Sunday Smorgasbord 6-3

• From the "A Fool and His $$$$$" File, Mark Cuban among others are trying to take on the NFL. I happen to think Cuban is right that there is a larger demand for pro football than what the NFL currently supplies but one of the lessons of the ill-fated XFL should be remembered; there aren't enough football players to fill that demand in the first place. The NFL already has 32 franchises and level of talent spread among the teams is thin enough as is. To date, only 6 XFL former players have played in the NFL and there's no reason to believe that the quality of play will be better in the UFL. The NFL also has a hammer lock on the major media TV outlets which is what allows the NFL to be the NFL. The UFL has no chance of matching the salaries of the NFL if they can't get a TV deal on par with the NFL and with the failures of the WFL, USFL, WLAF, and XFL, the best the UFL can hope for is a TV deal comparable to what the NHL currently has. That won't get the job done unless Cuban and Co have very, very deep pockets.
• On Wednesday night the NBA Western Conference Champion was crowned and on Saturday, the NBA Eastern Conference Champion was crowned. In another example of the NBA-NHL double standard, having four "dark" days before the Finals doesn't get the NBA criticised the way the NHL was criticized for taking five days off before starting their Finals. Maybe it is because the NBA has more credibility as a professional sports league than the NHL? The bad part of the equation is that we get all sorts of hype "building up" LeBron James in the NBA Finals...
• This week came the reality check for the Nats as they dropped two of three to both the L.A. Dodgers and San Diego Padres. While the closest the Nats got in the four losses was Today's four run margin, it did not accurately demonstrate just how hard the Nats played and how close some of the games were. The Nats have a small margin of error and were actually hanging for most of the games before falling apart in the later stages of the game. They still count as losses though and the Nats are only a half game back of the Houston Astros with the Reds, Royals, and Rangers behind them.
• I didn't get a chance to see D.C. United's 0-0 tie in L.A. last night but I do like the fact that they were able to pick up a point on the road. Progress is progress and points are points as D.C. is now keeping pace with the back of the Eastern Conference pack.
• Don't tell the guys at OFB but Lindsay Czarniak had a HIGH-larious recap of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Saturday night after the game. She has three different pronunciations of Anton Volchenkov (one of them was right) and she deported Jean-Sebastien Giguere to Mexico or something because she called him Juan-Sebastien Giguere. And remember, this game was on her network... (blondes...)
• This week the Nats have tomorrow off before the Pittsburgh Pirates and their mulleted fans invade RFK (oh wait, the Pirates suck, forget that...) for a three game series starting Tuesday night. The Nats then take off to take on the original Washington Nationals franchise which is currently residing in Minnesota as the Twins for tearful Cristian Guzman homecoming. D.C. United faces arch rival New York Red Bulls on Sunday in RFK.
• As always, please send all comments, criticisms, corrections, suggestions, questions, and sports themed books for me to read this summer (seriously) to "capsnut" over at gmail dot com.