Kool-Aid

Paraphrasing the entertainer Ice Cube, this weekend was a good one for Washington sports.

Staring with the Nationals, they were down 4-3 going into the ninth inning. Repeat MVP candidate Bryce Harper, who originally got the day off from manager Dusty Baker, strode up to the plate and (you guessed it) hit his first pinch hit home run to send the game into extra innings. It was his league leading ninth home run of the year. To complete the fairy tale, the Nationals won the game in the 16th inning on another walk-off home run from Chris Heisey. As Homer Simpson would say, " I have no ideal who he is". The win takes Washington to a National League leading 14-4 record.

It's refreshing when I can say the name of the team without any apprehension.

Turning to hockey, the Capitals advanced to the next round of the playoffs with a classic 1-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. This was after the Caps, who were up 3-0 in the series, had lost the previous two games. Cap fans know what I'm talking about. Next on the block, another Pennsylvania team, the Penguins.

To top it off, we snatched one of the top five corners in the NFL last year in Josh Norman. He became available when his former employer (Carolina) couldn't reach a deal. While we haven't done it in the last few years under the new General Manager, when we really want a guy (and he's in the building), it's a done deal.

As a fan of all our Washington teams, I'm just starting to realize to myself that I am all-in with my teams. I had three types of Kool-Aid this weekend: Baseball (Grape), Hockey (Cherry) and Football (Orange) and they were all cold and delicious. Every time it's on the table, I'm there to partake.

I'm just glad that it's not alcohol.

Icon

Just a few words about the music icon Prince, who passed away yesterday at the age of 57. While you initially think that this should be done by the music critics and fans and not a sports blog, there is a sports connection. Prince Rogers Nelson played varsity basketball while at Central High School in his hometown of Minneapolis. The scouting report on him, according to Prince's high school basketball coach, Richard Robinson was that he "...was an excellent player. He was like the sixth or seventh man. He was an excellent ball handler and shooter." He would have gotten more playing time but he was on a squad that in which the rest of team at least six feet plus. Prince had it rough being only 5 feet 2.

In the big picture, basketball's loss was music's gain. He quit basketball and the rest, as they say, is history.

Prince's music was part of the musical backdrop for my college experience. My freshman year it was the cut Sexy Dancer. The following year, the song was one that you will have to look up on Wikipedia. While "Controversy" was the coming out party for him nationally, I was ahead of the game from hearing his music while doing my internship doing the circuit at the local clubs. He was the one artist that jumped on both sides of the sensuality line when it suited him. But he always did it tastefully. At least for college coeds. The party just continued after college. Years later when he would release a new song, I never called it a comeback.

While I will mourn for Prince, I will also celebrate his music. As he said, "life ain't funky unless it's got that pop."

Brothers

If you grew up in a athletic family, one of your hopes is to play with your brother or sister on the same team and have a chance to win championships together. You have the Morris brothers that played together at Kansas and the Lopez brothers at Stanford as examples. They even played in the pro's together. But this next duo is different.

Nate Britt, a guard for the North Carolina Tarheels and forward Kris Jenkins of the Villanova Wildcats will be playing against each tonight for a chance to win the Division I men's basketball championship. While this is a great story on the face of it, this is not even the half of it.

Britt and Jenkins first met when they were eleven years playing AAU basketball. During that early time, Jenkins mother, Felicia, was dealing with a sick daughter and basically stayed with her daughter in the hospital. During this time, Kris basically stayed with the Britt's, continuing to play basketball and living with them. Her daughter, Kori, died at the age of eleven months. Her mother eventually took a job as a head coach at Benedict College in South Carolina. She asked the Britt's if Kris could stay with them. She was noticing a change in her son in the wrong direction. As she said, "..."Understand it was the most difficult decision I made in my life," Felicia Jenkins said. "But I knew I had to make it in order to make sure he had the best opportunity." For the Britt family, it was a no brainer: "I said as a mother, could you imagine going to someone else and saying you want them to take care of your son?" Britt Sr. told his wife. "So how do we say no?"

As for the guys, they took to each other like, well, brothers. While at Gonzaga College High School, they each won their own Player of the Year award.

Tonight's game will not be the first time they played against each other in college. In a 2013 tournament matchup, their competiveness showed. Although in the same room, they didn't speak one word to each other. "They were going back and forth," Nate Britt Sr. said. "They weren't talking. They were texting each other in the same room. It was unbelievable."

By the way, their relationship is not symbolic; the Britts legally adopted Kris in 2007. Like Kris himself said, "...I definitely have two great families. "I consider myself to be very, very lucky and blessed and fortunate to have two great families to take care of me and guide me and keep me in the right place."


While I hope for a great game tonight, I already know that the outcome will be a winning one.