take that.....

When I was a child, my favorite baseball player was Reggie Jackson. He walked the walk and more than often talked the talk. When the Yankees traded him the the California Angels in 1981, I was crushed. I couldn't believe that Mr. Steinbrenner had the stones to get rid of his only draw. They had Winfield and he just stunk it up in the world series, Guidry was coming back to earth. They had made so many runs with is team that it finally got old. They still had Nettles, Randolph, Pinella, Cerone, Tommy John. The team just did not have what it took i guess to make another run at a championship. At least that is what Steinbrenner thought. Then it happened. The Angels came to town for a three game series. I remember Guidry was pitching extremely well that night. Reggie hadn't really done anything in the game. Then in the eight inning, the score of the game I believe was 1-0 Yankees when Reggie came up to bat with a runner on first. It started to rain a little bit and Bob Lemon left Guidry in to face Reggie. I don't remember the count but, Gator made a mistake pitch and Reggie hit the ball so deep into the upper deck that i did not think the ball was going to land. The crowd all leaped to their feet and cheered loudly and started chanting George Must Go, George Must GO, GEORGE MUST GO!!!. The Angels won that 3-1. I never rooted for the Yankees again after that season. A week later the Yankees came out to the West Coast and Reggie hit homers in his first two at bats off of Guidry in game one of the series. I remember Warner Wolf poking fun at the Yankees for letting Reggie go. He actually that year hit 39 homers and drove in 101 runs. So i guess he wasn't done.
As i watched Brett Favre yesterday carve up the Packers for the second straight time i could only think of Reggie. I wonder Ted Thompson feels like today.. I am sure that there are other players that have gone up against their former teams and did well against them and defeated them, but none like what Reggie and Favre did. Favre was the Packers. He made them significant again after 25 years of obscurity. The Packers stunk in 70's, 80,s and finally came back to life in the early 90's. The way they treated him wasn't right although understandable. Sometimes you have to make decisions that are best for your organization and they felt that Aaron Rodgers was the answer. Aaron Rodgers is a great fantasy quarterback because he fills up a stat sheet like no other. His dilemma is that he needs to start winning games. If I was Favre I would have been more smug than he was in his interviews after the game. I just wish he would have said what every one else is thinking. If I was a packer fan today, I would be in mourning and hiding.. There is a tradition at Lambeau field where when the opposing teams bus arrives there is usually a line of fans that moon the bus. Today i would keep my pants up and would never pull them down again.
One of my favorite take that stories is that of "agent 0" Gilbert Arenas. When Gilbert was left off of the "Dream Team" he vowed that he would make the teams of the coaches that did not pick him pay for cutting him. He did. He scored like 64 points against Phoenix and Portland got torched for like 60. After the game the coach of the Blazers I think was Nate McMillan and he said that Duke better watch out because he 's coming for them next. I may not the details right but the point was that Gilbert wanted revenge and felt he got some against these teams. Revenge is sweet, but victory is better!!! I got to see Wayne Gretzky play the Kings as a Ranger and he scored a goal early in the game. (My First live Hockey game). The crowd went nuts for him and they treated him like he was still a Kings player.