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RealClearSports Washington, D.C.

Nationals Beset by Snoozing Offense

Matthew Kory, Sports on Earth

Griffin-Shanahan Pass Falls Incomplete

Les Carpenter, Yahoo! Sports

How's RG3's Knee? Who Knows?

Dave Sheinin, Washington Post

Why Can't Capitals Capitalize?

Matthew Kory, Sports on Earth

The 2012 Washington Nationals won 98 games, the most in baseball. They did it behind a great starting pitching staff, and with a few able relievers, but also with the help of an ...(full article)

Because he is smart and thoughtful and speaks for himself in a league where players are terrified to go off script, you must parse every word that comes from Robert Griffin III. ...(full article)

Robert Griffin III might be the most famous person in Washington D.C., more so than President Obama, who has yet to beat the Cowboys in December. Which doesn't totally explain wh...(full article)

The story of Robert Griffin III’s rehabilitation from January knee surgery has trickled out in occasional tweets and texts, in vague proclamations from the Redskins and Griffinâ...(full article)

Sometimes the easiest explanation is something extraordinary, something out of human control. It could be a curse, an extraordinary lack of luck, or conspiratorial favoritism by t...(full article)

More Recent Articles

Hey, Harper, the Wall Always Wins

A vague memory drew me to my bookshelf to find a book published 50 years ago. I flipped pages, until I saw “The Rocky Road of Pistol Pete,” by W.C. Heinz in 1958 about Pete Re...

Harper Does It All Except Protect Himself

The first thing Bryce Harper wanted to know was, “Is it bad?” He kept asking Denard Span, the first person who reached Harper on Monday night after he ran chin-first into rig...

The Anatomy of Harper's Swing

he realization came to Rick Schu this spring as he sat in front of a screen, collecting baseball swings. All winter, Schu, the Washington Nationals’ hitting coordinator, had bee...

New Challenge to Use of 'Redskins' Nickname

Amanda Blackhorse has never met Daniel Snyder, but she's thought about what she might say to him if she ever does. "I'd ask him, 'Would you dare call me a redskin, right here, to ...

Nats May Be Going From Slumping to Scoring

Most of the time, 11 runs over two days would provide little reason to celebrate, or even to notice. But after two weeks of almost entirely zeros, ones and twos, the five and six ...

It's Not Strasburg's Arm That's a Worry

Stephen Strasburg’s arm is “structurally perfect,” and he merely felt “irritation in his forearm” Monday night in Atlanta, possibly because of normal pregame use of a st...

Collins May Be Out, But Can He Still Play?

Jason Collins isn’t the first gay athlete. He’s not the first gay man in pro sports. He’s not even the first gay man in the NBA. But despite all the necessary caveats—he...

Strasburg's Arm Concerns Nationals

Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson is used to seeing Stephen Strasburg shake out his right arm. He does it often during his starts, whether to stay loose or rid his hand ...

Don't Panic About the Nationals ... Yet

I often talk to in-the-know baseball people, who for the purpose of this column will be called “John” and “Frank” (not their real names; their real names a...

Ovechkin Sparks Caps' Push Into Playoffs

In his 600th game as a National Hockey League player, the Capitals'Alex Ovechkin did not emerge with a victory. Ottawa beat Washington 2-1 in overtime Thursday night at Verizon Cen...

Best Pitchers Get Ahead, Then Stay There

Last week at Marlins Park, Ross Detwiler dominated Miami's lineup for seven innings. He gave up only one run, and even that was on a questionable call at home plate. He didn't wa...

Strasburg's Shyness Costs Him Big-Time

The biggest single reason Stephen Strasburg lost his fourth straight start on Wednesday as the Washington Nationals fell below .500 is because he won’t throw “strike on...

Harvey Delivers Against Strasburg, Nats

Matt Harvey had it all stacked high on his plate Friday night at Citi Field. The loaded Nationals in town, Stephen Strasburg opposing him, and for those requiring some historical ...

Strasburg, Harvey Set to Dial It Up

The two pitchers have crossed paths once, enough for a quick introduction by way of their shared representation, but they don’t really know each other. Still, they’ve seen the...

