipping on a hideous Dallas McCains logo en route to smothering Dirk Nowitski. The steak suddenly tasted of garlicky battery acid as 'tawn writhed on the floor and trained Eric Waters rushed to his side along with two others to walk him off the court. The blue cheese spaghetti tasted like live rattlesnakes peppered with pain as Phil and Buck read the requisite "knee sprain" from their reports. The night was officially ruined for you as you took your couch pillow, nestled it on top of your eyelids, threw the recliner back, and forced sleep upon yourself as if it were to stop the sadness of your Wiz-life entering such an early stage of disconnect(ed ligaments).

But, while dinner may have been ruined, FEAR NOT, as even if the Wizards played at mid-to-late season form (as in, body bag style), the news regarding Antawn's knee was good. Strained tendon. He even says he's good to go for the Memphis game, if it were game seven against the Cavs or whatever. Apparently, 'tawn went to the Jason Taylor school of iron-clad ligament enforcement, where even the scariest, most revolting looking knee grabs simply can be stretched out, walked off, and held intact without Gilbert's-career-threatening-like surgery.

It was then, Wizards fan, maybe after you realized that the witnessed knee strain (not sprain) that ruined dinner wasn't so bad, that you decided to partake in the remaining carton of Ben and Jerry's Smores Ice Cream, which was so awesome that you risked cardiac arrest and partook in injesting it. Then suddenly, Chris Miller of Comcast Sportsnet and Ivan Carter of the Post teamed up to deliver more shocking news that transformed the graham crackery goodness into sandpaper inflected drywall spackle. Brendan Haywood, the Wizards' exceedingly brilliant big man, who ratcheted up his game to such a high level last season that all previous years had completely been relegated to "development time," would likely miss 4-6 months (!!) getting surgery on his SPRAINED wrist. All of this news was delivered while Chris Miller flippantly added that Brendan likely chose this surgery because the season was a lost cause without Gilbert at 100% for two months anyways. HUGE INJURY PLUS COMMITMENT QUESTIONING? You too may have vomited a little, and not to taste the ice cream again.

But we here at the DC Optimist are not ones to panic in the face of repeated Wizards' injurious ways. We managed to maintain sanity and witness the sparkling play of three of the Wizards stockpiled bigs, and felt yes, everything would return to the peachy-keen ways of that imaginary period when the Wizards were kind of healthy.

1) Andray Blatche, sporting what appears to be an eraser-inspired Kufi on his head, was spectacular. Worked the post skillfully, spun away from defenders and hit circus shots, enacted fast breaks after getting rebounds, looked all of the freakishly talented 6-11 that we had been salivating over. Big Blatche's 19 and 5 could spot start for either the wood-man, or Jamison, and it would remain exciting.

2) JaVale McGhee, NOT A STIFF. This was the DCO's first witnessing of Pam McGhee's kid, and man, were we impressed with his footwork, general offensive ability, and actual athleticism that is NOT simply the result of extended limbs. Some may have been salty that the Wiz didn't draft some extracurricular activity-loving point guard back-up, but this kid McGhee looks to be the real deal. And this is while Eddie Jordan et al remain steadfast in their assessment that the kid is raw. Could this extra playing time cook him into the well done big man neither Brendan nor Etan could ever have been? Witness Blatche's development and Haywood's development. It is really looking like this team knows a thing or two about making viable centers, folks (ignore the thoughts about this guy when you read that).

3) Oleksiy Pecherov, ALSO NOT A STIFF. Kid was stroking threes and being a general offensive pest. Good stuff from Pesh, who hasn't seen much healthy action either (WIZARD 4 LIFE!). He spent most of his garbage time minutes last year shooting threes that bounced off the front of the rim, now, with a week or two of 100% status, he is nailing those threes.

So see? Even with Brendan's upcoming absence, Jamison's scary tumble, and the overall status of the economy possibly ruining your TV-inspired dinner, things will be OK, Wizards fan. Trust us.

What's It Take to Get Some Acknowledgment?

2008-10-06T16:47:00.001-04:00

It was a little irritating last week to find the Redskins, after their thumping of the Cowboys in Dallas, decided underdogs against the Eagles, who had just lost to the Bears after repeated failed attempts to score from inside the five yard line, events which would be eerily prophetic of things to come when the Redskins arrived. It was similarly annoying to find Washington in many cases horridly underrated in horridly flawed power polls.

After a similar thumping of the Eagles in Philadelphia, it is more irritating to find the ‘Skins still under-appreciated by Peter King’s “Fine Fifteen”. Why this still irks or surprises me I do not know, since his Cowboys homerism is such an undeniable influence on his judgment. His ranking of the Redskins at #4 last week was baffling since the Cowboys were still rated ahead at #2. This week, however, he has dropped the ‘Skins to #5 as a reward for their throttling of the Eagles in Philadelphia (Eagles, incidentally, his sixth-best team last week), yet kept Dallas in the top 3 because of their heroic hanging-on against the Bengals at home.

He also has the gall to mention “schedule advantage” in his comments on the Redskins. The words “schedule advantage” are, to any half-intelligent being, completely synonymous with the words “Cowboys’ schedule”. Check out the dragons the ‘Boys have had to slay thus far: Browns (1-3), Eagles (2-3) at home, Packers (2-3), Bengals (0-4) at home. Brutal! Especially given the fact that those upset-minded Bengals were a firm Chris Henry grip on the ball away from potentially shocking Dallas on their lame-duck home field. If only the turnover-prone back could have held on, we might also be treated today to more TO-pouting. As it is, he was placated with a TD pass on the Cowboys’ ensuing possession, thus depriving us of more Dallas implosion. But back to that schedule question.

A more appropriate phrase for King to use would have been “schedule respite”. After five consecutive weeks against teams that were picked in the pre-season to be playoff contenders and who may yet prove themselves so, the ‘Skins finally get their share of the cupcakes that Dallas seems to have been feasting on for the past two seasons en route to paper-tigerish glory ultimately exposed as fraudulent. No team deserves the Rams, Browns, and Lions right now more than the Redskins. They’ve more than earned it and have the opportunity to be 7-1 when another darling-on-the-rise, Pittsburgh, comes to town for a Monday-nighter, at which point we’ll be treated to those insufferable “when the Redskins win/lose before an election” features. That Chris Berman will be involved makes it all the more worth our while to tune in just seconds before kickoff. But that’s weeks away. For now, bring on the tomato cans and enjoy watching the wins pile up, even if Cowboy apologists don’t notice.

DCO Hall of Fame Recognizes Jeff Sagarin

2008-10-01T12:07:00.000-04:00

Jeff Sagarin has been appointed Special Consultant to the DCO Hall of Fame for his work on the Sagarin Ratings Index which appears in USA Today. Most notable is his work on ranking NFL teams. Yesterday we studied the errors that can occur in team evaluation when one’s judgment is clouded by darlingism and love of Tony Romo’s glamorous smile and cutesy backwards-hat-wearing. The Sagarin Index is immune to such foolishness, as it uses accurate, utterly objective criteria to reveal to us the true cream of the NFL. To that end, we see the Redskins rise to #1 in these ratings, having demonstrated an ability to jump to 3-1 against the NFL’s toughest schedule through 4 weeks.

For his work in seeing past what ESPN and Peter King (among others) cannot see past, we welcome Sagarin to the staff, even though strict HOF admission policies forbid his enshrinement. He will report directly to Deshawn Stevenson, who was inducted into the DCO HOF in March and named proprietor of the newly created Deshawn Stevenson Accurate Player Assessment Wing. In this hype-resistant haven, Stevenson is free to correctly identify Lebron James as non-divine, and with Sagarin assisting him on the team level, there is no limit to the darling-fueled nonsense they can cut through.

Cowboys Still Loved By Peter King, ESPN

2008-09-30T17:01:00.001-04:00

It’s doubtless been a dark couple of days for the bandwagonning fans, media and otherwise, of America’s biggest bandwagon team. It was not supposed to be like this. ESPN was supposed to be gearing up for stories on the 4-0 Cowboys, who would be ¼ of the way to repeating the Patriots’ perfect season. Peter King was probably already drooling over pre-written pieces on the possibility of a Tony Romo vs. Brett Favre Super Bowl. The Redskins, that minor inconvenience of an 11-point underdog, were no match for Destiny’s Team.

The collective fawn-fest is put on hold, of course, at least for a week, until the Cowboys can rally themselves to slip by the Bengals at home. The story will have to go from 2007 Patriots to 1985 Bears, of course, but they’re talented professionals. They can improvise that much.

Still, there are those pesky weekly power rankings. There must be some sort of major repercussions for losing at home to a supposedly vastly inferior team, right? USC dropped eight spots in the polls after losing to Oregon State, on the road! How to balance this and still hold on to the pervasive Dallas bias?

Apparently King, Tony Romo’s biggest fan, or at least a fan of his enchanting smile, could not bring himself to rank the glamorous ‘Boys any lower than second in his Fine Fifteen. But what about the ‘Skins, the darling-killers who took down that vaunted destined-for-undefeated-Super-Bowl-glory team on their own field with that inane Rock-Cartwright-danced-upon blue star? Stuffed behind the Titans at #4, with no mention of their league-shocking upset, just some snark about the preseason liklihood that they would be the NFL’s worst team after Week 4.

He’s not the only one in denial about the collapse of the Cowboys’ undefeated season. ESPN holds on to hope that their favorite team will still rebound to fill their pseudo-sports-news programming with glitzy stories about America’s alleged team. They rank Dallas #3, which is bordering on heresy in the media world of Dallas-jocking. The regicide-prone Redskins are a Top 5 afterthought at #6, which is an improvement over the #15 land of mediocrity in which the dwelt last week.

So it’ still an uphill climb for the ‘Skins on their quest for recognition and a legitimate place in the NFC playoff discussion. A win in Philly should go a long way to establishing that recognition. It wouldn’t carry the same weight in the pundits’ eyes as a Dallas home win over Cincy, of course, but it’s a big step. Then it’s on to the cupcake portion of the schedule (something Dallas should be familiar with) where the real progress can be made.

Hard Core Players

2008-09-29T21:18:00.000-04:00

For Jim Zorn, Dan Snyder, residents of the Dead Tree portion of the FedEx Field parking lot, Jason Campbell, and most importantly, the most strident practicers of 'tism who may happen upon this blog, Sunday's convincing dubya against the 'boys, a team whose vauntedness remain(ed) unparalleled throughout the most one-sided broadcast since the Republican National Convention coverage on FoxNews, sweet vindication was in order. Not necessarily for the positively predicting folk, who just knew that this team had "special" imprinted all over its commemorative patches, but mainly for those who preach consistency, a concept that some were convinced was foreign to the braintrusting folks in the front office. Unlike the more hater-type of scribes, we here at the DC Optimist understood the manner and direction behind the team's makeup. Even when the old coach hung up his mesh curly R snap cap, we knew that this consistency concept was something the Redskins were in the throes of standing behind.

While certain columnist-types were badmouthing what they thought was the only constant in the flighty ownership's team-building philosophy being fluctuation, we saw how the Redskins sat back, utilized patience and locked in talented, hard-working players many would define as core. Guys who were rocks on successful, playoff-bound teams remained in the fold with contract extensions and restructures, and rewards were doled out to players who fit into the mold, not necessarily of some stalwart structure-er of offense, who thought his scheme would accommodate the most square of pegs into his rounded play holes (uhhh), but into the mold of possessing exceptional talent and a hard-working nature.

So when regimes sort of changed, and everyone began to freak out about whatever identity the Redskins were planning on forging with their 10 draft picks all fitting no foreseeable mold, we knew the skins would remain strong. They have had the same punishing ground attack that began back when Joe first signed on and obtained Clinton Portis for Champ Bailey's me-first attitude and a second rounder. What's lost in the constant gobs of analysis (something not seen on this seldom contributed-to blog) is the fact that, instead of genius coordinators, unprecedented talent discoverers, and slick-spending general managing, football games are oftentimes won and lost as a result of football players making successful plays. The Redskins have players.

While some Brian-Mitchell-types and Brian Mitchell continue to berate the colorfully obtuse running back for having the gall to be slightly interesting, oftentimes mistakenly taking this strive for genuine affability and character for a lack of desire, Portis is, quietly, in a strange manner, beginning to eclipse some of the records held by only the most esteemed Redskins. His 121 yard game yesterday tied C.P. with the immortal Riggo for the most 100+ yard games in Redskins history. Yep, in this case, C.P., most obviously stands for "Core Player."

What we saw in the offseason, and what is sprouting nicely into a nice little I-told-you-so is how this new coaching staff realizes how this team has players, and all they need is to find the best way to utilize them, not necessarily by forcing them into some rigid system, but by seeing what they do best, and then making sure that is planned to be done Sundays.

Zorn, along with Sherman Stewart, Stump Mitchell, and Chris Meidt, have taken this philosophy to impressive levels that become obvious with each more impressive offensive performance. Week one, the skins saw modest success when Jason Campbell went shotgun. As a result, Zorn, who had yet to fashion his variety of West Coast offense with the gun in mind, suddenly began implementing that scheme, as it fit Campbell's talents. In week three, Clinton Portis continued to be stifled at the line, charging into the teeth of the large defensive lines of the first few opponents. Does Zorn have such faith in his brilliance that he won't give Clinton the chance to take a different approach to his runs? No. That rad-ass running performance against the 'boys featured a newer wrinkle to the running game where Clinton would receive the ball, almost like a toss a few yards back of the line of scrimmage, so that Portis could visualize the holes, sprout through them and pick up close to six yards per carry.

The consistency and core of the Redskins has been forged through these mostly successful recent years. People may be surprised at these recent returns, but these guys with this talent, have been here. It's just nice to see someone at the helm that is innovative enough to let those talents shine outside of their genius box.

Hero

2008-09-25T23:29:00.001-04:00

Vote For 'Tism

2008-09-15T11:17:00.000-04:00

Chico Harlan, citing anecdotal evidence, has declared that Nationals fans, "with near unanimity", want the team to lose the rest of the month to secure the #1 draft pick. While this sort of nonsense may fly in areas prone to hating optimism (NY, Philly), it has no place here, particularly with the Master of Optimism, Manny Acta, manning the helm. Fortunately, the poll posted on the Nationals Journal currently shows anything but unanimous fan consent to intentional tanking (unlike, say, the Penguins in their last regular season game).

So vote for 'tism, and let's hope we're all spared a local media deluge of stories with the premise "look how bad the Nats are! haw haw haw!". I'm talking about you, Dick Heller.

REPORT: Redskins' Season Not Over Yet

2008-09-11T09:03:00.001-04:00

Despite some contrarial thoughts from the usual suspects (La Canfora, Jason; Jenkins, Sally), the Redskins season — despite losing one game on the road by nine points mainly from injuries and a freakish case of stone hands plaguing the secondary — is not over yet. Unfortunately for the O-haterz currently dancing in their Chad Hutchinson jerseys, eagerly anticipating the inevitable dalliance between Dan Snyder and Pete Carroll sometime after the Trojans romp on the Buckeyes, they have failed to notice that the Redskins have a grand total of fifteen more games to play before the Jim Zorn era can officially be called deader than the female gluteous maximus tissue that comprises Jerry Jones's eyelids.

That's right folks, even if the Redskins managed to be unsuccessful in the whole "game-winning" or "offensive" portion of Thursday night's pagentry-stuffed ode to the insufferably yappy Giants scourge, they still have close to 93.75% of the season remaining before Zorn is replaced with Tony D'Amato. But after the supposedly pathetic, disorganized, wimpy, hopeless, indicative-of-poor-management-decisions performance against the refs and mental cobwebs in the dead-grassed lands of Meadow, haven't the Redskins shown already that they don't belong in the cupcake crushing, reality show spawning NFC clever-word-that-rhymes-with-East? We here (and I say "we" despite this being the first post in like, an entire Nationals season, for a certain Transformers-monikered internetter) are more than confident that the events of last Thursday, which already seem further away than that time when people had questionable thoughts about Elijah Dukes, will not represent what will obviously be a successful 08-09 season. Take if from current DCO contributor/biter Tom Boswell, who in his latest call for collective 'tism, notes how maybe this thing could maybe somehow work, maybe.

