Sunday Smorgasbord 6-24

• We start off this week's smorgasbord with hearty and sincere AMF! (that's Adios My Friend) to La Sooze who is leaving Washington Sports and Entertainment at the end of this coming week. While La Sooze hasn't had any direct hand in running the Caps since Ted took over before the 1999-2000 season, her effect on this franchise is still widely felt. Top of course among her many sins is her cut-rate selling of the tickets for 1998 Stanley Cup Finals to Detroit and turning the Phone Booth into Joe Louis south that June. That single action killed any chance that the Caps had on capitalizing on the good will created by that magical Cup run that year and establishing permanent roots in the city. Ted and Co. are still blamed for that even though they had nothing to do with it. Of course, cut rate selling of tickets to out of town fans was S.O.P. under her just as she would give tickets away left and right inflating the attendance statistics in the Enron tradition before Enron was Enron. She is also responsible for the sackings of former Caps PA announcer, the late Marv Brooks, and Caps radio announcer Ron Webber; two men who's voices were synonymous with Caps hockey. Now that La Sooze is gone, hopefully the Caps will be able to sell the club seats in the Phone Booth before selling out the rest of the arena (and not having those seats filled with bus groups) and it is also a signal that Dishonest Abe Polin will be out the door soon as well. We can only be so lucky.
• On Friday night in Columbus, the Caps ended up using their 5th pick overall to take Defenseman Karl Alzner. This is was a good move by the Caps because they have holes on defense to begin with though mostly due to inexperience. Alzner won't bring any experience to the club right away but he will make it easier for the Caps to trade Steve Eminger, Jeff Schultz, and/or Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green for a defenseman who does because now we have a greater depth of talent among young defensemen. Plus with the kid being projected as being two years away from the NHL, we have the luxury of taking our time in bringing him to the NHL and don't have to throw him into the fire right away if we don't want to.
• Speaking of trades, where were all the trades that were supposed to happen this weekend? Florida and Toronto got goaltenders before the draft, but once the draft began, very little action took place. It just goes to show that you cannot predict how a trade market it going to work out.
• Riding high on a 7 game unbeaten streak and facing a winless Real Salt Lake, D.C. United walked right into a trap and got caught big time losing 2-1. To be brutally honest, the game wasn't even that close. United simply never came to play, period. Hopefully it serves as a wake up call for United however there is plenty of soccer left to play this season. D.C. caught a break as the loss keeps them in fourth place as they didn't lose much ground on the teams ahead of them.
• After last night's self-destruction, I was at today's Nats 3-1 win over the Cleveland Indians as the Nats take two of three from the Tribe. (BTW who knew that Cleveland fans traveled so well?) Interleauge play is now over and the Nats went 9-9 against the AL this season. In case you were wondering, the Nats are still mired in last place at 32-43, 3.5 games back of fourth place Florida and 10 games back of the first place Mets. However if you want to look at something odd, right now Yankees are further back from 1st place than the Nats despite having four more wins that the Nats. No wonder Joe Torre is on the hot seat.
• And because I was at the baseball game this afternoon, I missed the U.S. 2-1 victory over Mexico in the CONACAF Gold Cup Final. Stop me if you heard this before, but Landon Donovan scored his goal on a penalty kick. The U.S. men will now take a younger squad to Venezuela to play in the Copa America. While winning the Gold Cup gives the U.S. regional bragging rights and a berth in next year's Confederations Cup, I personally would love to win the Copa America too in Venezuela to stick to Hugo Chavez. But that doesn't look very likely. (BTW, did Mexico agree to swap jerseys on the field after losing today?)
• Ok this week the Nats hit the road for a three game set in Atlanta starting tomorrow night. After taking Thursday off for the grueling trek to Pittsburgh, the Nats stay there for a three game weekend set against the Pirates. D.C. United is home on Thursday night against Colorado in a game scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN2. The NCAA season will be over by then so there is little chance that some obscure NCAA Championship will delay the 7 pm kickoff.
• As always folks, please send all comments, criticisms, questions, suggestions, corrections, and statements for the record to "capsnut" over at gmail dot com.