The president of Hamilton-based Steelback Brewery has filed a $2-million lawsuit against an Ottawa-based blogger he claims repeatedly libelled him on his popular sports website.

Filed late last week in court in Newmarket, Ont., Frank D'Angelo alleges Neate Sager damaged his reputation and his image in comments posted on Mr. Sager's blog between August 2006 and January of this year.

In his statement of claim, Mr. D'Angelo argues that Mr. Sager's comments - which described Mr. D'Angelo as a "huckster" and a "two-bit shyster" - are derogatory in that they paint a picture of him as a "peddler," a "con man" and an "irritant."

The claim also says Mr. Sager called Mr. D'Angelo a "professional nuisance" and described his interest in acquiring the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins franchise as a "charade."

Mr. Sager, who also works as a copy editor at the Ottawa Sun, said he has yet to file a statement of defence and hopes to resolve the matter out of court.

"I am shocked this happened," said Mr. Sager, who several weeks ago revised some of the more contentious remarks on his blog, "Out of Left Field," at neatesager.blogspot.com.

"I'm still 100 per cent confident that reasonable people can find a reasonable solution to this and I just hope Mr. D'Angelo can sort of see that it's really kind of silly that it has come to this point."