Ralph Friedgen

Congratulations are in order to Maryland Terrapins football head coach Ralph Friedgen to be voted the ACC coach of the year. What a turn around from last season when the Terps went 2-10 the worst record in the teams history. The Athletic Director at the time wanted to fire Fridge, however dues to the State of Maryland's budget problems they could not afford to part with 5 Million dollars they would have owed him. Now a year later the Terps finish 8-4 and managed to beat ranked NC State last Saturday, which was defiantly a upset. Now the Terps are looking at going to a more desirable bowl, there is a new Athletic Director at Maryland. Friedgen was told to fire his assistants from last season, however he kept them insisting they were the right coaches, well I'd say Fridges gamble worked out for him and now I'm sure a contract extension should be in the big man's future.

The week in DMV

The Redskins loose a tough one 17-14 to the struggling Vikings, with all the drama with Brett Favre and Brad Childress being fired the skins should have won this game easily, the defense has played so lousy. With talent like Orakpo, Fletcher, Mcintosh, Hall, and the 100 million dollar man Albert Haynsworth, they are awful at making tackles. Haslett should have told Orakpo to destroy Brett Favre!! we need Orakpo to unleash the monster we know he is!! Donovan Mcnabb is by far the most consistent player, on the skins. Next year I hope they draft a running back, clearly were in need of a new running game. With all that being the Skins are still in the playoff picture, but its looking grim.

The Wizards loose on Saturday to the Magic and last night to the Heat, the Wizards are win less on the road, I think they are better than last season but still are a bad team. Arenas is playing better John Wall looks promising, Blatche is solid. Still they are struggling this year and I don't seem the having a winning record at the end of the season but I may be eating my words, I hope so!!

The Caps have won there last two game Friday dominating 6-0 and Sunday winning in a shoot out!! they are in 1st place playing well, they did have a 3 game loosing streak but they have worked past that for now. Budreau is a coach that will not let his players get comfortable and slack. The Caps defense has always been shaky, its cool how Ovechkin is leading the team in assists, not being a selfish player is the quality of a good Captain.

The Ravens win with ease Sunday over the Panthers and appear to be on the road to the playoffs again, there having a solid year!! I think Flacco has improved from last year, could this be bc of the tutelage of Jim Zorn? I cringe at the thought, bur that could be the reality!! This Sunday Ravens Steelers in Baltimore, will be an awesome game to watch.

Tomorrow I will write about college Football and Basketball!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Well its turkey day!! going to get my feed on later today, ready to enjoy some football and basketball action today. I have Sports center on as I am writing this. Want to talk about Clinton Portis, well for the 2nd straight season his season will end prematurely due to an injury. A torn groin injury, last season it was a concussion that knocked him out. I think last season Clinton did not want to play for Jim Zorn, and I don't blame him bc Jim Zorn was a lousy coach. I do think CP was re energized with Shanahan coming in, after all Shanahan drafted him. During the 7 season Portis has been here we have been to the playoffs twice, both while Joe Gibbs was here. CP at times has been a shining light in Washington, unf at time his immaturity comes out and has been scrutinized for it by the media, the thrust is CP is the same age as me and 29 year old men are generally immature, millions of dollars don't make u grow up faster. People just think it does, and it doesn't. If this is Portis's last season as a Redskin I wish him, I have enjoyed watching him play when he has had good seasons, we saw what the man is like after the tragic death of his friend and teammate Sean Taylor, also enjoyed his great sense of humor!! well I hope then that Shanahan and Allan draft a RB next year in the draft. All right happy turkey day!! will be on twitter tonight during the Wizards game as they take on the Hawks in Atlanta.

Wizards Game

The Wizards win a donnybrook tonight 116-114 over the Philadelphia 76ers in overtime, from the Verizon Center, Nick Young hit a winning 3 pointer. One of the most exciting Wizards game I have watched in quite sometime. This team is so much better from last year. Arenas, Young, Wall, McGee, and Blatche are all very exciting to watch. With that kind of talent and now that they are owned by Ted Leonsis, hopefully we will see better days for this long troubled organization. John Wall is already shows signs he is destined to be a star in this league. Lets hope that is what happens!!

Thoughts of the Week!!

