Tracee Hamilton: Most recent columns

After forming a bond over sports, it’s time to watch him exchange vows

Tracee Hamilton — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 22:41:41 GMT

When my nephew was born nearly 27 years ago, I wasn’t much of a “baby” person. I had never changed a diaper or warmed a bottle or crammed a big head into a little onesie. I’m not sure I knew what a onesie was.

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For Washington Nationals, there is no joy on Half-Street

Tracee Hamilton — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 15:12:35 GMT

When a manager greets a rainout with glee, and hopes for another, it’s possible there is a problem with his ballclub. In fact, it’s a certainty: The 2013 Washington Nationals are struggling to match their success of 2012.

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Bryce Harper: When it comes to sound medical decisions, he’s not a natural

Tracee Hamilton — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 14:47:37 GMT

Time will tell whetherBryce Harper is Roy Hobbs or Bump Bailey, but the Washington Nationals have a chance to shape his legacy more toward “the greatest there ever was” status and less toward running through a wall and killing himself. (If you haven’t, read “The Natural.” Beats the movie all hollow.)

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Wrestling gets off the mat, makes move toward the future

Tracee Hamilton — Fri, 31 May 2013 21:35:57 GMT

Wrestling got a repechage last week — a second chance to keep its spot on the Olympic roster for 2020 after losing its “core sport” designation in February. If wrestling ultimately fails in its bid for reinstatement, 2016 might be the last time it is held at an Olympics.

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Wrestling gets off the mat, makes move toward the future

Fri, 31 May 2013 21:35:57 GMT

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Robert Griffin III injury update: stay tuned, be patient

Tracee Hamilton — Fri, 31 May 2013 01:58:00 GMT

Robert Griffin III participated in organized team activities Thursday, at least some of the activities, some of the time. There, that’s what you really want to know, isn’t it? Isn’t everything else regarding the Redskins secondary, including the secondary? Griffin wore white leggings — man-hose? — burgundy shorts, burgundy-and-white-striped socks, a white long-sleeve shirt and his usual braids under his helmet to the steamy workout. Oh, and a big black brace on his right knee.

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Injury reports: The right to know vs. the right to privacy

Tracee Hamilton — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:23:35 GMT

Brooks Laich skated with the Capitals in New York last week, between Games 3 and 4 of his team’s first-round NHL playoff series. He wiped out once, which made his teammates — and him — laugh out loud. Afterward, he said he hoped to play in the second round of the playoffs, if the Caps made it. That didn’t happen.

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Stephen Strasburg needs to step up when thrown a curveball

Tracee Hamilton — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:00:00 GMT

We know Stephen Strasburg can be a stubborn, hard-nosed competitor. We saw it last season when the Washington Nationals insisted on shutting him down early and Strasburg tried every trick in the book to avoid it. He was mentally tough when he was fighting to save his spot in the rotation and play in the postseason.

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Tracee Hamilton: Game 7 awaits, with Capitals and Rangers turning to their goalies

Tracee Hamilton — Mon, 13 May 2013 01:21:07 GMT

NEW YORK — The Caps and Rangers will need seven games to decide the winner of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal. Raise your hand if you’re surprised.

A Game 7 seemed inevitable at the start of this series, even before each team won three games on its home ice, even before Braden Holtby and Henrik Lundqvist put on a goaltending clinic, before the Blueshirts quelled Alex Ovechkin, before the Caps turned their penalty kill into a great strength, before the overtimes and the penalties and everything else that has made this a typical Caps-Rangers series.

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2013 Stanley Cup playoffs: Capitals’ Game 3 mistakes resurface in Game 4 loss

Tracee Hamilton — Thu, 09 May 2013 03:28:00 GMT

NEW YORK — Less-than-crisp puck work, mental mistakes and goalie flubs are understandable. But not for more than one game, not in the playoffs. Yet even after time to rest and reflect on their Game 3 errors, the Washington Capitals came out Wednesday night in Game 4 against the New York Rangers and repeated many of the same miscues in a 4-3 loss.

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Adam Oates on Washington Capitals’ day off: ‘Rest is the most important weapon’

Tracee Hamilton — Tue, 07 May 2013 19:28:00 GMT

NEW YORK — After ending the season on a 15-2-2 run and winning the first two games of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series against the New York Rangers, the Washington Capitals played one of their sloppiest games in recent memory Monday night in a 4-3 loss in Game 3. So Adam Oates did what any hard-boiled NHL coach would do: He gave them a day off.

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Capitals don’t bring enough vs. desperate Rangers in Game 3 of NHL playoff series

Tracee Hamilton — Tue, 07 May 2013 03:31:33 GMT

NEW YORK — The frenzy over sports is such that nearly every game can now be labeled “must-win” by someone — players, coaches, fans, media, the annoying guy in the next cubicle. But by even the most rigid standards, Monday night’s Game 3 of the NHL first-round playoff series vs. the Washington Capitals was a genuine must-win for the New York Rangers.

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Jordan Zimmermann isn’t the Washington Nationals’ face, but he might be their ace

Tracee Hamilton — Fri, 03 May 2013 18:57:00 GMT

The Washington athlete I’m most enjoying right now is not Alex Ovechkin or Bryce Harper or even Robert Griffin III jumping up and down on his surgically repaired knee (although all of them are entertaining, no doubt).