Oh Boz, sure the column is rife with uneasiness over our often confused, playbook overloaded, heavily studying, somehow overcoming the memorization of eight-billion plays quarterback, but I couldn't help but return from my laziness-inflected hiatus after this poetic, business card-sloga worthy nod:

"So, Redskins fans should have patience. (Pause.) Okay, that didn't work. How
about optimism? Let's try that. "

Couldn't agree more Boz, although please, can we get a URL shoutout somewhere? I promise I will contribute a Wizards post or two if the DCO is mentioned somewhere between that Vice President chick's wardrobe choices in the Post. Why can't Boz direct his burgeoning readership to the blog with more dead links than Shawn Hill's elbow? Regardless of our fledgeling brushes with success and consistency, not since TruthAboutIt called us "sanguine," have I been so happy to have contributed to the internet back before Yahoo! began devouring bloggers like so many chicken fingers served without bitterness at Sideline (although I remain as unpaid as Todd Lowber when it comes to bliznogging). Shoutout to Boz for keeping the fanbase pointed in the positive direction.

It's refreshing to hear a take on the work-in-progress-ness that is the current skins. It's not like Boz was scraping the bottom of the metaphoric metaphor barrell as one Mike Wise did in his shopping at Taylor-mart coverage of the tragic selling-off of the late Sean Taylor's personal items, which so totally was a paralell between what everyone already is calling a dead season, and the subsequent selling off of Brandon Lloyd jerseys, or whatever. Nice literariness Wise-ass.

But back to the Redskins, and the fact that they aren't as done-zo as the usage of the word done-zo. First of all, the first-class running game, which couldn't be properly utilized as the skins somehow were both fighting off a double-digit deficit and the predilection for running those running plays directly into a defensive lineman, remains strong, and will remain the first-mentioned, first-run aspect of the team's success in subsequent weeks, first. Second, despite the overlaudiness of coverage regarding the Giants and their defensive line, the 'skins managed to give up, lets count 'em, one lone sack, on the first play of the game, after which, clever, picture painting with words columnists, we guess, changed the channel to Project Runway. So lets not count out that suddenly old decrepit offensive line yet. Many might even say that proper adjustments were made. And the defense, sure it was in bend-don't-break mode for about two whole quarters, and one might get the notion that running Brandon Jacobs over and over again would likely lead to the Giants not having to kick a bunch of field goals and whatnot, but the D also made proper adjustments, and even, gasp, got to the quarterback, and again gasp, made turnovers occur!

Solid run game, solid o-line play, solid D: the foundation of success that the Redskins have been riding on during a streak of decency that continues to be mistaken for mediocrity. The hallmarks of these past two playoff appearing teams are currently there. One rusty performance, where nine points were the difference between lauding successes and detailing mistakes, out of sixteen can be neglected. Anyone remember that Patriots team that opened the season to a 31-0 loss to the Bills only to, after a devastating loss to Steve Spurrier and the skins, go on to like never lose again? What was the difference with that team? How about optimism?

Falling Below 100

2008-09-02T11:09:00.002-04:00

Tonight is a big night for the Nationals. There’s an issue at stake here, and it’s even bigger than the answer to the important question: Can the Nats continue to do to the Phillies what they did to the Mets last season?

The issue concerns the prospect of the 100-loss season. Before this little seven-game tear (one that has even professional piler-on Chico Harlan waxing somewhat optimistically), such a season seemed as foregone a conclusion as a Nick Johnson season-ending injury. However, with a win tonight, the Nats can shed the 100-loss pace that has haunted them for weeks (along with Harlan-esque statistics of questionable value, such as “the team has more losses than any team has wins”. huh???)

The job falls to Phillie-plunker extraordinaire John Lannan to get the job done on the mound. The newly energized Nats lineup should take care of the rest.

SIX

2008-08-31T16:48:00.000-04:00

Once again, our Nats are the Hottest Team in….No, we won’t be traveling down that road of (only slight) hyperbole again. Not after our last such declaration apparently induced some sort of Bob-Carpenter-like jinxing on the team, leading to a loss that night and, just days later, the start of twelve straight…well, you know.

No, this time we’ll just revel in the two consecutive series sweeps the Nats have laid down, flush with timely, consistent hitting from a healthy, Elijah-Dukes-containing lineup and increasingly shut-down pitching from closer-in-rising Joel Hanrahan.

Want a bigger optimistic picture? The sweeping away of the Dodgers and Braves closed out an August in which the Nationals played nearly .500 baseball (14-15). Who would have thought this possible 11 days ago, with a naysayer-bringing-out non-winning streak still very much intact and the August record sitting at 6-13? Well, we did.

The Mighty Have Been Brought Lowe

2008-08-27T16:36:00.000-04:00

So much for the jocking of Derek Lowe. So much, also, for the notion printed recently in the same Nationals Journal that Collin Balester is good for only one run through the opposing lineup. With his five inning of one-run ball last night, he faced 23 batters, good for 2+ trips through the Dodgers. His outdueling of the mighty Lowe is shades of Levale Speigner showing up the even more-vaunted Johan Santana in Minnesota last summer. Maybe.

The pitfalls of following the game online were evident as I read the game recap detailing Ryan Zimmerman’s apparently double-play soaked glove. Somehow I get the feeling that dry GIDP numbers on a monitor don’t do him justice.

Tonight: Tim Redding v. the hanger-on that is Greg Maddux. Redding saved us all from more Chico Harlan snippiness with his streak-ending performance last week. A streak-extender this time, perhaps?

Making a Great Thing Even Better

2008-08-22T08:22:00.004-04:00

What's better than celebrating the end of a 12-game losing streak? What's better than seeing the streak snapped by a game featuring late-inning clutch hits from a young newcomer, an up-and-coming young catcher, and a struggling outfielder, a bold and ultimately rewarded managerial decision to bat the closer in the eighth inning with the bases loaded, and the sublime jam-escaping skills of that same closer?

What's better is celebrating that accomplishment on the 1-year anniversary of this:

If that doesn't start your weekend off right, nothing will.

Redding to the Rescue

2008-08-21T17:13:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since we've made any kind of bold Nationals-related guarantee. The last (and likely only) was a bold proclamation in May 2007 that the Nats would not lose 100 games. This at what turned out to be the absolute nadir of Washington's season: an eight-game losing streak dropping them to 9-25 and bringing the "worst team of all-time" vultures out in force.

Well we've reached a similar nadir. A dozen games in a row dropped. Can it get any worse? No. It ends tonight. Tim Redding, he of the 2-runs-in-six-innings specialty, will put this to rest and stop, at least temporarily, snippy Chico-Harlan-penned Nats Journal entries. Is there anyone this side of Jason LaCanfora who likes a pile-on more than Chico?

Book it. Nats win tonight.

The Other Unwanted Quarterback Story

2008-08-18T09:27:00.001-04:00

Well, Brett Favre is well on his way to being King of New York after throwing six pre-season passes for the Jets. It’s such a story of redemption after he was treated oh so meanly by the Packers. There’s no sense dwelling on this aspect of Saturday’s game except to say we look forward to the coming regicide after his first four-interception game.

Instead, let’s dwell on Colt Brennan, aptly described by some as the best player no one wanted. Looks like his being drafted waaaaaay down at 168 could turn into the equivalent of taking Randy Moss late in a fantasy draft last year (like, um, two bloggers you might know). That is, a player with gaudy statistics being overlooked again and again because of some irrational reservations becomes a key contributor. Brennan may just do it as a backup, but we’ve seen what Todd Collins (Todd freakin’ Collins!) can do when a season-saving starting job is thrust upon him. How much more could Mr. 14,000 yards in Three Years bring if similarly saddled?

One thing he’s already saddled with: that #5, something of a, well, cursed number for Redskins’ quarterbacks, thanks to some other guy who wore that number (we won’t mention his name, as it would be equivalent to a John-Carpenter-on-John-Lannan, no-hitter-killing jinx). He’s dealing with that nicely, however, on the road to perhaps purging that wretched burgundy digit of its demons.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, pre-season, third-string defenses, meaningless games, etc. Well, apparently rookie Colt Brennan passes better against third-string defenses than veteran Mike Nugent kicks against third-string special teams units, or than Eric Mangini playcalls late in games against third-string units of all kinds.

In any case, isn’t it better having a pre-season focus on a rising backup QB, rather than engaging in another tired round of "Mark Brunnell vs. somebody" debates? The answer is yes.

Intentional Stupidity?

2008-08-13T16:23:00.002-04:00

For much of the summer, Yahoo!’s PuckDaddy blog has featured an ongoing series “Five Ways I’d Change the NHL”. Matt Bradley chipped in not long ago, much as he chips in goals throughout a season (shootout and otherwise).

Today, Ross McKeon threw his own ideas into the ring. We at DCO mostly remember Ross for his downright slanderous remarks on Ovie and the Caps during the All-Star Break (along with the typically expected mourning over Sid’s owie ankle ruining the entire league). This time, he takes his shot at the entire Caps organization in his very first “suggestion”. I’ll paste it here so there is no need to waste time reading the rest of his drivel:

1. Less is more: We're talking contraction here, fewer teams means better quality of play and so much more. Ding six franchises to get the league down to 24 teams (12 per conference, six in each of four divisions). Who goes? Atlanta Thrashers, Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals and Nashville Predators. Hey, look at that, no more Southeast Division.

Typical cheap-shotting of the the SE division. Typical ignorance. Typical Don-Cherry-Canadian-elitist-like snobbery towards teams not possessing golden boys and/or not located in Montreal or Toronto. Sounding a little like Eric Kay from last fall, too.

The initial reaction here at DCO was, of course, a long-winded, blistering post on McKeon’s optimism-hating, Sidney-loving soul. But maybe, just maybe, he’s being stupid for stupid’s sake, making such outrageous comments as to illicit just such a reaction (he got some, too, in his comments section). It’s a pretty logical assumption, because no hockey analyst who is at all deserving of being a hockey analyst (a PAID one, too!) could possibly suggest contracting as up-and-coming a team as the Capitals. It would be the greatest, most outlandish admission of knee-jerk simplistic one-track thinking since Sidney Crosby won an ESPY for “best player in the NHL”.

So he has to be joking.

UPDATE 8/14: Ted Leonsis pens the well-thought-out response.

Corner-Turning Weekend Part II

2008-08-09T11:17:00.000-04:00

A few days later than planned, and while we prepare to see more pleasant surprises tonight against Buffalo, let’s count the ways the Redskins turned some corners of their own last weekend.

1. The start of getting some serious HOF recognition for the glorious Gibbs years. Gibbs, Riggins, now Monk and Green. Hopefully soon to be joined by Grimm, Jacoby, etc. But at least for now the population of NFL-dominating Redskins is increased significantly.

2. Jim Zorn looking confident and “with it” on the sideline, easily managing the Gibbs-built team, and not appearing overwhelmed, even drawing admiring commentary from Michaels and Madden for his rampant stoicism.

3. Related to the above, and Mike Wise commented on this earlier this week, the team took the first step to leaving behind those glory days of the 80s and early 90s. They will always be remembered, but never identically duplicated.

4. They stayed out of the Brett Favre fiasco. A Dan Snyder of even just five years ago might have dropped and/or traded everything to land such a marque name. While there were early rumors of the Redskins making a bid, the blow was (again) struck for continuity in the team’s name not surfacing for weeks in conjunction with Favre. There is confidence in Jason Campbell. There will be no repeat of Mark Brunell usurping Patrick Ramsey.

5. Speaking of quarterbacks, how about that Colt Brennan lad? Yes, yes. Preseason, third-stringers, garbage time, blah blah blah. But how about all three quarterbacks? Campbell: perfect. Collins: still grasping at a new system, but nearly perfect. Brennan: first professional action and within one incompletion of complete perfection. The QB situation may be more stable than we thought, more stable than perhaps in years.

So there are a few of the many reasons for a return to good feelings about the Redskins after that whole offseason of Gibbs-retirement, Jim-Fassel-flirtation, head-coach-hire-by-default drama. For all that happened, the team is very similar to the one that ran the table at the end of the season and very nearly ran through Seattle in the closest 35-14 playoff game ever. Who knows what other pleasantries await us tonight?

Three Sentences Reveal Aversion to Optimism

2008-08-08T10:55:00.000-04:00

The gladness brought on by the recent run of stellar play by the Nats can only be heightened by knowledge of the dead weight they’ve purged. We speak, of course, of Felipe Lopez, who earlier this week had this to offer as an excuse for his subpar performance in Washington:

"Like I said, the motivation - just being dead last, I guess. Like going out there knowing you're probably going to lose isn't motivating. That's tough. That's tough, for me."

Manny did his best to motivate, but on some the message is lost, especially on someone whose very being is apparently immune to any notion of optimistic thinking (0-3 for the Cardinals last night, by the way).

What of Felipe’s middle infield replacement? Doing just fine, and lifting the team with him.

One Sentence Begets Much Optimism

2008-08-07T10:11:00.000-04:00

How can one line in a small story about a relatively minor Caps' signing (that of Dave Steckel to a one-year deal) be cause for so much optimism and anticipation for next season? When the line reads "[Steckel] figures to enter the season as the fourth line pivot behind Nicklas Backstrom, Sergei Fedorov, and Michael Nylander." How many years during the 90s did we fans pine for such depth and wealth of talent at center (don't forget +28 Viktor Kozlov ready to step in the middle if needed)? Remember watching failed bids for the likes of Pierre Turgeon, Jeremy Roenick, etc? Or how about forcing wings to play center, or signing a moody superstar's favorite center to placate him in the hopes of squeezing some production out of his $7 million/year contract?

Those years are gone. Ancient history. The depth and abilities we so longed for are there: the perfect combination of playmaking and defensive acumen. The one line said it all.

Feeling Good About a Non-Win

2008-08-06T14:39:00.000-04:00

Sure they’re statistically no longer the Hottest Team in the Majors, but the Nats still have reason to feel good about last night’s non-win vs. Colorado. Sometimes-referred-to-as-ace John Lannan shook off the unpleasantness of his last start, a 5.2-inning, 8-run affair vs. Philadlphia, to post 7 solid innings, giving up a Tim-Redding-like two runs.

With the hitting alive again, it’s nice to see Lannan back in form to help bring the starting pitching around. With the statistical oddity of Lannan not receiving any run support, it kind of figures the bats would take a night off, but they’ll be back. In the meantime, Austin Kearns has crawled up into the .230s, healthy Ryan Zimmerman is creeping through the .260s, and Willie Harris and Lastings Milledge claw their way towards double-digits home runs. Hitting lives, a rising pitcher regains his form. Not a bad way to end a four game winning streak.

Hottest Team in the Majors

2008-08-05T11:51:00.000-04:00

Despite a perhaps predictable injury to a hot, producing player, the Nationals today are tied for longest winning streak in MLB. Four games. Modest? Sure. But a better recent run than, say, the Mets, owners of a current four-game slide, after all that dalliance with the division lead brought about some brief optimism in New York. All that’s left is to wait for the "Fire Manuel" calls to begin.

Speaking of the Mets, here's a candidate for best-ever Yahoo! search that led to DC Optimist: “mets dumb jesus flores”. As in, Mets are dumb for allowing Flores to slip to the Nats via Rule 5 for nothing. Lost in all that early season swooning over Ryan Church’s march towards Cooperstown was the emergence of Flores as a legit starter over Mets castoff Paul Lo Duca. The crowing over how the Mets clearly robbed the Nats should subside now, with Lastings Milledge getting healthy and back to productivity and the free Flores gathering hits and RBIs nightly. Incidentally, we’re sure some day (perhaps as soon as Manuel’s job is officially declared to be in jeopardy) that “mets dumb manny acta” will also find its way to our referral records.

Anyway, four-game win streak. The Nats creeping up on not-last-place in the NL. Everything's going to be fine.

Corner-Turning Weekend, Part I

2008-08-04T18:57:00.000-04:00

Nice little weekend, though the week ended badly enough, with Ryan Zimmerman taking another injury and the Post gracefully declaring the season had plunged to “unrecoverable depths”. There was also that little bit earlier in the day about a couple of maligned Nats named Lo Duca and Lopez finally being given the boot. Seemed the team was completely imploding, ready to sit down, lose their 100+ games and mail it in for the next couple of months. Not quite.

New blood in the form of Emilio Bonifacio and Alberto Gonzalez, plus sort-of new blood in the form of an (at least temporarily) healthy Elijah Dukes gave the team basically a new image overnight (Nationals Journal even quoted one anonymous player saying it was like being dealt to a different team the atmosphere was so rejuvenated). The now-youngest team in the Majors (finally, numerically certifiable evidence of a true youth movement) responded with an authoritative sweep of the Reds. Newbee Gonzalez chipped in mostly with his bat, Bonifacio mostly with his ridiculous glove.

