Over the last few years the NFL has been praised because of the parity throughout the league and has been labeled a model for every other professional league in terms of how competitive it is. Well, I believe we are seeing the true nature of that parity rear its ugly head this season, especially in the NFC. The Seattle Seahawks are 8-6 and lead their division and have lost their last two games to the 6-8 49ers and the 4-10 Cardinals. Chicago, the supposedly best team in the conference, gave up 31 points to the Tampa Bay Bucs and their 3rd string QB, Tim Rattay! This isn’t limited to the NFC however. The Patriots got shut out by the Dolphins, who then got shut out by the Bills, and the Colts have the worst run defense in the league. The Chargers are a good team. Their two losses were by a combined 6 points, 3 in each. However, Philip Rivers has never played in a playoff game before and until he has been tested in that arena you can’t make any assumptions about that team. The fact is that there isn’t a team in the league without at least one major flaw. So what has parity given us? I say a watered down league where on Any Given Sunday you can see a couple of mediocre teams fight it out. Is that what we really want?
Everyone always says that MLB should follow the NFL’s suit. Why? MLB has proven that the system in place works pretty good. The Yankees and Red Sox outspend everyone by a ton and neither has won a chan’ship the last two years. The Yankees couldn’t get out of the first round and the Sox finished 3rd in the division! You have The Royals giving 55 million to Gil Meche this off season proving a “small market team” has the dough to hang with the big boys, their owners are just too greedy to spend the money their fans deserve, well at least they used to be. Maybe there are a few teams in baseball that are in the hunt every year, but I’d rather see two teams that are stacked with great players duke it out, rather than two average teams from a “balanced” market. I could watch a Yankees/Red Sox series every year, not because I am a Yankee fan, but because I am a baseball fan and no other series I have ever seen between any two teams has been as fierce and full of memorable moments as those series. I want the best against the best. Not the pretty ok’s against the pretty ok’s.
One more take. Jeff Bagwell retired from MLB this week and already the questions of whether or not he is Hall of Fame worthy have begun to be thrown around. With all due respect to Mr. Bagwell, are we crazy?! Bagwell won one MVP and one gold glove at first base. He never won a World Series and wasn’t able to play in the one he made it to two years ago. The guy was a good player and a very good power hitter, but Hall of Fame? In my opinion, the criteria for getting in any Hall of Fame, not just MLB’s, has become far too lax recently. I don’t believe you can just look at numbers. Again, with all due respect, but Tiki Barber in the football Hall of Fame?! And I’m a Giants fan, but please! We are all so anxious to see “the greatest ever” at anything that we pump athletes up to incredible stature before they have ever done a thing. Can you say Tony Romo? Hall of Fames should be left for the best of the best, not just the best or pretty good for four or five years. Can an athlete even have a successful career anymore without getting into a Hall?
Mike
Wally says
Mike —
Kudos to you for your opinion on Jeff Bagwell and the gradual watering down of Hall of Fame credentials. I think baseball still has the stingiest criteria of all the sports, with basketball and football HoF criteria being a borderline joke. Personally, I don’t think Bagwell has a very strong case or much of a shot. He was a very good player — I believe a .297 career BA and 440+ HRs and lots of RBIs — but these are not numbers that scream HOF to me. As Mike points out, the only World Series Houston was in, Bagwell wasn’t able to play and not really a factor in the Astros getting there. In fact, he and the rest of Houston’s “Killer B’s” were infamous for gagging in the playoffs when they had some pretty decent teams when I lived there ’99-’01. Clutch does not come to mind when I think of Bagwell. On the positive side, he was a real pro through and through … one of the classiest players of his generation … along with Biggio who will probably get into the HoF. For any of you who think Bagwell should make the Hall, come talk to me if/when Ron Santo, the former great Cub 3rd baseman, makes it first. I believe Santo should be in, and I think his credentials are stronger than Bagwell’s.
Wally
Aaron says
Wally/Mike,
I completely agree with both of you on the Jeff Bagwell. It was sad to see his career end the way it did, because he was a classy ballplayer.. Never complained, played hard everyday and played for one team his entire career. Something that can’t be said for too many players.
The area that we will begin to have problems is players that are coming out of the Steriods era. Let’s use this for a comparison.. Jim Edmonds vs. Mark McGwire. Jim Edmonds is going to finish with a pretty good career. 400+ home runs, world series champion, 6 time gold glover, good post season numbers, but injured often missing alot of games. McGwire, well he has all of the HRs, broke Roger Maris’ Hr record, average first basemen and a world series champion. McGwire also was a known steriod user, and Edmonds is not.
