On over the weekend, Angels third baseman Brandon Wood hit a grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.
While that's pretty impressive, the four runs Wood drove in over the weekend represent 30 percent of his RBIs on the season. In other words, he's playing like shit.
For a guy who's been touted for years as an up-and-comer, Wood and his play this season are like kicks in the balls for Angels fans who saw the front office sign away favorites like Vlad Guerrero and Chone Figgins (the guy Wood was supposed to replace).
But this got me thinking: Who else can lay claim to being the big local busts or flameouts? Consider the following list of the most buzz-kill worthy OC athletes, politicians and celebrities.
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1. Matt Leinart
The former USC quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner and Mater Dei High School alum was so good for the Trojans that he upstaged even the great Carson Palmer, winning two national championships during his college career. Then he went to the pros, held out for more money after being drafted by the Arizona Cardinals and made coach Dennis Green lose his patience. This is not a guy you want to make angry. In four years as a pro, he's thrown 20 interceptions and just 14 touchdowns.
2. Steven Seagal
A Fullerton native, Seagal was undeniably one of the biggest badasses of the '90s. His first big blockbuster, Under Siege, grosed $156.4 million worldwide. But then uber-babe Kelly LeBrock divorced him 1994, and it all went downhill after that. Although he was billed second on the Kurt Russel mega-hit Executive Decision, his character died halfway through the movie, the only film in which a Seagal character has ever died. You know it's bad when Oliver Platt outlives you. A few direct-to-video movies and a firing from a reality show later, now he's just fat and releasing albums called Mojo Priest and Songs from the Crystal Cave.
3. Gary Matthews Jr.
Nothing more really needs to be said about how Matthews didn't live up to his hype. In his three years in Anaheim, he stole $26.2 million in guaranteed contract money while doing nothing on the bench.
4. Carson Daly
OK, so he's really from Santa Monica and not Orange County. But what the hell happened to this guy? He was supposed to be the next Dick Van Dyke, and yet he's still languishing away in a 1:30 a.m. time slot after the tragically unfunny Jimmy Fallon.
5. The O.C.
Despite solid first and second seasons, the show went belly up in 2007 after four years and took Peter Gallagher and Mischa Barton down with it. Even stars like Lauren Conrad and Kristin Cavallari from the “real” series it spawned in Laguna Beach are nowhere to be seen. Its lasting legacy is making non-locals think it's OK to refer to Orange County by its hip abbreviation.
6. Disney California Adventure
The park was promoted heavily when it was first being built, but even as an 11-year-old in 2001, I knew this place was going to suck. Disney predicted that California Adventure would rival the original one in popularity. The Los Angeles Times reported that overcrowding would be an issue and that the park might have to turn away patrons on peak days. That didn't happen, but who knew that a theme park about California that's actually in California would do so badly? This guy.
7. Mike Duvall
Nobody went out with a bigger bang than Duvall, the Yorba Linda-based, Moral Majority-steeped state assemblyman who unwittingly revealed his raunchy sexcapades with a lobbyist while miked up at a committee hearing last September. This political scandal? So messy!
8. “The Mighty Ducks”
The name seemed pretty awesome when the team was first created, but once fans realized that Gordon Bombay wouldn't be coaching, it kind of lost its luster. And it's hard to keep up your tough-guy rep on the ice when your team is named after a Disney movie, but here's an inspirational speech to make you feel better!
9. Reel Big Fish and Ska-Punk
Reel Big Fish were pretty popular in the late '90s and came out with a string of successful albums. But their early success was mostly tied to the popularity of the brand of Southern California ska-punk that No Doubt and Sublime had already perfected. Once the genre fell out of favor, so did the Fish.
10. Richard Nixon
Nixon is an all-timer in terms of epic political flameouts. Watergate is his legacy, but just two years earlier Nixon didn't seem like such a bad dude. In 1972, he reopened diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in a groundbreaking visit. The same year, he won the presidential election against his Democratic challenger, Sen. George McGovern, in a landslide with the largest margin of victory in history. But then the hotel break-in happened and everybody remembered that whole framing suspected Communists thing.
