The Washington Kastles rallied from an early deficit Tuesday night to defeat the visiting New York Sportimes and tennis legend John McEnroe in front of a capacity crowd at Kastles Stadium at CityCenter DC. The women's doubles team of Mashona Washington and Sacha Jones won their match 5 games to 1 to set up a super-tiebreaker to decide the match, which they won 7-5. The Sportimes took an early 10 games to 2 lead after......

Facing a must win situation against an opponent in preseason form, D.C. United suffered a disappointing 3-2 loss to F.C. Atlante last night. United put forth a solid effort, but was exposed by Atlante F.C.'s efficient counter attack. Atlante's victory relegated United's SuperLiga 2008 hopes to a mere prayer. The SuperLiga pits four MLS teams against four Mexican clubs. The teams are selected based on their performances in domestic league and tournament play during the......

The Washington Capitals announced last week that they've signed Sergei Fedorov to a $4 million contract for the coming season. Citizens State Bank, a Michigan financial institution, announced today that they are suing Fedorov for $2 million in unpaid loans. Fedorov, who won the Hart trophy as the NHL's MVP in 1994, has made a lot of money in his time. He once earned $12 million dollars for writing his name. He's widely considered to......

Everywhere from here to Vancouver, hockey fans are jumping up and down and screaming over the Caps' new Spirit Squad. The Caps posted a want ad on Saturday and by Sunday team owner Ted Leonsis had publicly responded to fan outcry. Leonsis reassured fans that the Spirit Squad will be tastefully clad and perform in a manner that won't offend anyone. Meanwhile, in addition to this public assurance, A View From The Cheap Seats......

Down 2-1 with Jaime Moreno, the MLS all time scoring leader, coming to the line to take a penalty kick in the 78th minute of their SuperLiga match versus CD Guadalajara, D.C. United had to feel good about their chances of eking out a draw or maybe even a win. Moreno had buried his last 20 PK attempts, a streak lasting over four years, and is about as close to automatic as you can get......

Last week, we told you that the city's new World Team Tennis franchise, the Washington Kastles, asked you to come up with a name for one of their mascots. We are sorry, but perhaps not surprised, to disappoint DCist commenters with the news that Ballsy the Ball, Butterball, Deuce, Goofball, Meaty, Shuttle Cock, and my personal favorite, Dingle, were not chosen. According to the team's Web site, the winning suggestion was Topspin. If you submitted......

When Tony "The Tiger" Thompson enters the ring in Hamburg, Germany on Saturday, he will be fighting for his family and his future, but he won't be fighting because of any love of the sport. From the Post:I really don't like to train for boxing. I'm just good at it. It's what I do to make a living. If I had my choices of making a living, I'm not one of those people who would......

I was worried that the low number of comments on my Nationals posts spoke to their quality. Fortunately, the problem is that no one cares about the team or chooses to watch them on television. The Nationals are last in the league in television viewership with an average of 9,000 households per game. The next lowest team, Kansas City, has an average television audience of 28,000 households. It is really a staggering statistic. It is......

Regrettably, the Washington Kastles, the city's new World TeamTennis franchise, did not solicit our help in choosing their team name. Apparently wanting to make things right, the team is asking the public to suggest a name for one of their slightly creepy mascots, a dopey-eyed, cap-sporting tennis ball (the other one, a guy in a knight costume, is presumably, uh, Mr. Kastle? Sir Kastle?). The lucky person whose name is chosen will receive two free......

The Capitals have agreed to terms on a one year contract with former MVP Sergei Fedorov. Fedorov has won three Stanley Cups while playing center, wing and defense. He has also been voted the NHL's best defensive forward. He reportedly had many contract offers from teams throughout the NHL and Russia's new KHL, but he took a 33 percent paycut from last season to stay with the Caps for $4 million. This could have something......

Those Nationals went a respectable 3-3 over the last week. They took a three game set against the Orioles, a series highlighted by a thrilling 12th inning walk off homerun. Since the team has come to Washington, the Nationals are 10-8 against Baltimore. Also, the fact that Teddy earned his first race win against the Oriole Bird cannot be ignored. This year has been the first year during which it felt like a real rivalry......

Jose Theodore signed a two year, $9 million contract to play for the Capitals yesterday. Theodore brings a lot of great accomplishments and a lot of question marks to the Capitals. Last year in Colorado, he took turns losing the starting goalie job with younger disappointment Peter Budaj. Still, Theodore is the answer on paper to many of the Capitals' questions. NHL free agency started yesterday--the time when veteran players who have finished their......

Mike Green came to terms with the Capitals today on a four-year, $21 million dollar contract to play ice hockey. In my first post on DCist, all the way back in October of 2006, I described a hard-fought match between the Caps and the Avalanche that reached its climax when "Green, the Caps star minor-league defenseman, who is expected to show signs of someday belonging in the NHL by the end of this season,......

Rising temperatures and high humidity created oppressive conditions during yesterday's match between D.C. United and the L.A. Galaxy. The Galaxy ended up taking the worst of it, with United's attack providing the most unbearable heat. Day games are normally held in the mid-to-late afternoon in order to avoid playing directly under the sun. To maximize exposure, the game was scheduled before the afternoon's European Championship and broadcast nationally on ABC. The game promised two assets......

Yesterday, Nationals manager Manny Acta called a team meeting to remind his players that they are not "independent league players." The point was that, despite being younger and not as talented as some other clubs, they are expected to be able to complete routine plays like hitting the cutoff man and fielding the baseball. It is clear that Manny will live with a team that is last in the National League in every offensive category,......

