Sunday Smorgasbord 4-26

• The Washington Sports Media has returned to its regularly scheduled All-Redskins-All-The-Time Programming...
• It may be a bit of "what goes around comes around" feeling and there is certainly a "karma is a female dog" air but we take no solace in the Flyers whining about the officiating in Game 1 of their series with Montreal. Let those calls come in Game 7 of that Series and force the Flyers out of the playoffs and generate Barbara Streisand explanations from the NHL (which don't even come close to describing the situation in question on the ice) and then we'll point and laugh. But until then, we suggest that instead of complaining about the officiating that the Flyers figure of why they've now blown two goal leads three times in the playoffs. That won't get you very far, officiating blunders or not.
• What we do find mildly amusing were the true "50-50" crowds that showed up in New Jersey and Boston in the first round of the playoffs this year. The Caps of course were accused of having "split houses" that were really maybe 95-5 at best. We know that the NHL talking heads will never suggest that Boston doesn't support its team and should lose its franchise to some poor deserving Canadian city. But the situation in New Jersey is very troubling. This season the Devils moved into a a brand new arena that is further away from New York City than the old one was and it still got taken over by Ranger fans. So this begs the serious question, does the NHL really need three franchises in the New York area when only two are getting full support?
• One other point we'd like to make about the crowds at the Phone Booth in April is that not only were they all almost exclusively Caps fans, but they were all also very loud, very passionate, and had tons of energy; even in the games that the Caps lost. Why are we noting this, because it was all done without the use of Ice Girls or cheerleaders in the stands. Why are we mentioning this seemingly irrelevant point, well this is actually a Memo to Ted who has stated that he is considering the idea of Ice Girls and cheerleaders to inject energy into the crowds at the Phone Booth. If this run has taught you anything it should be that "win and they will come."
• For the first time since opening night, we delved into a crowd of 35,188 who watched the Nats get shutout by the Cubs last night. We noticed that the Ben's Chili Bowl stand has been expanded since opening night but we also noticed that for the second time in the two regular season games we've attended that we had to wait outside the entrance to the Navy Yard Metro station because the platform was too crowded. Making matters worse was the rain showers falling at the time as we just stood still waiting for Metro to get its act together and get the trains loaded up and moving again. We've noticed too that after months of discouraging people from driving to the games and taking Metro of the RFK Express Bus, the Nats are now putting all kinds of marketing push behind single game parking pass sales. We could easily tell at the exhibition game against the B.O.'s that we went too that the Navy Yard station would not be able to handle the crowds and we wonder why the Nats and Metro aren't being called on the carpet about this. Further exasperating the problem is the transferring at L'Enfant Plaza where Yellow Line trains are kept to their normal schedule so fans who get out of one packed train have to sardine themselves into another after transferring. This is a situation that needs to be resolved.
• Oh and about the Nats themselves, the bats haven't come alive as everybody thought they would in the new park and with the strength of last year's staff, the bullpen, falling to pieces, is it any wonder that they are failing to live up to expectations?
• In this week's "Diversify or Die" segment, we post this picture of protesters we took on the Catholic University Mall on Wednesday April 16th right before Pope Benedict XVI arrived at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception:
  We'll wryly note just how well that idea has worked for our Anglican/Episcopalian friends...
• Getting back to the Redskins, they certainly broke all molds by taking two receivers and a pass catching tight end in the second round yesterday but today, they took Colt Brennan from Hawaii to be one of the backups to Jason Campbell. What makes this odd is that with the numbers that Brennan put up in college, while he did it at a Non-BCS school, there's no doubt that at some point, he'll "challenge" for Campbell's spot especially if Campbell struggles to return from his knee injury last year. We also want to express our dissatisfaction with a schedule that includes three divisional road games in the first five weeks and a Monday night affair against the Steelers that will make it impossible for us to sell our tickets (Monday night games end waay past our bedtime to begin with, we don't need to be there) and ensure that they don't end up in the hands of Steeler fans.
• Finally, this week, the Nats are off tomorrow but stay home with a two game series with Atlanta on Tuesday and Wednesday and then a four game series against the Pirates starting on Thursday. D.C. United treks out to Colorado for a Sunday game against the Rapids.
• As always, please send all comments, criticisms, corrections, questions, suggestions, and frame shop referrals to "capsnut" over at gmail dot com.