Ovechkin Streaks Into MVP Debate

It was only a few months ago that the Sid vs. Ovie debate seemed to have been put to rest for good. Alex Ovechkin basically waved the white flag himself during a Feb. 7 trip to Pi...

If He Ever Left, Ovechkin Surely Back

To say the man is back presumes he went somewhere in the first place. In a sense, Alex Ovechkin did. For five years he was half the answer to hockey’s greatest debate – Sid or...

1 Bad Weekend Not Enough to Sour Nats

An awful performance during an April series against the Atlanta Braves changes nothing in the long term for the Washington Nationals. Do we really need a daily reminder about how ...

NL East Showdown Begins in Outfield

In the eighth inning of a game Sunday, a pinch hitter for the Chicago Cubs named Dave Sappelt drilled a ball to deep center at Turner Field, a shot destined at least for the warn...

Redskins' White Hopes to Cap Unlikely Run

The voice on the other end of the line is not as expected. These are the words and inflections of an old soul -- measured, thoughtful, introspective responses to questions b...

Heat Ensure They'll Be Homebodies

To a degree, the Miami Heat played like strangers Wednesday night. To a degree, they were. Didn't matter. Not this season, when everything Arison-Riley-Spoelstra has turned to gold...

Want to Criticize Heat? Give It a Rest

It’s no secret perennial NBA playoff teams use the loophole of “nagging injuries” to ensure their best, big-minute players take off meaningless games at the end of the regu...

After Getting Ripped, Ovechkin Lets It Rip

Alex Ovechkin is the most over-paid, over-hyped athlete in Washington, and he should immediately be cut from the roster if the Capitals have any hope of ever winning a Stanley Cup....

NBA Lottery Winners Are Really Losers

Question: How does a team in the third year of a massive rebuilding project with no expectations other than gradual improvement have a disappointing season? Answer: When it's the ...

Concussion Suits Called Into Question

Look over the 4,182 former players suing the NFL over head injuries and the damage is difficult to miss. The Pro Football Hall of Famer who couldn’t speak during the last fou...

Nats Have 1-2 Punch Like Few Others

Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg announced themselves as a full-season, full-force tandem for the first time on opening day Monday. They turned Nationals Park, packed far past ...

Nats' Johnson Not the Retiring Type

Viera, Fla. — Davey Johnson can see everything, maybe even the future, but he does not want to talk about that. He will manage the Washington Nationals for one more season, ...

Shanahan Had Better Get on Griffin's Page

In this past week’s episode of “My Miraculous Offseason Recovery,” we entertain the question, “What’s in a text?” Really, what do the tea leav...

Nationals Dust Off Cliches to Explain Success

There probably have not been 10 teams in all of baseball history that were quite as hopeless as the 2009 Washington Nationals. They lost 103 games — the second year in a row th...

Cloaked in Mantle of a Baseball Legend

F.P. Santangelo fondly remembers the aftermath from that summer evening in Miami last August, a wonderful memory that left him with goose bumps. Washington Nationals rookie outfi...

RG3 Better Off Not Being 'Superhuman'

So, Robert Griffin III is superhuman. At least that’s what Dr. James Andrews thinks. “RG3 is one those superhumans,” the orthopedic surgeon to the stars and Wash...

How Florida Gulf Coast Overcame Its Seed

Hours after his team won the Atlantic Sun tournament to make the NCAA tournament in just its second year of eligibility, Florida Gulf Coast coach Andy Enfield weighed in on the se...

Upset Loss Not the 1st for Humiliated Hoyas

One upset during a stretch of games could be considered a fluke. Wipe away your tears and move on. But five difficult-to-stomach defeats in as many tournament appearances is a majo...

Wiz Facing Tough Call on Wall

The rookie scale — a predetermined range that dictates minimum and maximum contracts for first-round picks — is team-friendly by design and generally serves to create some of ...

