baDCarma week

Actually, it wasn't so much of a bad week as it was a bad day.  On Thursday the Caps lost a game seven - at home - a few hours after Ryan Zimmerman's 30-game hit streak ended in San Francisco.  Both events are related in that the Caps and ZImmerman were the only glimmers on a generally bleak Washington sports landscape.

I'm not a hockey fan at all and didn't read much of the coverage, but I was struck by a few letters to the editor that pointed out how flat the Caps played.  'Coming out flat' has got to be one of the oddest phenomena in sport.  Carolina came out flat in last year's Final Four, too.  I can see coming out flat against Radford, etc.  but why teams come out flat in a big game will always be a mystery.

NATS NOTES

We have Nats tickets tonight.  Evan and I were looking forward to seeing Zimm continue his streak but now can look forward another 8-6 game featuring great offense and horrible relief pitching.  Making matters worse we have Daniel Cabrera on the mound.  I'm not that crazy about Rob Dibble as the Nats' color man - he talks about himself too much, and Rob Carpenter seems starry eyed to be sharing a booth with a former Nasty Boy - but I like how he openly calls on Manny Acta to swap Kip Wells for Cabrera.

We know the Nats' pen stinks, but I'm starting to think that Manny Acta makes things worse in the way he uses it.  He's a little too open minded, and keeps giving guys like Kensing and others too many chances to audition for a job. Then again, I guess he doesn't have much choice.

One great thing about baseball is the history. To that end, I encourage folks to check out the list of players who have hit a home run in the their first at bat in today's Post (Archives, page D6).  It also lists if they homered on the first pitch and if it was a grand slam. The only guy to do that - grand slam on his first pitch - in more than 130 years of baseball is Kevin Kouzmenoff for Cleveland in 2006.

Interesting to note how complete the list is - the first homer listed is by George Tabeau for the 1887 Cincinnati team in the American Association.  The first National League entry is in 1890; American League in 1921 so I guess the Junior Circuit did not track stats as well in the 19th century.

Two more interesting notes on first pitch homers.   One, there appear to be a decent amount of pitchers on that list: Mark Wainwright, Dustin Hermanson, John Montefusco, Hoyt Wilhelm.   Two, outside of Wilhelm there aren't many Hall of Famers on the list.   Elijah Dukes is on there, but the best hitters on the list are folks like Terry Steinbach, Reggie Sanders, Carlos Lee, Bert Campaneris, Tim Wallach, Will Clark, Carmelo Martinez and Jermaine Dye.  Three pretty good managers, Whitey Lockman, Gene Lamont and Chuck Tanner are on there too. 

NBA Playoffs

For the first time this year I may Tivo two playoff games.  Even with J.J. Reddick on the floor for Orlando I am happily rooting for the Magic.  Both of those teams look incredibly mediocre to me.  Rondo and Howard are great players, but no one else has shown me - or more importantly Labron James - anything in that series.

Speaking of mediocre, how about the Rockets?  I expect the Lakers to stop sleep walking and wax the Yaoless team from Houston tonight.  I wonder if the Lakers will be able to turn it on for seven games against George Karl's Denver Nuggets?