Sure the lakers sound like they are trying. Everyday we have Mitch saying he is on the phone inquiring about trades. He likes to throw around big names like Garnett, Marion, and Boozer. But lets recap some prize signings. It consisted of lets say...Divac, Mckie,and Vlad. Now the die hard lakers fans will know about these guys, but when was the last time you seen them play? Shaq was traded because the Lakers felt that his contributions (ask the Heat how they rate his contributions) were not worth the money. So what does Mitch do? He goes and signs players that sit out and then mysteriously retire. Might as well spend that money on another yacht for Mitch. Lets look at some buffoonary that is fast making the Lakers into the Knicks of the East (but at least the Knicks are trying).

Bynum is supposed to be the center of the future; fine, despite the fact that he sucks big time, Ill see this one out. Ill give him a few years to develop. But wait, what do the Lakers do? They sign another "center of the future," Kwame, who also needs to be developed. What is wrong with developing a young center (Bynum) and a young forward (Butler, who turned out needed 3 weeks to develop into an all star caliber talent on the Wizards)?

Marion and Garnett were on the trading block. Now I know it was a stretch thinking we could land them, but hey, the Lakers should have at least offered the following package: EVERYONE minus Kobe. At least try Mitch, come on, no one is buying you coming out the day after the trade is done or dead and saying "yeah I was on the phone all night, exploring every possible option." We know you offered Luke Walton, Sasha, and cookies and went to bed early after that trade was turned down by a laughing Kevin McHale.

No Bynum for Kidd? How many overweight, butterfinger big men do you need? (on a side note, this is the same Lakers team which gave Michael Fey a chance two years go to make the team) This was a perfect oppurtunity for you to salvage your Kwame trade by saying, "Hey I got Kwame so I could trade Bynum for a hall of famer point guard."

And now Kobe is tradeable?

Good grief, this Laker fan is glad that he is currently on the East coast so he isn't tempted to waste money at the Staples Center. But he will continue to waste money
on cable so he can catch all 82 disasters on HD.

-ANGRY FAN
Manhattan, New York
Arcadia, California

A Frustrated Fan: This is the first time a fan has written in that actually shares the same favorite team as I do, so it is nice to see that I am not alone when pointing out the faults of the Lakers organization and front office. Mitch Kupchak is incapable of finding talent, but he is incredibly good at not signing it. Aside from Kobe dominating, there really is no reason to watch the Lakers this season. Once again Kobe will prove he is the best player in the NBA and still fall short of the MVP, which will go to some loser like Steve Nash or Dirk. Hopefully Kobe will be a Laker, it is encouraging to see that he actually practiced today, but I still won't discount him being traded because Mitch Kupchak and Jerry Buss never shy away from terrible decisions nowadays.

nd when the team with the biggest payroll in professional sports now falls short of winning the World Series for the seventh straight season, there is a mouthful of blame for everyone. For this blame, look to the S�??s.

Soldiers. Canadian Soldiers to be exact. That unforeseeable variable that stared in the infamous �??Bug Game�?� and harassed Joba Chamberlain to toss 2 wild-pitches that allowed a run to score. Of course, bugs are just part of the game, like wind, rain, referees, or Steve Bartman. And Joba was dead-on as he didn�??t assign blame to anyone but himself, as everyone had to deal with the bugs, not just him. But what if the pests hadn�??t reached their apex of annoyance right as the rookie Joba was on the mound? The Yanks would probably have tied the series at 1-1, winning in Cleveland and shifting the momentum, and then who knows?

Sean Henn, as a representation of the abomination that is the Yankee bullpen. Aside from Joba and Rivera, they have no reliable and consistent middle reliever. Luis Vizcaino. Ron Villone. Kyle Farnsworth. These are pitchers who have made their careers out of being irrelevant. Yankee management should take notes on the acquisitions that the Red Sox and the Indians are making. Boston already had their star closer, Jon Papelbon, but acquired Eric Gagne. This is called �??making yourself better,�?� something the Yanks have lost sight of. Also, look at the Native-American�??s bullpen �?? Joe Borowski. Rafael Perez. Rafael Betancourt. Quality that the Yanks don�??t have.

