Wait. What just happened here? I had the craziest dream. I dreamed we just saw a trade deadline where the Cubs and Indians went for it -- and meanwhile, the biggest sellers in baseball were ... hold on, this cant be right .... the Yankees?Yeah, it feels like a dream. But Im pretty sure it just happened. And if it did, you know what that means? It means the world has officially turned upside down. And its going to take a little while to digest that.The Chicago Cubs made a series of deals that sent a clear message: This is the year. The Cleveland Indians made a trade for Andrew Miller that sent the same message: Our time is now. And the New York Yankees unloaded at the deadline instead of loading up -- for the first time in almost 30 years. Wow. Did I just write that paragraph?No one has ever said those words, said one incredulous scout Monday, as the deadline dust was settling. No one has ever typed those sentences. Its amazing.Said those words? Typed those sentences? Heck, no one has ever lived on that planet.But every season, the earth keeps spinning. And now it has spun us into this unfamiliar place -- where the Cubs and Indians lk like your official World Series favorites ... and the Yankees are saying, Wait til next year. Or, Wait til whenever we can finish clearing about $7 billion in ugly contracts off our payroll.Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer and the Cubs attacked the deadline like Michael Jordan once attacked the rim. Saw they needed to build a bullpen that could protect a one-run lead in October -- and bam, reeled in Aroldis Chapman, Joe Smith and Mike Montgomery.Thats why Theo is a Hall of Famer, said one rival executive afterward. He recognized it. And he did it.A few hundred miles to the east, the Indians of Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff were following the same script. They paid a huge price (and tk on big dollars) to go get Andrew Miller. But it isnt just their bullpen that isnt the same because of it. Its their clubhouse -- and their whole city. Which was already buzzing with LeBron Fever.Now theyre like that high schl ftball team that goes running through the hp before the kickoff, said the same exec. They just busted through that hp and theyre going for it.Meanwhile, the Yankees of Brian Cashman had to make a totally different decision, but one just as momentous. It was their time, all right -- their time to move on, move veterans and move forward. Once they were through dealing away Chapman, Miller and Carlos Beltran, they suddenly had a system with six of Keith Laws top 50 prospects in baseball. And if it hurts YES ratings for a couple of months, whatever. Now, at least, they can see the future.As difficult as it was for Brian Cashman to do what he did, said another longtime executive, he did the right thing. Theyve played over 100 games. They were a .500 team. The game tells you who you are. And thats what they were -- a .500 team.But prospects give the Yankees something else, t -- a reminder that in baseball, not all the currency can be measured in dollar bills.They still have money, said a third exec. So this winter, if they want to spend money to sign a closer -- say, Kenley Jansen -- theyll always be able to do that. But now they also have prospects as currency. And I fully expect theyll take that currency and use it this winter to make deals, at a time when there isnt much in free agency.But we can reflect more on the details of what just happened and where its leading some other time. Right now, its more important to reflect on the bigger picture here.To the people who run these teams, the trade deadline isnt some giant rumor fest, the way it is for you and me. Its an important moment in time. Its a moment when the best GMs in the business dont just weigh who theyre trading and what theyre giving up. They need to have a special feel for the meaning of this moment. And that feel leads to the most powerful decisions they can make.The biggest thing we talk about, said one of the execs quoted above, is that you truly never know. You dont know whats going to happen next year. So I think its important to know when its time to make those decisions. The worst thing you can do sometimes is worry about the future. When your team is gd enough, the only thing you can really worry about is now. And sometimes that means you have to just go for it.Knowing when that time has arrived isnt a skill these guys can learn in some sports management schl. Its more like a sixth sense, a voice only they can hear that points them toward doing things they might not ordinarily do. But they have to be listening to hear it.It comes to you in a quiet moment, said another of the veteran execs quoted above, where you figure out, This is what I have to do. But you owe it to your organization to do what you did. You owe it to your players. You owe it to your fans. And you owe it to yourself. But if youre honest with yourself, you do know it. People know what needs to be done.Its what Dayton Mre did in Kansas City last July. We know how that worked out. Its what Alex Anthopoulos did in Toronto last July. We know how that worked out. Its what Sandy Alderson did in New York. We know how that worked out.Those men didnt simply make baseball deals. They made This Is Our Moment deals. And this July, it was the Cubs and Indians turn to make those moves.The Cubs have been waiting over a century for their moment to arrive. The Indians have been waiting more than half a century. So its a message that had to be delivered loudly and emphatically enough for everyone to hear -- and understand what they just heard.So I cant say this loudly enough: The tuned-in people who run the Cubs and Indians just told the world: Our time is now. And it wasnt a dream. It happened. In real life. With real earth-rattling deals involving real people.Its the Cubs year? Its the Indians year? And those things are happening in the same year? Holy Rocky Colavito. The planet we live on just spun in a way no living human has ever witnessed before. So we might have to call this the clest trade deadline ever -- just as sn as we process what happened.Yeah, think how crazy that is, said one of the execs. And think about special it is. Cheap Jerseys Authentic . Varlamov made 33 saves and Ryan OReilly had a goal and scored in the shtout as the Avalanche beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 on Thursday night. Wholesale Baseball Jerseys . Now that hes hitting streaking teammates with pin-point passes for easy layups, Love is asserting himself as one of the true superstars in the league. http://www.wholesalejerseyscheap.net/ . -- The Missouri Tigers might not have a roster full of superstars. Wholesale NFL Jerseys China . -- Tony Stewart is 20 pounds lighter and has a titanium rod in his surgically repaired right leg. MLB Jerseys From China . - Oakland Raiders running back Rashad Jennings was speaking to a group of local high schl students earlier this week when the conversation turned to the importance of being prepared when opportunities in life arise. Kimi Raikkonen thinks Ferrari was performing at the best level it has been all weekend despite once again having to settle for the third row of the grid behind Red Bull in Germany.Raikkonen out-qualified teammate Sebastian Vettel for fifth but both drivers failed to beat either Red Bull in the battle behind Mercedes. Raikkonen was three tenths behind Max Verstappen in fourth position and says the team simply does not have the pace.The car was behaving pretty OK, I didnt have any big issues, Raikkonen said. On the last set of tyres I struggled a bit and I didnt have the same gd feeling I had with the previous one.Were just not fast overall, we need to put more downforce in the car to go faster, but apart from that the handling was OK. Its disappoinnting to be where we are, but this is how it is today.dddddddddddd Well keep working and improving -- thats about it.Raikkonen says the only thing Ferrari can do is continue working at finding more one-lap pace.I didnt really notice there was an awful lot of change from the first run to the last run. It was more difficult on the last set but overall the car was handling well. We just need to be faster around the lap.Unfortunately thats something we cannot change right now, but we keep trying. The car was as strong in qualifying as it has been all weekend, I think it was the best it had been. We tried but it wasnt enough. ' ' '