Sunday Smorgasbord 5-20

• Not content to be smacked down every year in the ACC Annual Beatdown of the Big "Ten", the Big "Ten" has agreed to allow their women's teams to be similarly humiliated. The Terp women will host THE Ohio State University Buckeyes on November 30th. Last year, the Terps smoked Michigan State at the Cable Box. What this is supposed to prove or do, I don't know but I do know enough to chalk up another victory for Title IX.
• More bad news for Versus. The America's Cup no longer has an American team. Is this yet another lesson in assembling an All-Star team with the largest payroll? With the U.S. now out of it, there's likely to be no interest from a U.S. TV audience.
• Another year, another Triple Crown bust. Though at least this year no horse ended up dying as a result of the race this year. (That happened earlier in the day.) Not only was it a fast race yesterday, it was a thrilling race to watch as both Curlin and Street Sense made moves late and Street Sense's move looked especially bold even though it wasn't enough.
• It was a solid win for D.C. United yesterday as they downed Toronto FC 2-1 north of the border. Last year the book on D.C. United was that they did not respond very well to physical play and Toronto tried playing that way and came up short. They came up short because unlike last year, D.C. didn't lose their composure and played through the rough stuff which is a good sign. Congratulations also to Jaime Moreno who is now tied for the most goals in MLS history. Sadly though, it is becoming apparent that Jaime's best days are long behind him.
• Waiting almost 11 months to do so, the Reds finally file the grievance over the Majewski trade. Is it me or is this almost anti-climatic? They've been threatening this since he went down last August and now the guy isn't even in the major leagues anymore. We'll have to see how this all shakes out but why did it take the Reds so long to file the grievance in the first place?
• And since we're speaking of injured Nationals pitchers, Jason Bergmann joins the party on the 15 day disabled list. Maybe we should admit that Jim Bowden knew what he was doing when he invited just about every professional pitcher to spring training. This is getting more ridiculous than the 1996-1997 Caps. Anyway, the Nats continue to muddle along. They closed out a 7-3 homestand today with a win over the B.O.'s avoiding a 3 game sweep. While the Nats are still sitting in last place, I have to say that Friday and Saturday's games were rather thrilling despite the fact that the Nats lost. Oh and somebody get a memo to the groundscrew at RFK to please stop cutting the curly W into the centerfield grass. The Nats have only won twice in the 10 games you've done that.
• Goodbye to the Buffaslugs and now the Red Wings are on the ropes as well. Two overtime games this weekend for NBC and unfortunately, yesterday's game was exiled to Versus in favor of the Preakness. I really can't say that I blame NBC for the decision because the horse race was going to bring in a larger audience than the hockey game did. However the race itself wasn't scheduled to start until after 6 pm and didn't get off until about 6:12 pm last night. Why couldn't have NBC stuck around for the start of OT and then switched over to the race? The game ended well before the horses came out for the call to the post and the signing of Maryland My Maryland so what action was really missed?
• This week, the Nats head out on the road to play four games against the grieving Cincinnati Reds and then head to St. Louis for a three game weekend series against the Cardinals. If the Nats are on the road, that more than likely means that D.C. United is at home and they are this Saturday against the Houston Dynamo. Finally don't forget about tomorrow's presser.
• As always, please send all comments, questions, suggestions, corrections, criticisms, and new crazy Ninja Warrior obstacles to "capsnut" over at gmail dot com.