Starters. Chien-Ming Wang�??s depressing performance was not his fault. He bravely started on only 3 games rest, for the first time in his young career, because Joe Torre had no choice but to start him. Pettite was rested even less than Wang. Roger �??AARP�?� Clemens injured himself in Game 3. Phil Hughes pitched 2 innings in Game 1 and 3.2 innings in Game 3, so he was unavailable. And Mike Mussina has lost the confidence of everyone with his regular season meltdown. In the 4 games of this series, 4 Yankee starters made 7 appearances. This is noteworthy. 5 Yankee pitchers have won the Cy Young Award since the first one was awarded in 1956. Bob Turley in 1958. Whitey Ford in 1961. Sparky Lyle in 1977. Ron Guidry in 1978. and Roger Clemens in 2001. The Yankees won the World Series each of those years, except in 2001 when the Yankees lost in Game 7 to World Series Co-MVPs �?? Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson, not to mention a bloop single by the roid-raging Luis Gonzalez.

Salary, Strength, and Starters. In recent years, the Yanks have notoriously overpaid their players to amass this �??Murderer�??s Row 2007.�?� They overpaid for Johnny Damon. They overpaid for Bobby Abreu. They overpaid for Jason Giambi. And they have squandered money on washed up pitchers who are far removed from their glory days, i.e. re-signing Roger Clemens, Kevin Brown�??s one year stint, and Randy Johnson�??s injury-fest. This has sucked up salary cap and forced them to be ineffective in bidding for Roy Halladay, Barry Zito, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Carlos Zambrano. The Yanks need to avoid renewing Mike Mussina and Jason Giambi�??s contracts at the end of next season, cut Clemens and maybe even Pettite too.

Lastly, Steinbrenner. It seems like all Big George is trying to do is sell tickets. He is simply concerned with buying the highest-profile players in the game; and he has been successful in doing so, with Derek Jeter, A-Rod, Roger Clemens. But G.S. is a somewhat-intelligent man. He knows that this is the era of the pitcher�??s dominance, and that any team would take Josh Beckett over A-Rod if it is serious about winning. So George, why the obsession with offensive players, and the lack of attention to the pitching staff? You don�??t need to worry about selling tickets; you�??re going to sell out almost every game. This is New York City, the biggest media market in the universe. The Yankee organization is no longer the Evil Empire, for to be an Empire one must be dominant, not merely controlling. For that reason, George Steinbrenner is now George W. Bush, and the Evil Empire is now the Bush Administration �?? incompetent and widely despised, spending a fortune on fruitless endeavors which no one can contest or accept. The Stein has now become �??the decider,�?� and is ruining lives. And if George Bush Steinbrenner thinks he can fire Joe Torre, then the Boss should fire himself. Torre has managed the Yankees for 13 seasons. In the 12 seasons prior to Joe�??s first year, Steinbrenner mowed through 12 different managers. Stick with a good thing, George.

As for the free agents, Rivera and Posada must be re-acquired. These are consistent staples in the Yankee lineup that still have a few productive seasons left. Clemens should be avoided at all cost as this season was a bust to say the least. Pettite will likely retire now also, seeing as he�??s Roger Clemens�?? prison bitch and follows him around like a stray dog. As for the biggest question mark, Alex Rodriguez, Steinbrenner has to pay him. Scott Boras, the Ruthless One, will likely score A-Rod somewhere close to $30 mil a year, but is it not justified? The youngest player to 500 homers and is on his way to his third MVP award. Not to mention he accounts for 50 homeruns and 150 RBIs; take him away and the Yankees power would be Hideki Matsui and Bobby Abreu �?? ordinary at best. And can the Yanks really afford lose A-Rod to another team, such as the Angels?

At this point the �??Bronx-Bombers�?� identity must be put on the backburner. These are not the days of Ruth, Maris, and Mantle. This is the era of Beckett, Dice-K, Schilling, Wakefield and Sabathia, Carmona, Byrd. There�??s not much the Yanks can do in this off season to improve, with so much salary cap still tied up in Mussina and Giambi. However, after next season, the Stein should definitely make a move for Johan Santana. And until then, keep Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, and Joba Chamberlain winning and healthy. Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, and Shelley Duncan need to be integral as well. But, it will certainly be a difficult and painful road for the pinstripers to return to what they have long failed to be �?? superior.