Well what a week in the DMV area, Every Sunday I am going to try and do a blog on my thoughts of the week in the DMV Area Sports realm!!! Sitting her at 6:49, with sports center on in the background; I am getting ready to watch Formula 1's race in Monaco at 7:30, The O's and Nats, Boston/Orlando game, & tonight TNA's PPV Sacrifice. Slowly sipping Cherry Coke to wake up (its an addiction) this afternoon I will be tweeting during the O's and Nats game. Getting super excited for tomorrow to be on the ground in Baltimore for the free the birds rally at Camden Yards. Baltimore is sound asleep right now after the Preakness yesterday which we saw the upset of supersaver, and the O's had a meltdown against the Indians, and Johns Hopkins loosing to Duke in Lacrosse. Washington DC this morning is recovering from a pain of both the Nationals and DC United both suffering losses to teams hailing from the Mile High City!! Denver. Virginia is happy there Cavaliers knocked off St Marys in lacrosse to advance in the tournament. Tomorrow I need to make sure I set my DVR for Monday Night Raw live from Toronto, Ca where Bret Hart will say a final good bye from his home country!! Glad to see Dan Snyder call out Albert Haynsworth, its should not be acceptable at all the he does not show up to training camp when he has a $100 million dollar contract!! what a great moment this week in Baltimore for Ray Lewis to have a street named after him!! What he means to the Ravens and the city of Baltimore is unmeasurable!!, He is the greatest player to ever wear the purple and gold and when he does retire it will be very sad :( and hard to replace the face of the franchise. Glad to see the Orioles win there 2nd series of the season against the Mariners, we will see today if they can win the rubber match against Manny Acta's boys The Indians who I'm sure would like the DMV area with a win and a better exit than being fired during the allstar break last seasonat the Washington National skipper. I will write a blog Tuesday abut my experience Monday at the Free the Birds Rally from Camden Yards!!DC United once again failed to score last night's loss against the Colorado Rapids loosing 1-0, I hope Onalfo needs to be fired this week!! not defending that looser!! The Washington Nationals were on the road all this week where the took 2 out of three in center stage NYC!! from the mets, and on Thursday put a pounding on the Rockies, struggled yesterday loosing both games in a double header, hopefully today they will have a better outing in the mile high city. Well its about nine minutes before the coverage in Monaco starts on the Speed channel I will be back Tuesday with my experience from Monday, and I will be tweeting tomorrow as well!!!

Washington DC's Sports Rushmore: Green/Unseld/Johnson/Langway/Moreno

This is def open for debate, but after giving it some thought. These are the legends of the Washington DC franchises these men are who I picked from there accomplishments with there respective teams in DC. staring with # 28, for two decades he was known as legs and the fastest man in the NFL, everybody still talks about when he ran from the other side of the field to tackle Tony Dorsett on MNF. He was a first ballot HOFamer, and under the Joe Gibbs era was with 2 of the 3 super bowl winning squads. The Redskin face is IMO is Chris Cooley and only time will tell if he is worthy to sit at that Redskin legend table.

For the Bullets/Wizards star for over a decade dominated the Capital Center night in and night out, in 1978 along with my man PC, and Elvin Hays!! they won the franchises only Championship. Later Wes would coach and work in the Front office for the organization, bc of the loyalty and admiration The Pollins had for Wes. The struggling franchise is in desperate need of a face that people can cheer for, Gilbert Arena's is the face now but for all the wrong reasons.

For the Senators/Nationals have to go with the franchises only true legend Walter Johnson who played for the Senators from 1907-1927, his entire MLB career in Washington with a W-L record of 417-279, his career ERA was 2.17, and in 1924 he lead the Senators to a World Series, he def belongs in this sacred shrine, hopefully Ryan Zimmerman will get to join Johnson at that table one day!!! Have allot of high hopes for Ryan!!

For the Washington Capitals there is the wrong way, the right way, and there is Langway!!! def the Capitals mightiest Ice Warrior as he played with no helmet, he won over the 9-5, beer drinking, hell raising blue collar hard working joes that went to games at the Cap center, he played hard and aggressive and put alot of guys asses in the board. He was a fav among the Redskin hogs: Grimm, Lachey, Jacoby, and Bostic made Langway there drinking buddy they loved how much heart that Langway played with, Rod Langway is the man in my book!! cant wait till Ovechkin joins him at that sacred Capitals table!! Ovechkin is on his way there and will prob surpass Langway but until he does, Langway is hockey royalty in Washington!!

Lastly for DC United the cornerstone of the Franchise, the humble superstar from Bolivia Jaime Moreno, who was with the team when it started in 96, in 97 he led the MLS in goals and United to the league championship!!, he left United in 2002, but returned in 04 where United that season won there 4th league championship, he is the only current active player in this elite group, but he is arguably the greatest player to ever put on a DC United uniform and belong at this table with these other four athletes, so that's DC's Rushmore If I was building it. This is def open for debate what do you think??

