On this date in 2006, 3 years ago today, Halos Heaven went on record as saying that the Angels signing of Gary Matthews Jr. was a stupid thing and, in the first of three posts from that sad day, held out hope that another team would swoop in and sign the free agent outfielder.
By noon, the Angels had signed him to a five-year deal and I overreacted in a post, awarding the division to another team for the next three seasons when I read that Matthews would have a three-year no trade clause.
By that evening I was live-blogging my own meltdown, sinking into a weeping, desperate prayer that this terrible signing be somehow redeemed.
I guess those prayers were answered as the Angels have managed to win three division titles despite this albatross contract holding a mediocre 4th outfielder in place on our bench. If there is a silver lining, it is that I can always refer to the posts linked above to show that I called one right and, much more importantly, this deal was not as bad as the Dodgers signing of Juan Pierre for the same 5 years, $50 Million as GMJ. (see comments where that assertion is disproven by Turks Teeth)