Syracuse-Georgetown Goes Out Swinging

NEW YORK — Get the obvious out of the way first: This was appropriate. If Syracuse and Georgetown will never play each other again in the Big East tournament — and yes...

Once a Hero, Then a Suicide Victim

You know the wish can’t come true, but people say it all the time to hide their own fears, so you’ll open with it, too: You wish he could just be happy. It would be e...

Unseen Problem for Nationals' Rotation

The Washington Nationals had excellent pitching in 2012. The same five arms made 150 of the team's 162 starts, with a 3.40 ERA in a league in which the average starter put u...

So Good, So Young, So Impossible to Predict

Welcome to projection season. This is the time for magazines, books and, of course, websites to make educated (and sometimes not-so-educated) guesses about the future of the burg...

Nats Done Babysitting Strasburg, Or Are They?

LAKELAND, Fla.—Talk about the most notorious shutdown in pitching annals has been, well, shut down. The shackles have been removed and Stephen Strasburg is free to pitch as many...

Hoyas Get Fitting Finale to Syracuse Rivalry

Winning a conference regular season title isn’t something new for Georgetown Coach John Thompson III. In fact, during 13 seasons as a head coach, Thompson has accomplished t...

Classic Basketball Rivalry About to Die

On Saturday at Verizon Center, Georgetown and Syracuse will play their last regular season game as Big East foes. Among the founders of what many have deemed the country’s most ...

Strasburg Kindles Gooden Comparisons

Stephen Strasburg had dazzling stuff. From the beginning, there was no question about that. He could run his fastball up there at 100 mph, and even though that was impressive, ev...

Honey Badger Classic Case of Risk-Reward

The NFL draft will be here before we know it. The event starts April 25. The Redskins don’t join the party until the next day, since the first round is all that is done on “op...

Harper Burdened, Buoyed by Expectations

In Florida, Bryce Harper is hitting .474. It’s only 19 at-bats, but everything he hits is a missile. So once again, we ask, “How good will Harper be and how soon?&rdqu...

Duke Latest Top-5 Team to Tumble

When Virginia took the floor in front of a sellout crowd that filled the seats at John Paul Jones Arena long before tip-off, it had been 11 years to the day since the Cavaliers l...

Strasburg's Talent an Eternal Dilemma

There has, quite literally, never been anybody in baseball history like Stephen Strasburg. No starting pitcher has struck out batters with the frequency of Strasburg. Nobody has ...

Beal Perfect Complement to Wall

Great shooters, like great hitters, are born rather than made. Reggie Miller. Larry Bird. Ray Allen. Jeff Hornacek. Glen Rice. Mitch Richmond. Dirk Nowitzki. Michael Jordan. Thro...

Strasburg Strikes Out 13 Red Sox

A century’s worth of players have passed through Fenway Park, a living, pulsating artifact, where history seeps through the emerald walls. Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harpe...

Harper, Hamels Move Past HBP

The name came quickly to Hunter Pence. "Bush," Pence said. "Dave Bush." When Pence, then with the Astros, made his Major League debut against the Brewers on April 28, 2007, Bush w...

Nationals Continue Mastery of Phillies

The final, fraying vestiges of the Philadelphia Phillies’ superiority over the Washington Nationals unraveled Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies sent to the mo...

Caps Try to Erase Past Playoff Woes

There’s a gleam in Coach Dale Hunter’s eyes whenever he talks about playing in a Game 7. These pressure cookers are the contests players remember most, he says, games...

Nats' Harper Injured Throwing Tantrum

Bryce Harper sheepishly emerged from the trainers’ room in the Washington Nationals’ clubhouse late Friday night, a golf ball-size welt and 10 stitches over his left ...

Strasburg Fans 13; Nats Snap Skid

Thursday afternoon, before batting practice, Davey Johnson gathered the Washington Nationals in their clubhouse at PNC Park. The manager told his players he remained behind them, ...

Ovechkin Making More Out of Less

“Of course sometimes you get angry you didn’t play a lot of minutes, and sometimes you get angry you’re not out there,” Ovechkin said before Game 7 agains...