So if McGwire’s HR totals are performance enhanced, and he really adds nothing else to his resume. Who should get into the HOF? Edmonds or McGwire? In my book Edmonds should get into the HOF of the two players. What does everyone else think?
As for football.. There is potentially mediocrity, but there is also hope.. And that is something alot MLB teams don’t have. Each year there is hope that NFL teams can turn it around.. Would New England have been able to build its dynasty based on its philosophy in MLB? I don’t think so.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Yankee/Red Sox games. But I don’t mind it when I see a Anaheim, Detroit or a Minnesota play for a World Series. But the Yankees and Red Sox aren’t the only big spenders in baseball. The Cubs, Mets, Dodgers and Rangers are right up there with them..
Mike says
Can we say for certain that Edmunds has had nothing to do with steroids? Can we say anyone in baseball hasn’t for certian?
Lloyd Christmas says
Okay, so I’ve been perseverating on this whole Hall of Fame thing for a while now, so, point number one: I’m not a huge baseball fan by any means, however, there is a huge difference between having a successful career and a stellar, Hall of Fame type career (Tiki Barber). It takes more than simply being a recognized name or a few good years to deem one Hall of Fame bound. Now I’m not saying that Tiki Barber does not necessarily deserve a plaque (okay I lied, he doesn’t), but for some of these other “notable” athletes, it takes more than a few thousand yard seasons for me to buy it. 1000 yards is commonplace now in the NFL. If you want to be a stellar football player, consistent 1600 yard seasons is what I need to see (average 100 yards per game). Not only that, but getting in the endzone rather than being subbed out for another, larger, “endzone specialist” doesn’t cut it (Brandon Jacobs). Point number two: the baseball hall should stop inducting players to prevent contaminating a pure society. If they would like to construct an asterisk Hall next door, then by all means, Canseco can cut the ribbon…
Casey says
Somehow steroids and certainty have to qualify as an oxymoron.
It is hard to measure the NFL and all sports against the past. For example the Giants, which I am most familiar with. When Kerry Collins led them like lambs to the slaughter versus the Ravens in Super BowlXXXV I kinda scratched my head. When they were annihilating the Vikings, I asked myself are these guys as good as the Giants team that won Super Bowl XXI? Obviously not even close. For that matter neither was Baltimore. (Don’t anyone try to compare Dilfer to Simms, or I will have a hissy fit. LT, Harry Carson, John Mendenhall, and company would have allowed about 2 yards to that Raven offense. And Ray Lewis’s head would have been spinning.) But – where have the Ravens been since then? Mediocrityville – until now. I don’t know if it is better or what. I just know that I hated the Steel Curtain in the 70’s, but that’s what made it fun. I loved the possibility of them losing, and you knew if a team beat them, they would have earned it. Now I am not sure anymore. Yeah the Pats resemble a dynasty. I guess they are. I’m just not sure about the competition. The Steelers competed against Kenny Stabler and the Raiders, Don Shula’s Dolphins all for the chance to play the Cowboys or the Vikings. Could the Pats have done as well then? Maybe that’s not important. It just seems that with the salary cap and this win it all this year mentality teams build their rosters by grabbing a bunch of pieces and hoping to fit it together in a puzzle. I’d like to think that teams of old had a puzzle and tried to find pieces to fit.
As far as the Yanks and Sox go – until a couple of weeks ago comparing the Sox payroll to that of the Yankees was like comparing whoever is second to Tiger Woods in earnings. Now the Sox make me wonder. But we’ll leave that for another time.
Jeff Bagwell – nice player – hall of fame? – yeah and Carmello Anthony is someone I would want on my side during a street fight:)
Greg Smith says
A different perspective on steroids.
I read an article a couple of weeks ago in which Frank Robinson was complaining about the bloated numbers of the current home run hitter and how none of these players should ever be allowed in the hall of fame. He also went on to say that the hitters of the past should be embarassed to have their numbers tarnished by today’s juice boys. What struck me as odd is that most of the older players have taken a stance of moral superiority to those of the steriod boys. Does Frank expect me to believe that if his career had happened within the last twenty years that he would not have taken steriods? Does Frank expect me to believe that he is impervious to the competive market?
Does Frank expect me to believe he does not give in to temptation?
I can just hear it now all the old ball players who never got to play with a hard core in the ball or the new hitter who complains that the Babe never had to face someone like Johan Santana or Pedro Martinez simply because of the color of their skins. How about the complaint that we as a civilization had yet create to phenomenom know as the curveball back in 1920. Moral Superiority? Nah…. Most of the time I just hear hypocrisy.