John Lackey, Torii Hunter Whine Better Than They Win

One of the biggest annoyances in professional sports are sore losers. There are few things worse than when teams or individual athletes lose and then complain about it to anyone that will listen.

They discount the other team's or competitor's ability and instead channel their frustration in a way that makes them look no worse than, well, a little bitch.

That's why the quotes from Angels pitcher John Lackey and outfielder Torii Hunter are so maddening. Granted, the quotes followed a loss and came as the Angels once again began down that all-too-familiar offseason on-ramp to "'What Happened to Our Season? Highway.'" But, c'mon: We're talking about two veterans that should know better.

From Lackey:

"We lost to a team that's not better than us. We are a better team than they are. The last two days, we shouldn't have given up anything."

"[Sunday] night they scored three runs on a pop fly that was called a hit, which was a joke," Lackey said, referring to Ellsbury's pop that fell between center fielder Torii Hunter and second baseman Howie Kendrick in Game Three. "[Monday] night they scored on a broken-bat ground ball and a fly ball that anywhere else in America is an out, and he's fist-pumping on second base like he did something great."

From Hunter:

"I'm [ticked], I'm upset, this one's going to be with me for a while. It doesn't feel good, because we're a better team than they are. But they're moving on."

Really? You are? If so...

• Why did your franchise lose a major-league record 11 straight postseason games to the Red Sox, only breaking the streak in an extra-inning affair in Game Three?
• Why did your team leave 43 runners on base?
• Why did you, John, give up four runs in just under 14 innings while Jon Lester gave up none? Also, why did you decide to be so disrespectful and demonstrative to your fellow teammates as they were struggling defensively? And why haven't you won a postseason game since 2002?
• Why is your club—with the best record in the majors, albeit out of a weak division—going home?

Sometimes you have to suck it up and admit you didn't get it done. The Angels lost to the defending World Champions, and yet are acting like they lost to a group of Little League World Series runners-up.

Instead of being respectful and classy (something I always admired in Hunter), Lackey and Hunter took the low road and just plain whined. Pathetic.

Enjoy watching the rest of the postseason, guys. If you're not too busy avoiding all those buses Lackey is throwing people under, perhaps you can take a few notes on what it takes to be a champion.

Josh Nason started Small White Ball in 2007 and is the main contributor of content for the site. A long-time writer, his work can also be read at sites like RopesRingandCage.com, EmailMarketingGuy.com and others. He also does radio appearances and was on TV once, albeit for a lame public television game show. He can be reached at [e-mail].