The Kastles flaunted their A-game for an A-list crowd last night, beating Kansas City 21-18, at the team’s season opener.  VIPs such as ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson, Obama aide Valerie Jarrett, DC Mayor Vince Gray, DC City Council Chairman Kwame Brown, basketball legend Kareem Abdul Jabar, AOL founder Steve Case, AOL-HuffPost VP Peter Cherukuri, and Indonesian Ambassador Dino Djalal all hit the new Southwest Waterfront stadium to help Mark Ein cheer on Venus Williams and Washington’s winning tennis team.

The Kastles’ next match is tomorrow night against the Boston Lobsters.  Only five home games remain after this week so snatch up some tix before July 21st.

*This post is dedicated to the anonym-ass who complained about my Kastles love earlier today.

D.C. journos and other VIPs got a sneak preview of the Kastles’ new stadium last night at an event dubbed “Wimbledon on the Water.”  Owner Mark Ein and Washington’s winning tennis team treated guests like WUSA’s Brett Haber, HuffPo’s Stephanie Green, WTOP’s Mark Plotkin, Revamp’s Daniel Swartz, K Street Kate Michael, FreeInDC’s Amy Melrose, DistrictTicket’s Steve Fox and CSN’s Joe Beninati to court-side cocktails and hors d’œuvres to kick off the upcoming season and celebrate their move from City Center to swanky new digs on the Southwest Waterfront.

The season starts next week with Venus Williams on Tuesday, July 5th and Serena Williams on Thursday, July 7th and ends July 21st.  For more info or to snag some tickets, click here.

The National Press Club’s 14th annual Beat the Deadline 5K Race is right around the corner.  Join race marshals Suzanne Malveaux of CNN and P90X creator Tony Horton to support the Eric Friedheim National Journalism Library and its training, education, and diversity programs on Saturday, June 11, 2011. The 5K is slated to begin at 7.30 am with a special pre-race, P90X warm-up led by Horton at 7:15 a.m.  For more info or to register, visit www.press.org/5K.


Deadspin‘s Tommy Craggs weighed in today on the Dan Snyder-WCP lawsuit, just re-filed by the Redskins owner. He specifically responds to Snyder’s editorial on WaPo‘s op-ed page, which Craggs calls “Fred Hiatt‘s bullshit emporium.” Hiatt is WaPo‘s editorial page editor. The editorial, Craggs writes, is “probably the most ridiculous assertion on that op-ed page sincee whatever George Will wrote last week.”

Craggs thinks that Snyder is a “prick” and that his explanation of the lawsuit is mainly bogus, but points out one area where he may have a case. WCP‘s Dave McKenna accused Snyder of forgery, but employees of Snyder’s company were the ones who actually carried out the forgery. But even that argument is probably a stretch.

Check out Craggs’ profanity-laced rant after the jump.

Read more

Kastles Tennis mascot: Topspin

The famed White House Correspondents’ Brunch, held annually at the home Tammy Haddad and Ted Greenberg, is moving to a new locale on April 30, 2011.  Rather than torturing the fine folks of the Palisades with parking valets and  paparazzi, swarms of pastel-clad brunch-goers will migrate to Mark Ein‘s Georgetown manse for the garden gala. In addition to the revised location, the host committee has added Wendi Murdoch and Susan Axelrod as honorary event chairs.

As for the new venue, we don’t know much but we hear “Topspin” will be bouncing (ha! get it?) would-be crashers in the driveway and guests will be forced to enter and exit Ein’s home using Kastle Systems key fobs.  Okay, I made that up but a boy can dream…  Check out the video invite to this year’s event below.

2011 WHC Garden Brunch Preview from whcinsider on Vimeo.

March is the biggest month for college basketball and the NCAA tournament is in full swing. March Madness has been full of surprises and Tourney Pick’Ems are being thrown for a loop nationwide.  If your bracket is at the bottom of the pile, come drown your sorrows with Yahoo! and D.C. fans at Union Pub on Capitol Hill. The first 50 people to show proof that they’ve selected their brackets on Yahoo!’s Tourney Pick’Em will get a free drink.

WHAT: An evening of fun to kick-off March Madness’ Sweet Sixteen

WHERE: Union Pub on Capitol Hill

WHEN: Thursday, March 24 at 5:30pm

WHO: Yahoo says “all the cool kids are coming, so you should too.”

WaPo sports columnist Sally Jenkins knows her subject matter so well that C-SPAN interviewer Brian Lamb must have presumed she once played sports.

The question resulted in this:

You can watch the full “Q&A” interview on C-SPAN Sunday night at 8 and 11 p.m.

Redskins reporter Jason Reid has been named new Sports columnist for WaPo, filling the spot vacated by veteran writer Michael Wilbon who recently signed off to pursue his gig with ABC/ESPN full time.  Reid’s Redskins beat is temporarily available but Sports editor Matt Vita suggests in an internal memo that a strong external contender for the position has been identified.  Memo announcing Reid’s promotion below:

“I am very happy to announce that Jason Reid will become a columnist for Sports. Jason is one of the most hard-working, conscientious and thoughtful sports writers in the country who has covered the NBA (Clippers), MLB (Dodgers) and NFL (Redskins). In his four years at the Post, Jason has become the dominant beat writer on the Redskins with impeccable sources in the locker room, front office, among player agents and around the league. His tireless work leading the Redskins Insider has helped grow the audience for the blog in each of the last three seasons. This past year, Jason demonstrated his considerable skills as an analyst and observer in writing weekly On Football columns that routinely were among the most widely read Redskins stories on the website. I am confident Jason has the experience, work ethic and drive to become a top-flight commentator on sports and their role in society, and will be a welcome addition to Tom Boswell, Sally Jenkins, Mike Wise and Tracee Hamilton as the best lineup of sports columnists in the country.

Jason’s new responsibilities create an opening on the Redskins beat. A strong external candidate has emerged but we are open to hearing from others in the newsroom interested in taking on the mantle of chief Redskins blogger and Redskins news hound on one of the most high-profile and demanding beats at the Post.”

Matt Vita

Mike Wise

From Fishbowl’s favorite sports junkie: While ex-Postie Tony Kornheiser was yakking about the weekend’s movies with WaPo film critic Ann Hornaday and hyping James Carville‘s upcoming “football picks” this morning,  Post Sports columnist Mike Wise (the flyin’ Hawaiian) was breaking real news over on WJFK-FM…

Wise apparently confirmed that the Redskins’ Rex Grossman would get the start Sunday vs. the Cowboys,  instead of Donovan McNabb, the six-time Pro Bowl quarterback.  Ironically, ESPN floated the Grossman story a couple of days ago but Wise won the day with confirmation.

h/t MartyC

Spotted at Panera Bread in Chevy Chase last evening: Channel 4 sportscaster Dan Hellie, Fox 5 sports guru Dave Feldman and a Fox sports producer chowing down on sandwiches at a storefront table.  Hellie agreed with a questioner’s assertion that Lindsay Czarniak had done a solid report from the Verizon Center…hitting the angle that the Caps’ seven-game losing skid coincides with the filming of the highly-hyped HBO “24/7 Penguins/Capitals: Road to the NHL Winter Classic” documentary, first episode of which aired last night.  Czarniak also mentioned parts of Bruce Boudreau‘s rantings would probably be R-rated.

Dan Steinberg blogged on the WaPo website (the Sports Bog) that Boudreau drops several F-bombs and uses language that would “make Rex Ryan blush.”

Has the SI jinx been replaced with the HBO jinx?  First the NY Jets, now the Caps?

h/t MartyC