Before poo-pooing such a sweep with rancid “evidence” that the Reds stink, so the Nats “should” be able to beat them (didn’t this exact sort of thing set Manny off last year?), consider that the Nats sweeping anyone has been a rare occurrence, and that a team so laden with newcomers and injury-fillers, one so derided as a “non-Major-league team”, one so lampooned by hacks, should be allowed celebration at this accomplishment, regardless of the opponent. So let’s celebrate. Let’s also look at some encouraging numbers helped along by a three-game winning streak.

The Nats now need only to win 23 of their last 51 games to avoid triple-digit loss indignity. It might seem a small feat, but given the well-publicized long-term injuries to all nine opening day starters We do include C. Guzman in that category, since he’s not yet fully back despite being “day to day” from the beginning of his injury stint. Let’s just be glad he hasn’t taken the 2008 Nats’ progression from day-to-day to 15-day to out-for-season. Staying below 100 might also just be enough to keep the hungry dog critics and expert analysts at bay. You know, the ones still burned from last year’s lack of 121 losses and hoping for something a little closer to that from this year’s Nats to redeem their lack of foresight. This weekend must have been crushing for such embracers of the negative.

So, two corners turned for the Nats this weekend. First, the long-term corner with the true move to youth and the release of never-panned-out Lopez and Lo Duca. This also means an extra $10 million for the team next year. Perhaps it’s a foreshadowing of some sort of Ted-Leonsis-like release of team money this coming offseason. Second, we see a shorter-term turn within this single season. With a younger, more enthusiastic lineup to compliment the young, enthusiastic manager, days of nine-game non-winning streaks could be behind us. The landmark of .500 may be but a dream this year, but something approaching last season’s late summer/early fall respectability can yet be achieved.

More later on the Redskins and their fine weekend.

Nurturing Optimism (even if only brifely)

2008-07-30T18:13:00.000-04:00

Missed this one from a couple of days ago: an actual call to 'tism from Nationals Journal! Chico Harlan has brought plenty of snark to the program since taking over, but here he actually encourages Nats' fans to share their optimistic thoughts on the team, looking away from things like (now) seven-game non-winning streaks and to focus on what is good about the franchise and its future. Of course, he's probably just giving the fans what they want instead of completely changing his ways, but the effort is certainly appreciated. We certainly wouldn't rank him up there with some of the great optimism-haters of all time, though on occasion his little editorial jabs irk us somewhat.

The fans seemed to respond in kind. The comments section filled up with flowery optimism, proving again that not every Nats fan (or alleged fan) is a downer. This comment from "masnstinks" nicely captured the spirit:

A. We have a baseball team in DC!
B. We have a new stadium in DC!
C. St. Claire and his pitching staff
D.Ryan Zimmerman
E. our minor leaguers
F. Jesus Flores
G.Just realizing that I could complete the alphabet if I wanted to -priceless!

Reference to tired credit card commercials aside, it just shows that once you start thinking about all that is good with the Nats, instead of dwelling on the easier-to-think-up (and nicely hammered home by every hack analyst out there) negatives, it's hard to stop.

Also encouraging: judging by Monday's attendance of 34,039, fans are decidedly NOT staying away in mass numbers despite the 38-68 record of a team still trying to recapture the run-scoring magic so recently discovered in Atlanta. Sure, maybe an unwanted Philly fan here or there, but there were some solid numbers for the series against not-in-proximity Houston a couple week ago too. In short, we see again that there is 'tism out there amongst the people, even if it's only rarely and briefly encouraged by our local correspondents.

Rattled Collins Signifies Stout D

2008-07-28T16:50:00.001-04:00

Apparently Todd Collins had some difficulties this morning in practice. Words like “frustration” and “pain” dot the Redskins Insider report of the backup quarterback’s dealings this morning.

Is this bad? Is it an omen of doom that the man ready to step in should Jason Campbell’s knee pop again is so out of sorts running the offense? NO. Instead, it is a sound indication that the Redskins’ defense is ready to pick right up where it left off last season. That is, dominating.

The same Todd Collins who came in cold vs. the Bears stout defense to orchestrate a victory, the same Todd Collins who was utterly unflappable in the Meadowlands vs. the Giants and their heralded D, the Todd Collins that came within one fraction of one bad quarter of leading Washington through the playoffs in Seattle: this same previously un-rattleable Todd Collins was rattled by the ‘Skins ready-to-explode defense.

This impressive statement with Jason Taylor still “adjusting” to the team. Once he is comfortable with the program, we’ll doubtlessly see more rattled quarterbacks with names such as E. Manning, D. McNabb, and T. Romo.

SSpeaking of Mannings, this rising defense (and team) may get a series or two on Sunday against the other Manning to benefit from a Super Bowl MVP bestowed by a media horde overly anxious for a touching angle. The Hall of Fame Game vs. the Colts should feature a good opening salvo by this defense ready to retain its Top 10 form, even if the pre-season game stays true to form and gives us about as much physical play as your average non-Sean-Taylor-attended Pro Bowl.

Ranking Dan Snyder

2008-07-24T21:44:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week while perusing Yahoo! Sports I saw a link for NFL Owner’s Rankings. It was Part I, ranks 32-17. My head was immediately filled with “here we go” thoughts, believing that, upon clicking this link, I would be treated to some piling on action vis a vie Dan Snyder. Words like “meddling”, “over-spending”, “wasteful”, and “incompetent” would surely fill some sort of zinger-filled paragraph next to the number 32. When the teaser line said something to the effect of “there’s someone worse than Al Davis” my suspicions rose even higher. I clicked anyway.

Wow.

Snyder’s name was nowhere to be found in this bottom half of NFL owners. Nowhere amongst true perennial bottom-feeders like the Lions, Vikings, Browns, and Jets. My heart soared at the proposition that Yahoo! Sports writer Michael Silver might rank my team’s owner somewhere in the mediocre middle, away from the slinging barbs reserved for the lower rungs, but still not approaching the sainthood destined to be attributed to the name Rooney.

So yesterday Part II came out and I clicked to read the lukewarm analysis of how terrible Snyder was, but he’s improved, but he still has those control issues, etc..

Imagine the shock of scrolling past the heralded name of Rooney at #15, Mara at #11, Irsay at #6 (six spots ahead of Baltimore…just sayin’), to see emblazoned at #3: Daniel Snyder.

He’s given the most text of any owner, the first part explaining how he’s usually reviled. Then comes the ‘tism-like praise. Words and phrases like “awesome”, “eventually he’ll get the rings” and “hoists the Lombardi Trophy” follow. The non-smear-job details the wondrous way in which Snyder treats his players, deeply cares for the team, desperately wants to win, and did not hesitate to make a bold, necessary move when faced with an injury-depleted defensive end position.

Sure it’s just one Yahoo! column, but it’s perhaps a sign that the perception of this owner and this franchise is turning around. It might have taken eight years since the Sanders/Carrier/Smith spree to turn the corner, but the corner has been turned.

Of course, there was the requisite buzzkill in the very next ranking with Jerry-Jones-fawning in full swing. The two paragraphs dedicated to this Romo-enabler quashed burgeoning predictions that Michael Silver might be on the fast track to DCO Hall of Fame induction for his courageous bucking of the anti-Snyder trend. As it is, such induction will have to wait for such heresies as predicting a fourth Super Bowl ring in the near future for the Pizza Hut shill. That and calling the new Cowboys’ stadium the greatest arena since the Roman Colosseum. However, if J Taylor vs. Romo works out as well as prisoner vs. lion, all will be forgiven.

Despite this downer of a Top 2 selection (and with Vladimir Putin’s favorite owner taking the top spot), we salute Michael Silver for not lazily falling back on the same tired anti-Snyder rants of years past and illustrating the ways in which he’s matured as an NFL owner. Now to just wait for that inevitable hoisting of the trophy.

No Bad References to Bad TV Shows Here

2008-07-22T22:41:00.000-04:00

How many naysayers did you encounter after this weekend? How many told you Jason Taylor (#99, pictured, in a scene never to be repeated again) was “past his prime”, that he would be “invisible” this year on defense? That this windfall of the elite defensive pass-rusher the Redskins have “lacked” for so long was nothing more than another “mortgaging” of draft picks? A few such naysayers voiced thief opinions to DCO headquarters (email account).

Of course, this is all nonsense. The trade, of course, is a stroke of brilliance, even if it were born of semi desperation. Plus, it’s nothing like the star-grabbing, true future-mortgaging, draft-disrespecting strategies that may have occupied these parts in years past. Those days were officially put to rest in the refusal to overpay for Lance Briggs. No, this addressed a true need, one that was “ignored” in the draft, bemoaned the second-guessers. With Phillip Daniels and his backup down for the season (first day of training camp; first day of training camp), something had to be done, and the loss of a couple of draft picks for a guy who piled up 11 sacks last year was the right price. Yes, 11 sacks. How can that be “past his prime”? It’s even a prime number, for the love of ‘tism! Maybe ‘skins fans have just been hurt too much by prime in the past.

Here’s a number that won’t be prime: the number of insufferable “Dancing With the Stars” references this season. Mike Wise kicked us off nicely in that regard (we cringe to think of any Chris Berman coverage of the Redskins in the coming months). Though the next day he did reward us with a almost embarrassingly gushy piece about Taylor that reminded us again of his remarkable turn from chief optimism-hater to embracer of all things ‘tism. Fans apparently share the optimism, as evidenced by the poll showing 74% expect to see 8 or more sacks from him this season. With he and Andre Carter bookending the line, it would not be surprising to see 20 sacks off the ends this fall/winter.

It had to be done. The ‘skins rescued Taylor from the perma-frown clutches of Bill Parcells. He has responded in kind, lending credence to V. Cerrato’s prophecy that Taylor would play more than one year. Prime years they will be indeed.

Scouts Jealously Tremble at Might of Future Nats

2008-07-18T17:37:00.000-04:00

After throwing in the requisite schtick-y shot at the team ("the District's alleged major league team" STOP IT!!), this morning's Nationals Journal entry detailed some tepid praise for current and future Nats players. The sources of the praise are non other than scouts for other MLB teams. The praise and its tepidness show the underlying fear (and envy) of these executives towards the Nats' now highly touted system. There's also a little indirect love for rotation mainstays Jason Bergmann and John Lannan.

Just about every piece of praise from these scouts is qualified. Yeah he's great but he's no more than a #3 starter. Sure he's got a good arm but all his pitches stink. Good stuff but he's a career minor leaguer. That sort of thing. One can read between the lines to sense the fear these experts have when the Nats' kids are ready for the big leagues. One also easily grasps the jealousy that these teams possess because they do not have such touted prospects. The best way to deal with that is to talk down the player, reduce their perceived value, in a desperate gambit to perhaps acquire one for reduced value in a trade.

It's subtle, but here's a good sign the rest of the league knows what's coming from Washington in a few years.

Dick Heller Declares War on Optimism

2008-07-17T15:39:00.004-04:00

It’s been a while since we’ve had one of these: some columnist yucking it up that the Nationals are just ever so bad. Oh the wacky zaniness that can be had with such a topic; the jolly mirth-making; the astoundingly horrid mis-statement of fact.

While the Post was busy ignoring the existence of the Nationals and again pretending the Orioles are our team, Dick Heller of the Times was busy with the above-mentioned skewering of our already put-upon-enough Nats.

Heller whips out the latest edition of Unfunny Cliches for the Uncreative Sportswriter and drops these hilarities throughout the misguided column (his presumed reaction to each of his zingers in parentheses):

- Calls the team, get this, the “Gnats” (guffaws)

- Refers to All-Star Break as the team’s “hottest four-day stretch of the season” (chortles)

- Makes tired joke about “36 years and counting” without major league baseball in DC (slaps knee)

- Makes forced Election 2008 reference involving Ralph Nader’s electability and ~~Nats’~~ Gnats’ ability to not finish in last place (fills out application to join The Capitol Steps)

- This one’s not directly Nats-related, but he mentions “these United States”, a phrase comfortably nestled in the 19th century (nods smugly at cheeky wordsmithing ability)

- Says Chipper Jones could outhit eight Natioinals combined (chuckles wistfully)

- Follows above winning line with quip that “eight guys from the nearest bar” could do the same (ROFLMAO [Ed note: I hate such acronyms, but hate optimism-hating more, thus its usage here])

- Calls national anthem “dramatic highlight” of recent game (slaps both knees, feeling downright patriotic at the same time)

- References some sort of Frank Sinatra song (pines for old days and “real” music)

- Says “Alf, Barry, Jimmy, and Fritz" should race instead of the presidents (???????)

- Makes another forced current events-type reference, this one to “House”, in discussing Nats injuries (admits to self he’s never watched “House” but heard it’s popular and has something to do with medicine)

- Recycles “eight guys in a bar” routine with dagger that uninjured Nats could not “win…on the nearest sandlot” (calls friends to brag about this golden line he just wrote, wonders where nearest sandlot is). One is shocked to find no mention of Sandlot the movie

- Questions the managing acumen of Manny Acta (forever damns his soul)

- Tells some anecdote from the 1920s (destroys fragile reputation of having knowledge of pop culture gained from earlier “House” reference)

- Jokes that the fans in the stands are asleep (hoots and hollers, shouts "Well if that don't beat all")

- Starts wrapping it up by suggesting the Nationals “Throw up a white flag before your remaining fans throw up period.” (writes to Sports Illustrated about starting a column, written by himself, with something like a “Dan Patrick meets Rich Eisen meets Rick Reilly meets Dennis Miller” vibe)

- Deploys word “ennui” (pats self on back for versatility of vocabulary/writing style)

- Just so Nats aren’t alone in his mocking, makes sarcastic ending note of the “almighty” Redskins starting camp soon (submits column and practices Pulitzer acceptance speech)

In all, possibly the worst article to appear in print since Linton Weeks’ similarly awful piece in May of last year.

Back to that “mis-statement of fact” we mentioned earlier. Heller, in his quest for only the most stinging of zingers, claimed the Nationals finished last in the NL East in each of their first three seasons in DC. Well, he can pull out some obscure tale from 1920, but he can’t pull out a copy of last year’s final standings to see that Washington, despite all odds and predictions, finished on top of Florida and securely in fourth (read: not last) in the East.

Those last few “give up now” because you’re “not gonna win anyway” paragraphs are truly the most galling. It’s pure concentrated disdain for optimism. Recently we stated the Nats might simply be destined for suffering this season to bring about a far greater good, that the team is much too resilient for Fate to allow to be healthy, thus the mountain of injuries begetting the non-winning of recent weeks. Heller just advises quitting, and presumably rooting for the darling Rays.

I generally don’t have a problem with the Times. I even enjoy reading DC’s second paper sometimes, but it seems to me the best advice for Heller and his colleagues is to give up now. Since their paper falls far short of the Post in circulation, readership, recognition, and relevancy, and has no hope of ever catching up, they should throw up that white flag now before we all…you know.

More Evidence Nats Fans Love 'Tism

2008-07-17T10:06:00.001-04:00

While we wait for the second half of the season, and while we still bask in the glow of Cristian Guzman’s game-saving plays at third base in the All-Star Game (third base; the versatility!), a quick look at the Nationals Journal Midseason Report is in order.

This came out a couple days ago, but it’s worth looking at, even belatedly, for many of the same reasons as the Journal poll a week ago: it shows a burgeoning sense of ‘tism amongst Nats faithful despite the franchises various travails.

The overall thesis of the report? “…the typical Nats fan is both upset and ever-optimistic.” Nothing wrong with being upset when your team is not winning. It’s the focusing of that distress into pure optimism that’s the key (rather than home team abandonment and frontrunner-finding).

Some other key hope-inducing points: fans are already hopeful for some free-agent-type help this offseason, they see a healthy Ryan Zimmerman in the All-Star game next year (perhaps playing shortstop for an inning or two, completing the Guzman-to-third circle), and they see Elijah Dukes completely avoiding the self-and-team destruction so many forecast for him.

Again, it’s helpful evidence you can use to know you’re not alone, even if everyone around you is telling you your team stinks and is destined to always stink. You know it’s not true, but it’s nice to know not everyone out there is an optimism-hater.

