TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2010 HOCKEY
Capitals Insider 6Blogging at
washingtonpost.com/capitalsinsider King provides
a fighting chance It might be the dog days of summer for those of us eagerly awaiting the start of NHL training camp, but we’re still going to try to keep things fresh here on the Capitals Insider. I had a chance to catch up with D.J. King, who visited Kettler Capitals Iceplex for the first time Monday to meet with General Manager George McPhee and members of the team’s training staff. The rugged right wing is excited to get to know his new teammates and also for a new season, one that hopefully won’t include any more injuries. Over the past two seasons
King, the Capitals’ first bona fide heavyweight since Donald Brashear left via free agency during the summer of 2009, was limited to 13 games — first because of a dislocated shoulder during the 2008-09 season and then a broken right hand in 2009-10. They were fluke injuries that challenged him to regain confidence in his own durability. After trading Stefan Della Rovere to St. Louis for King,
KLMNO BASEBALL Orioles end rookie mistakes
McPhee emphasized that the Capitals believe King, who fought five times in his 12 games last season and had 14 fights in 2007-08 (his most recent full season), can be more than the designated tough guy and fighter. King agrees. “There’s so many ways to bring
a physical presence to the game,” King said.
King wouldn’t say if he was looking forward to circling any potential sparring partners on the schedule, but if some of the moves in the Eastern Conference this offseason are any indication —i.e. Jody Shelly to Philadelphia, Derek Boogaard to New York — there’s a good chance he won’t lack willing opponents. Among players who fill the
fighter/enforcer role, you’ll find a smattering of personalities and varying stories for how they discovered and built a reputation as a tough guy, so I asked King. “I never really fought at all early on, I just played the game hard as a kid,” King said. “My first real fight was a bench clearing brawl and I was just fighting for my life.”
—Katie Carrera TENNIS
New manager Showalter has experience with the Yankees, Diamondbacks and Rangers by Dave Sheinin
baltimore — On its surface, the scene was no different from any of the others in the past: An- other new Baltimore Orioles manager — that would be the 10th of the Peter Angelos Era, if you’re counting — seated beside his new boss, with his gleaming new Orioles uniform thrown over his dress shirt and tie, the proud wife and kids seated off to the side, the Oriole Park at Cam- den Yards field gleaming in the sunshine out the window below. But something about Mon-
day’s introduction of Buck Sho- walter on the sixth floor of the B&O Warehouse felt different. Maybe it was the serious, al- most scowl-like expression on Showalter’s face as General Manager Andy MacPhail intro- duced him. Maybe it was the pal- pable nervousness emanating from the Orioles employees (in- cluding center fielder Adam Jones) who gathered, per tradi- tion, at the back of the room to watch the news conference. It felt different because, well, Showalter is different. At a basic level, he is signifi- cantly distinct from any of his four immediate predecessors — Juan Samuel, Dave Trembley, Sam Perlozzo and Lee Mazzilli, in reverse chronological order — in that he has previous big league managing experience. Showalter, though most recently an ESPN analyst, has previously managed the New York Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers. Clearly, the Ori- oles have had enough of mana- gerial rookies. “We have a core of young play- ers who are struggling and who have taken a step backwards,” said MacPhail, chief architect of
RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST
“Obviously, I’m aware that my career is finite,” said James Blake, 30, who lost, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, to qualifier Ryan Sweeting.
Roddick pleased with how he is hitting the ball
legg mason from D1
Blake seemed to lose his way, while the 23-year-old Sweeting hit with more abandon. “James is a very aggressive
player,” said Sweeting, who count- ed the victory the most significant of his career. “If you leave any- thing hanging for him, he’s going to jump on it and hit winners. He’s a shot-maker. If you don’t attack him, he’s going to run you all over the court. I knew I had to play ag- gressive tennis: Hit the ball at a good pace, but also with a pur- pose.” Blake’s statistics reflected the
state of his game. He blasted nine aces but coughed up three double- faults as well while landing just 48 percent of his first serves. More significantly, he played the big points poorly. After getting broken in the third game of the decisive set, Blake had two break points in the eighth game. Sweeting replied with a huge serve to stave off one, then blasted a forehand winner for deuce. Sweeting then took pace off his first serve, and Blake sprayed a makeable return long. The young American served out the match from there. Following his early ouster at Wimbledon six weeks ago, Blake alluded to the question of retire- ment. Monday, he discounted any such suggestion, insisting that his knee was fine and no longer lim- iting his training or on-court mo- bility. He pinned the loss on his shaky mind-set more than anything age or time had taken away. “I think it was pretty evident to- night that I wasn’t doing the things I need to do to win match- es. I played tentative on a lot of points,” Blake said, adding that Sweeting deserved credit for dic- tating play. “That’s the way it goes when you don’t have a lot of matches.” And that’s the next order of business as Blake heads to Cincin- nati and New Haven, where he’ll need wild cards to enter given his 105th ranking, in hopes of raising his game for the U.S. Open. In other action Monday, David
Nalbandian of Argentina breezed past Rajeev Ram, 6-4, 6-0. Three-time Legg Mason cham- pion Andy Roddick, 27, opens play Tuesday night against Benjamin Becker of Germany or qualifier Grega Zemlja of Slovenia. Roddick is making his ninth
appearance at the Legg Mason. Following an afternoon practice, he met with reporters and spoke
Today’s matches
STADIUM [15] Mardy Fish vs. Victor Troicki or Kevin Kim, 4 p.m.