Nationals Win on Harper's RBI Double

Twenty-five games into this season, the Washington Nationals are without, to name a few, their best slugger (Michael Morse), their best player (Ryan Zimmerman) and their closer (D...

6 Draft Picks With Lingering Questions

Robert Griffin III, QB, Washington Redskins: I live in Washington, D.C., and the excitement surrounding RG3's arrival is enormous. Griffin is an excellent athlete who made plays o...

Harper Has 3 Hits as Nats Snap Skid

The kid dubbed the “Chosen One,” with the funky hair, the moonshot-producing swing, the bravado and the rocket arm, spent 7,135 days — that’s roughly 19 1...

Nats' Harper 0-for-3 in Home Debut

Bryce Harper and his preternatural ability, his magnetism anywhere on a baseball diamond, will spread murmurs and chills throughout Nationals Park for years to come. The first t...

Caps, Bruins Familiar with Game 7s

Dale Hunter gushed about it: a Game 7 for the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night at the Boston Bruins with a trip to the second round on the line. “You’ve got to pr...

Holtby Latest Unlikely Goalie Star

Fresh off a 44-save performance against the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins in Washington's series-tying Game 4 win on Thursday, rookie goaltender Braden Holtby just...

Capitals Must Rise Above Scrums

“Stuff happens in the playoffs,” Karl Alzner said Wednesday, after the Washington Capitals were done banging the puck around at Kettler Iceplex. Oh yes, stuff does. Lo...

Backstrom Lifts Caps in Double OT

Nicklas Backstrom scored 2:56 into the second overtime Saturday to give the Washington Capitals a 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins and tie the first-round playoff series at a g...

Caps Have New Role as Underdog

Back in September, hockey experts predicted that the Washington Capitals would sit atop the Eastern Conference in the spring. This year, they would advance beyond the second round...

Nats' Strasburg Dominates Mets

The delicate treatment of Stephen Strasburg ended Wednesday afternoon. In the sixth inning, with the tying run on second base, the Washington Nationals chose competition over prec...

Strasburg Sharp in Win Over Cubs

Even if Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg goes on to follow the wondrous career path laid out for him and collect a Jack Morris-like haul of Opening Day starts, his ...

Caps Need to Win Final 2 Games

After five months of up and down results, the Washington Capitals’ playoff hopes rest on the results of their final two regular season games. The stakes couldn’t be an...

Pressure on Caps' Young Goalies

Nine months ago to the day, the Washington Capitals made a decision to sign a veteran goaltender they hoped could push them above the fray, a move that freed them from pinning ex...

Nats Believe They're Contenders

After going 80-81 last year and making several impact moves in the offseason, the Washington Nationals have crossed the line from intriguing to "fashionable.'' The players caught...

Who Is Capitals' No. 1 Goalie?

While each team in a playoff position in the Eastern Conference has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, nearly all of them have one thing in common – a go-to option in n...

Caps Drop Key Game vs. Sabres

For days, the Washington Capitals spoke of Tuesday night’s contest as having the weight of a playoff game. Coach Dale Hunter even compared it to the intensity of a Game 7. ...

Sabres Make Statement vs. Capitals

The showdown became a stunning beatdown. The Buffalo Sabres were better in every area Tuesday night in rolling to a 5-1 win over the Washington Capitals and taking a two-point lea...

Nene Leads Wizards in Win Over Nets

For the first time in nearly 10 years, Nene stepped into an NBA arena and he wasn’t representing the Denver Nuggets or wearing the No. 31. The last week has been an emotion...

Jets Down Caps in Critical Contest

A four-on-four situation against the talent-laden Washington Capitals deep into a tie game — not what most Winnipeg Jets’ fans were hoping to see. But the Jets turned...

Redskins Get It Right in Big Trade

Those Redskins fans exasperated by their franchise's profligate free-agent spending and wasteful attitude when it comes to draft picks (especially in the Vinny Cerrato "era") wou...

Where Might Manning Land?

It's finally upon us. Wednesday is expected to be the day we've all been waiting for. Peyton Manning can be your quarterback IF ... the Price is Right! Forget about "The Decision ...