Baltimore's Rushmore: Unitas/Ripken/Lewis

Last night I was having a discussion with a friend of mine from Baltimore if they were to build a Mt. rushhmore in Baltimore for sports who would be on it, and three come to mind in this order. The first would be Johnny Unitas, the greatest QB to ever play in the city for the colts. Johnny was all world all class and tough, and had a great haircut. When the Modells moved from Cleveland to Baltimore they knew that in order to get Baltimore fans to believe in the Ravens they needed an endorsement from the man who the city loved respected and looked up too, Johnny U was a damn hero to the working class people in Baltimore Johnny loved all of them as much as they loved him. Then next to Unitas would be # 8 the Iron Man Cal Ripken Jr. The boy who grew up in Harford County, MD who went on to become the embodiment of what it is to be a Baltimore Oriole!!! Lastly # 52 Ray Lew is still active of the three but lets face it, hes a legend and the greatest Baltimore Raven to ever put on the purple and black. Ray makes everybody that has played with him on that defense better, he is the heart and soul of that team, he is right up there with Singletary and LT when it comes to Line backing in the NFL!!, God it was awesome when Singletary was coaching him, how cool was that the greatest linebacker ever IMO coaching the best linebacker in the game today!! I'm sure Ray learned more from Iron Mike in one season that he had ever learned before. When Ray hangs it up in Baltimore it will be a sad sad day, what a player who plays with some much drive, heart, passion, and determination that I have ever seen on a football field. Ray is the face of the Ravens and juts like Ripken he is the embodiment of what it is to be a Baltimore Raven!! Later on I will write about Washington's Sports Rushmore.

Ken Griffey Jr.

Tonight tomorrow and Thursday the struggling Seattle Mariners roll into Baltimore, for a three game series against the struggling O's. After an 8 game loosing streak and the M's firing there hitting coach. Not a very exciting series with the exception of one thing, this week for the few fans that will attend these games and the virtually empty camden yard may get there last glimpse at a legend who is def a first ballot hall of famer, Ken Griffey Jr. Ken Griffey Jr. for several years known as baseballs forgotten superstar. He wasn't making headlines like Barry Bonds, Mark Mcgwire, and Sammy Sosa. He wasn't getting all the praise these three men got. Why?? oh Griffey is injury prone, always hurt and takes way to long to come back. Why it took him so long than those other three men, now all three disgraces to the game IMO, is because he is all natural. Griffey didn't cheat, its not in his character, his father taught him better. When Ken Griffey Jr hit his 600th HR two seasons ago I wept, when Ken Griffey resigned with Seattle I wept, when he retires I will weep, and when he gets inducted inducted in the hall of fame I will ball like a baby ( I am tearing up now as I write this about my hero) There are two homerun kings in my book Hank Aaron and Ken Griffey Jr, they played the game, and more importantly lived there lives the right way. SO I am asking O;s fans at the yard this week to cheer for for the O's, but also cheer for the game of baseball, and there hasn't been an individual in my book who has represented the game of baseball (not forgetting about Cal) better than Ken Griffey Jr.!!

Caps Lose Heartbreaker on Home Ice, Disturbing Trend of Yielding Early Leads Continues

The Washington Capitals suffered yet another rare loss on home ice this season, falling 5 - 4 in overtime to the Ottawa Senators. A capacity crowd at the Verizon Center saw their beloved Caps relinquish another disturbing flurry of goals in the 1st Period.

Two days after allowing the Calgary Flames to net 4 in the first frame, the Capitals surrendered an early 3 to Ottawa. However, the opening stanza did have one gem of a moment in store for the home team. Alexander Semin continued his push for 40 goals on the season, scoring on another brilliant individual effort, going five hole on Elliott.

Down 3 - 1 heading into the second period, the league's top ranked offense came to life, scoring twice.

First up in the boxscore, Alexander Semin. The talented Russian winger netted his second of the evening, putting him at 37 on the year. Semin collected a brilliant pass from the right flank by Alexander Ovechkin, then avoided a poke check by Elliot, before finally curling around the outstreched goalie stick and putting the puck in the roof of the net.

Mike Green levelled the score at 3 apiece with one period to go. Recently called up Mathieu Perreault scored his second goal since joing the team just 24 seconds into the third period, Erih Fehr was on the assist.

However, Ottawa didn't wait long before finding their own equalizer, as Jason Spezza scored his second of the match.

Mike Knuble missed high and wide on a golden opportunity to take the lead late in the third. Ovechkin blazed down the ice and fed in another beautiful pass towards center, this time from the left side. Knuble had and open net gaping right before him but just missed the top corner.

The Capitals would pay for missed chances such as this, as overtime would eventually bring a late Ottawa goal. Alexei Kovalev netted from an extremely accute angle with just 18 seconds seperating the teams from a penalty shootout.

A couple of keys to take away from the match ...

- The Caps continued a disturbing trend of slow starts in matches. Yes, the offense is top notch and deserves to be ranked first and the team has shown an amazing propensity for coming back from large deficits. Still, it would behoove the team to start coming out with a bit more inensity early.