Once More Re-Enforcing the DCO Mantra

2008-07-14T21:42:00.001-04:00

Ernie Grunfeld is a believer. George McPhee likewise is with the program. Now, in just two weeks, a third DC sports mainstay has joined the ranks of those publicly adhering to core DCO philosophy.

Mere days after his biggest downer of a column since his DC Baseball is Dead tantrum of late 2004, Tom Boswell came back with a piece that was (eventually) more uplifting.

Sure, he lead with the approaching-dead-horse stat of 9,000, that sickening alleged number of DC-area TVs tuned in to a Nats game on average, following up with a rent dispute or two, succeeded by cheapskate innuendo directed at the owners, topped off with two fans’ tragic deaths and an encore involving an FBI investigation.

Wow. Guess the team is headed for retraction, right? At least relocation certainly.

Nonsense.

Finally, Boz gets to the good, or at least the this-is-not-the-end assurances that so eluded him during his Linda-Cropp-induced lunacies of that dark winter of 2004. He states, for the sake of ship-jumpers and knee-jerking Nats-buryers everywhere: “…the life of a franchise is measured in decades, not in weeks.” And he’s right. Let’s all remain calm.

Within the last six years, the Mets (back on the track to darlingism post-Willie) endured seasons of 86, 95, and 91 losses, with significant drops in attendance to go with them. Go back ten years further and you see more losses, and worse attendance. In short, the Nationals are hardly the first team to ever go through a few seasons lacking 90 wins and 3 million fans.

Boz nicely wraps it up with a summary of the quality sub-3.90 ERA starting rotation the Nats are boasting, with a tip of the cap to “quiet progress.” His penultimate sentence is one word, the same word that adorns DCO’s humble little masthead: Relax.

Good advice. Sound philosophy.

Rooting for the Home Team Guilt-Free

2008-07-13T22:50:00.003-04:00

Back in April, when Mrs. DCO and I moved to SE Connecticut, I vowed to continue to root for my beloved DC teams and to forsake all NY-area teams as the enemies they have always been. I’ve maintained that healthy and natural animosity, spurning the advances of friends trying to convince me to adopt the Yankees, Mets, Giants, etc. as my new teams. Those franchises remain unpalatable to me.

I have found, however, an exception in the non-MLB-affiliated minor league Bridgeport Bluefish. The physical proximity of this team and it’s complete lack of relationship with any team that would ever play the Nationals make it the perfect adopted team to root for, completely guilt free. No feelings that I am betraying in any way my loyalties back in my boyhood home.

Last night was my first experience seeing the Bluefish play, and my first in-person baseball experience since mid-April when my only trip to Nationals Park resulted in witnessing an ugly drubbing handed out by the Marlins. Bridgeport’s game against the Newark Bears, though in name and stature nothing akin to a major-league game, nonetheless presented striking and eerie parallels to watching the Nats play (one thing presenting absolutely no parallel: our $14 tickets two rows behind home plate).

First, there were a healthy number of errors, which would make any Nats fan feel at home. A total of six (three by each side). A bit ahead of the pace of what we might see any given night at Nationals Park, but somewhat reminiscent of home. Second, the Fish’s fine third baseman (still trying to learn names) pulled off a fine Zimmerman-ish backhanded snag down the baseline/firing perfect of strike to get the out at first. Very nice. Third, as if to personally remind me of the wonders of attending a Nats’ game with Phillies’ fans, some loudmouth backers of the Bears sat just a few rows behind. “Eeeeeeeeveryone gets a hit! Wwwooooooooooo!” This every time Newark got on base, becoming progressively more slurred and insistent as the game wore on.

Finally, perhaps most endearing and most brining me back to DC was the ending. A Bluefish 8-2 lead in the 7th inning shrank to 9-6 by the top of the 9th, by which point Newark had loaded the bases with two outs. With the closer struggling, another pitcher came in to throw three strikes to end the game, mercifully ceasing a very long top of the 9th, and ending an exciting, suspenseful contest that until that inning had been a blowout. Ahhhhhh, that takes me back.

The Fish play next door to an arena housing another local minor league team: the American Hockey League’s Sound Tigers. This presents a more complex situation than the straightforward no-problem-to-root-for-them non-conundrum of the Bluefish. The Sound Tigers are, unfortunately, affiliated with an NHL (that is, potentially Capitals-competing) team: the Islanders. While not as gaggingly awful as a partner of the Penguins or Flyers or even Rangers, it’s still potentially distasteful to root for a group of AHLers that could possibly one day threaten the Caps’ coming dominance of the Eastern Conference. I’ll likely end up pulling for them anyway, just to get in a live hockey fix this fall that cannot be completely satisfied by the Center Ice package. I will simply root for the Tigers to send out a team of career AHL players every night (a squad full of Frederic Cassivis), and when the Hershey Bears come to town, all loyalties to Bridgeport are out the window. There you go. Proper traditional loyalties maintained, new loyalties justified.

Optimism in Numbers

2008-07-11T00:39:00.001-04:00

Perhaps you have a pessimistic, optimism-hating, naysaying friend/co-worker who loves to revel in all things negative regarding the Nationals. Perhaps they decry the struggles of Austin Kearns while brushing off the accomplishments of All-Star and NL hit leader Christian Guzman. Maybe they even forward to you one of the most glum Boswell columns in recent history. In short, they ignore the scraps of good out there and bask in the bad.

If you know such a person, especially if they are one to audaciously claim to be a Nats fan in the midst of their constant naysaying, rest assured this day that they are in the apparently vast minority of Nationals fans, and that the majority, like you, maintains a sunny outlook on the franchise. The proof for such a statement? The current poll on the Nationals Journal.

As of 12:30 this morning (love the three day weekend), fully 84% believe Manny Acta will one day lead a Nats team with a winning record, and 62% believe The Plan will, within five years, result in a playoff contender.

These numbers are a fresh, if surprising, indicator that most believe the team is ultimately pointed in the right direction, even if we have to suffer through an injury-addled season such as this one to get there. It’s the big picture over the short-sighted obsession with finding every last drawback, like pointing out the Nats’ ultimately losing last night’s 11-inning game without seeing the hope-inducing comebacks in two consecutive innings that kept the game alive (that awful Austin Kearns throwing in a 2-run double in the bottom of the 10th to tie).

So do not be discouraged, optimists. There are evidently more of us out there than anyone would have previously thought.

Fate Strikes Again

2008-07-10T15:23:00.002-04:00

Aaron Boone joins the growing ranks of the DL. Insane theory of previous post gains credibility.

Nats Will Be #1 One Way or Another

2008-07-10T09:18:00.001-04:00

It might seem hard to be optimistic about the Nats these days, with Elijah Dukes joining the mob of Nationals headed to or already on the DL, or with the team dropping six in a row, securing the least-good record in the majors. It seems hard, but it’s not impossible.

DCO has been silent on the Nats for a little while, searching for meaning. Meaning in things like 19 trips to the disabled list, 8 of 9 Opening Day starters missing time, injury diagnoses of 2-4 weeks or 4-6 weeks turning into 1-2 months (Zimmerman, Kearns, Estrada), or the entire season (Johnson, Cordero). Meaning in things like steadily improving players (Zimmerman, Milledge, Dukes) suddenly and freakishly encountering calamities taking them out of the lineup right when they were starting to make true contributions. Meaning in Shawn Hill straining his forearm yet again. Meaning in wondering if Ryan Wagner still plays baseball. Meaning in a Nick Johnson owie wiping out yet another summer.

Maybe there are a couple of larger forces at play here, providing a compelling explanation for this seemingly cruel injustice of a season being thrust upon the Nats. We’ll get to that. But first, let’s talk again about Dukes, he of the batting average surging to .263 in mere weeks after floundering in the sub-.100 arena for so long; he of the non-clubhouse-tearing-apart attitude since the forgotten brush-up with ManAct a few weeks ago. With his injury apparently comes great motivation, and Manny-like ‘tism, if his comments to the Nationals Journal from earlier this week are any indication. He wants to come back as soon as possible. He wants to continue to prove himself. He wants to help this team get better. Not the type of franchise disaster forecasted when he was first acquired and after his long-forgiven spat with the Master. This injury, while bad now, may yet serve to illustrate what a stroke of genius signing Dukes was for the future of the franchise. So there’s your optimistic take on that.

Now, the team as a whole.

It’s fairly obvious that this entire season is a design by God/Fate/Destiny to secure the #1 draft pick for the Nationals. With that draft pick, it is apparent the Nats are destined to select some sort of baseball #1 overall equivalent of Alex Ovechkin (it would serve as a nice tie-in to our analysis of last fall). This player will usher in a decade of dominance such as the one Ovie is bringing about, helping to lift the Nats from hacky joke to league-wide darlingism like that currently being enjoyed by the Rays. The Rays! Who saw that coming? The shock at Washington’s rise will be comparable.

To secure this pick/player for the Nats, it has been (painfully) necessary to inflict upon the team this utter cruelty of an injury-plagued (putting it lightly) campaign. It’s the only way. The team and its manager are too damned resilient to fall to the bottom of the league with anything short of extreme compulsion. This explains why so many rising youngsters have been cut down so relatively early in the season. If they were allowed to properly flourish, the Nationals would be back on last year’s track of shocking the league. Even Jim Bowden is taken aback by the unprecedented-ness of it all.

It may seem like DCO is throwing up their collective hands, merely accepting the Nats are the worst team in the majors with no hope. Far from it. Manny and the lads may yet pull it all together again, cruising into late summer and early fall with designs on ruining another Mets’ season (a snazzy performance from John Lannan and clutch pinch-hit home run by Jesus Flores last night provide hope for such a scenario). That would be wonderful. It may just be that all of this losing of players may be part of a PLAN even bigger than The Plan.

Poise

2008-07-08T17:47:00.000-04:00

So Karl Alzner is showing poise. The truly defensive defenseman drafted last summer is looking like he could make a run for the NHL this fall, if reports from development camp are any indication (that and the possible absence of Brian Pothier). A developing solid stay-at-home defenseman? Sounds like the home-grown version of every team’s summer free-agent dream.

This is why the Caps did not jump to overpay someone like Wade Redden until he is 37. Those dollars will need to be applied Mike-Green-like in a few years to keep the Rangers of the world away from the RFA temptation that will be Alzner.

It’s the kind of understated-yet-bound-to-pay-off offseason that leads experts to declare the team has ”been quiet” other than the re-signing of Mike Green. Quiet, of course, means lacking splashy, expensive signings (hello, Chicago) or mass signing of players by a team desperate to replace those that have skipped town (Pittsburgh).

Why pay someone like Redden into his late 30s when you’ll probably have to dish out similar cash to Alzner in his prime mid-to-late 20s? Why take on Markus Naslund and his five recent years of declining production when Nick Backstrom and Alexander Semin will need similarly priced contracts for better production in a couple of years?

Things should get a little louder soon with the apparently imminent keeping of Sergei Fedorov, stacking the Caps down the middle in ways we haven’t seen in probably ever, plus shoring up the penalty kill with his Selke-worthy credentials.

And don’t forget Michael Nylander and Chris Clark coming back to go along with those young prospects on the rise, a salary cap situation well-accounted for in the future to keep the youngsters. Quiet offseasons like this are fine with us.

Another Reason for Celebrating the 4th

2008-07-04T22:16:00.001-04:00

The actual vote for independence from Britain came from Congress on July 2, 1776, though we celebrate this glorious freedom on July 4, the date on the Declaration. Let’s apply (stretch??) this to the NHL and in particular our nation’s Capitals. While we Caps fans may trace our team’s independence from the shackles of Jaromir Jagr’s contract to the May 5th realization he would not win the Conn Smythe and therefore become an unrestricted free agent, it is also possible that henceforth we will celebrate freedom along with the rest of the nation on July 4. For on this day, we see the once-and-always moody Czech officially leave the NHL, bound for Russia.

No more paying his contract. No more watching him (briefly) play better and seemingly more inspired on another team. No more rumors of a nightmare return to Pittsburgh. No more having to remember to boo him every time he touches the puck. No more Jagr. Independence!

Free from such tyranny, the Caps have extra salary to pay to those who deserve it. A hard worker like Brooks Laich; a rising Orr-ish defenseman like Mike Green; a crafty and still-skilled veteran leader like Sergei Fedorov. The list goes on, and will positively affect this franchise for years to come. All this thanks to blessed release from the oppression that was the deal sending Jagr to the Rangers, wherin a Washington franchise, desperate to slip the bonds of an ineffective and overpaid winger, agreed to subsidize his canoodling in New York, forcing years of wasted salary.

Thus, every year hence, while we’re lighting our snakes and sparklers on 4 July, let us remember Avangard Omsk along with the Second Continental Congress as enablers of our freedom.

More Calming Perspective

2008-07-03T13:55:00.001-04:00

Some of the early free agent period (and it is still early in the free agent period) angst rising amongst Caps fans with signings of Brooks Laich, Sergei Fedorov, Shaonne Morrision, that ever-so-easy-to-find-and-sign elite defenseman, etc. not yet in the books, it’s time to pause for a moment for some (final) thoughts on the Cristobal Huet non-signing, and to put some perspective in place.

Huet is now making more money with his non-Vezina-winning resume than Martin Brodeur is with his multiple-Vezina-winning ways, including one the year just past, in which Huet apparently earned his big contract for his post-trade heroics. That being said, he is, as we know, still not the highest-paid goalie on the Blackhawks. That distinction goes to $6.75 million lottery winner Nikolai Khabibulin.

This headlong recklessness is clearly not the operating style of the Caps and GMGM, and we should be grateful. Plus, the more we hear about how the Huet negotiations went down, the better it seems the Caps are for walking away. Getting desperate and panicky to offer up market-shifting sums to a player based on a few months’ of work (no matter how blissfully memorable those months were) would not serve us fans well in the future. Chicago may well learn that when their salary-throwing puts them in Penguins-like crunches a year or two from now. If Brian Burke is peeved at Kevin Lowe for driving up salaries last year, he surely must be saving some ire for Blackhawks’ GM Dale Tallon now.

Speaking of the Penguins, how about that Marian Hossa? Swell guy, that one. He makes a case for being the first non-DC sports figure inducted into the DCO Hall of Fame. But we’ll show some non-Tallon-like restraint and simply salute him for his choice of Detroit over Pittsburgh. That while we wait for the chorus of praise for Evgeni Malkin, he who unselfishly accepted $8.7 million a season to join the martyr Crosby in putting team above contract. They, of course, being the superior team players for not grabbing for Alex Ovechkin’s selfish $9.5 million (that cad; when he’s not being “selfish” getting a big contract he’s being “selfish” scoring too many goals and not compiling enough secondary assists, right?). Why with all that extra cap space the Pens might just be able to replace Hossa with Ben Clymer!

But back to perspective. With reports of Laich not being close to signing, let’s not assume the Caps are being cheap and not trying to get the deal done. It’s more likely that, as with the Huet dealings, they want to keep this guy. DCO loves Brooks Laich and wants his net-crashing acumen around for a long time. DCO also loves Nick Backstrom, Alexander Semin, and other Caps or future Caps who may need to be signed in coming years. Thus, panicky money should not be thrown at Brooks in a desperate attempt to keep him here, much as we would be pained to see him go. But we don’t expect it to come to that, and remain optimistic it will get worked out, unless Chicago or Edmonton throws a 5-year/$25 million contract at him.

Some admiration this free agency period should also to go Mats Sundin. While certainly no one would begrudge him from jumping at 2 years and $20 million from Vancouver, it’s heartening to see that gaudy figures alone do not drive this scorer of 78 points last season (34 fewer than previously mentioned “money-grabber” Ovie). Such a contract precedent might push similarly aged Fedorov out of the Caps’ reach. We still hope to see him around as well, dishing to Laich in front of the net and centering a third line of quality we have not seen since the Kono-Halpern-Dahlen days. Mrs. DCO pines to see Fedorov remain as well, as she will miss his "cute striped hat” if he’s not here.

Calm perspective. It’s still early and these things will work out.

McPhee Also Practicing DCO Philosophy

2008-07-02T08:37:00.000-04:00

Marge Simpson once said to her husband, “Homer, you know how unpredictable the French are. One minute they’re kissing a woman’s hand, the next they’re chopping off her head!” Put another way, one minute you’re offering your starting goaltender and top free agent priority exactly the contract he asked for, the next he’s signing a ridiculous deal with another team. A team, incidentally, seemingly hell-bent on digging itself straight into salary cap, well, hell.

