Gelberg Signs, a family-owned company based in D.C., has been awarded a $1 million contract to create and install all of the signage at the Nationals new ballpark, set to open in 2008.

The company will be charged with installing more than 3,000 signs, including signs for parking, concessions, luxury boxes and seat numbers.

Gelberg is classified as a Local Small or Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (LSDBE). The city is required to award at least 51 percent of all subcontracting work to such firms.

"We are honored to have been selected as the sign company for DC's next major landmark," said Guy Brami, who runs Gelberg Signs along with his brothers, Luc and Neil. "As a family-owned business with a 66-year history in this city, we are pleased that the District has renewed its emphasis on the LSDBE program."

Gelberg is expected to begin pre-fabrication of the stadium next month and could begin installing the signs by the end of July.

- Tim Lemke

Meredith Vieira gave Roger Federer a shove this morning.

Savvy tennis fans may have realized something strange about NBC's coverage of the French Open semifinal tennis match between Federer and Nikolay Davydenko: it looked live, but it really wasn't.

The two players faced off at 9 a.m. ET this morning, but NBC didn't begin its coverage until after 10 a.m., showing the match from the beginning.

In years past, most viewers probably would never have known the difference, but in an age of live online updates, it's easy to find an up-to-the-minute score. By the time NBC began their coverage, many fans would have discovered that Federer and Davydenko were already in a third-set tiebreaker.

NBC spokeswoman Alana Russo, who said she had received a handful of viewer comments about the not-so-live match, explained the network did not want the match to pre-empt the Today Show, the most popular morning show on television.

Furthermore, she said NBC really had no power to move the match back an hour or so, since Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were scheduled to play on the same court after Federer and Davydenko were done. (Start the matches any later than 2 p.m. Paris time, and you're running out of daylight.)

This weekend's Men's and Women's finals will definitely be shown live and in their entirety.

A friend forwarded me a link to this story about a reporter from the Louisville Courier-Journal who was ejected from the press box at a University of Louisville baseball game for live-blogging.

Apparently, the Louisville sports information department told the blogger, Brian Bennett, that he was not allowed to provide live updates on his newspaper's Web site and took his credential away when he proceeded to make 15 updates by the fifth inning. Louisville won the game 20-2 to earn a berth in the College World Series.

The NCAA issued a memo yesterday stating that blogs are considered "live representations of the game" and "no blog entries are permitted between the first pitch and the final out of each game."

The rules appear similar to those set by Major League Baseball, though the NCAA takes it a step further by singling out blogs specifically.

I have a season credential for the Nationals, and on the back of it are some rules from the commissioner's office that read: "While a game is in progress, [the media] shall not transmit or aid in transmitting any game information on a play-by-play or pitch-by-pitch basis more frequently that once every half-inning of play." In other words, they don't want reporters dishing out constant play-by-play updates, because that's the job of the broadcasters and other folks who paid for the rights to transmit the game.

These rules -- particularly the NCAA's singling out blogs -- are silly for a number of reasons. For one thing, the First Amendment should protect the right of a blogger to write whatever he feels. The Constitution does not read, "You have a right to free speech, but you need to wait until the game is over, OK? Thanks."

Furthermore, I don't see how a blog can unequivocally be considered a "live representation" of the game. If the blogger is writing about the quality of the press box food or the color of the umpire's socks, he's hardly creating a live representation.

In this case, Bennett was not providing "play-by-play" or "pitch-by-pitch" updates on his blog. Most of the posts were pretty basic, simply updating readers on the score, who was pitching and any key plays. And even if he was doing a live play-by-play, I fail to see how that's infringing on the turf of rights holders. Given the choice, very few people would prefer to watch an online text update over a live television broadcast. And while newspapers and Web sites may not pay for rights, they are paying for staff and resources to cover the event, which benefits everyone. Folks involved in a relatively low-profile sport like college baseball should be embracing media outlets, not alienating them by revoking credentials.

This has never been an issue for me or anyone I know personally, because most reporters have no need to update readers more than once an inning. You'll rarely see our beat writers make more than one or two blog posts per game because they have other fish to fry. But I suppose if the Nationals were to make the World Series or something, a newspaper might send a blogger to give more frequent updates with analysis, and they might be toeing the line of what's considered acceptable by MLB and the team. And if that happened, I would defend the right of the blogger to keep at it on First Amendment grounds.

