My sincere apologies

1. Ed Wade, Drayton McLane, the city of Houston and the state of Texas.

Actually, apologies to Wade and McLane should suffice.

I criticized Wade for the Miguel Tejada trade, the Randy Wolf trade and even for his temper in his steel-cage match with Shawn Chacon. But the Astros nearly turned into this year's Rockies, thanks to huge contributions from some of Wade's lesser acquisitions — Darin Erstad, Geoff Blum, LaTroy Hawkins. The Brad Lidge trade was a bust, but the Astros' season still qualified as a success. I called McLane "delusional" after the Wolf trade, but the owner's refusal to quit even under dire circumstances has repeatedly served his franchise well.

As for the Astros' players, they need to get over their anger at commissioner Bud Selig for moving their games postponed by Hurricane Ike to Milwaukee. Those "Bud Killed Us" shirts were ridiculous. McLane agreed to the shift, and so did the players' union. The frustration of the Astros' players was understandable, but they grew too distracted from the job at hand — playing the games.

2. Ken Williams

I questioned the faith that Williams showed in John Danks and Gavin Floyd, never believing the White Sox would contend, never imagining that Alexei Ramirez and Carlos Quentin would prove to be such spectacular finds.

Alas, Williams never forgets a slight. The next time I see him, he will call me a Twins-lover, Indians-lover or something else absurd. Still, Williams' bluster is part of his charm. Maybe next season I'll pick the Royals just to see him scowl.

3. Bill Smith

The Twins' first-year GM made some rookie mistakes — Mike Lamb, Craig Monroe, and to a lesser extent, Livan Hernandez, among others. But while we still don't know whether he received a strong enough package from the Mets for Johan Santana, we do know that he was wise to turn down the Yankees' reported offer of Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera, Jeff Marquez and another prospect.

4. Chris Iannetta