[3] Fernando Verdasco vs. Karol Beck or Michael Berrer, not before 5 p.m.
Benjamin Becker or Grega Zemlja vs. [2] Andy Roddick , not before 7 p.m.
Lukas Lacko or Thiemo de Bakker vs. [5] John Isner
GRANDSTAND
[1] Daniel Nestor / Nenad Zimonjic vs. Tomas Berdych / Radek Stepanek, 4 p.m.
Denis Istomin or Leonardo Mayer vs. [4] Marin Cilic, not before 5 p.m.
Ryan Sweeting or James Blake vs. [14] Michael Llodra
[13] Gilles Simon vs. Igor Kunitsyn COURT 1
[12] Julien Benneteau vs. Xavier Malisse, 4 p.m.
Richard Gasquet vs. Kristof Vliegen, not before 5 p.m.
Yen-Hsun Lu vs. Alejandro Falla COURT 2
Brian Dabul vs. Marco Chiudinelli, 4 p.m.
Arnaud Clement vs. Janko Tipsarevic, not before 5 p.m.
[4] Julian Knowle / Andy Ram vs. Nathan Healey / Lleyton Hewitt
about his fondness for the event, where, at age 18, he won his first hard-court title in 2001. “I just have good memories from this tournament,” Roddick said, “It’s where I first did well. I enjoy Georgetown and cruising around that area. Little subtleties, like driving through Rock Creek Park. All the little things. The more familiar you are with a place, that lends a little to being comfortable.”
Roddick leads the ATP tour with 28 hard-court victories this season but said it was too soon to assess his readiness for the U.S. Open. After failing to reach the finals
at Atlanta’s hard-court event two weeks ago, Roddick threw himself into training at his home in Aus- tin. He practiced four hours on court each day (much of it in two- on-one drills), then he worked on conditioning at the track in the af- ternoons. “Training and hitting is never the same as playing matches,” Roddick noted. But after Mon- day’s practice he declared himself pleased, at least, that the ball was “obeying what I want it to do a lit- tle bit more.”
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to be 13) losing seasons. And it was hatched out of a state of des- peration, by a franchise scared to death at the thought of its tal- ented young core being eaten alive by that culture, and perpet- uating the hideous cycle. “We need an identity as a
franchise,” MacPhail said. “We need somebody who can put his stamp on this team and have us play a certain brand of baseball that we’re going to have to play to win.”
GAIL BURTON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Buck Showalter is smiling, but his job is a tough one: He will try to dig the Orioles out of 12 (about to be 13) straight losing seasons.
the 32-73 train wreck in Balti- more, by way of introducing Showalter. “They haven’t been exposed to a winning type of en- vironment. . . . We just didn’t feel this was a circumstance where we could bring somebody in who had never managed at the major league level.” But Showalter, who will man-
age his first game for the Orioles on Tuesday night, isn’t just any baseball-lifer retread. He’s dif- ferent. He is meticulous in his prepa-
ration, demanding in his atten- tion to detail, assertive in his leadership style. He wants his players, his coaching staff, his PR people and his clubhouse at- tendants to do things a certain way — namely, his way. The arc of a Showalter regime has be- come clear through his three
previous stops: He comes in and kicks butt. He practically wills the franchise to a significant im- provement. And eventually and inevitably, his act wears thin and he is dismissed in favor of someone less different. “I try to be true to my own
skin,” Showalter said in re- sponse to a question about his reputation as a micro-manager, never directly shooting down the notion. “I am who I am. I don’t spend a lot of time overa- nalyzing it. I know what’s worked for me with the organi- zations I’ve been with in the past.” Make no mistake: The Sho- walter hiring was a direct, fron- tal attack on the culture of los- ing that has infested the once- proud Orioles franchise over the course of 12 consecutive (about
Orioles legend Jim Palmer, now a team broadcaster, put it more bluntly in an interview with the team’s radio rights holder: “This team doesn’t know what’s about to hit them,” Palm- er said. “He’s going to demand this club play the game the right way. . . . This organization is go- ing to get better. When you talk about work ethic, I don’t think these [players] know what it’s like to work hard, and I think they are going to learn that through Buck Showalter.” Showalter understands the challenges confronting him in Baltimore — “I’m not naive,” he said — which include not only the pervasive culture of losing, but also the rigors of playing in the American League East, a lack of clubhouse leadership and a payroll (once among the highest in baseball) that is now below the big league average. “I don’t want to sit here and prejudge things just because of what they might look like from a distance,” Showalter said, im- plying that, from a distance, they look awful. “ . . . You just want [the players to] under- stand we’re all trying for the same goal. And if someone doesn’t share those goals, I’m sure they’ll be comfortable play- ing somewhere else.”
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