So you’re George McPhee. Cristobal Huet has asked for three years and $15 million. Great, you say, that’s exactly what we’ll offer you. But wait, sayeth the goaltender, let me see what’s out there. Before you know it, there he is working out a four-year deal with the Blackhawks at $5.6 million a season. Such a deal cannot and should not be matched, for any number of reasons. So Huet bolts for Chicago, where he will watch management first fumble around trying to reconcile his contract along with Nikolai Khabibulin’s $6 million plus contract this season, and the sure-to-be high demands of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews in two years (just to make things really interesting, Chicago threw 8 years, $57 million, and Brian Campbell into the mix).

What do you do? Panic? Call it a day and stumble into the season with Brent Johnson and one of those prized-but-not-yet-ready goaltending prospects? Johnson and Frederic Cassivi? Johnson and Alex Auld??? No, no. You sit back and calmly repeat the DCO mantra, recently invoked by Ernie Grunfeld: Relax. Everything’s going to be fine.

Not missing a beat, GMGM snaps up Jose Theodore, he of the Hart and Vezina earlier this decade. The terms, two years at $4.5 million per, gain in brilliance every time you stop and think about them. It’s not a bad salary for a starting goaltender, particularly one who is apparently reviving his career like Theodore. It leaves extra money for other desired RFAs and one UFA named Fedorov (and, if you’re to believe the boards, Brooks Orpik). Perhaps best of all, it expires in two years, being the perfect timespan for that goaltending “bridge”, plus freeing up needed millions for a potentially big-time contract to Nick Backstrom, amongst others. At that time, we can thank Jose for his services and move on. Or perhaps offer him a nice veteran/mentor backup role at reduced cost (Hi, Olie). Chicago, meanwhile, will be doing its own version of the Pittsburgh conundrum Malkin vs. Hossa, entitled Kane vs. Toews.

Fan reaction was a bit shocking, with message boards reading like something out of the “Redskins About to Hire Jim Fassel” days. Sure, Huet was great and we’ll always have fond memories of nine-game winning streaks and a division title, but here was not a player to have at all costs. There apparently was a Plan B, and a suitable one. It might be (past) time to cut McPhee some slack, after his brilliant engineering last offseason and at the trade deadline brought the Caps one penalty-free OT from the second round. And at least he’s not acting like they are in Vancouver, offering up $10 million a season for an aging someone who didn’t crack 80 points last season.

So it’s not so bad. A key component of the young core was signed yesterday, and the first choice of goalie walked away after being offered precisely what he wanted with no hesitation. Time to move on. Huet is dead. Long live Jose.

Ernie Grunfeld Practices DCO Mantra, Resigns Key Cog(s)

2008-07-01T10:54:00.000-04:00

Surely the latest playoff non-triumph delivered via the whimpering LeBron James and his striped cronies would cause the Wizards' certified Genius Manager (GM) Ernie Grunfeld to destroy anything even remotely resembling the 2007-2008 Wizards in lieu of a newer, younger, bigger, playoff-winnier, internet-friendlier team, right? Wrong. Grunfeld, a certified practicer of the DCO's patented mantra ("Relax, everything is going to be fine") has instead decided that the team that again almost beat the cohesive basketball-destroying floppers from Cleveland should remain pretty much intact, brilliantly re-upping all-star awesome Antawn Jamison for four more years, and working towards locking up Gilbert Arenas for what's looking like six years, after which both of their jerseys will mine the rafters next to all of those Mystics attendance championships.

And before you complain-blog about "keeping intact a mediocre team," and blaspheme this brilliant managerial move towards stability, which did not involve acquiring some aged, broken down center as some doofus suggested back when he still maintained a regular position at this blog, keep in mind that this team has yet to truly harness their combined worth. I'd tabulate all of their actual games played together, but then I'd just take work away from Bullets Forever, or I guess I could just link to some post where they have already postulated on this topic. Anyways, while the big three were intact, the Wiz were in first place, and while the wiz were in pieces, they beat the vaunted best team in the league. (Jamison in particular was beasting on the "intense" Garnett) Maintaining the structure of a first-place team is something that highly-approved team-constructors do.

Another thing highly-approved team constructors do is draft well. And after taking in every lamely protracted draft ranking and draft diary, I must say, new Wizard 7-footer JaVale Magee is certified grade-A draft earning material. Why? Naturally, with the Wiz having solid contributors to just about every position combined with a draft that is noticably lacking in talent outside of the first three studs, the predilection for finding a real contributor in these meandering rounds resembles a crap shoot. Thus, taking on a seven foot project, who has an insanely strong basketball pedigree (hmm, what other DC-based superstar has a hoops-playing Mom? Did he just pwn the entire NHL last year?) a wingspan that rivals secret covert ops planes housed in Langley, and an ability to "run the floor" that causes stiffs in Charlotte to cower, was a great decision that smart, foundation-building planners routinely take. Of all people to agree, Michael Wilbon was even on board, not so much as applauding the Grun-trust's decision to go with a Dwight-stopper, as he was hoisting the Wizards' decision-making prowess to the levels of their lauded playoff neighbors. With Magee, Andray Blatche, Nick Young, Domenic McGuire, and Oleksiy Pecherov, there are enormous, young, talented ballers that could cause match-up problems for entire seasons. The buying and selling of tweening prospect Billy Walker to the Celtics was a blip on the radar that likely registers more in De Moines' NBDL plans than in DC, where Ivan Carter assured the 90-thousand or so freaking out in the comment section, that Walker had no chance of cracking the lineup.

Plus, with the selling of this chip, Grunfeld opens up the possibility of retaining the only other questionable piece to this puzzle, the supposed odd-man-out, Roger "The Wheaton Weapon" Mason Jr. According to everyone, like much of the home-grown business that will soon be jettisonned from my 'hood in favor of sleeker, chain-ier stuff, Mason is likely not going to hang around. But with the cash saved in both Jamison's team-first paycut, and the dealing of Walker, Mason could, maybe, be retained.

Stability, punctuated with ground-building efforts from the bottom up. A great gameplan for both your sub-prime mortgaged house and for the construction of the Wiz, whose foreman continues to display traits of brilliance influenced by the 'tism. Here's to the Wiz making some serious noise in 08-09, and not of the "Ow I have torn my crucial joint thingy!" variety.

The Answer Was "A"

2008-07-01T08:57:00.001-04:00

The first of yesterday's presented eventualities is in the books, according to TSN. Mike Green stays for at least the next four years.

Now, time for another bet. Considering his reported average annual salary of $5.25 million, how many "Green Makes the Green"-headlined stories will we see today? The over/under is 50.

Place Your Bets

2008-06-30T08:50:00.000-04:00

On this very tense day of hand-wringing before unrestricted free agency begins, let's try to predict which of these eventualities will be announced by the Capitals first:

A. Signing of Mike Green to a multi-year deal, financially satisfying to both parties
B. Signing of Cristobal Huet to a three-year deal
C. Signing of Sergei Fedorov to a one-year deal with club option for second year
D. Signing of Brooks Laich to a multi-year deal, incentive-laden for his imminent 30-goal season

The above, coupled with any sort of announcement out of Pittsburgh concerning any sort of dismantling of that club (in addition to the Malone and Roberts thing, we mean), will make for a happy midsummer's day.

Looking to Dodge 100 Again

2008-06-28T19:05:00.002-04:00

Following last night’s victory over the Baltimore/Washington/Pennsylvania/Delaware/Maryland/West Virginia/North Carolina Orioles (right, Pete?), the Nationals' record at mid-season is 32-49. This represents but a dropoff of one game from last season’s non-historical terribleness. The win, propelled by the ever-gelling lineup heart of Dukes-Milledge-Flores, puts the Nats not on pace for 100 losses! It’s quite the achievement, when you think about it.

Given last year’s annihilated-by-inuury pitching staff and this year’s annihilated every position conceivable, it’s really something the team will not be combining to lose 140 games in the two inaugural years of the Epoch of Manny. Someday, Manny and the World Champion Nats, powered by MVP Elijah Dukes, will look back fondly on such early and midsummer travails as the basis for an NL East dynasty. They’ll see such bad-at-the-time events as Austin Kearns and Paul Lo Duca missing substantial time (those “opportunities” Man Act waxed about telepathically) that opened the door for non-rotation in every outfield spot not occupied by Willy Mo Pena, securing Milledge and Dukes in their starting roles and providing the spark for the growing 2-3 threat in the lineup.

Likewise with $5 million man Lo Duca, whose injury gave away his job to Jesus Flores, who should have had it all along. The true steal from the Mets, Flores is aptly filling the 4th or 5th spot on a nightly basis.

So with 81 games down, there is no appreciable step back to be found. Some may note, perhaps legitimately, that no true steps are being taken forward, but as ChariManny said, how can he/we evaluate this team until he has his guys back? Put an improving-when-he-was-hurt Ryan Zimmerman back in the lineup, along with a fully healthy Nick Johnson (possibly still only a theoretical being), and the team could be well on its way to improving upon last season's history-defying pace. All things considered, this team is showing the same resilience it did last year, going through an almost identical chronological order of struggle-excel-struggle-tread water….as its predecessor. All that’s left now is to keep the losses under 100 (or 90), ruin another team’s postseason dreams again in September, and continue to look to that bright future.

Boz detailed the coming magnificence nicely in his latest column. Ignore the stuff about the non-Washington team (except the part that mentions a score of 30-3) and it’s a great read.

A Great Non-Sweep

2008-06-26T07:41:00.000-04:00

This was going to be one of those “we’re not so bad off, look at [some other team]” type of posts we used to revel in last spring and summer, when we’d lift our weary DC-supporting spirits by pointing out the worse straits occupied by some other city’s franchise(s). The team in question would have been, of course, the Nationals, that lovable bunch of low-expectations-saddled, Manny-led ballplayers who had just been swept my Minnesota, taken down in 2 of 3 by the Rangers, and seemed destined to be a three-game speedbump for the AL West buzzsaw Angels.

We’ll still go in that direction a bit, but this was all before doings of increasingly clutch-seizing Elijah Dukes and the anti-LoDuca, Jesus Flores. We all remember Dukes, right? He of the dugout blowout vs. our Man Manny, for reasons classily undisclosed, on June 10? He who was, from that point forward, destined to tear apart this Nats team with his rank terribleness? Since that day and his subsequent non-suspension/benching, Dukes has hit .327 with 8 RBI and a trio of fabulously stolen bases, highlighted by an early-career-defining 5-6 performance against Texas, wherein he managed to knock in the tying and winning runs (separated by six, mostly extra, innings). The projected clubhouse cancer has become a reliable 2-slot hitter, freeing up also-resurging Lastings Milledge to bat third and do things like hit his seventh home run against the Angels.

It’s kind of like Manny (again) knew best how to back a player down from the emotional edge and re-state his confidence in such a player. It’s like an extended version of last June’s calming down of an ejection-bound Felipe Lopez prior to a game-seizing triple. Lopez, at that brink, was 0-5 (sub-.100 batting average?) before his game-winning stroke (.327 tear?). Dukes, likewise, could have been on some manner of brink, prior to Manny keeping the faith and keeping him in the lineup.

So there was Elijah, putting behind early season indignities and getting that badly needed ninth-inning single. By the time stolen-from-the-Mets Jesus Flores stepped up with Dukes on second and one out, the inevitability of yet another Nats bottom-of-the-ninth-or-later victory (their seventh of the year; thanks, ESPN, for actually acknowledging the Nats existence AND for providing us with this nugget) was baldly palpable. Dukes of course came trotting home on Flores’ convincing single to deeeep right center and the Nats avoided the sweep. Cue “there’s someone worse off than us” portion.

While the Nationals were busy losing 2 of 3 to a division leader and World-Series contender, what of one of my allegedly new “hometown” teams, the NY Mets? That debacle-in-waiting of a franchise that does not quite want to admit it may be headed for a rebuild ($100 million+ roster notwithstanding)? They were performing an encore to their classless manager firing entitled “Losing 2 of 3 to Seattle”.

That’s right, the same Mariners these Nationals seemingly effortlessly swept, keeping that “worst team in the Majors” moniker safely at bay. In their three games vs. Seattle, Washington managed to avoid the horrid, blasphemous indignities of: A. Having their “ace” (an expensive and highly touted one, at that) serve up a grand slam to an American League pitcher with eight career at-bats. B. Losing by 11 runs to the Mariners.

Such awfulness would have put any Nats losing streak in perspective. Sure they may be wallowing in the injury-filled depths of last place in the NL, but at least they are fulfilling expectations rather than falling miserably below them, a la the Mets, who can say a prayer of thanks today to those expectation-shattering Rays for visciously taking care of the Marlins and allowing them to gain a badly needed game in the NL East. The Rays might yet become something of a “sister team” to us Nats fans, seeing them so maligned and declared retraction-worthy by so many before their ascension into division-contending glory. Sounds like something out of the not-too-distant future in DC.

Caps Love RFAs. UFAs Love Caps.

2008-06-19T16:56:00.000-04:00

Two of the more trauma-inducing (to non-optimists) Capitals’ off-season situations received some trauma-reducing news this week. First, the bring-it-on statement from still-somehow-maligned, division-championship-team-building GM George McPhee that Restricted Free Agents will not be plucked away from the team, possibly by offer sheets from Edmonton. Offers will be matched, players will stay. In other words, Mike Green will be here next year. We’ll presume such an attitude also extends towards players named Laich, Morrisonn, Gordon, etc.

Strike a blow for continuity. Nothing to worry about here, just as there turned out to be no worrying necessary with the Why Isn’t Alex Locked Up Yet minor crisis earlier this year. That turned out better than any of us hoped, and with that as precedent, we look forward to seeing Mike Green weave between opposing forwards and around their defensemen to score more Orr-ish goals against their goalies. All this with an increasingly un-Gonchar-like commitment to his “proper” end of the ice. We already know certified elite player and NHL-bound defenseman Karl Alzner looks up to him, too, so put “mentor” into his job description for the next decade as well.

Now the other "worry": the unrestricted free agents, those often-elite, often offensively minded players the Capitals would desperately woo in an off-season, only to be refused by the likes of Roenick, Turgeon, Tocchet, et al. Times have changed, and DC is apparently a desired place to be for soon-to-be-not-rented Sergei Fedorov and Cristobal Huet.

Fedorov, that perfect-for-the-third-line veteran whose enthusiasm for the sport was rejuvenated in Washington after enduring a couple of life-sucking years in Columbus under Ken Hitchcock, was long-rumored to want to stick around, rumors seemingly confirmed by his buddy/prodigy/countryman Ovie last month. A cagey veteran third-line center with Selke-worthy shutdown skills and an offensive upside? Possibly out there with a crease-clogging, 25-goal-scoring Brooks Laich? Sounds pretty good.

Huet seemed equally smitten with the burgeoning DC dynasty, having himself contributed in a big way to getting it started. His division-clinching and nearly-playoff-series-clinching win streaks established him as a must-have for next year (as did the sad departure of Olie) as we hope to see that much-talked-about “bridge” established to the fine crop of young goaltenders the Caps are raising. Huet is apparently quite willing to be that bridge, even looking for the same sounds-so-perfect three year deal the Caps should hope for. Deal term was a potential worry, but no more. And if the Caps are apparently so willing to ante up to match RFA offer sheets, they should conceivably be willing to make money a non-issue with equally (more so?) critical-to-keep Huet.

As nice as the last off-season was, with the needed injection of offense in the acquisitions of Michael Nylander and Viktor Kozlov (remember when everyone was ragging on Kozlov early on? Seems pretty silly now, with those 51 points and team-leading +28 and all), plus the heralded minutes-eating ability in Tom Poti, this summer looks even better. This time, the needed pieces are already here, just waiting to be signed. A free agent or two would be nice, but it doesn’t have quite the desperate urgency that was felt in some quarters last year with the “GMGM better score big or he needs to go” attitude floating around. The braintrust pulled it off last year and this time around, with the help of some willing non-free-market-hitting potential UFAs, we’re optimistic they’ll do it again.

Mets - Manny = Disaster???

2008-06-17T08:58:00.000-04:00

With the speculation-turned-fact firing of the $138 million Mets' Willie Randolph, it only now dawns on us what should have been obvious from the beginning: their downfall began when Acta left.