Nats' Harper Showing Improvement

Bryce Harper glanced across the Space Coast Stadium diamond Friday afternoon at the Georgetown Hoyas, almost all of whom were older than him. If Harper had stayed on a typical sc...

Hoyas Aim for Double Bye in Big East

Georgetown men’s basketball Coach John Thompson III said he intentionally ignored his team’s seeding scenarios for the Big East tournament in an effort to avoid get...

Ovechkin's Return Sparks Capitals

With time running out and their margin for error all but used up, Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals returned to Verizon Center on Friday night and played with the type of ...

Seton Hall Bolsters Resume

In the two days before Tuesday night's game, Seton Hall talked about how it needed to prove that Saturday's abysmal loss at Cincinnati was a fluke. Mission. Accomplished. With th...

Jets Come Back for Big Win vs. Caps

Instead of falling six points back of the Southeast Division-leading Capitals, the Jets today are just three back of that top rung in their division. The Caps and Florida, winner...

Nationals Waiting on Phenom Harper

In 2009, when the Nationals lost 103 games, their pitchers allowed 874 runs. Two years later, they cut that total by 231 runs. That is why GM Mike Rizzo (with owner Ted Lerner&rsqu...

McGee's Mom Comes to His Defense

This is the night the hammer comes down, you’ve decided. This is the night to call out the brain lock and the boneheadedness — everything embodied by their starting c...

Wizards Hand Thunder 3rd Loss

Jordan Crawford tossed the ball skyward from near halfcourt and John Wall soared to catch it and dunked with two hands. Wall swung on the rim, let out a guttural scream and viol...

Wizards Coach Rips Showboating

Wizards center JaVale McGee has been a walking highlight reel from the moment he came into the league; an incredible athlete with superior speed and leaping ability that makes h...

Capitals Shut Out Penguins

Tomas Vokoun told his teammates before Wednesday night’s meeting with the rival Pittsburgh Penguins that he planned to be involved in the contest, not just by making saves ...

Wizards Pick Up 1st Win of Season

John Wall blocked Toronto Raptors guard Jose Calderon’s jumper and Jordan Crawford scooped up the ball. Wall and JaVale McGee both took off on a full-out sprint and leapt a...

Wizards Fall Short of 1st Victory

The unfamiliar sights were in abundance as the Washington Wizards attempted to no longer be the NBA’s only winless team. But no amount of exuberance, extra effort and impass...

Caps, Kings Highlight 1st-Half Stories

Officially, the NHL’s 2011-12 season will reach the midpoint point Monday with Game 615 between the Los Angeles Kings and the Washington Capitals, and it’s an inadver...

Wizards Off to Worst Start Ever

Andray Blatche pulled the hood of his sweatshirt over his head, placed a pair of oversize headphones on his ears, and scrolled to a Sam Cooke song on his iPod. As he grabbed his...

Nats, Boras Meet About Fielder

The Nationals are in the Prince Fielder sweepstakes, according to a baseball source, and ownership recently visited with Fielder's agent, Scott Boras, in the nation's capital. It...

Gtown Success Traced Back to China

Georgetown's impromptu fight with a Chinese team, the Bayi Military Rockets, in Beijing in mid-August was not condoned. But it is being privately celebrated for its positive conseq...

Capitals Starting to Click

Things are starting to come together for the Capitals. Just over five weeks after firing former coach Bruce Boudreau, Washington is making strides under new coach Dale Hunter. O...

Devils Improve to 8-1 in Shootouts

There was no need to have seen any of the Devils’ first 33 games. On the eve of the NHL’s Christmas break, they summed up their entire season in one roller coaster fin...

Ovechkin, Neuvirth Power Caps

Steadiness hasn’t often been a trait used to describe the Washington Capitals’ goaltenders this month. But Thursday night, Michal Neuvirth put on the type of performanc...

Another Ugly Loss for Capitals

The Capitals made a coaching change last month because general manager George McPhee saw far too many games like this one. Rested after three days off and playing at home against...

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