University of Maryland men's basketball head coach Gary Williams will help out Comcast Sportsnet with its coverage of the AT&T National golf tournament next month.
Williams, an avid golfer, will join CSN reporter Chick Hernandez on the set of "Tee Time at the AT&T National," a 30-minute live show airing each night at 7:30 during the tournament beginning July 2. ...

Also yesterday, CSN announced that it will debut a new reality show based on the spring practices of the University of Maryland's football team. "Terrapins Rising" will air for ten consecutive week each Monday night beginning on June 25.

"This isn't something that's been done at the college level," coach Ralph Friedgen said. "It's really groundbreaking. We think the show will give fans better insight into how much goes on day-to-day with the players and coaches."

"Terrapins Rising" is sponsored by Under Armour and produced by Atkinson Productions, a company owned by former Terps kicker Jess Atkinson. ...

Sunday's tense final round of the U.S. Open on NBC earned a 7.0 overnight rating and a 17 share, up 37 percent from last year's tournament at Winged Foot, when Woods missed the cut. It was the best Sunday overnight rating since a 9.3/21 in 2002, when Woods won at Bethpage Black in New York. Coverage of the U.S. Open stretched late enough that it helped NBC win the prime-time ratings war as well. ...

Nike got a lot of play yesterday as Tiger Woods strutted around Oakmont in one of those pectoral-hugging stretch shirts that only people with sculpted upper bodies can wear. Something tells me that Angel Cabrera wouldn't be able to pull that off. I know I couldn't show up for a round at Bulle Rock wearing something like that. Whatever happened to clubs requiring players to wear shirts with a collar? ...

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times updates us on the brewing conflict between the Big Ten Network, set to debut this fall, and cable operators who aren't keen on putting the new channel on a basic tier. He could probably rewrite the story and replace "Big Ten Network" with "NFL Network," "The MLB Channel," "CSTV or "The Mtn." The battle between new sports networks and cable operators is like a bizarre version of the movie "Groundhog Day."

I understand ESPN's role as a source of both information and entertainment, but what's with all the recent movie promos and tie-ins?

A couple weeks ago I tuned into ESPNews only to see Michael Chiklis and Jessica Alba being interviewed about the new "Fantastic Four" movie. And this week we've been bombarded with the ESPN "Live Free or Die Hard" challenge, in which fans can go see a taping of SportsCenter and a private screening of the fourth "Die Hard" movie with Bruce Willis. Apparently there will be a special "Live Free or Die Hard" edition of SportsCenter on June 26. What, are we going to see Karl Ravech drive his car off of a skyscraper? Will Bob Ley run barefoot across some glass? I don't get it.

.... Stay tuned for the latest on the battle between the NFL Players' Association and the group of retired players who are fighting for changes to the union's disability assistance program. Leaders from both sides are scheduled to testify before a House subcommittee today.

In the morning, a group of retired players including Mike Ditka, Sam Huff, Brian DeMarco and Joe Delamielleure will hold a press briefing at the National Press Club.

A new Web site called the Biz of Football launched today. The site is a blog devoted to the business of football, and it's published by Maury Brown, the founder of Biz of Baseball.

Maury, who I often rely on for outside comment on things related to the business of sports, is in the process of creating an entire network of sports business Web sites, and is recruiting bloggers and writers.

"Look for interviews with those that work in the business of football -- be that the front office of teams, or broadcasters -- and look for insight directly from those making the decisions in football," Maury writes. "We also will be adding many documents that pertain to football from a business perspective. Be that CBAs from the NFL, or court decisions that impact how football is run in its various forms, we'll be looking to capture it."

I'm starting work on a story about bobblehead promotions, and must say I'm getting a real kick out of some of the other promotions that baseball teams have come up with this year.

The Reds are giving away a cap featuring the fake blonde hair made to look like the locks of Bronson Arroyo and the Tigers are handing out a similar cap with a fake Magglio Ordonez 'fro.

The Royals later this month are giving away 20,000 retro powder blue T-shirts to commemorate the anniversary of the George Brett "Pine Tar" game in 1982.

Other giveaways include a T-shirt with the number of the Reds' Ryan Freel made to look like it's covered in dirt; a figure of the Phillies' Hawaiian right fielder Shane Victorino wearing a hula skirt, and a bobblehead of the Astros' Brad Ausmus on a surfboard.