Don’t be too quick to label the Red Sox “losers” with the trade that sent Manny Ramirez to Los Angeles. In the days to come, you’re going to start hearing a lot about Manny you’ve never heard before, and I’ll be shocked if any of it is good. Check out Gerry Callahan’s column on BostonHerald.com. Everything you hate about pampered, overpaid, narcissistic, ego-maniacal ballplayers, Manny does it all with ease. I think you’ll start hearing some players and coaches speak out as well. Even with all the homers and clutch knocks over the years, this guy is a piece of crap, and any team who coughs up anything close to $100 million to lock him up for 4 years is throwing their money away.

If you’re not watching the Cubs/ Brewers series this week, you are missing some great baseball. Two tortured franchises from two great sports towns separated by 100 miles of Interstate 94. Hang out on the message boards for a little while and you can see what the series means to the fans. It’s a fitting extension of the near century long “anti-lovefest” between the Packers and the Bears. Both the Brewers and the Cubs made critical upgrades prior to the trade deadline, and both teams have a legitimate shot of going all the way. But with the Cardinals lurking just a few games back, there’s a chance that both teams could miss the playoffs entirely. Every game, every pitch, is HUGE. It feels like the playoffs already in Milwaukee. You don’t get this very often in July, so tune in.

Looking for one last big payday, Manny Ramirez is actually hoping that the Red Sox don’t pick up his $20 million option for 2009. He’s going to get his wish, that is for sure, but how many teams out there have $100 million burning a hole in their pocket that they want to throw at Manny for a 4 year deal? Are there ANY? At the end of the 2012 season, Manny will be 40 years old, and he barely passes for a left fielder now. Throw in all the baggage and the junk we don’t see, and I just can’t envision too many GMs out there in a hurry to make that deal.

The guy can rake, but Manny Ramirez doesn't run out grounders, doesn't run out lazy fly balls. Doesn't show up to the White House with the rest of the team (you gotta do that no matter what your politics are, Manny). The hair, the uniform that's 3 sizes too big, the helmet caked with pine tar and dirt. He is baseball's equivalent of Randy Moss with a side of Dennis Rodman. And he's all weepy and whiny with the two 1-year, $20 million club options at the end of his contract. Yeah that's right Manny...you have to earn those. What a piece of garbage. It's a shame they gave him Dwight Evans' number.

If Brett Favre was pulling this after 16 great years with MY team (the guys in purple across the river from Wisconsin), I might look at this whole thing differently. The thing I never got over was the news conference where he was shaking and blubbering all over the place. Was tough to watch. A month later, he's sending text messages and leaking info to the media. Was he ever serious about retiring? Ridiculous. No matter how this lands, HALF of Packer Nation is going to be pissed, until they start the season either 7-1 or 1-7. Then they'll all have the same opinion.

Rich “Goose” Gossage officially receives his plaque in Cooperstown this afternoon. Does anybody else out there consider it completely ridiculous that the writers passed on the greatest reliever of his time, perhaps the best ever, for 7 YEARS before voting him in? Goose was dominant in his position for 10 years, the most feared reliever of his time, a no-brainer first ballot Hall of Famer. The writers usually get it right, but they screwed up with the Goose, and they’re jerking around Jim Rice too. Why?