Today’s Washington Post has a special pro football insert headlined “NFL ’09.”
The most interesting reading in the 14-page pullout comes in one of its few advertisements. Main Line Animal Rescue, a Philadelphia group that apparently specializes in saving “Bully Breeds” of dogs, bought space in the section.
The ad copy, placed alongside a photo of what I assume is a pit bull:
Attention Football Fans: Philadelphia is playing Washington on October 26.
Every time Michael Vick is tackled during the game, Main Line Animal Rescue will donate 5 bags of dog food to your local animal shelter.
“Because there are no second chances on an empty stomach.”
Consider volunteering at your local shelter on the day of the game. Spend some time walking, or brushing, or bathing, or hugging a homeless Pit Bull.
Not exactly the bounty on players’ heads that led to the famous “Body Bag Game” between the Skins and Eagles in 1990, but, still.
My sense is the outrage against Vick has waned so much and so fast that by the time the Eagles get to DC, there’ll be a lot more talk about the wildcat offense than dog killing.
(By the way: The other ads in the Post’s football section are: four small spots for imported car dealers, one for a job fair, and a half-pager, the biggest in the section) announcing a blowout chain saw sale. Men! Men! Men!)
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(AFTER THE JUMP: Wilbon already blames Snyder for lousy season? Kornheiser speaks no Snyder? Unseld whupped Yao’s dad? The Asian Bias™ in golf affects White House visit? The Nats Countdown to 100 Losses starts now? Pedro Martinez already has more wins than most Nats?)
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Back in the regular sports section, the Post runs a column, headlined “Hot Topic,” that has Michael Wilbon downgrading his record forecast for the 2009 Skins from 11-5 to 8-8. Wilbon says he ordered the recount because of his paper’s fabulous series on the Redskins selling tickets to scalpers and suing down-on-their-luck grannies.
But where the heck did 11-5 come from in the first place?
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Wilbon’s PTI partner Tony Kornheiser restarted his radio show yesterday. I listened to most of the two-hour broadcast, but didn’t hear any discussion of Dan Snyder’s ticket issues. Far as I and Wilbon can tell, those are still the hottest topics in town. Kornheiser now works at WTEM-AM, owned by Snyder.
After Kornheiser’s show, I flipped to rival sportstalker WJFK-FM, for Washington Post columnist Mike Wise‘s program, in time to hear Wise’s sidekick say, “Call us if you hate the owner!”
WJFK isn’t owned by Snyder.
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The Bullets/Wizards are in China again. A delegation led by Wes Unseld, Gheorghe Muresan, Caron Butler and Randy Foye (a newcomer who is only less familiar in the provinces than in DC) showed up in Beijing to remember a pioneering barnstorming tour of the Far East arranged 30 years ago by Abe Pollin.
No team had ever been to China before the Bullets. Awesome trivia from Unseld: The former Great Wall of the Bullets’ front line remembers playing all those years ago in Shanghai against Yao Ming‘s dad, a year before the future Houston Rockets center was born.
Pollin helped make the world a lot smaller than it was back then.
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Which makes this a perfect time for an update on…the Asian Bias™ in Golf! Greg Norman, who was in town for a White House visit yesterday, sees that golf’s future is in the East. The Australian legend is captaining the “International” squad in the upcoming (and always bogus) President’s Cup, a silly nationalistic links exercise that was founded in Northern Virginia at the Lansdowne resort but will be held next month at Harding Park in San Francisco. While meeting with the president, Norman was taking a lot of stuff from golf fans for using his captain’s choice to put Ryo Ishikawa, a 17-year-old from Japan, on the un-American President’s Cup team. Ishikawa will join Y.E. Yang of Korea.
The USA squad’s proof of the Asian Bias™ comes with Anthony Kim and, of course, Woods.
Last week, 17-year-old Byeong-Hun An of Seoul, South Korea, became the youngest golfer ever to win the 2009 U.S. Amateur championship. The tournament record for youth was previously held by Danny Lee, also a South Korean native, who was just 18 when he won the 2008 U.S. Amateur. Lee broke the record set by the Godfather of the Asian Bias™ in golf: Tiger Woods.
The 2009 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship was won recently by Jennifer Song of Daejon, Korea.
Cheap Seats Daily, intrigued as all get out by the Eastern dominance of what just yesterday was the lily-whitest sport in the history of man, promises to continue to hype the Asian Bias™ until Lou Dobbs treats our reports like real news.
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The Nats lost to the Phils, 5-3.
Let the Countdown to 100 Losses begin! Washington is now 47-91, and would have to go 16-8 to avoid a third season in a row with triple-figure losses.
That ain’t gonna happen: 18 of the remaining games are against teams above .500, including nine vs. either the Phillies or Dodgers.
Pedro Martinez got the win for Philadelphia. If memory serves, Martinez hadn’t thrown a pitch this season before last week. But he now has a 4-0 record. Before yesterday’s September call-ups, which included Shairon Martis (5-3 with the Nats prior to being sent to the minors), Washington had only one pitcher on the roster with more wins in 2009 than Martinez — John Lannan, now at 8-10. Amazing…
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