Sunday Smorgasbord 5-3

• We begin this week with a reach into the personal files from yesterday. Immediately after yesterday's Game 1 we went to our Roman Catholic Parish in Northern Virginia for a Charity Dinner that we helped to organize. (That is why yesterday's Post-Mortem was so late and originally more incoherent than usual) To be honest, we would have rather skipped the whole thing with the cold we're fighting, lack of voice after the game, and other sleep robbing issues we've encountered over the last couple of weeks. However, we were asked to sit at the head table at the dinner last night so we sucked it up and did our duty. As luck would have it, the emcee, her date, the speaker, and the Priest who was sponsoring the dinner are all from Pittsburgh and joined me at the head table with a couple of other people who had no idea what a hockey puck is. When the speaker asked how many Penguin Scum fans there were in the room before he divided into his speech, only a couple of hands went up (out of a group of 70 in attendance) and a fine, upstanding, and very respectable gentleman seated at a table up front yelled out 'ROCK THE RED!" We would have bought that guy a beer had beer been available.
• We were able to steal a few moments before the dinner to watch the Kentucky Derby even though we don't follow horse racing at all. Mine That Bird's win was very interesting to watch but expect ratings and interest for the Preakness to plummet should he skip that race in two weeks. While there is and should not be a mandate that the Derby winner run in the Preakness, it would be a blow to the Triple Crown series, the Preakness, and Pimlico at a time none of them can afford it. Of course you don't want to enter a horse into a speed race that isn't his style and the health and safety of the animals must be the overriding factor. But this just goes to show that there's something wrong with horse racing right now and the people in charge need to figure it out before the sport wastes totally away.
• And in case anybody is wondering, yes we saw and we're still waiting for a suspension on Anaheim's Mike Brown for his hit on Juri Hulder in Friday's Game 1 in Detroit. We've packed a lunch.
• Well the Natinals avoided another loss today as their game with as their game with St. Louis was rained out. While we give the Natinals credit for trying to get the game in today, it looks as if in true Natinals style that they botched the handling of the rainout. They get to repeat their mistakes again tomorrow night with the Astros in town because the forecast for tomorrow is a carbon copy of today's; rainy and cold all day. All this really does is allow Manny Acta to remain manager for a few more days.
• Don't look know, but D.C. United is in first place of the MLS Eastern Conference after last night's 2-1 win over FC Dallas. Once the Caps season is over we will make a point to pay closer attention to them because it looks as if their mix of youth and veterans is starting to come together.
• This week, the bulk of the Caps-Penguin Scum series will take place with Game 2 taking place in D.C. tomorrow night with Games 3 and 4 in Pittsburgh on Wednesday and Friday nights respectively. The Phone Booth in all likely hood will host Game 5 on Saturday night because we don't see the Caps sweeping this series. Stan Kasten will have his hands full entertaining his friends from Houston for a two game series on Monday and Tuesday before the Nats head out for their first West Coast trip of the season for two games with the L.A. Dodgers on Wednesday and Thursday and a three game series in Arizona next weekend. D.C. United visits Kansas City on Wednesday night and then hosts Toronto on Saturday night.
• As always folks, please send all comments, criticisms, corrections, suggestions, questions, and employment opportunities in the city of Pittsburgh to "capsnut" over at gmail dot com.