It's so simple: in 2006, the Mets won the division then nearly went to the World Series, losing the NLCS in seven games, and Manny was there at third base, waving those winning runs home. Next offseason he came to Washington for the opportunity to manage he'd never get in New York. Things look great for the Mets for a while, another division title looks imminent, then BAM, the Curse of Manny takes full effect with a late-season sweep at the hands of the Nationals in the midst of what is still called an "historic" collapse. Anybody remember the hints from NY media that offseason that the Mets should hire Acta to manage? As if they could just grab him back from the franchise that looked into his 'tism-y soul and saw the manager of the future?

Now the Mets are in full-blown underachieving mode, their enormously expensive, Jesus-Flores-less lineup floundering 6.5 games out from where they "should" be. It's so clear as to why, and we at DCO are ashamed for not seeing it sooner. ManAct was the optimistic glue holding an imminently collapsing franchise together, and with his departure went the fortunes of the Mets. He'll yet bring that fortune here, while the Mets wallow in their self-inflicted Curse.

It Takes A Big Man(ny)

2008-06-14T23:25:00.000-04:00

The Elijah Dukes vs. Manny Acta story seems to have blown over a bit now. No more pressing, breathless questions about what could have gone wrong, about how we all “expected this” from Dukes, how this was “bound to happen”, given his history, how he would “blow up” any minute and absolutely destroy the clubhouse atmosphere Manny had striven to build this last year and a half.

The demise has not occurred. Just like it did not occur last year. Remember the panic over Dmitri Young? Remember how he was to de a catastrophe-in-the-waiting? How the Nationals took such a huge risk just having him around, and how his “fluky” batting average would slide right back into the low .200s and he would tear the team apart with his overt terribleness? It didn’t happen with Comeback Player of the Year Young, and it won’t happen with Star-in-the-Making Dukes.

Since that little incident in Pittsburgh, Dukes has four hits and four RBI in three games (five hits, taking into account tonight’s current game in Seattle, along with that lead-producing run). He’s slowly climbing through the .200s in batting average, no longer wallowing in that sub-.100 wasteland he sloughed through earlier this year. It’s a full-fledged turnaround in progress, a becoming of the player the Nationals trusted he could be when they took him off Tampa’s unwilling hands.

He can thank Manny.

Yes, he can thank our Master, the Master of all things ‘tism, who looked past a little dugout blowup and post-game handshake snub to keep the up-and-coming Dukes in the lineup, saying only “He’s our right fielder.” A simple statement, but one full of the same never-give-up, accentuate-the-positive attitude we’ve come to love from ChairManny. A more bloated-ego-having and problematic-rage-possessing manager might have seen such insubordinance as worthy of a benching or release recommendation. The Master sees through such nonsense, and further looks to the potential of the offending party. He will not give up on his players, and he emphasized as much with the early struggles (everyone seems to have them, don’t they?) of Luis Ayala. “I’ll never give up on him”, Manny said at the time. Apparently the same extends to Dukes and whoever else might not offer his hand for a jaunty slap in a victory-celebrating line.

Also, how about this Lasting Milledge guy? Another outfield turnaround in progress? How about yes. There he is with 11 hits in his last ten games, putting that average well above the .230-ish many a naysaer thought he might stay at all year. A few more weeks like these might put an end to the preening of Mets’ fans everywhere over that “steal” of a trade for Ryan Church (batting average already slipping a bit, along with the rest of the Mets franchise).

It all goes back to the Master, he the ever-positive leader who brings out the best in all his players, even those who are prophesized to tear apart his team.

Looking For the Sweep (Ovie and Otherwise)

2008-06-12T17:51:00.000-04:00

Just a little more than an hour from Alex Ovechkin’s completely in-the-bag grab of trophies Hart and Pearson. News-leaking t-shirts aside, there wasn’t all that much suspense to begin with. The one true-but-still-minor threat came from Evgeni “Sid’s shadow” Malkin, but looking past the blinding He Saved Hockey When Sid Was Hurt hype, Ovechkin really stood alone with his 65 goals, 112 points, double-digit game-winners, etc. And no slight to Jarome Iginla, very much Ovie-like in his own right and very un-Crosby-like in his complete aversion to diving (full disclosure: I signed him as a UFA in NHL 08; best move by a fake GM ever).

So there’s part one of the slight fulfilling of our somewhat-maligned-yet-eerily fruitioning (and somehow popular Google-search destination) pre-season awards predictions. Bruce II should be the other lock for a trophy. If not, what's the point of the Jack Adams? The only even miniscule question mark is Nick Backstrom and the Calder. He may unfairly suffer from this “stats padded by playing with Ovechkin” nonsense, and it would be a shame to see him locked out because of that (or by that, um, incident against the Penguins). Regardless, we came to know the studdy playmaker Backstrom is, the clutch OT goal-scorer he can be, and the hands-down winner of the Calder Trophy For Best Team-Promoting TV Commercial By a Rookie. Steeeel see it.

We've Seen This Before (when it was also incorrect)

2008-06-10T17:40:00.001-04:00

Does this piling on the Nats, fashionable once again after the more-successful-than-anyone-thought 2007 season fades into memory and a few more losses than wins start accumulating now, ring a little familiar? Sure it does, because 13 months ago to this very day, similar invective were being published in the Post. Maybe that’s too strong a word, but it was, and is, mostly along the lines of, oh those Nats, they stink, whatareyagonna do? Oh we’re so bad, yuck yuck yuck. Then follows the typical condemnation by the fan and pundit alike of the Plan, the players, etc, with the typical Philly-like woe-is-us, no-light-at-the-end-of-this-tunnel, tired shtick. Back then, a little eight-game losing streak brought out the optimism-hating. Today it’s a little five-game skid. DCO responded to last year’s panicked calls of awfulness with a seer-ish guarantee of fewer than 100 losses, swimming against the tide of those rushing to declare the 2007 Nats “Worst Ever”. It was true then and it’s true now: the Nats will not lose 100 games. They will yet surprise us all and be closer to 75/80 wins than anyone now thinks.

Remember when the afformentioned yucks were being had at the expense of that woeful starting pitching staff? That starting pitching staff that was beset by something beyond all known magnitude of injury? Not just one or even two, but five or six key components of what was supposed to be a terrible unit to begin with? The patchwork staff, of course, pulled it together and was something of a strength all year long, giving us fond memories such as Levale Speigner outdeuling Johan Santana in Minnesota. We even got to know Mike Bacsik, that cute little footnote to something big that might have happened while he was pitching (heard he’s great with kids, too).

This year, as we well know, it’s those batsmen getting hit by the injury locusts. Names of starters or potential starters like Kearns, Johnson, Zimmerman, Dukes, Belliard, Lo Duca, and Young being found on a disabled list for good lengths of time will hurt any lineup, even one expected (again) to be so very wretched. But there’s light and, as usual, it’s brought to us by our spiritual leader in ‘tism, Manuel Acta. Weeks ago, before the pile-on began in earnest, Manny spun yet another positive, making us all remember why his name is so lauded in this space, and why he was such an inspiration to start this blog to begin with. In declaring yet another brutally barbaric string of injuries to be “an opportunity”, and expounding so eloquently on the reasons for such, Man Act once more refused to dwell on the negative, to resort to the self-flagellation too often found amongst sports fans, and perhaps prophesized a batting turnaround, much as the shuffling of injured pitchers a year ago ushered in a pitching turnaround of just-good-enough-to-stay-competetive-and-respectful proportions. It’s all we can ask for, really. And while we’re being thankful, let’s repeat our thankfulness, echoed in these pages all last summer, that such a young and promising team is not being led through its temporary dark age by someone named Girardi or, much much worse, Pinella. Not a speck of ‘tism to be found there in a time of need such as this.

So let’s calm down. Everything’s going to be fine. The batting will come around, as we have been told it would, with this new park and all. There are already rumblings to indicate resurgences from those outfielders getting their Manny-declared “opportunity” named Dukes and Milledge. Wins will follow. Snarky ‘tism-blocking commentary will end.

The Nightmare is Over

2008-06-05T12:48:00.000-04:00

Mrs. DCO probably put it best when, shortly after Marian Hossa’s wouldn’t-have-counted-anyway last-second shot trickled harmlessly if-tantalizlingly through the crease, she said, “Someone had to lose, and I’m glad it was the Penguins.” With this godsend of a loss, we are now free from the mental anguish that has plagued us all since Pittsburgh threw their final regular season game against the Flyers so they could match up against Ottawa in the first round. Yes, the Senators, who were swept in the regular season by the Capitals long before it was fashionable, and common, to sweep the Senators. The Peguins’ shell-curling-up-in on that last day denied the Caps a chance to again take down Ottawa in four, and left the Chosen One and his lackeys an open door into the second round and beyond.

We watched in horror as we realized we had to first choose between the Penguins and Rangers. After but a few moments, it was clear we had to, extremely grudgingly, root for New York (I still choke on my keystrokes writing that). Once that trial was passed, it was on to perhaps the greatest conundrum in Washington sports outside a Cowboys-Eagles NFC Championship: Flyers vs. Penguins for the opportunity to play for the Cup. Was there more a sinking feeling in recent hockey history as knowing that one of these reviled franchises, one with the aforementioned Anointed One and one with Danny Briere, would be within but four victories of defiling that fine silver chalice? It was enough to (almost) make an optimist’s heart wilt.

But we got through it and, as always, were able to find something positive in the experience. A celebration of a quarter century of Philly sports dominance was worth seeing the Penguins become Eastern Conference champions – provided they lost the next round. And lose they did, despite Sidney Crosby’s “performance for the ages” in Game 3 and Evgeni Malkin’s imminent breakout heralding, accidental game-winning-goal-assisting Game 5. Rescuing us from more Crosby coddling was Conn Smythe winner Henrik Zetterberg, who tied lil’ Sid for the playoff points lead (often scoring goals) and denied him yet another pair of his birthrights: leading the playoffs in points, and possibly the Conn Smythe itself.

The last week has been a hectic week for DCO, with both members immersed in working obligations in the Central timezone, hence the paucity of posting. All is well now, however, and we are ready to bring you another summer of Nats’ successes (on the field and in the draft room), Capitals’ trophy-collecting and roster-strengthening, Redskins’ gearing-up for a season of continuity, Wizards’ doing the same, and United’s staging of another comeback from a less-than-ideal start. That we get to enjoy such a summer without glowing stories of Crosby’s heroic secondary-assist dishing, his superior “vision” for being able to skate into the offensive zone and drop the puck to a defenseman (a move nobody else has ever pulled off, ever), his unprecedented two-goal game in the Finals, and Malkin’s inspiring 3-point Cup Finals performance makes it all the sweeter.

At last, the only hockey news in front of us is good news. Alex Ovechkin will collect a couple of trophies on June 12. Bruce should collect another, and Nick Backstrom is a prime deserving candidate for yet another. Then we wait on imminent signings of next season’s third-line center Sergei Fedorov, and next season’s starting goalie, Cristobal Huet. Still more goodness follows, with a key free agent signing here and there, followed by a training camp featuring a healthy Michael Nylander, Chris Clark, and Brian Pothier, then on to a division-title-defending season culminating in a Cup run, perhaps with a sweep of the Penguins thrown in. It’s (finally) going to be a good summer.

Quests For, and Away From, Zero

2008-05-28T16:39:00.000-04:00

Here's a pressing question for you , one that has been on my mind for
several days, as I watch a supposedly wretched baseball team put forth
solid effort after solid effort, and a supposedly imminently dynastic,
hype-prophecy-fulfilling hockey team completely flame out during its
birthrighted time of glory: will the Nats' Jason Bergmann be scored
upon before the Penguins score? It's a tough one, given the recent rarity
of both occurances. Bergmann is up to 19+ scoreless innings after his
brief motivational jaunt in the minors, while the Pens have scored as
many goals during the Finals as they would score runs batting against
Bergmann.

Bergmann's efforts have thus far earned him but a single post-minors
win, given some untimely bullpen pitching and some still-struggling-but-showing-signs-of-rising hitting. Elijah Dukes comforably over .100 at last, Ryan Zimmermanb toying with .300 for the month, Lastings Milledge with an actual key RBI double, Dmitri re-familiarizing himself with the clutch hit (a home run, at that), Aaron Boone continuing to intimately know the home run, Jesus Flores helping to bury Paul Lo Duca on the depth chart: all good signs. All good signs that will translate to wins for Bergmann and the Nats as he continues his quality play.

Can the same be said for Pittsburgh? Are there positive signs they can
look to in their Quest From Zero? Perhaps, if the ever-poutful mug of
Sidney Crosby (brought to you by Versus after every Red Wings' goal),
the cheapshot-doling of Gary Roberts, and the complete disappearance
of Evgeni "better than Ovechkin" Malkin are seen as positives, and not
signs of a frustrated team shocked by the audasity of someone standing
in the way of their critically ordained prize. We look forward to more
frustration en route to a sweep, followed by off-season and next-season speculation by Canadian media that pending RFA Malkin will sign with Montreal, Toronto, etc.

The Pens are up next in their thus-far vain attempt to escape zero.
Whether they can do so before Bergmann has the chance to extend his
string of zeroes is an even-money bet at this point.

DCO Pardons, Endorses Red Wings

2008-05-23T12:31:00.000-04:00

It’s understandable if some Caps’ fans hesitate a tad in fully getting behind the Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup, even with their opponent being so foul a team as the Penguins. After all, the Red Wings methodically swept away the Capitals’ only trip to the Finals ten years ago. Those who followed each game of the series of course know it was one of the most competitive sweeps of all time, with its three one-goal games (including that really, really almost-had-it OT Game 2 in Detroit) featuring lots of non-rolling-over by the supposedly overmatched Caps (remember sneers of “Detroit in three”?).

Still, despite this cruel dispatching, I personally never felt the animosity towards the Red Wings I did towards the other Washington playoff opponents that year. The volcanic Pat Burns was enough to grate on the nerves of any non-Bruins fan in the first round. The Sabres will always hold a sour place in my heart for the highly contentious Conference Finals. The memories: Matthew Barnaby and his water-bottle-throwing tantrums; Lindy Ruff’s non-stop whining regarding every perceived injustice heaped on his poor put-upon team by those mean Capitals and meaner officials; the constant darling-ism heaped upon Dominik Hasek by Darren Pang. Remember how crestfallen Pang sounded with his sighing “Congratulations to the Capitals” after Joe Juneau beat Pang’s deity in OT of Game 6?

I’m sure there was some (now forgotten) aspect of the Senators that caused me to dislike them in their brief five-game appearance in Round 2 as well. But, as I mentioned, it was the Red Wings that never really irritated me like the rest. It was kind of like: nothing personal, we just have to professionally do our job and win the Cup, even if this is Dale Hunter’s last real chance ever. So they weren’t that bad. Besides, it’s hard to stay mad at a city that has blessed us for so many years with the Lions.

However, for those fans still understandably holding a bit of a grudge, DCO hereby extends a full pardon to the Detroit Red Wings for their actions in the spring of 1998. We do this to enable a guilt-free supporting of Detroit as they look to vanquish the hype-encrusted blight that is the Penguins. The latest incarnation of such hype: the predictable-yet-still-offensive call for Sidney’s coronation as Conn Smythe king before a single second of the Finals has been played. It’s inevitable, of course, that he wins this award if the Pens win the Cup (perhaps even if they don’t), even if his meager goal-scoring rate continues. It’s as pre-scripted into NHL “legend” as the Manning boys winning Super Bowl MVPs was for the NFL. The making of a good “story” (in this case, the heralded “Next One” leading his team to a championship, fulfilling the prophecy) overshadows other (more) deserving candidates, even perhaps those on a winning (Detroit) team. Storyline over merit.

So here’s the storyline DCO is behind: Detroit in 4, or 5, or 6, or 7. Whatever it takes.

Positives Amid a 12-2 Loss

2008-05-22T16:50:00.000-04:00

From my post in Connecticut, I can only discern vague, Internet-aided "play-by-play" goings on at Nationals Park, and wherever else our future division-winning team plays. Last night, Yahoo! told me those goings on did not go well, with the Nats losing to the team from the city with 100 losing seasons by ten runs.

Even with the undesirable outcome of this game, let’s not give into (Philly-like) despair and, most of all, let’s not allow any random Philadelphia fan (if any have ceased filling message boards with fire-the-Flyers comments and left their homes) gloat over us and ruin recent positive developments.