- A point was still salvaged from this match, which should help in the quest for the President's Trophy. It seems that the history of winners of the regular season title shows that they have not fared overly well in the Stanley Cup Finals. The bottom line is, the Caps just need to focus on winning as many games as possible and not think about these things. Just continue with the winning mentality that has been on display throught the season and keep going with it.

- Despite giving up 5 goals by the time all was said and done, Jose Theodore continues to be impressive between the pipes. Let's face it, he was left hung out to dry a bit on a couple of goals. He still, however, made some real big saves to keep his team in the game.

- With 6 matches to go, it looks like Alexander Semin has a good chance to reach the 40 goal mark. Let's hope his current form continues.

Ravens/Orioles

Ravens: The Ravens are in need of a kicker and it appears they are interested in signing a free agent kicker, The Ravens Brass met with kicker Shayne Graham for over an hour FL during the NFL owners meetings, I think they should bring back Matt Stover.

Orioles: The O's start the season on the road next Tuesday in Tampa Bay, Opening day at the Yard will be next Friday against Toronto. It appears that Koji Uehara will start the season on the DL, he is having an issue with his left hamstring, also the O's have sent Chris Tillman back to Norfolk. Tillman was a prospect who was called up last season with allot of promise. These are not good signs for the Birds pitching this season, however we will see what happens.

Redskins/Wizards/Nationals/Capitals/DC United

Redskins: Lots of draft rumors who should they draft. Tim Tebow, Jimmy Clausen, Sam Bradford, They do not need a QB IMO, They need an offensive linemen especially with Chris Samuels retiring,The should draft Russell Okong out of Oklahoma State IMO. Daniel Snyder though likes to make headlines in the draft and drafting Okong will not make the headlines he so desperately craves. Lets hope Mike Shanahan and Bruce Allen have more sense that our owner who over the years has shown he has none.

Wizards: The Wizards are the worst team in basketball right now with a 15 game loosing streak. Lets hope with new ownership coming that things will change for one of the worst run franchises in all of professional sports.

Nationals: Opening day is next Monday against the Phillies, President Obama will throw out the first pitch Monday. We will see how Adam Dunn does at 1b, how Pudge does at the Nats catcher, will Ryan Zimmerman have another golden glove worthy season, and how long will Strassburg be in the minors before he gets called up, my guess he'll be called up quickly.

Capitals: Despite the loss Sunday to Calgary the Caps clinched the #1 overall seed in the Eastern conference for the first time in franchise history.

DC United: United's season opener Saturday was a forgettable game, hopefully they will have a better outing Saturday in there home opener against New England Revolution.

Washington Capitals vs. Calgary Flames Preview

Its 2:35 I am eating a slice of Papa Johns Pizza, Drinking a Molson Golden, and have season 2 of the Shield on right now. Getting ready for the game at 3. The Caps are moving closer to home ice advantage. Alex Ovechkin has two goals and three assists in three games against Calgary. After Semyon Varlamov suffered his fourth straight loss Thursday, Jose Theodore could start for the Capitals. Theodore has a 1.95 GAA during his seven-game winning streak, and is 5-1-0 with a 2.11 GAA in home games against the Flames. Also the rowdy Canadian Fans at the Phone Booth today will make the game atmosphere awesome. Will check back in with post game thoughts and will be tweeting during the game.

DC United / Washington Wizards Post Game Thoughts from last night

Well, that was an awful outing for DC united loosing 4-o to the Kansas City Wizards. The Keeper Troy Perkins had pressure on him the entire game, United Defense looked awful. The only thing was can say about United is that it is very different team from last season. Hopefully they can gel together and win some games. Next week is the home opener against New England Revolution. The DMV Sportswire crew will be at RFK stadium next Sat for the United home opener.

The Washington Wizards lost there 15Th straight game last night to the Utah Jazz, 103-87. Another miserable performance for them, Andray Blatche had 20 Pts for the Wizards. Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld said yesterday in a press conference that he expects Gilbert Arenas will be back as a Wizard next season. However with Ted Leonsis buying the Wizards I'm sure Grunfelds future in Washington is Questionable, as it should be. Caps and Flames today at the Phone Booth with action starting at 3:00. We will be tweeting during the game.

DC United vs. Kanasas City Wizards Preview 7:30 PM

Tonight at 7:30 PM DC United makes its return against the Kansas City Wizards. This is new Head coach Curt Anolfo first game at the helm. United will be lead by veteran Jaime Moreno, who is has been the cornerstone of the team for a long time. There are some new faces most notably The 37 year old former Bolivian National team player, and has been playing in Spain for 14 season, Juan Manuel Pena. Also the big story tonight will be Curt Anolfo against his old team The Kansas City Wizards; in 2009 Anolfo was fired by Kansas City Wizards coach Peter Vermes. Also Ben Olsen takes on his new role as an assistant coach. Olsen retired after last season ands its great hes still with the Organization. I will have post game thoughts up tonight.