I woke up today with all the hope that the Angels would make a late push and resign one of the faces of our franchise, John Lackey.  Needless to say, when I heard the early reports about him possibly signing with the Saux, I was pissed. 

 

To hear he finally signed with the Saux, I am truly, deeply saddened... he is one of the very few Angels players I am very upset at losing. I understand that baseball now is a business, but there are certain limits. There are certain players that you just begin to identify with your team, and Lackey was one of those guys. I loved that he never wanted to come out of games, that he always wanted to go out and compete. Most of all, I loved when he got pissed off that that he got pulled from a playoff game, and his reaction was "this one is mine"... I loved his competitiveness, which is what I love about just about every single Angel. This date rates only behind the Donnie Moore game for me in the worst in the history for Angels fans. Not only did we not resign our ace, we lost out on Halladay, and have no real viable top free agents to sign that can fill the gaps of a Lackey or Figgins...

This post is a little off topic, but I was interested to see what the Bolts from the Blue community would have a say on it...

Watching tonight's game between the Colts and Patriots, I was left absolutely dumbfounded by the move of Bill Belichick to go for the first down on a 4th down and 2 play on his own 28 with 2:08 to go in the fourth with just a 6 point lead.  The fourth down play came up about a half yard short of picking up the first down, and Peyton Manning led his team for a touchdown to pull out a miraculous win.  For me personally, this was one of the absolute dumbest coaching moves I have ever seen, and  I really cannot see any reasonable argument in favor of the call to go for it.  (and just a side note: I personally feel that most NFL coaches are too hesitant to go for it on fourth down, under the right circumstances, but this was absolutely ridiculous)

My question to the Bolts from the Blue community is this, where does this rank among the dumbest coaching moves in sports history?  Whether in football, or any other major sport, what were the dumbest coaching decisions ever?

As excited as I am about the Chargers winning tonight, I have to tip my cap to the Colts franchise.  They played an absolutely remarkable game, and this will go down as one of the better football games I have ever seen.

That being said, I have to say a couple of things.  First of all, I have to say that Peyton Manning is one of the best at his position.  The guy led his team, and came up just short.  Any game we play against Peyton (or anyone else for that matter) where we don't have more than a 2-possession lead I am seriously worried. I am really glad he never got to touch the ball during the overtime period.

Second, I really hope this is not Tony Dungy's last game.  This may be his last game at the head of the Colts, but I hope he remains active as a coach.  Dungy will go down as one of the greatest coaches of all time, being the only coach to lead his team to a playoff berth 10 years in a row.  But more importantly, Dungy is one of classiest guys in the game.  Whether Dungy returns next season or not, I wish him nothing but the best of luck and good wishes...

All that being said, GO CHARGERS!!!

Link

I thought that Sabathia would get traded before the trade deadline, just didn't think that it would be to the Brewers, and for only a few prospects...

Cleveland would get highly touted outfield prospect Matt LaPorta, who is hitting .288 with 20 homers and 66 RBIs in 84 games for Double-A Huntsville, and others. The other players do not include top prospects Alcides Escobar or Mat Gamel, according to the Journal Sentinel.

A source told ESPN Insider Keith Law the deal does include pitcher Rob Bryson, who is 3-2 with 4.25 ERA this season with low-A affiliate West Virginia. Pitcher Zach Jackson, from Triple-A affiliate Nashville, and a fourth player to be named later round out the package, according to the Journal Sentinel.