Rizzo says...

The Nats general manager has found a replacement for Riggleman. Davey Johnson, the veteran manager will take over for at least the rest of the season.

In the NHL Draft, the Capitals traded their first round pick for Troy Brouwer (formally of the Chicago Black Hawks). Brouwer was part of the 2010 Stanley Cup win with the Black Hawks. He'll make a good addition to the Capitals. (Sorry to all people who thought that I was done with hockey, I was wrong.)

The NFL talks are still making progress. Sweet.

Shock wave

All Washington Nationals fans have something else to talk about know: Jim Riggleman has resigned as manager of the Nationals. He quit in the middle of their winning streak. Who is going to manage the next game? The Nationals organization has not released his replacement. They probably don't have one; but if they do who and where is he? Fans have mixed feelings about this, one even went so far as to compare the Nats mangers to how the Redskins plow through coaches. 

Football news:
Progress is still moving forward with agreements in the lock-out dispute.

Football and Baseball.

For football fans this is good news:  the lock-out may be over soon. Thank goodness, I was beginning to get worried that we might have to wait longer for a season to start; well, we may still have to wait. Back to the facts, the players and owners have come to a (sort of) agreement. The players will receive a little less than half the total revenue that the NFL makes every year. Hopefully they'll sign an agreement soon so training camp and the pre-season can get underway.

I feel really bad for Bryce Harper (an 18 year old, signed to the Washington Nationals, is playing in the South Atlantic League). He played last night with an injured thumb. That must have been hard, made worse by the fact that it was an All-Star game. Like rubbing salt in a wound.

U.S Open

So I usually don't watch golf or follow it for that matter but this is different. Rory McIlroy has won the  U.S Open and proved that he is THAT good; he may have messed up in the Masters but ending -16 is a very good make up. His dad was there to celebrate with him as he walked off the course. I was dumfounded at the end, the closest man was -8, that is just insane.  While watching this I may have been sucked into liking golf. McIlroy isn't like and I don't think will ever be like Tiger Woods (thank goodness). Woods is primadonna, really, he acts like a toddler, as if he owns the world, and that he is the greatest golfer ever all wrapped up in one. Does anyone remember the last time Woods played? I sure don't; maybe he feels threatened by the new guy from Northern Ireland who grew up in public housing with both parents working. Or maybe he's just done with golf. I really don't know but I like this Irishman better than a tiger who doesn't play.

In the baseball world, the Red Sox are two games ahead of the Yankes and finally the Nationals are doing well, so is Pittsburgh. Strange how one of the best (gag, I can't believe I just said that) teams stink (sort-of) and two of the worst are doing half way descent.

Finally yes, I am still celebrating Boston's Stanley Cup.

Best Day if you live in Boston...

So all the people in Boston and the rest of New England (and in my case VA), even those who don't really like hockey now can take pride in their Bruins. Let's just say that we creamed the Canucks, it was just a lousy preformance that they put up last night. I mean come on guys, you where the highest scoring team in the NHL and a lot of the team was on the gold medal Olympic team last  Febuary. They just looked tired, like they just wanted to be handed the Cup and told to go home and not work for it. Please, like that was going to happen. Boston was not and is not the type of team that is just going to lay down so easily. No way, no how, we wanted that cup and it was going to be ours no matter how hard we had to work. But back to the actual game. Like some of the earlier games in the series it was a blowout, 4-0. Two players had two goals each and one was a rookie. I do feel kinda bad for the Canuck's goalie (Roberto Luongo) though, he was pulled out of game 6 and was looking like he had just been taken off a bucking bronco (not like he was shaking but you could tell from the looks on his face).  The Sedin twins (Henrik and Daniel), top scorers for Vancouver, had a whopping total of 3 goals between the two in all seven games. Remember Aaron Rome? Yup the guy who plowed into Nathan Horton. That incident, combined with not having the Cup in 39 years just added fuel to the fire. Oh, Horton was at last night's game dumping a bottle of water from Boston in front of their bench. He didn't play of course, but he did lace up his skates taking a lap with the Cup and celebrating with his team. Tim Tomas really deserved this Cup because he held off one of the best teams in the league with only a few goals. The Vancouver fans weren't to happy about the loss and are asking for answers. Those may take until next season to get answered. There's only one bad thing about last night's game, it means the end of hockey until September.

In other sports news: the Washington Nationals have found their stride with bats and the rest of the team. They just made a statement to the St. Louis Cardinals beating them 10-0. Pretty good for them since they have started to get a bad rap.

Washington's minor league team, the Potomac Nats won in extra innings on a home run. It was great to watch and see all the sailing balls fly to the back of the stadium, there was at least 20 of them by the end of the game. Somehow I went to the one game that all the middle schools decided to go to; and since they are middle school kids half of them were on their phones, a few almost got beamed by baseballs. I think they should watch the game NOT their phones.

