Sunday Smorgasbord 6-17

• This is what I would have led off last week with had Comcast had their act together... Kudos to the guys at Deadspin for pointing me to this article about crowd control in Seattle. As somebody who has worked more than his fair share of sporting events, I have to say that I like the idea. While the drunks in the crowd certainly aren't big fans of this kind of crackdown; more and more fans are getting turned off by the excessive alcohol culture that exists at sporting events these days. I certainly wouldn't bring a kid under 12 to some of the sporting events that I attend on a regular basis anymore largely because of the boorish behaviour of fans. It is one thing to be loud (and trust me, I have made plenty of noise at sporting events in my lifetime), it is one thing to heckle opposing players or even your own team (guilty) but it is entirely different to taunt other people and create a hostile atmosphere in the stands. During my days as an "event staff professional" I made more friends clamping down on the drunk fans, the obnoxious fans, and the seat jumpers than I did by looking the other way. Furthermore, for the life of me I just cannot figure out why people go to sporting events to get themselves absolutely blitzed. The thrill should come from the action on the field of play, not from the cup in your hand. You can get that same thrill at home without trekking out the stadium and making life miserable for the rest of us.
• Making waves throughout the blogsphere this week is the Islanders take on the situation of giving access to bloggers. I probably stand in opposition to various people on this but I think this a rather good idea. This allows the bloggers to be what most of us really are at heart; diehard fans of their respective teams. You can wear your jersey and cheer as loudly and as wildly as you want in this program the Islanders have set up. If you are able to go there and demonstrate that you can conduct yourself as a professional, then you can "graduate" to the full press box. Personally I think this is a win-win for the bloggers and the team. The team does not have to worry about "pre-screening" the Pros from the Joes. The regular media does not have to contend with the bloggers for access and the team, coaches, and players do not have worry about things getting out that they would rather keep quiet. If the Caps did something like this, I would think about it. I probably wouldn't do it anyway but I still have no interest in trying to play "real hockey journalist" and getting a real press pass.
• The other big hockey news this week (if you ask me) is the return of Mike Keenan to the coaching ranks. My question of course is, why? What is it about Mike Keenan that gets him so many opportunities. While he's sixth in all-time wins, he's only won the Cup once. While you can give him credit for doing great things with teams, he destroys them in the process and has yet to depart a franchise on anything even remotely amicable in the way of terms. I feel sorry for the good people of Calgary and other Flames fans who have to put up with the psycho now. Let's hope when he starts cleaning house (and you know he will ) that we can get some good players from the Flames.
• The Canadian Diving Team Captain, Secondary Assist Cindy Crosby, may be the youngest MVP in 24 years and won three trophies Thursday night but he's still being upstaged by A.O. A.O. became the first player in 55 years to be named to the NHL First All-Star team in his first two years in the league. Something tells me this is going to be a continuing pattern throughout the years in spite of the leagues efforts to shove Cindy down everybody's throats.
• Well the Nats pull off the sweep of the B.O.'s this week but against real competition, they avoid a sweep against the Blue Jays. Let the trade winds around the Nats start to blow as they don't bother trying to make up the 8.5 games they're behind the Mets in the NL East. This season is about rebuilding and the Nats should get a decent return for players like Ronnie Belliard and Dmitri Young at the deadline. I think Jason Simontacchi could be a good pickup for another team at the deadline. For a team with very little in the way of depth in the minor leagues, anything the Nats can get would be welcome despite not having an Alfonso Soriano to move this year.
• D.C. United did what they needed to do and laid a smackdown on Chicago last night 3-1. Yes, Chicago was not at full strength and hit the self-destruct button, but D.C. put them away and won the game to push their unbeaten streak to seven games. D.C. United is now solidly in fourth place with games in hand on two of the three teams ahead of them which is a far cry from where they were before the seven game unbeaten streak began.
• This week, the Nats come home to face the Detroit Tigers for three games in RFK before having Thursday off before the Cleveland Indians drop into RFK to close out inter-league play for 2007 for the Nationals. D.C. United hits the road to face old team mates Alecko Eskandarian (again, he got traded from Toronto) and Nick Rimando in Salt Lake City on Saturday night. That other guy got called up to the Under 20 National team and won't play in the game. The Caps will finally end the suspense and unveil their new uniforms before the draft Friday night at their new practice facility. Yours truly will be at a friends birthday party that night instead and will critique the new look and whatever we ended up doing with the fifth overall pick sometime on Saturday morning.
• As always please send all questions, comments, criticisms, suggestions, corrections, and Salvation Army donations to "capsnut" over at gmail dot com.