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 Reds to riches story
Posted: Wednesday September 29, 1999 07:17 PM
The story of the last week of the baseball season is those plucky Cincinnati Reds. They're sort of "The Blair Witch Project" of the game, a black-and-white phenomenon captured by a hand-held camera, an underfinanced production, matched against the big-time Hollywood extravaganzas of other cities that will fill out the playoff schedule. The neighborhood hardware store taking on Home Depot. "See?" the lords of baseball can claim. "A small-market team with only $33 million in salaries to start the season can take on the big-timers. All it takes is some ingenuity and hustle." Well ... maybe. We'll see. It will be great if the Reds somehow survive and make the postseason dance, but there is an ominous flip side to their happy tale. Namely, the Arizona Diamondbacks. In their second year of play, after dishing out over $66 million in salaries -- much of that to Matt Williams and Randy Johnson, store-bought stars of the first orders -- the Diamondbacks are at the end of a fine cruise toward the playoffs. Through Monday, they were 42-15 in their last two months of baseball. If the Reds survive, they will show that baseball, playing the 162-game season, day after day, really matters. If the Diamondbacks ever win everything, well, we'll see an old story, won't we? The Florida Marlins of two years ago. The worst story in all of baseball history. Come from nowhere. Spend money. Add water. Stir gently with a Louisville slugger. Hand out the rings. The championship will be decided once again in an accountant's ledger. Sports Illustrated senior writer Leigh Montville appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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