Game 7!

We're going to game 7!!!!! WOOHOO!!!! If you can't tell I just a little excited about this. It comes down to one game, two goalies, and two very motivated teams. On one hand we have the Boston Bruins- they haven't been to the play-off finals in over 20 years. They are firing on all cylinders. On the other hand we have the Vancouver Canucks- they don't have a cup and have never been this far into the play-offs. They really want this cup but so does Boston. Who wants it more? I have no idea. But who ever it is (you can guess which team I want to win) has earned it. This has been a hard fight to the end.

Nothing really

Nothing really is happening in the wide world of sports, but there are a few things going on in Boston. One: Red Sox are 2 games ahead of the NY Yankees and have been doing great.
Two: Bruins are down one game against the Canucks 3-2 but the next game is in Boston. Game 7 is in Vancouver... (please imagine this with me) runs around the room screaming AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!! IT CAN'T END LIKE THIS WE'VE TRIED SO HARD FOR THIS. Falls onto floor gasping. Back to reality now, they can tie it up in Boston... Vancouver's a different story. It's a hard arena to play in (please refer to the above comment). Next game is tomorrow night at 8.

Yesterday was a great day for Boston fans everywhere. The Red Sox beat the Yankees 11-6 and the Bruins beat Vancouver 4-0. In other baseball news Ryan Zimmerman is in recovery mode with the P-Nats. Which stinks for me because I don't know how long he's going to be playing for them and I seem to be working every time he plays. Hopefully he will stick around long enough for me to see him.

Bruins Horton Out

The Bruins told Vancouver that they won't go down that easily Monday night. If Vancouver thinks that we are just another weak team that will fall, think again. Sadly in the opening minutes in the first period Nathan Horton (Boston) passed the puck just before getting hit by Vancouver's Aaron Rome. Rome left his feet, slamming into Horton who went to the ice. Horton's head bounced off the ice and his right arm reached up into space. The line judge skated over calling for medics. Horton was taken from the ice on a stretcher with a neck brace. He was rushed to the hospital with a severe concussion. Later in the game a notification flashed on the scoreboard that Horton was awake and had feeling in his arms and legs. The whole staduim stood and applauded, even the Vancouver fans. Boston went on to win with a wicked awesome performance by the offense, scoring 8 goals. Horton is out for the rest of the play-offs and the NHL has suspend Rome for four games, the rest of the season.

In football news...the first Steeler to rush over 1,000 yards has died. John Henry Johnson, 81, died June 3 of an undisclosed reason.

Ramdom Sports Stuff

I read a couple of interesting articles in The Washington Post recently.  The first was about a high school track coach who decided to have his girls run in skorts over their spandex shorts.  The girls were uncomfortable running in the spandex shorts because of how the shorts clung to them and boys were making fun of them.  Their coach was watching tennis one night when he saw that some of the players here wearing skorts; that gave him an idea. "I've seen other women run in skorts before but running and racing are two different things," said Dunbar Coach Marvin Parker*, so he introduced wearing a mini skirt over top of the spandex shorts that was the old uniform.  The skorts have done a lot to raise the confidence of the team. "That skort is a miracle worker," said one of the runners, “you look good, you run good."*  I think it’s a good idea to add the skorts as part of their uniform.  If I was on their track team I’d much rather wear the skort than the tight shorty-shorts.

*Quotes from The Washington Post, May 26, 2011.

The second article read was the obituary of Australian Bill Roycroft.  He was an equestrian for the 1960 Olympic Equestrian team because he said he was unimpressed with the performance of the 1956 team.  He rode in the three day eventing, which includes dressage, cross-country, and show jumping.  During the cross-country, his horse Our Soul clipped his legs going over a jump, flipped over, and landed on Mr. Roycroft knocking him unconscious.  When he came to, he asked “Where’s my bloody horse?” and was offered oxygen by the Canadians and whiskey by the Americans.  He was airlifted to the hospital where he was found to have broken a bone in his shoulder, bruised his ribs, dislocated his collar bone and suffered a concussion.  Despite his injuries he demanded to be let go when he found out that one of his teammate’s horses was injured and couldn’t compete.  He told his doctors that he would walk out in his knickers if they didn’t give him his clothes back which they had confiscated to keep him from leaving.  He completed all 13 jumps successfully even though he was only able to hold the reins with one hand.  His performance helped Australia win their first equestrian gold medal at the Olympics.  I wish I had known Mr. Roycroft, he sounds like a very entertaining man.

(information about Mr. Roycroft came from his obituary in The Washington Post, June 4, 2011)

And finally, the Boston Bruins have managed to dig themselves into a 2-0  hole (best out of 7) in the Stanley Cup series with the Vancouver Canucks.  Humm, lucky them. But the next two games are on home ice so there is hope