For the Bullets and Wizards, She Was a Trail Blazer

It was almost 20 years ago and I'd just watched one of the least memorable NBA games you could imagine. The Washington Bullets had just lost to the Indiana Pacers in front of about 5,000 fans in Landover, and on the way out of the arena I walked past Susan O'Malley, who was talking to several ticket sellers, marketing staffers and young interns.

O'Malley, then the team's director of advertising, was livid.

She was livid because so few people were in the seats, and because those who were there were quiet and didn't care very much. Nor did anyone working the game. O'Malley and her basketball team were being ignored. And being ignored is something she could never tolerate.

"This will never happen again," O'Malley told her staff. And for the next 20 years, including the last 16 as the first female president of an NBA franchise, the Bullets/Wizards have been a major player not only on the local sports scene but in the league.

On Wednesday, O'Malley, the closest adviser to team owner Abe Pollin, announced her resignation from Washington Sports & Entertainment.

"It was the right time; the franchise is in a great place," said O'Malley, 45, without divulging future plans. She recently earned a degree from Georgetown Law School.

O'Malley would do anything to fill seats at Verizon Center for the Wizards, and for years the Caps and Mystics as well. She gave fans dog acts, high-flying gymnasts, good singers and bad singers, playful mascots, dance teams and anything else to make a visit to the arena entertaining. "She added a spark to the franchise that did not exist before her arrival," said Dolph Sand, the team's veteran press aide. To tweak her was easy: "Your announced crowd appears to have left after one quarter." To which she replied, "Your glasses seem thicker."

Occasionally O'Malley's promotions, schemes, ideas and influence with Pollin annoyed some bigwigs on the basketball side of the building, including Michael Jordan, who never bought into O'Malley's shtick in his three years here. Others felt her wrath and a few complained that she held grudges.

But Pollin never wavered. "We were a team," he said Friday. "We accomplished a lot. She was smart, innovative and hardworking."

She also proved that a woman could succeed at a high level of sports management, prompting NBA Commissioner David Stern to say this week, "She inspired a generation of women to understand that sports management was a land of opportunity."

"That was always my biggest concern," O'Malley said. "I didn't want to screw it up for other women."

Caps Showcase New Uniforms

Notes from the Kettler Capitals Iceplex on Friday night: The return to the red, white and blue colors on a sleek new uniform looks good to me. But Robin Givhan I'm not.

Even more appealing than the new uniform was the appearance of Hall of Famers Rod Langway, 50, and Mike Gartner, 47, with other retired Caps Kelly Miller, Sylvain Cote and Yvon Labre.

"Back to tradition," captain Chris Clark said.

"When I closed my eyes and remember my first Caps game in 1976, I see red, white and blue," owner Ted Leonsis said.

About 2,000 fans packed the Capitals' practice facility to applaud Leonsis, the new uniforms, retired players and the team's first draft pick, defenseman Karl Alzner.

Neither Langway nor Gartner said they were prepared to make a comeback this season, which was the only downer of the night.

Champions All

If you were hanging around outside the White House on Monday afternoon, you heard the band playing 21 fight songs for the hundreds of athletes representing the universities that won 28 NCAA championships during the 2006-07 school year.

President Bush hosted the event that honored, among others, Maryland's field hockey team for a second straight year. Northwestern's women's lacrosse team was celebrating three straight titles, "in appropriate shoes," noted Wildcats Athletic Director Mark Murphy, the former Redskins safety. Murphy was referring to members of the team who wore flip-flops on their last visit. "I'm disappointed in [this year's] footwear," the president said. "Too conventional. "

The alma mater Florida Gators basketball team made it for a second straight year. "Really hard to do," the president said. Coach Billy Donovan was happy with his Gators and surrounded by adoring Gator alums from Capitol Hill, who were pleased Donovan's tenure with the NBA's Orlando Magic lasted only one weekend.

"I did what I thought was right and I'm happy I did it, " Donovan said of his change of heart.

Back to the Show at Last

Brandon Watson is too young (25) to be linked with fictional minor league lifer Crash Davis of "Bull Durham" fame. But Watson's International League-record 43-game hitting streak for Class AAA Columbus compares favorably to Crash's minor league home run record. Watson's real-life feat landed him a spot in center field for the Nationals against the Tigers on Wednesday night at RFK Stadium.

"The streak was fun, exciting, lucky and quite amazing," said Watson, who has had two previous shots with the Nats and one pinch-running appearance for Cincinnati. In addition to the streak -- which broke a 95-year old International League record -- Watson hit .330 in 57 games for Columbus this year.

But here he was Wednesday night, in "The Show," facing Detroit's Jeremy Bonderman, who was looking to go 8-0. "I just want to keep everything simple, like I did in Columbus. Put the ball in play," Watson said.

Watson did that, lining out sharply to left in the third and fourth innings before grounding out to third in the seventh. In the eighth, his team down 8-4, Manager Manny Acta pinch-hit veteran Ronnie Belliard for Watson with two on and two out because Acta said "Belliard has a better chance to hit one out." Belliard flied out, and Watson said, "I'm just enjoying every minute."

Friday night, Watson got his first two hits of the season and drove in a run in a 4-1 win over Cleveland. Life is good.

Finally

· How 'bout them DeMatha Stags? They were rated by SI.com this week as the No. 2 high school athletic program in the country, behind Jesuit of Portland, Ore.

· Get-well wishes to LaVar, who is recovering at Prince George's Hospital Center from that nasty motorcycle accident this week. I should visit.

Have a comment or question? Reach me attalkback@washpost.com.