Those developments, of course, revolve around the Nationals evolving dominating starting pitching rotation. Jason Bergmann: yet to give up a run since returning, more motivated than ever apparently, from the minors. John Lannan, he of the prescient DCO HOF induction last summer, has been similarly spectacular the last month (looking past that unpleasant business vs. the Pirates on May 2). Tim Redding: also finishing off a fine month (also excluding one dud of a start, his vs. Florida on May 9). Put those three together, get Shawn Hill back healthy, add in the wondrously adequate Odalis Perez, and you’ve got a fine starting rotation, one destined to not turn over a hundred times like last season, and one to hold the fort until the eventual busting out of the batting order.

That batting order did have some, um, issues last night knocking in runs (23 lonely baserunners left stranded), but simply getting hits isn’t the issue anymore. Lastings Milledge: another two-hit game! Jesus Flores: 3-for-4 and making the case that a full year playing in the majors is more beneficial to his development than a full year playing in Harrisonburg. Elijah Dukes: the former Most Dangerous One-Hit Player in the majors is now the Most Dangerous Two-Hit Player in the majors. Ryan Zimmerman: sniffing .260, to go up from there.

So step 1, hitting and reaching base, is complete. Getting those runners home will surely soon follow. Let us, then, focus on these positive developments, and not wallow in what could otherwise be a soul-and-city-crushing loss.

Celebrating 25 Years of Futility

2008-05-19T13:23:00.000-04:00

Ah, tis the season of the post-playoff-failure sojourn of the Philadelphia sports fan. No longer are they the "intimidating" lout of boorish battery-throwers, so passionate about their teams that they boo them at the drop of a 2-0 lead. No, now they are the poor, suffering, championship-less city of dreary almosts. Now, after they have lost again, the country should feel sorry for those denizens who pollute their stadiums with puke-colored jerseys and terribly backward pronunciations of "grass (grayeesz)" and "water (wooder)." They should accept the annoying banter that is a "Phaithful" discussing the "iggles" and their guaranteed championship-winning ability despite never having the ability to come closer than just close. That guy with the lame face-paint and the shoulder pads who feels the need to travel down 95 so he can chant spellings of the Eagles in Landover just needs a hug from someone who has actually celebrated a championship win in the past 25 years, right?

Well, we here at the DC Optimist want to remind you that feeling sorry for the Philadelphia sports fan is NEVER proper. No, during these wondrous times when the "remember how close we were"s and the "We were the best team in the regular season"s and the "we were robbed by the refs/commissioner/god, etc"s start to flow out in that ragged accent, it is time to administer the proper amount of cajolement. The unruly nature of the Philadelphia sports fanbase is nothing more than the reflection of an insecurity that lying in between two superior metropolises bears. Thus the fervent backing of second-rate sports teams occurs complete with the sanctimonious boos that only the most abusive daddy could lavish upon their son or daughter's minor failures. Those that aren't 100% behind this insufferable gamut of "aeeeyyezholes" bear the verbal brunt of abuse typically leveled during Klan rallies. Propose a trade from this unglorious town, become public enemy number one (see Rolen; Scott, Lindros, Eric) earning lush hatred while representing the fanbase's best interests. It soon becomes no wonder that the stars that leave the brotherly lovers often have such great things to say about their new home.

These same "Phanatics" who pelt J.D. Drew with batteries upon his playing for another team just can't stand the fact that some pissy caps fans chucked bottles at their players, after they were booing said player this night before. And as is often the refrain regarding the bandwagon nature of the DC fan heard from the "Phaithful" regarding how no one was watching the caps before they started winning, please hip me to the Phillies' attendance figures during those last-place days at the vet. I can remember not a more cavernous ark of desolate blue nothingness. In that space, no one can hear you boo.

Much was made of Mike Wise's column and the subsequent printing and passing out of said column before the first-round playoff series between the Caps and the Flyers and how it marked how wonderfully belligerent the "Phaithful" are and how great that is. Now, we are treated with the pathetic prose of the teary typers from the Philadelphia Inquirer who are bemoaning yet another year of ineptitude. A typical piece comes courtesy of Peter Mucha, whose "Loserville: 25 years, 0 championships" has an epic title to go along with the typical recounts of failures therein. A nice little addition to Mucha's piece is the interactive "Loserville: 25 years of futility" map that allows the user to visually recount other cities with major league teams and their ability to not lose championships. Be sure to drag your mouse over the Washington, DC dot, where the last two Redskins titles are proudly displayed. Also, be sure to drag your mouse over other the only more terrible sports town of Cleveland, and note their continued lack of championship, which stretches even further than Philadelphia's, which was aided by those homebodies in Boston, who turned the crybaby into the dead baby last night.

Another philly.com scribe, Rich Hoffman, has his take on the titleless-ness too, recounting what is now 100 consecutive combined season of all four franchises minus cup/ring/trophy. Take the time to breathe in these pleasure-inducing paeans to patheticism, visualizing a glorious morning in Bucks County where audible booing can be heard amongst the breakfast-and-paper partakers. Methinks that a hard copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer would make good exagerratedly read material for this week's Nats vs. Philllies series. In a Terrapin-game-esque manner, be sure to ruffle the pages of Mucha and Hoffman's pieces into the faces of the "Phaithful," maybe even reciting some of the more pleasure-inducing lines like, "We're No. 1 - at falling short!"

Return of the Meaty Legend

2008-05-16T16:14:00.000-04:00

It’s been nearly a year since His MeatHook-ness began his occasional-batting-title-chasing romp to Comeback Player of the Year honors, doing it in a fashion that brought well-deserved and accurate accolades from DCO. With Dmitri Young now set to return against the Orioles, the stage is set for defense of that Comeback award. And yes, we will call for Dmitri to be the first back-to-back winner of this award if he performs at the same high level. After all, it will be another comeback, right? It’s his award to lose.

Dmitri’s comeback is sure to be as successful as Jason Bergmann’s slightly unexpected return yesterday. After all, didn’t GM Bowden practically tell Bergmann he wasn’t coming back after that >10.00 ERA he posted early this season? Seems Bowden’s faith in Bergmann is as unflappable as Manny’s faith in Luis Ayala (what’s that Manny said? “I’m never going to give up on him.” Some might call it blind, stubborn, ill-conceived management. We call it ‘tism in action, and it is why ChairManny is so lauded in these pages). Both are currently being handsomely rewarded. Bergmann shut down the Mets while his teammates took 6+ innings to warm up and get their batting/baserunning down, and Ayala, for the second game in a row, earned a hold.

Given the constantly right decision-making going on since the seemingly traditional slow start to the season, it’s hard to see Dmitri hitting anything less than .325 from here on out. And even if he struggles, hitting, say .300, there is capable backup and derided-but-now-brilliant offseason pickup Aaron Boone, catalyst of two game-saving double plays yesterday, to pick up the slack.

Thus the Nationals leave New York after a wildly successful four game series. Looking past the loss of a starting first basemen, we saw three wins, one pitcher rattled then demoted, at least two gameday crowds loudly decrying their soon-to-be-described-as-“embattled” manager, and one non-playing closer profanely calling out his absent teammates in the losing locker room:

Consider the Mets knocked down a peg. The same must now be done to these on-the-verge-of-cockiness Orioles. Boz, you’re not helping.

Nelson Figueroa Is Who He Is

2008-05-13T11:35:00.002-04:00

“[The Nationals] were cheering in the dugout like a bunch of softball girls. I am a professional, I take great offense to that. … They won tonight, but in the long run, they’re still who they are, a last-place team.”

Poor put-upon Nelson Figueroa, who had to endure some clapping from the Nationals’ dugout last night as he gave up six runs in five innings (two unearned, thanks to some fine erroneous-baseball-slinging by himself and Carlos Delgado).

Since the Nats are who they are, let’s look at who Nelson Figueroa is: he’s a career 9-20 pitcher with a stellar 4.71 ERA. Sadly, however, he didn’t have the opportunity to contribute to the Mets’ historic choke/collapse of last September. It was a collapse, incidentally, to which these temporarily last-place Nationals were happy to contribute with a 5-1 record against the Mets in that critical division-lead-whittling-away stretch between 9/14 and 9/30. To put it more succinctly, the Nationals were denying making dreadful history while the Mets were embracing it. The Mets' choke job will live on in memory long after these minorly inconvenient Nats' rebuilding seasons are forgotten.

To be fair, Figueroa does know something about last-place teams, having toiled for the futile Pirates of 2003 and 2004, when he pitched in nicely with a 2-4 record and 4.36 ERA. The Mets themselves, of course, know have knowledge of last place teams, having been one themselves not too many years ago, with records of 66-95 in 2003 and 75-86 in 2002 (before rebounding with that 4th place 71-91 finish of 2004).

So that’s who this whiney tool is. The Nationals, as we optimistic types know, are a turnaround in progress. Perhaps a slow turnaround, but a turnaround. They are, for now, a last place team still gradually pulling themselves out of a franchised-sized hole MLB graciously dug for them during years of neglectful hive ownership and hampering. They are a team making tangible gains, as the Master, Manny Acta said towards the end of T-Boz’s sometimes-painfully punny column from yesterday: "Last year [on May 10] we were 9-25," Acta said. "Now we have 15 wins. Wait." Wait. As in, wait until our brilliantly drafted studs and Manny-molded budding stars develop into the division-threatening squad they can be. It’s not that far off, and it won’t take a prone-to-failure $100 million + roster (hi, Mets) to do it.

We also can’t help but wonder why Figueroa was so angered to hear the dulcet Elijah-Dukes-led tones of ‘tism emmenating from the Nats’ dugout (this smells like a symptom of another Manny-led life turnaround, by the way)? Is his New-York heart so embittered that he only responds to the jeers, taunts, and fair-weatherism of the louty Shea faithful? Is the slightest bit of positivity anathema to his dark and heavy soul? Whatever self-loathing and optimism-hating issues may be there, apparently this little bit of cheering and clapping brought them blazing out. That and years of ineffective pitching. He is who he is.

We Can Get Through This

2008-05-08T23:32:00.001-04:00

If you’re like me, you saw your worst NHL playoff nightmare come to fruition this past weekend with the coming of a Penguins-Flyers Eastern Conference Finals, and you’ll be downright tortured by the implications of Friday’s Game 1. One of these two reviled franchises will be playing for their opportunity to soil the Stanley Cup. It’s a conundrum. Who to root for? Better put: who to root against?

Traditionally, my ire is directed at the Penguins above all others, with the Flyers coming in a close second. A nasty little playoff series, however, can shift (dis)loyalties. Thus the question is further muddled: do I now hate the Flyers more given a contentious Conference Quarterfinals round that included a goalie-interferring Game 7 goal followed by a disputed-power-play Game 7 OT goal? Does such a thing override my years-long hate affair with the Penguins and cause me to hope they knock out the deserving-of-a-knockout Flyers? Or do I dare hope (even indirectly) that the Penguins go down and Lord of the Spear Danny Briere gets the chance to put his elfin cheap-shotting hands on the Cup?

It might appear a no-win situation. On the one hand we would have to hear from louty Philly fans for likely decades should they even make it to the Finals, and the team that brought their booing, coach-firing-calling fans a ten-game losing streak in the regular season would be waved in our faces as evidence of Philadelphia’s superiority in everything. On the other, possibly larger, hand, we have the prospect of goal-less-in-Round-2 Sidney Crosby and his slew-legging sidekick Evgeni Malkin playing for Stanley.

Here is where the daunting rooting situation receives a cold dose of clarifying. The Penguins must not be allowed to advance. The gaggingly awful vision of Briere being within spitting distance of the Cup pales with the downright daunting spectre of darlings Crosby, Malkin, et al being similarly so. You think Sid apologists are spinning crazily now in telling us how his zero goals in Round 2 and two playoff goals overall (one in an empty net) are practically heroic? Wait until he “leads” the Penguins into the Finals with a few more of his secondary assists specialties (throwing the puck blindly into the crease, often backhanded to further show his superior “vision”). The only thing worse could be rising darling Malkin scoring a few more points and avoiding a few more suspensions, a la conference semi-final disappointment LeBron James, thereby catapulting himself into ill-begotten Gretzky comparisons.

The coming days will be trying, as we see one of these wretched teams and fanbases celebrate a conference title and a trip to the Finals. The days following that will be all the more difficult, as one will be but four victories away from the Cup. In those days the Stars or Red Wings will never have been more precious to me. It will not be easy, seeing all of this. But the day will come when Gary Bettman beckons Chris Clark to get the Stanley Cup, which he will raise before 18,200+ at Verizon Center before handing it off to alternate captains (and co-Conn-Smythe winners) Alexander Ovechkin and Donald Brashear. On that day, the painful realization of a Pennsylvania team playing for the Cup will be but an awful-but-distant memory (like that whole Detroit sweep of the Flyers in 199-whatever; see, I’ve forgotten it).

Already in this not-necessarily-bleak offseason we’re seeing signs of hope, whether it be the stated openness of Cristobal Huet, he of the gaudy playoff-sealing goaltending stats, to remain with the Capitals, or the team’s wise desire to retain the services of sage-like Sergei Fedorov. Not a bad starting goaltender and third-line center to lead a Cup-lifting team. And finally, our long national Jaromir Jagr nightmare will be over, freeing up badly needed Ted Leonsis bucks to further cultivate this contender-in-waiting. Speaking of Jagr, possibly my favorite quote from him, ever (in a positively bafflingly way), when he was talking about his past and his future following the Rangers’ ousting from the playoffs: "Everybody doubted me when I was playing in Washington for whatever reason." Jaromir, Jaromir, Jaromir, where would we begin? We appreciate you yelling at Crosby to “get up” after one of his patented dives, but you’re still deluded.

So yes, these Eastern Conference Finals will suck. But we’ve been through worse. We’ve seen multiple Cowboys’ Super Bowl victories (and the Giants last year). We’ve seen the Eagles come close to getting one of their own (before faltering and keeping intact their 0-for-forever streak). We’ve endured the Rangers and Devils hoisting their own Cups. I suffered very closely first-hand through three Yankees’ championships in four years while at college in New York. So yes, its bad, but we can get through this.

Successful Redskins Season Quickly Approaching...

2008-05-07T10:30:00.000-04:00

How about that draft?! How about those minicamps!? How about this Zorn guy!?
Man, the Redskins' (100%-attended) offseason workouts haven't been this tism-riffic since the days of Gibbs 1, or Spurrier 1, or something. This new coach-guy Jim Zorn has the Black and Maroon-clad nation buzzing audibly as if they ingested two vente lates laced with crack based on his whimsical Madden 2008-inspired practice techniques, allowances of fun-havings, and coy nature with Kelli Johnson-types with microphones. Zorn's ball-rolling, footrace-(and subsequent OMG a possible injury!)-ignoring, and oversleeping-rookie coddling early dispatches have the DCO contingent positively brimming with the sort of good thoughts that rarely occur post-Snyder hiring sessions. What a strange time period it has been previous to these bright, sunny, Shermy moments:

- The god Joe Gibbs hangs 'em up after a season where the emotional tolls far outweighed the improbable and ultimately insignificant on-field gains, bewildering the many who thought the genial mastermind would at least give the team one more shot at glory before handing things over to his assistant coach-whatevers.
- Heir Snyder holds the seemingly endless interview process where speculation, promotion, demotion and devotion all were gauged and thoroughly dissected before a head coach kind of just happened at the 11:30th hour. While the DCO contingent was head-on with the rest of the Redskins players, media-coverers, et al in their desire for Gregg Williams to get the promotion he so deserved, we speculate that a rift betwixt the excitable Williams and newly-minted head General Manager Vinny Cerrato on the subject of player personnel decisions ultimately would have proven to be more problematic that necessary. Just about everyone complained of Gibbs's dual duties as coach and GM, and pretty much all instances of this hybrid have failed miserably. Although Vin-Diesel's General Managing record is spotty with bad free agency moves, with this being his first crack at legitimately running the team, why have that rift from the get-go? The 'skins move forward-- or Zorn-ward, if you will (or won't, that was a bit of a stretch).
- J. Z. manages to bungle the decades of tradition and heap loads of tism-hating onto the braintrust in his initial pressers, causing the quick-tempered Redskin-faithful to just about lose hope.
- The Z-Man bounces back and kicks off some of the more underreported and unheralded staff formulations, taking in holdover pieces like the incomparable special teams coach Danny Smith and newly-promoted D-Coordinator Greg Blache, and combining them with newcoming brilliances in the form of Stump, Sherm, and Chris Meindt to form a great transition-ready staff of teachers, motivators and NFL-playing experience doler-outers. He begins months early with Jason Campbell, installing the umpteenth offense Campbell has to memorize, tweaking his throwing motions, and instilling the confidence that this QB-coach relationship is one that will matriculate
- Best hall of fame class ever is finally inducted.
- Jerome Mathis leads an atypical free-agent signee thrust that consisted mainly of re-upping big-time contributors Collins, Yoder, Fabini, and Rock.
- Pinings for Chad Johnson somehow went unheard, and a stable of draft picks were actually available for the first time in like ever.
- That stable is enhanced by clever trade-downs, yet laps were still landed with necessary and unnecessary ball-catchers Thomas, Davis, and Kelly, with the "need" positions of safety, corner, d-line, o-line, wherever else, filled in elsewhere.
- 'skins finally hold their lone minicamp, Zorn holds those wacky QB drills for the reporters to drool over, and minute, will-forget-about-it-in-like-two-weeks happenings like Fred Davis hitting the snooze button one too many times and Antwaan Randle-El getting his knee slurped, occur.

