Redskins Stumble out of Preseaon
The Redskins dropped their fourth and final preseason game last night, losing to the Baltimore Ravens 17-10. The loss sealed the first winless preseason in Joe Gibbs’ 24 years as a coach. Though common wisdom dictates the insignificance of the preseason, there should be cause for concern among Redskins fans. The team scored a meager 27 points over the 4 preseason games, their lowest total since 1961. Their first-team offense failed to score a single point. The Skins’ defense has not impressed, and special teams play has been particularly inept. Though we realize it’s a stretch to glean any semblance of optimism from such dismal play, we’re gonna try anyway: the last time the Redskins had a winless preseason was 1982. The significance of that season? Only coach Gibbs’ first Super Bowl victory.
Team USA Bows Out of Worlds
This morning, U.S. Basketball assured itself yet another disappointing finish in international play, losing to Greece 101-95 in the World Championship semifinals. The U.S. squandered a 12-point lead. They can now do no better than a third-place finish, contingent upon tomorrow’s consolation game against Spain. We can’t help but wonder if this poor performance would have been remedied by a dose of Gilbertology. Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas was one of the last cuts to the U.S.’s final roster. It was reported that Arenas was left off the squad due to an injured groin, but earlier this week, the endearingly eccentric scorer gave a different account of his exclusion. Agent Zero is crying foul, saying that his injury was overblown, and that his removal from the team was due mainly to the favoritism employed by team coach Mike Krzyzewski. We will never know with certainty whether Gilbert would have made the difference against Greece this morning, but we are pretty sure that Gilbert thinks he would have. Look for Arenas to really turn it on this season, as he will be determined to show the entire nation the quality of player they missed in the last couple of weeks.
Nats Jettison Anderson, Ward
And thus the Marlons are no more. After designating Marlon Byrd for assignment in mid-July, the Nats rid themselves of namesake Marlon Anderson yesterday, notifying him 20 minutes after he scored the winning run in last night’s game. The Nats also parted ways with OF Daryle Ward. As the team sent Anderson to the Dodgers and Ward to the Braves, the Nationals picked up a pair of prospects. Anderson’s trade brought in Jhonny Nunez, a right handed starter that the Nats consider the third-best prospect in the Gulf Coast League. They received Luis Atilano, another RHP, from the Braves. Atilano is a former first-round draft pick, but underwent reconstructive elbow surgery 10 days ago, and is not expected to pitch until 2008.
