Conversations / Live Q&A

Yes, Crystal City Sports Pub, July 16, 6 p.m. I believe that is walk-able from the Crystal City Metro stop; chatters, please correct me if I'm wrong -- it feels like ages since we discussed this. More can be found here.

And hello, everyone. I hope your Fourths were great and that your Fifths are even better! Let's get going. I do expect this to be a quiet day, chat-wise, but we'll see.

And if this Azarenka makes the women's finals, I'll be breakfasting without Wimbledon this year. That ridiculous noise!

Well, let's see. Strasburg's shutdown will happen, so go ahead and worry about that. Zim won't develop an allergy to cortisone, but there are issues with this that I may columnize about at some point. Teddy will never win the President's race. Will one of them pass out in those suits? Highly possible. Back in the day, we did one quarter of one football game -- I don't have to tell you how hot it was on the turf in September and October. One quarter was more than enough. We were not fit company afterward. During basketball season, we were able to do one half of one game. I'm guessing those suits are more vented and made of lighter weight material than ours, but they are larger, so it hardly matters. They are still hot and heavy and unpleasant. And man, must they be funky. I would invest in Febreze stock, AHG.

Yes, back problems are a crapshoot -- that is the perfect word. Some people have surgery and it works like a charm. Others -- not so much. And while sometimes it depends on the quality of the surgeon, quite often that has nothing to do with it. It's just the kind of injury.

Well, I had mine on the 19th, so I'm good to go. I do think there is a danger here and they aren't a permanent answer.

I think people will discover that they can be both. It's not like you have to choose one, like declaring a major. The Skins play once a week. RGIII is a dynamic personality and I can't wait to see what happens -- but there are a lot of dynamic personalities playing for the Nats, too.

Everyone loves the heat except poor Stras, it seems. They sure found their bats. Yesterday's game was fun to watch. The all-star game may be coming at a bad time for them -- they are rolling.

I might be mentioning Pistorius in tomorrow's column. Maybe. Perhaps. I, too, love the 11 a.m. start. Not practical a lot of days but for summer day games, why not? Get people in and out before rush hour hits on the trains, keeps the players out of the hottest part of the day, there's a lot to be said for it. Following a rain-delayed night game, it's not ideal, though. They get to the park pretty early.

I still say people can have both. I hope I'm right. This is still predominantly a Skins town but as I said last week, four years ago the Nats slipped inside the paper when the Olympics and Skins started up and it wasn't a hard decision. That will not happen this time around. And it shouldn't. They've earned it.

At every Olympics, I used to do the St. Crispin's day speech on the day before Opening Ceremonies. I love that one. I would like to have given that one more time, in England, where "gentleman now abed shall think themselves cursed, and hold their manhoods cheap, whilst any speaks that fought with us upon St. Crispin's  Day!"

That may not be perfect; trying to do it off the top of my head.

The price for either would be high. I wonder about Greinke. He had his chance to be here. And Hamels ... I really wonder about Hamels. What a locker room meeting that would be between him and Harper. Rizzo has proven he is loathe to trade away talent they've developed; I wonder if he thinks they can make it with spit and baling wire and a tight bullpen. They sure have so far.

Tricky way of making me make a prediction. 8.

Boz was giddy as a girl, as the saying goes, when the Nats were not, ah, good. He's off the charts now. Then I found myself channeling him for Monday's column. Disturbing. I find Boz as charming now as he's ever been. Benjamin. Button.

That must have been Boz's remark - it IS high but he goes far more often than me! There are elevators from the field level to the box. I'm not quite ready to brave a game but looking at the schedule to try to find an appropriate date.

I believe that if the season ended this morning the Angels and Orioles would have a one-game playoff for the AL wild-card spot. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I think you have to put him in there and see what he does, yes.

Hmmm, above-ground pool. Since my grass is dead anyway, I could get one of those.

I'm sorry I can't answer that. I can answer bookshelf and paint questions, though. :) Seriously, I'm guessing they are on vacation but when in doubt, email one of the chatters. I'm sure their email addresses, like most, are last name first initial @washpost.com. Or they all took the buyout. Seriously, this place is depleted.

I can't speak for McPhee's thinking but I'd be surprised if they don't want to rid themselves of him. I don't think re-signing him for less is much of a problem; no one is busting down the door at Kettler trying to steal the guy at the moment.

I'm back, back to my usual writing schedule, etc. I don't have internet at home, but hey, I'm not complaining! The kitties held up pretty well. I get bored easily and did not, but again, it was only like a day and change, so get over it, Tracee! I feel terrible for those people still trapped with no power. Must be awful.

Please don't read what I write anymore. No one put a gun to your head, ace. I, on the other hand, take the assignments given me.

Not banned. Lord, if they banned cortisone, the sport might shut down. I definitely would. It's not performance enhancing. It does not make you stronger. It does not build muscle. It masks pain, more than anything, which is why it's risky business on a long-term basis.

Weren't we saying this a year ago?

The Nats have always had success against Lincecum, but their hitting just came alive at a bad time for the Giants.

That is weird.

