D2

S

Washington’s home stadium is inevitable. Their city is nearby. Their team is successful. Their fans evidently don’t have weekday work responsibilities. That’s cool. I get it. Still, it rankles D.C. fans. It will

always rankle D.C. fans, whether it’s Redskins fans staring at Terrible Towels, Caps fans being drowned out in their own building by random groups of Rust Belters (in the bad old days) or Nats fans surrounded on opening day. And a year after Nationals President Stan Kasten openly courted Phillies fans on Philly radio stations, there seem to remain some indications that

THE SIDELINE

M

aybe having tens of thousands of

Philadelphia fans invade

D.C. SPORTS BOG

Dan Steinberg

the powers-that-be don’t understand this rankling. Witness owner Mark Lerner’s recent interview with the blog Nats 320, in which he was asked about winning over more D.C.-area residents. After admitting the team needs to establish a stronger brand locally, Lerner said that wasn’t the whole answer.

Quick Fix

6From the blogs at washingtonpost.com/sports

CAVALIERS JOURNAL

Guard Jeff Jones becomes third player to leave program

Junior guard Jeff Jones is

transferring from Virginia, becoming the third player in as many weeks to leave Coach Tony Bennett’s program. Jones notified Bennett of his decision on Sunday. “Although I’m surprised, I’m not shocked and wish Jeff well in the future,” Bennett said in a statement. “Every player is entitled to do what he thinks is best for his future. Jeff obviously believes that is not U-Va., and if a player feels that way it will not benefit him or the team.” Jones, who averaged 7.3 points and 1.3 rebounds a game, would have been one of the Cavaliers’ top returning players.

Virginia could now have as

many as eight new players next season.

— Zach Berman

SOCCER INSIDER

Is 2007 league MVP Luciano Emilio returning to MLS?

I asked Curt Onalfo about 2007 league MVP Luciano Emilio, whose MLS rights were retained by United after failed negotiations this winter. Emilio, who was at D.C.’s match Saturday, has been playing for Rio Branco in Brazil but wants to join an MLS club before the April 15 international window closes. United would receive compensation.

Onalfo paused for 10 seconds, checked his watch and said: “He is currently signed with another team. That’s all I can say.” Something is up. Is a deal imminent? If so, Emilio would have to reach a contract deal with the league — he would no longer earn close to the designated player salary he received last year — and United would have to make a trade.

— Steven Goff

POLL QUESTION

When will Donovan McNabb lead Redskins to the playoffs?

2012

2010

42%

2011

32%

or beyond

8%

Never

16%

3,210 votes as of 10:35 p.m.

KLMNO

WASHINGTONPOST.COM/SPORTS

First Things First: Join columnist Tracee Hamilton weekday mornings at 9:30 to discuss the hottest topics from the world of sports.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 2010

WASHINGTON POST LIVE WITH IVAN CARTER

5 p.m. on Comcast SportsNet

Redskins’ Lorenzo Alexander and live guests from the Masters join The Post’s Jason Reid and Rick Maese.

At the ol’ ballgame, Nationals fans fight to root for the home team

“I also would tell you that we intend to broaden our audience beyond the 5.5 million [local residents],” he said. “There is no other sports franchise in America that can claim to represent the national pastime in the nation’s capital. . . . We see the Nationals becoming America’s Home Team. Our city belongs to all Americans, and we believe our team does, too. We are one Metro stop from the U.S. Capitol, and absolutely the finest sports venue to see the Capitol lights at night.” Aside from some questionable

Metro geography, as generic boilerplate rhetoric, independent from actual events, that’s a fine enough goal. In light of the past two games at Nationals Park

(including Saturday’s exhibition loss to the Red Sox), though, it reads like an open invitation to the world to come rape and pillage Half Street, or at least to fill D.C.’s stadium with the wrong chants.

Bud Selig did D.C. even dirtier.