They may measure two inches shy of a collective 19 feet tall, but the first three Caps picks from this weekend's NHL draft stand on the shoulders of giants. With two picks in the first round and their first of two in the second, the Caps brought in players with strong connections to franchise history, tying the team's future to its past. The Caps traded up to the 21st overall spot to pick Anton Gustafsson,......

He's a lover and a fighter: Kassim Ouma reflects on his violent past in Kassim the Dream It sounds like — if you’ll pardon the expression — something out of a movie: Junior Middleweight Champion fighter Kassim “The Dream” Ouma escapes the darkest of pasts to find his way from Africa to America, arrives penniless and unable to speak English, and within a year he’s a professional fighter with a surrogate family, money in......

The Nationals went 3-4 in the last week. The three wins came against the Seattle Mariners, the only team with a worse record than the Nats. Jose Vidro is their designated hitter, and they no longer have their manager. This is actually a good way to measure managers this year. If your team gets swept by the Nationals, then you deserve to be fired. The Nats still have the worst record in the NL, and......

D.C. United continued their strong play of late on Saturday night at a rainy RFK Stadium, showing a newfound attacking acumen while dispatching the NY Red Bull 4-1. Luciano Emilio, showing the form of 2007-era Ben Olson, led United's scoring attack with his first MLS hat trick (perhaps he was motivated by the Morelia scouts that were reportedly in attendance?), while Clyde Simms netted a nice long distance strike in the first half. The Red......

Alexander Ovechkin receives a key to the city from D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray and Mayor Adrian Fenty. Photo by Lateef Mangum, courtesy the Mayor’s Office. Written by DCist contributor Josh Novikoff Alexander Ovechkin received a key to the city this afternoon on the steps of the John A. Wilson Building. Several hundred fans, downtown office workers, and gawking tourists were on hand to revel in the success of the Washington Capitals star left-winger.......

Photo of Alexander Ovechkin by ctankcycles Alexander Ovechkin completed a sweep last night of the NHL's four biggest awards. Ovechkin was named the player most valuable to his team by the NHL's players and professional writers alike, winning the Hart Trophy and the Lester B. Pearson Award Ovechkin had already, of course, won the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy, for leading the league in goals and the Art Ross Trophy for leading the league in......

Tonight is the NHL's annual awards show. Alexander Ovechkin, who has won both of the NHL's scoring titles, is nominated for both of the league's most valuable player awards as well. Two other Capitals could be honored tonight. Bruce Boudreau is up for Coach of the Year, and has a slim chance. Nicklas Backstrom is nominated for Rookie of the Year, but the honor is predicted to fall upon Chicago's Patrick Kane. Ovechkin's fellow nominees......

The Nationals have won 3 of their last 13 games, and possess the second worst record in the National League. The team is currently batting .235, have an OBP of .310, are slugging .357, and have an OPS of .667. They also have 229 total RBIs and 781 total bases. What is amazing about all of these statistics is that the Nationals trail all other NL teams in each of them. In fact, these numbers......

Tony Thompson (AP Photo) Via Boxing Along the Beltway, we have learned that another D.C. athlete has become a blogger. Boxer Tony "The Tiger" Thompson has started blogging in preparation for his July 12 fight with Wladimir Klitschko for the IBO, IBF, and WBO Heavyweight Championship Belts. Well, kinda. It looks like he is sending out letters to some boxing outlets. They are blog posts, but he doesn't have them on a blog of......

Photo of Gilbert Arenas by Kyle Gustafson True to his word, yesterday Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas opted out of the final year of his contract, leaving $12.8 million on the table in the hopes of signing a longer and more lucrative deal. Whether that will be with the Wizards remains to be seen. Arenas played only 13 games this year, his season cut short by a nagging knee injury, leaving open the question......

The Nats are 3-3 in the last week. They even managed to score 25 runs in those 6 games, up from the 17 that they scored in the previous 7 games. They are still only batting .218 as a team with a .267 OBP in the last 7 days, putting them second to last in the National League during that period. Overall, the team is last in the National League with a .234 batting average,......

It's far too early to report an actual relationship, but we got a kick out of this anyway. A brand new blog honestly titled Hot Leader Celeb reports, in questionable English prose, that Alexander Ovechkin is seeing a woman named Lena Lenskaya. This is based on a picture of the two of them standing next to each other at a party. We're sure our readers will agree: if you stand next to a girl......

Saturday's early game storyline must have seemed awfully familiar to D.C. United. After dominating possession for several stretches in the opening minutes, a momentary lapse of coverage in the defense led to a successful opposing counterattack. To add to the similarities, the protagonist of the counterattack was none other than last Wednesday's lone goal scorer, Danny Dichio. Though United fought back to tie the score, the 6'2" target man added another strike in the closing......

The Nationals have gone 3-4 in the last week. Considering that the Nationals appear to have no interest in scoring runs, this record is fairly amazing. The Nationals are currently 28th, out of 30 teams, in the Major League in batting average at .237, 25th in OBP at .316, and 29th in slugging at .352. In fact, just pick about any offensive stat and the Nationals will be at the bottom of the list. When......

We're just getting into the thick of wedding season, and so apparently are the Washington Redskins. Somewhat infamous bachelor and Pro Bowl tight end Chris Cooley settled down with his ex-'Skinette fiancee Christy Oglevee this coming weekend in Landsdowne. Their relationship has gotten plenty of ink (virtual and real) over the past couple years. Cooley himself waxed poetic about the romance just last week, writing on his Yahoo Sports blog, "Maybe her dad brainwashed me......