Heady times indeed, times that have been punctuated lovingly by the newest member of the 'sphere of speed, lewdness, and brilliance, Chris Cooley, whose blog rules to the innumerable power, so much so that professional sporting blogs have taken his postings on as an inside-the-totally-cool-player-with-the-cheerleader-fiance, the-heavy-metal-shorts, and the-pro-bowl credentials look at the NFL. Great move, as was Cooley answering our question during his week-long draft Q&A. Interviewer of the stars Bobtimist asked Captain Chaos, he whose jersey and T-shirt has been adorned in these parts since like before he was a superstar:

8. What is the weirdest thing you have read about yourself in draft
profiles?
The funniest thing I think about the draft profiles is how much people
actually make stuff up. When I was a rookie people said that I would be a good
blocker and possession type receiver. That my downfall is I could never stretch
the field. My current profile says that I'm a bad blocker, but I can catch the
ball down field. No one knows what type of player someone can really become.

Sweet response, and sweet blog. Like we previously mentioned, Gilbert Arenas revolutionized professional sports on the 'net with his blog. Never before had intimate access been given with the frank and friendly nature, complete with slightly controversial, fan-, sports-writer-, etc-baiting comments, all to help burgeon a personality-based superstardom. Unlike the beige-colored comments that emanate from all non-Clinton-Portis press conferences, these blogs both convey the superstar's thoughts in a frank, fun way, but also reveal the inner-workings of the professional athlete's lifestyle that no fawning profile nor MTV Cribs could ever convey. Cooley's foray has been doubly fastidious as Gilberts, already sharing locker-room horseplay legends, musings of comely wife and singer wresting matches, and reviews of draft coverage in addition to pertinent analysis of NFL workings. The first to scoff at Cooley's remarks were PTI's yappers, who, again found some way to belittle a voice-producing player. Attention stalwarts, these blogs are doubly more important than anything produced by your reams of paper.

While that may be 'nuff said about the navel-gazers, far more could be said about the upcoming successful skins season. Zorn's West Coast Offense, reprised with an easy-learning edition punctuated with Sherm's input, ought to work well for the skins, especially with the new pass catchers on board. The weapons, if (huuuuge if) healthy, can work this system like Nick Johnson works a count, and if proper utilizations occur, huge numbers could be put up. Keeping this as the only minicamp will be much more advantageous for that crucial health factor than the minor adaptation factor. The defense will "largely be the same" as has been re-iterated by Blache, meaning a top-ten style of stoutness is to be expected. The schedule will be laborious, with the (ugh, hating to admit it) champions on the road, and in the decrepit armpit of Philadelphia early, but the DCO sees early typical "DC Hole (explanation forthcoming)" trials as trivial, and will be easily overcome. Zorn and company have already proven that they are a brew that has been strange in its inception, yet likely delightful once ingested, kind of like pruno. Here's to the prison that is life being made more enjoyable through this concoction.

Best Songaila Suspension Outrage Comment

2008-05-02T16:52:00.000-04:00

Everyone knows that the place to get the pulse of the Wizards fanbase, in addition to the lame taunts of trolling Clevelanders, is the oft-bizarre, un-modded comments section of the Washington Post's Wizards Insider blog! While they already pay someone to find the super-sweet comments, we found one particular quip that was so brilliant we thought that more props ought to be distributed.

Instead of posting rightful outrage against the conspiracy-driving Lebron Official-nados ourselves, we thought we would instead let the anonymous commenter speak for us all (in his/her best Buckhantz voice):

"IT'S NOT POSSIBLE!!!"

Great job there, guy/girl. RE: Lame Cleveland trolls posting the same lame DeShawn Stevenson statutory rape joke like 12 times in a row, it still isn't funny.

These others however, funny:

"I can't feel my jaw!!!" - DC Man88

"The NBA. Where fixing the playoffs happens." - Ben

"Wanna know the definition of irony?
Cavs fans coming on Wizards site to say we are crybabies.
Calling US crybabies? You need to wake up and smell the crap. Have you seen what your poster boy has been doing all series long?" - Brickjp

etc. etc. etc. for like ever.

Other blogs are gathering the responses, including a rather neutered one from DCO bff Jake the Snake from Bullets Forever. C'Mon Jake, if the NBA governing bodies can't express professionalism, why should you. (still love you though)

Knotts Landing On the Anointed One

2008-05-02T10:54:00.001-04:00

While Pro'Verb's hot fiyah spittings have been both awe-inspiring ("Incredibly hot" -- says DeShawn) and timely, the real ether brought to this series was from frequently poetic newspaper scribe Tom Knott. Who better to unleash the furies upon the anointed one and his team of striped cronies than the Moonie-fed slam poet, who can be a bit onery, especially when his nemesis Etan Thomas, ne "the Poet" in Knott-speak, or those pesky Gilbert Arenas attention ploys are involved, but that's what happens when you got an MC that's fed up with the BS and must speak on it. Wednesday's column "Sweet Crybaby James" just about obliterates Mike Wise's previous efforts (although this Tough Juice appreciation piece and this "Win it for Abe!" piece may have drawn two or three tears over here). T-Knott throws those viscious one-sentence dart-'graphs in such a venomous free-prosed manner complete with those Knott-isms you love—the nicknames, the political-incorrectness, every sentence beginning with a preposition likely throwing grammar Nazis into the throws of a fit that no serial comma could ever induce—providing the freestyle cypha that the media's coverage has delved into with its most fortuitous effort. Peep game:

"DeShawn Stevenson knocked off the headband of James in Game 4, and you
could have thought Stevenson was guilty of assault and battery.

Such embellishing is customary in Cleveland, where even the elementary
comes cloaked in superlatives if James is behind it.

His pass to Delonte West in the final seconds of Game 4 — the object of
so much gushing — was hardly awe-inspiring. It was a play that as many as
three-quarters of the players in the NBA could have made. It merely required
James to spot the second defender drifting toward him and dump the ball to the
open teammate on the baseline.

It did not send chills down the back of anyone, excluding the LeBrohava
Witnesses of Cleveland, so psychologically crippled by the John Elway Drive, the
Earnest Byner Fumble and the Jordan Shot over Craig Ehlo that it indulges anyone
it believes could end the championship curse."

DAYUMN SON! The sheriff of Knottingham lands blow after blow upon the headbanded one's coddled dome, and this was all done BEFORE the triumphant triumphs of game five! Could this column have had a reverse Mike Wise effect in Cleveland, where copies were given to the urine-colored shirt clad DeShawn booers and Bog commenters in attendance in order to congratulate them for being "intimidating"? Of course that might require them having reading comprehension skills, most of which they, and their column-writing representers seem to lack.

How about a Pro'Verb-Sin-Knott-tra collabo? It has got Black Republicans trumped, trust.

UPDATE: Knott's column this morning = genius.

Exclusive Look at DeShawn Stevenson's iTunes Selections

2008-05-01T11:15:00.000-04:00

Through some seriously investigative means, the DCO was able to find DeShawn Stevenson's personal computer and instead of checking for and posting incriminating stuff like most blogs do according to Buzz Bissinger, we decided instead to post his iTunes playlist. Interesting choice of songs here, not necessarily because of that whole rap-troversy that follows this series, with the diss song, and the subsequent response song, etc, but because of the lyrical content of this, which is apparently, the only song in DeShawn's playlist:

Say hello
To the bad guy
Hello
They say i'm a bad guy
I come from the bottom
But now i'm mad fly
Hello
They say i'm a menace
That's the picture they paint
Hello
They say a lot about me Let me yell ya what i ain't
Hello
They say i'm a bad guy
Say Hi to the bad guy
Hello
I come from the bottom But now i'm mad fly
They say i'm a menace That's the picture they paint
They say a lot about me Let me tell ya what i ain't
Say hello
Hello
Ay, ay,
They say a lot about me
Let me tell you what i ain't

Pertinent lyrics, no?

Tough Juice Nutritional Information

2008-05-01T10:31:00.000-04:00

Intricate Detailed Game 5 Post

2008-05-01T10:23:00.001-04:00

Optimistic Observations From Up North

2008-04-30T10:37:00.001-04:00

I’m back to posting after a little more than a week in my new location, experiencing, at the moment, only mild withdrawal from my beloved DC sports, thanks to some fortuitously timed television broadcasts.

Our cable was hooked up just in time to see all of Game 7 between the Caps and Flyers. While the result of that game and series was undeniably undesirable (Tom Poti for tripping in overtime? Really?), it’s hard to see the Caps now-ended season as anything more than an unqualified success and another step on the road to a decade’s worth of Cup contention. The stated goal was to make the playoffs. Playoffs made. Next year: advance. Given the way Jack-Adams-winner-in-waiting Bruce II and the lads played since November, it’s hard to see anything but serious advancement happening next year.

There was also some disappointment. Mike Wise, so close to DCO Hall of Fame induction with so many recent non-Jason-La-Canfora-like columns, backslid in a serious way during the last week. Disturbing evidence surfaced in his mostly positive eulogy of the Caps’ season. The insidious shades of long-dormant optimism hating came to the surface in Wise’s decidedly unwise quoting of a deluded Flyers’ fan who somehow thought his team forged the Capitals into mature hockey players with their unwielding manliness:

Bottom line about the series comes from an astute Flyers fan, who said: "When your team plays like a hockey team and not a bunch of figure skaters with padding, you win. Our fans and team didn't beat the Caps up. We made them men. You're welcome."
Down the road, the Caps will thank you, Philadelphia, from the bottom of their Game 7 hearts.

Bad enough is the quoting of this nitwit. Worse is the lending of credence to the baldly faulty logic by referring to the fan as “astute”. Still worse is thanking the fan for this logic, while failing to ask if this pillar of astute fandom helped to boo his team off the ice after Game 6. And let’s examine the logic. First, the wildly clichéd “figure skater” derision, applied in an appropriately clichéd fashion to the Capitals, simply because they possess a modicum of true hockey skill and don’t base their game purely on goalie-running. Oh, and Alex Ovechkin is nothing like a figure skater, if that’s what this idiot was getting at. Second, I would argue that a few months of must-win hockey, culminating in a season-closing, division-clinching 11-1 run, made this team “men” much more than a bunch louts and their badly conceived playoff slogan.

With the Caps gone, Wise went back to his true favorite pastime: Wizards bashing, as Bobtimist Prime ably documented. So we’ve had to cancel the DCO HOF bust-carving. We’re sure Wise is crushed.

Speaking of DCO HOF members, this past week has seen John Lannan extend his scoreless inning streak to 14 innings, a solid 23.7% of the way to Orel Hershiser’s record of 59 innings.

Thursday the 24th brought me a nice treat, being able to concurrently watch the Nats’ 10-5 dismantling of the Mets and the Wizards’ 108-72 emphatic dumping of the Cavs on blessed regional and national cable. For a few precious hours, Westport, CT, felt a lot like Alexandria, VA. It was fleeting, of course, as the end of the Capitals’ season sunk in and the Nationals moved off to non-New-York climbs, but it was a nice transitional day.

It was also a start of a nice little run by the Nats, who’ve won four out of five since then. Busting out of that early season slump? Yes. Just like Ryan Zimmerman, he of the 3-for-4, 3 RBI performance last night, is emerging from his own early season nadir.

I’d be totally remiss in not mentioning another A+ draft effort from the Redskins. A trio of optimism-spouting second-round picks, ready to make all sorts of pass-catching, field-stretching contributions: that’s the stuff. So positive-sounding was this article that I thought for a moment, “what’s with La Canfora and all the positivity?” Foolish me should have realized such ‘tism was impossible from such a purveyor of negativity, and that the more forward-thinking Jason Reid penned this lovely draftee introduction.

So, not the worst week, even with the Caps temporarily feeling the sting of first-round elimination and the Wizards being pushed to the proverbial brink. Just as it’s doubtless the Caps will be back, it’s doubtless the Wizards will yet make this a long and competitive series, the faulty predictions of an allegedly infallible golden boy notwithstanding. I hope to be able to post a little more now, with the move settling down, and look forward to following from afar the Wizards’ comeback and another Nationals season turnaround. With any luck I’ll even be able to pop into DC for a game or two this summer.

Things We Have Witnessed

2008-04-29T09:38:00.001-04:00

- Cowardice on display with the anointed one crying to the officials, Jay-Z, David Stern, et al. regarding the false injurous reputation of the Wizards, not only during a heinously overwrought skinned elbow incident, but also during a press conference yesterday. Whatever falsely upheld legacy that Lebron weilds upon his leaving of the Cavs and joining of the Brooklyn whoevers before he retires ought to be stained by his behavior during this series.

- More cowardice on display as the anointed one pretended to want to drop the gloves against Deshawn after a namby-pamby flagrant-one to which he added in his legendarily lame presser yesterday that "if it were on the playground something would have happened." Yeah, it wouldn't have been a foul.

- The only Cavs fans in existence sitting behind me during game four making lamely racist quips about Deshawn Stevenson being "high" despite no official reports deeming such a thing as ever happening. The quips about Caron being a former drug dealer were also tasteless, but such trivial racism is the only thing to grasp when you have no championships, ever, to grasp.

- Lebron providing more locker room post-its for the Wiz to generate positive, competivitive-fire-igniting reaction in the form of winning the next three.

- Possibly the lamest diss song since "What's Clef Got to Do With It" being performed by the supposed greatest rapper alive. A pathetic attempt to stay interesting by grampa Jigga, trying hard to help poor baby Lebron stave humiliation at the constantly-trumping via pop culture, Stevenson. Someone get Cam'Ron on the horn.

- Mike Wise forgoeing all the fine work done during the Caps series to awkwardly pretend to understand the rap music, then return to the fawn-fest upon anointed's passing up of the game winner.

- Seven-step drives to the hoop.

- The Verizon Center, rife with Optimilitia members, again turning the place out with fan-tastically brilliant "over-rated" chants, cheers for every Deshawn move, and lustful boos for the oft-terrible officiating. Hopefully game six will feature a Cavalier catching a wayward beer bottle too.

- The effectiveness of pretending to be injured, as it is the main thrust of Cleveland's defensive philosophy.

- A very not-100% Gilbert gutting out a series he could have street-clothesed through.

- Brendan Haywood being awesome on and off the court.

- The mainstream media and the NBA establishment's rampant desire for mute, smiley, styrofoamy talking game-slaves over interesting people who offer a glint of personality. The manner in which Cleveland's terrible clatch of column-scribes have eviscerated Stevenson for speaking the truth, oftentimes reaching for generalizations not unlike the douche-bag Cavs fans who sat behind me and chortled in ESPN hats, has truly been a sight to behold. One wonders the purpose of becoming a basketball reporter, as when a player expresses some sort of opinion that isn't 100% vanilla milquetoast, said player becomes the anti-Christ all of a sudden. Now Gilbert is an attention-whore for writing a blog that has revolutionized professional sports on the internet, and these people would rather him be a wordless chimp, chucking up jumpshots after passing three times, lest he possibly make a name for himself.

- The weeks-long phenomenon that is "Crank Dat" getting stuck into your head.

- The ineptitude of Gary Williams's recruitment strategies (hello urria ballers Beasley, Durant, Green, Hibbert, etc. all never having been invited to college park).

- The blossoming of a young, strong-willed, best-offense-shutter-downer pitcher in John Lannan
- A universally well-thought-of NFL draft, where all needs were met; despite what you may have read from meandering hate-scribe La Canfora.

- The inevitable cutting of Larry Hughes from the Bulls followed by him re-signing at the vets minimum to play for the Wiz followed by a career resurgence.