Asked about the Philly invasion on Monday, the commissioner offered this: “I think it’s great, great for the

sport, I really do,” Selig said. “It’s only a testament to this game’s popularity.” “Great” isn’t a very diplomatic response. Who was Monday’s crowd great for? For the sport? I guess it looked nice on TV. For whomever makes money off the concessions? Undoubtedly. For actual Nationals fans? Well,

judging by the blogs, it would appear not. Nationals Enquirer: “Opening

Day 2010 goes in the books as one of the low points in the brief history of the Washington Nationals.” Nats Triple Play: “I’ve seen a lot of embarrassing things on and off the field over six years of Nats fandom, but I was never embarrassed to be a fan of this franchise until [Monday].” Nationals Inquisition: “I just

don’t feel respected as a Nats fan. I just don’t. . . . Would this kind of stuff ever happen in Boston or New York” Maybe we’re oversensitive.

Maybe it’s the same urge that had me sprinting to my keyboard Tuesday, after Donovan McNabb

said he looks forward to learning more about the “D.C./Virginia/Baltimore” area. Baltimore, turns out, has its own football team. So does America; it’s a team that wins in November and loses in January. And so does Philadelphia. Washington sports fans don’t want their stadiums overflowing with the sort of folks who take turns stomping on McNabb jerseys in the center field plaza, or who bring actual mummers bands with them, or who chant during warm-ups that the Nats’ training staff “sucks.” They don’t want to root for a team that belongs to all Americans. They want to root for a team that belongs to them.

steinbergd@washpost.com

Chat Rewind Michael Wilbon

Full transcript at washingtonpost.com/sports

ED ANDRIESKI/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Quarterback John Elway and Coach Mike Shanahan teamed up to win back-to-back Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos.

Question

Do you think the Shanahan/McNabb duo could work the same magic with the Redskins as Shanahan/Elway did with the Broncos?

TELEVISION AND RADIO

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

7 p.m. 7 p.m.

7 p.m. 8 p.m.

Philadelphia at Washington » MASN, WFED (820 AM, 1500 AM)

Baltimore at Tampa Bay » MASN2, WWXT (92.7 FM), WWXX (94.3 FM), WJZ (105.7 FM), WXTR (730 AM), WTEM (980 AM)

New York Yankees at Boston » ESPN2 Cleveland at Chicago White Sox » WGN

PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL

7 p.m.

8 p.m.

GOLF

3 p.m.

I am too young to have seen Elway play and I just pulled up his stats after reading what you just wrote about him. His career completion percentage is only 56.9 and he has worse than a 3:2 TD:INT ratio. Please don’t blast me, but what was so great about him?

What is it like for Tiger in the locker room? I believe he is among friends but some of them must be having a good laugh at his expense.

Washington at Orlando » Comcast SportsNet, WJFK (106.7), WVIE (1370 AM)

Utah at Houston » ESPN 10:30 p.m. San Antonio at Phoenix » ESPN

Were you aware of Tiger’s affairs before the news broke?

Masters par-3 contest » ESPN

DIGEST

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Donahue leaves Cornell for Boston College

Steve Donahue, who led Cor- nell to three straight Ivy League ti- tles and to the round of 16 in this year’s NCAA tournament, was hired Tuesday as Boston College’s coach.

Donahue guided the Big Red to

a 29-5 record this season — the most wins in Ivy history — and victories over favored Temple and Wisconsin in the NCAA tourna- ment. The first Ivy team to reach the round of 16 in more than 30 years, Cornell lost to No. 1-seeded Kentucky, 62-45, in the regional semifinals.

Donahue replaces Al Skinner, who was fired after 13 years in which he became the winningest coach in BC history and took the Eagles to seven NCAA tourna- ments in nine years. . . . DePaul hired Clemson’s Oliver

Purnell as its coach, hoping he can revive a once-proud program

that has struggled in recent years. He replaces Tracy Webster, who took over on an interim basis after Jerry Wainwright was fired in midseason. Purnell has a 394-279 record in 22 seasons as a head coach, in- cluding 138-88 mark in seven sea- sons with Clemson while leading the Tigers to the NCAA tourna- ment the past three years. . . . A person familiar with the deci- sion said Citadel Coach Ed Conroy has agreed to fill the vacant coach- ing position at Tulane. . . . Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim was se-

lected as the Naismith college coach of the year by the Atlanta Tipoff Club.

SOCCER

Lionel Messi scored four goals,

getting a hat trick in a 22-minute span of the first half, to carry de- fending champion Barcelona over

MISC.