- Tommy Tam, San Marino

A Frustrated Fan: Well I'm speechless, because if I were a Yankees fan then that's exactly what I would say. Poor George thinks money can buy everything, and although it bought A-Rod, it clearly wasn't enough. Pitching is what gets teams through the first round in the playoffs, and New York has certainly been suffering in that department-- losing their last 3 first round series' in the last 3 years of post-season play. The bright side is that most of the time Steinbrenner's money is spent well, since the Yankees make the playoffs quite frequently, so they basically just need to find some pitching. Because I'm a Dodgers fan, I don't even bother thinking about acquiring players like Johan Santana or A-Rod, since that would require optimism, so at least Yankee fans have something to stay positive about because usually things get accomplished over there in New York.

actually think it was worse than the Mets' collapse, because Padres fans had to see two consecutive blown saves by Trevor Hoffman in clinching games. It was like my team was telling me, "Hey, guess what? We aren't going to the playoffs this year even after we had a wild card or division lead all season! And as a bonus, you get to see the second greatest player in team history choke out what will likely be the end of his career as a closer."

Not to mention that Tony Gwynn Jr. was the player who sunk the Padres in blown save #1 in a nice bit of irony.

I give up. At this point, I just hope that the Cubs win the World Series so that those poor bastards in the Wrigley Field bleachers can finally die in peace.

- Doug Ahler, San Diego

A Frustrated Fan: You are right, since I'm a Dodgers fan I do find what happened to the Padres to be quite hilarious...but I do feel bad for them a little bit. Somewhat similar to the Mets, but not nearly as pathetic, the Padres just seemed to lose their concentration down the stretch. I especially feel your disappointment since they gave you false hope all season long by being in 1st place in the NL West for most of it, but hey, welcome to my life as a Dodgers fan. As for Trevor Hoffman, blowing those saves in such critical games really is inexcusable, and I'm sure all SD fans pretty much hate that guy right now. There's always next season though, so hopefully changes will be made and both of our teams will perform better next year. For SD there is a strong possibility of that happening, but as for the Dodgers, I don't expect anything...they're all idiots in that front office.

ot to mention, he also ran multiple probowler Donnie Edwards out of town without finding a replacement. Also, the last time I checked, our secondary managed to hand a shot at the Superbowl to the Patriots in last years playoffs, and I think at least one addition to that sub par core couldn't hurt right? Alas not giving up Michael Turner to Cleveland for Braylon Edwards, or pursuing an experienced wide receiver in general, pretty much ties AJ with Al Davis in a "how many fans can I get to hate me" contest.

As far as the fans in SD... well I don't think I'll be going to anymore home games until I stop hearing, "Maaarty" or "we want Marty!" ...the most classless thing I've ever had the displeasure to hear. Players and fans need to stop blaming Norv, it's not even coaching anymore... If Rivers can't complete a simple swing pass out to LT, our D can't tackle, or defend against a simple slant, to a rookie nonetheless, we shouldnt expect anything worse than 24 unanswered in the 2nd half and a 1-3 record heading into Denver next week.

Also, being there and hearing boos after every single incompletion made me sick. I wonder how Rivers and the rest of the offense felt when the game was still in reach. Way to stay behind your team... Charger fans need to get over our 14-2 record last season and realize the NFL doesnt work that way; coaches, players, coordinators and staff weren't born yesterday. They will eventually figure out opponents' schemes and develop counters.

I've stopped blaming Norv because we gotta take what we're given, at least for this season... and show nothing but support for our team. It may sound crazy, but with the parody in the AFC West, the Chargers are still a playoff contender. Merriman just needs to stop doing his dance and start showing some leadership on that defense, and Rivers needs to realize that he'll have plenty of time to daydream on the bench if he doesnt stop doing it in the pocket. We all saw it in the first half this Sunday, the high powered offensive force to be reckoned with. As for the second half, well I'm still trying to figure out who team that was...

Anyway, all grudges aside, hope is still alive. I mean the Steelers won a Superbowl ugly 10-6 style in '05. I don't see why the best RB, LOLB, TE, DT can't squash the squabbles in the locker room and ressurrect this team without marty ball.

- Marc Chiang, San Diego

A Frustrated Fan: Very nice and well put argument regarding the state of the Chargers and performance of their front office during the offseason. I am also glad to see that Chargers fans, or the smart ones anyway, know that last season's playoff loss to New England was not Marty's fault. If the defensive back who intercepted Brady doesn't fumble that ball, then the Chargers would have advanced. Also, one thing Norv needs to get through his head is: Get LT the ball. They did that vs. KC the first half, but not in the second half, which was just inexplicable. Rivers also must perform better and be smart as a QB, and Merriman needs to lead by example and set the show aside. As mentioned in the rant, the Chargers are 1-3, but everyone else in the AFC West is also struggling at 2-2...so there is definitely still hope.