Oh, thank  God, Serena won. Seriously, the whoo girl needs to get checked out.

This is a fun bunch. I mean, fun to watch. I love when Lombardozzi or Bernardina or Moore come in and do something big. Then you remember Werth is coming back and so is Drew. Going to be fun to watch!

Never ask that question of an Irish gal. I would abandon a lot of things for the potato. Or the onion, come to that.

That is disturbing. You should type Oatsie. See what your phone makes of that!

I don't know. Anyone?

Don't you think they'd be finding a certain number of skeletons wrapped around bike frames? If I looked at the scenery, I'd go over the side of a mountain? But then, I'm not a great cyclist, either.  I know my limitations.

Yes, one thing I learned during the storm aftermath -- I need a new radio, and this is the reason!

I have noticed that as well. They're giddy, too, but three hours of it ... I use the mute button and I also work on other stuff during the game so I can tune it out a bit. It's a long season, too. I am often hard on those guys but one reason it's hard to be likable as a baseball announcer is just the sheer number of games. If you think about it, that's a lot of time spent with a person. Maybe it's just me, but there aren't a lot of people I want to spent 3-4 hours a day with. :)

Oh, I had hoped London would be my last. I've been in charge of coverage, or gone, at various papers since 1984. This year will be a big change. But for a variety of reasons this is probably for the best. I would have had to delay surgery, for one thing. And I was in pain, and would have continued to do damage to all my muscles. The bone spur was tearing all of them. So who knows what my dr. would have found in September? And the cat needs more attention than he used to and he didn't do great while I was gone to Kansas. So there are a lot of ways of looking at it. I'm content.

Okay.

I can't imagine a single one of them knowing who that is, but I'll have to ask my arch nemesis that question. It's very funny.

'Zactly!

Nope. When he's done, he's done. The clock doesn't "restart" at the end of October.

I think Nash is a good pickup but I don't see him as the missing piece that takes the Lakers all the way. The Spurs, Thunder, Heat ... everyone else will be making moves, too.

Yes, people think of Kansas as flat and arid, but the KC area, because of the river, gets a lot of humidity. It can be brutal in the summer. Out where I'm from ... not so bad. Tolerable. Although they are in a drought so bad that folks we know are selling their cattle because they can't get the water to keep them going. Dreadful.

That's pretty good!

Okay, that's scary, because I got a call the other day from someone wanted the information from the fax machine, the one that sits next to me. There is no fax machine within a hundred yards of me. But she didn't believe me. She also called DURING THE CHAT and I was trying to get her off the phone. It got ugly. One hour a week, folks, without phone calls. That's all I ask. :)

For awhile, the Mystics were one of the league's bigger successes, but it just didn't hold. I don't know why women's professional sports leagues don't work in this country, but empirical evidence suggests they do not. If I had kids a certain age and wanted to take them to a cheap, COOL entertainment during the summer, the Mystics would fill the bill, though.

He has an inning count for the season and when he reached that he'll be shut down. Postseason or not. He will be unhappy but this has been known since Day 1. Fans who come to the team late will go nuts, but there it is.

Just that Stewart and Colbert did a good job handling that one. Not my bailiwick.

"No", not "really." :) I think we overthink these things? Do you like football and the Skins? Then be a fan and ignore the owner. Do you like baseball? Then like the Nats. Etc. It's not complicated. It's more complicated to divorce yourself. Being a fan is legalized polygamy. You can have as many teams as you want, really.

TVGW -- Okay, that's a great reason not to cook. Can you use the living room to cook?

Or you could do built-ins only so high, like waist high, for books and also to store all your TV crap, assuming you have a TV in there. Won't interfere with your cable heat -- that sounds dreadful, by the way. Just a thought. I have that setup in my woman cave and love it because no cables, nothing shows down there, just my tv and my builtins. Clean. Nice.

Good luck with chemo and screw cooking. It's overrated and you are more important than meals.

Now I'm glad I turned into Bad Tracee with her.

That is sad. Very sad.

Well, it's the "new" factor. You've had a baseball team a lot longer than they have, so give them a break. And the Skins here -- it's kind of indescribable. It has nothing to do with being "good" -- it's just such a  Skins town. Hard to describe.

Ooops. Well, nice try, dopes. Sadly, yes, the Chiefs and Royals are in Missouri. Ouch. Tracee hurts.

Going to skip right over your brother's thoughts, as they are his, and say that I think Bryce Harper will attract a lot of fans to the park in the coming years. He's intriguing.

Boy, way to rain on our July Fifth parade! Let's not go there today. You are right about Mr. Kauffman though. I am eager for that stadium to get some attention, finally, at the all-star game.

I've been looking for a good Thursday for him but the boy is bu-sy! Maybe I'll get James instead. To heck with Adam.

Meantime, it's time to sign off. Hope you are all doing well and we'll chat next Thursday!

Oh, next week, tell me if there's something you're watching this summer, non-sports division, that I should be watching. Although with the Olympics coming up, this quickly becomes moot. Still...

For instance: I hated "The Newsroom." Your turn.