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Philadelphia Phillies fifth starter Joe Blanton has been repeatedly dropping hints to his fellow starting pitchers and the team's marketing department in recent days that the rotation be dubbed "5 Aces."

"Whaddaya say, fellas," Blanton said at Cliff Lee's signing, which he was not invited to. "5 Aces? It has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Four Aces is nice, sure. But 5 Aces is even better. It's one whole additional ace."

Blanton is slated for the back-end of the Philadelphia rotation that now includes Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels and Lee. All would be No. 1 or No. 2 starters on most every other team in baseball. Blanton went 9-6 last year with a 4.82 ERA.

"I won 16 games with the A's in 2006, you know," Blanton wrote in an e-mail to the Phillies marketing and promotions director last night. "That's more than Cole Hamels ever won. Really! Check his stats!"

Big Ten Legends Division member Michigan lost one of its top 2011 recruits today when prep receiver Michael Tyrell announced he instead will play for Illinois of the Leaders Division.

"Much of being a legend is about fame," said Tyrell. "And while that's great, fame doesn't necessarily leave a positive impact on the world. Leaders do. So I wanted to play for a team that is associated with leaders. Let those other teams worry about being legends."

NFL legend Brett Favre passed away on Monday of a painful shoulder sprain that caused numbness in his hand and left him unable to start a football game. Favre is survived by a wife, two daughters, a grandchild, numerous NFL records and countless grieving and devoted members of the football media.

It was hoped Favre could pull through as late as Sunday when a snowstorm wrecked the Metrodome and pushed his team's scheduled game back a day. But during pregame warm-ups on the field in Detroit, the hand numbness was discovered and the decision was made to pull the plug.

"I didn't think I could function good enough to help us win," said Favre, in what were his final words.