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The parity's over But so what? Sports dynasties are dynamite
The hand-wringing has begun. We are four months from Opening Day, and baseball columnists -- not to mention disgruntled fans from Boston to Seattle -- are already proclaiming the Yankees the 2001 World Series champs. One giddy headline last week read "Order the Rings!" beside a picture of a frowning Bud Selig, Major League Baseball's commissioner, who doubles as the penny-wise owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, the prototypical small-market team. It was clear that Selig's Brewers should not order the rings. If the Brew Crew has to order championship rings in my lifetime, they can send me the molds in which they're minted, and I'll eat them. No, it's the damn Yankees who seem to have clinched another trip to the jewelers by signing free-agent pitcher Mike Mussina for $88.5 million over the next six years. As they say in Wisconsin, cheese whiz that's a stack of Ritz. Thus did the World Champions improve what was already the best starting pitching staff in the league, adding Mussina -- who had the third-lowest ERA in the American League last season -- to Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Orlando Hernandez. Pitching wins championships, and the Yanks have stockpiled a passel of it. So the rich got richer. Hence the hand-wringing, because a lot of folks are convinced that the cure to baseball's postseason ratings woes is parity. They're sick of the Yankees and Braves winning pennants every year, and they long to see small-market teams like Milwaukee, Kansas City, Montreal, Minnesota and Pittsburgh have a chance to return to the playoff dance. But it ain't happening. As the Mussina signing shows, the gap between the haves and have-nots of baseball continues to widen. Parity is on a slow train down a dead-end track. To which I say: So what? Parity is the most overrated virtue since celibacy. Another word for parity is mediocrity. One look at the National Hockey League should tell you that. One team looks like the next team looks like the next one. Forgettable all, and none worth going out of your way to see. Mediocrity doesn't sell. But greatness does. Michael Jordan's Bulls were hell on NBA parity, but dynamite for ratings and attendance. Whether you loved the Bulls or hated them, you watched them if you were a sports fan. And if you watched them, you saw something that invariably drew you back. Jordan's Bulls were great for basketball despite being dominant, just as Magic Johnson's Lakers were great for basketball (and Larry Bird's Celtics and Bill Russell's Celtics). Wayne Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers were similarly great for hockey, despite winning four Stanley Cups in five years. Just as Bobby Orr's Bruins were great for hockey (and Ken Dryden's Canadiens and Maurice Richard's Canadiens). Dominant teams are the only teams we do remember in the vast sea of mediocrity that overflows professional sports. They provide historical context, the conversational grist for the sports bar mill. Would Bill Walsh's San Francisco 49ers have beaten Vince Lombardi's Packers? Were Terry Bradshaw's Steelers better than Johnny Unitas' Colts? Had parity reigned, none of those teams would have built the dynasties that enable us to remember them. Look at the list again. Look at the cities. Edmonton. Los Angeles. Boston. San Francisco. Pittsburgh. Baltimore. Green Bay. Montreal. Chicago. Big markets and small. Sports that have salary caps and sports that don't. Eras of free agency and eras without. You can't buy a great team. The Washington Redskins have been trying. Ditto the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Rangers. It just doesn't work. You must build them with patience, knowledge and a good measure of luck. Anyone who thinks the Yankees will dominate baseball year after year is blind to the history of sports dynasties. They come together suddenly and fall apart utterly -- as the Bulls, Celtics, Bruins, Canadiens and Colts all have done. As the post- Mantle-Maris-Ford Yankees did from the mid-'60s to the mid-70's. And as they will no doubt collapse again when Joe Torre's magic one season, maybe even this season, ends. Injuries, slumps, age, internal dissension, death. You just never know. Until then, we should appreciate greatness when we see it -- even well-compensated greatness. The Yanks are a great team, and their management is clearly on top of its game. But it won't last forever. And all ye Yankee-haters can take heart that when the mighty fall, it's a long, hard way down. E.M. Swift is a Sports Illustrated senior writer and a regular contributor
to CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the
writer.
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