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Capitals-Rangers: They’re getting back together, just not swiftly

Tracee Hamilton — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:10:57 GMT

Taylor Swift is a little songbird who’s made a big pile of money singing about all the men who done her wrong. Who knew that that was a for-profit industry? Nuts.

Why are we talking about Swift? Because while this is, of course, not her fault, Swift’s May 11 and 12 concerts at Verizon Center are wreaking havoc with the Washington Capitals’ playoff schedule. Ironically, she’s rocking something called the Red Tour. You can’t make this stuff up.

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College Football Playoff is truth in advertising

Tracee Hamilton — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:58:29 GMT

So we finally got a college football playoff. Great! What’s it going to be called?

Ah, the College Football Playoff. Catchy. Well, any name that replaces the Bowl Championship Series is fine by me. The CFP – rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? – is not perfect, but it’s a start, with two semifinal games and a national championship game. Oh, and what’s that called?

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Don Fambrough showed it was possible to be both a good coach and a good person

Tracee Hamilton — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:08:21 GMT

The box came in the mail the same day as the Mike Rice video hit the Internet. In it was a gold football from the 1948 Orange Bowl; on the back was etched “Don Fambrough/Guard.”

Most of you haven’t heard of Fambrough, who was a two-time football coach at Kansas. (That wouldn’t have bothered him; he’d have liked you just the same.) His second tenure overlapped with my days covering the team for the student newspaper. I came to love him dearly — a journalistic mistake I’ve never made again — and I stayed in touch with him long after graduation.

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For Washington Capitals, it all comes down to this

Tracee Hamilton — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:10:01 GMT

Tuesday night is Hockey Night in Washington. With a regulation or overtime win, the Capitals earn the Southeast Division title and an automatic playoff berth. With a loss, well, then Thursday becomes Hockey Night in Washington.

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Boston Marathon bombing threatens one of few true communities left

Tracee Hamilton — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:15:00 GMT

My first feeling Monday afternoon when I heard the news from Boston was not shock. My second feeling was sadness at not being shocked. Not that many years ago, bombs going off at a sporting event would have been stunning. No longer.

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With Washington Capitals, things are never headed the same way for long

Tracee Hamilton — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:39:55 GMT

It’s hard to imagine, given a shortened season that’s run as hot and cold as springtime in Washington, that the Capitals would get complacent. Yet that’s what happened Saturday night against Tampa Bay.

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Washington Nationals’ 7-4 record feels like a bit less than that vs. Atlanta Braves

Tracee Hamilton — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 22:57:25 GMT

The Nationals were 8-3 after 11 games last season. This year, after Saturday’s 11th game, a 3-1 loss to Atlanta, they are 7-4. So why does it feel like these Nats are playing nowhere near their 2012 level? Because their defense and bullpen are struggling? Because No. 1 starter Stephen Strasburg is now 1-2? Because they’ve lost two games in less than 24 hours to their division rivals?

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Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals should hope everyone’s a critic

Tracee Hamilton — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:30:00 GMT

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.

There, that ought to do it for another game or two. Ovechkin, it seems, responds better to the stick than the carrot. Since NBC’s Mike Milbury, during and after a Feb. 27 telecast of a Caps-Flyers game, compared Ovechkin to an 8-year-old and told him to act like a man (among other insults), Ovechkin has charged to the NHL lead in goals with 25, tied with Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos entering Monday.

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Only the worst sports injuries, like Kevin Ware’s, don’t get replayed

Tracee Hamilton — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 21:09:32 GMT

Last Sunday, the Louisville-Duke game was playing while I was working on a project. My house has a strange feature: a window cutout in the wall between my office and my woman cave. From my desk, I can look through the wall and see the TV in the adjoining room. So I was half-watching, half-typing when I noticed the game had stopped.

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Kevin Ware, Mike Rice situations are latest college sports maladies

Tracee Hamilton — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:58:00 GMT

It’s impossible to be surprised by the dreadful hubris and hypocrisy of college sports, which seem a daily occurrence, much like the sun rising in the east. Today’s installment deals with Louisville and Rutgers.

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Wilson Ramos: Nationals catcher is back, hoping for no more stops

Tracee Hamilton — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:53:00 GMT

Wilson Ramos is one of those players who got caught in no-man’s land, a guy who is a part of a team’s great achievements, but not entirely along for all the ride. Last fall, when the Washington Nationals won their first division championship and made their first postseason appearance, Ramos was recovering from two knee surgeries, looking on from rehab as his team — and particularly his pitching staff — made history.

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Washington Nationals 2013: The curse of high expectations

Tracee Hamilton — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:40:00 GMT

It’s not the alleged Sports Illustrated cover curse that should concern the Nationals, picked by the magazine this week to win the World Series. It’s the curse of high expectations.

Davey Johnson said last spring that if the Nats didn’t make the playoffs, the team should fire him, which at the time sounded more like a Gipper-like bucking up of the troops than prognostication. Yahoo Sports went out on what seemed like a shaky limb at the time, picking the Nats to get to the Series before losing to Tampa Bay.

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