Baseball

Could it be? Could the prayers of many baseball executives, players, and fans across the country finally becoming true?

According to a report from Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune , longtime Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig plans to step down after the 2012 season.

Orlando Cabrera or Jim Fregosi? Sandy Alomar or Adam Kennedy? Power or speed? The past or the present?

It all points to one question with hundreds of possibilities: Which Angel had the greatest offensive season at his position?

Major League baseball has been asking fans this same question in an effort to choose each team's best-ever collection of stars.

They are calling it MLB 9s.

In the 49-year history of the franchise, the team has gone by the name of the Los Angeles Angels, California Angels, Anaheim Angels, and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Creating a championship team has never been more difficult than it is now in professional sport.

Annual play-off contenders in all sports are working hard to continue the trend and make important post-season revenue to pursue or re-sign important team components.

Dave Hall will examine the most successful builders of champions in each of the major sporting leagues in a four part series.

This is a puzzle, so I will probably be wrong on nearly all of these, but let's do it just for fun.

1. Matt Holliday—Red Sox

The Red Sox have lots of money just like the Yankees, and they won't hesitate to offer Holliday a seven- or eight-year deal worth $100-150 million. The Yankees already have both Matsui and Damon and will re-sign one of them for sure, so they won't sign Holliday.

2. Jason Bay—Mets

It's late November, which means the NFL is in full swing, the college football season is coming down the home stretch, and all I can think about is baseball.

Don't get me wrong; I love football, but the Winter Meetings up ahead are getting me very excited.  However, after the meetings are over, it's back to Bowls, NFL Playoffs, and March Madness until baseball season begins again.  That isn't so bad.

Now that the decade of the 2000s has just ended, I thought it would be a good time to make a list of the best starting pitchers from this era.

Now keep in mind, this list is a list of the best careers, so far. Pedro Martinez is certainly and obviously the best starting pitcher from this era. However, he's NOT the best right now, as he's past his prime. This needs to be kept in mind while reading this list.

And the 2009 Cy Young Award goes to...Tim Lincecum.

For the second year in a row Tim "The Freak" Lincecum, took home the hardware, earning the Cy Young Award for the National League, given to the finest pitcher in the league.

But was Lincecum truly deserving of the award in 2009?

In '08 he seemed the most dominant pitcher far and away and rightfully so he was voted the award winner. This year, Cardinal pitchers Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright had good arguments in favor of, well, themselves. 

The strangest thing just happened to me.

A few minutes ago, I received a call from Nationals’ team President Stan Kasten. He said that Mike Rizzo was fired by the Lerner family, after being found walking aimlessly along the Beltway, wearing nothing but a Mets’ cap.

Kasten told me Rizzo could have survived the “naked” part, but wearing the oppositions’ colors was a deal breaker.