San Antonio Spurs guard Tony

Parker was cleared to play after missing the past month with a

Arsenal, 4-1, and into the Euro- pean Champions League semifi- nals.

Barcelona won the home-and- home, total-goals series on 6-3 ag- gregate and will play Inter Milan in the semifinals starting April 20 in Italy, with the second leg in Spain eight days later for a berth in the final on May 22 in Madrid. Earlier Tuesday, Inter beat CSKA Moscow, 1-0, on Wesley Sneijder’s sixth-minute goal to advance to the semifinals for the first time in seven years. . . . Brian Ching of MLS’s Houston

Dynamo is expected to be out four to six weeks with a strained left hamstring, an injury that could prevent the forward from return- ing to the field before the U.S. World Cup team gathers in mid- May.

broken hand. Parker has not played since breaking his shoot- ing hand March 6 in a win at Memphis. Meantime, backup point guard George Hill (sprained ankle) will miss at least two games. . . . The Houston Texans agreed to a deal with place kicker Neil Rack- ers, formerly of the Arizona Car- dinals. . . . The president of the University

of Oregon characterized the $2.3 million golden parachute for out- going athletic director Mike Bel- lotti as a buyout. Richard Lari- viere stopped short of saying Bel- lotti was fired. Bellotti was football coach of the Ducks for 14 seasons. He abruptly announced on March 19 that he was stepping down as ath- letic director after nine months on the job to become an ESPN ana- lyst. Questions have been raised about Bellotti’s compensation from the public university.

— From news services

Wise, Harlan receive top awards; four others honored

Washington Post staff writ-

ers Mike Wise and Chico Har- lan received first-place awards from the Associated Press Sports Editors for their work in 2009. Four other members of the Post Sports staff re- ceived honors in the judging, which takes place each year to recognize exemplary work in sports journalism. Wise received first place in

the feature writing category for newspapers with a circula- tion of 250,000 or higher for his portrait of Donald Brash- ear of the Washington Cap- itals; Harlan took first place in the game story category for his story on the Washington Nationals final game of the 2009 season. In other awards, Eric Pris- bell and Steve Yanda finished second in the project report- ing category for their three-

part series on the Maryland men’s basketball program; Liz Clarke won fourth place in the game story category for her story on Rachel Alexandra’s victory in the Preakness; and Sally Jenkins finished fifth in the feature writing category for her profile of ex-Washing- ton Redskins great John Rig- gins. Jenkins also received hon-

orable mention for her col- umns in 2009. In awards announced earli- er by the APSE, the Post Sports section was named one of the top-10 daily sports sections in the country for the 250,000 and above circulation catego- ry and received a top-10 finish in the special section contest for its section previewing the 2009 NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

— From staff reports

Answer

Nobody likes Donovan more than I do, but John Elway (for my money) is the Greatest QB in the History of the NFL. Of all time. Forever and ever. So, I don’t have those expectations. Elway was in three Super Bowls before Shanahan showed up in Denver.

See, this is what’s wrong not only with sports, but with a younger generation of fan who’s been brainwashed by numbers gurus . . . and the kids aren’t savvy enough to see beyond the changes in the game. What’s so great about John Elway: He led his teams to five Super Bowls. Tell me how many Super Bowls Peyton Manning has led his team to. I believe the answer is two. Is five more than two? . . . Sorry, I’m blasting you. I tried not to. But you need to be blasted because you, like too many people in the current generation of people who follow sports (under 45) don’t get what’s important about sports: winning.

Not when their pockets are lined with gold when he plays. It’s called biting the hand that feeds you. Do you do that? Those players love Tiger Woods and should. Their lives are enriched, literally, by his presence. Are they busting his chops a little? I’m sure his good friends might just a little bit. But some hearty laugh at his expense? Doubt it seriously. Do they laugh at the homes they have, the tuition money for their kids and the vacations for the wives? Sure, you do that all the time, I’m sure.

You clearly need to make yourself aware of my position on what is my business and what isn’t . . . and for that matter what is yours and what isn’t. I’m aware of a lot of affairs a whole lot of people have. And so what? Why would Tiger’s affairs, if I knew, be of more consequence than anybody else’s affairs? Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60