Major League Baseball needs something to save it. The steroids problem has destroyed its reputation. The fans’ view of the game has been tainted by the doping. This damage is not beyond repair, though. Something needs to come along to lift our nation’s pasttime, and that something has arrived.
Major League Baseball, welcome to parity. We’ve heard of the parity in the NFL, which the New England Patriots actually threatened for four years with three championships. College basketball may be the most unpredictable major sport as any team can make a run in March (see George Mason, 2006). Baseball is starting to enjoy its own parity, and I love the new excitement that comes with it.
Baseball’s past is full of repeat winners. Since the World Series started in 1903, every decade has featured at least one team winning multiple times. Only between the years 1978 and 1987 did 10 different teams become World Series champions. The Red Sox dominated the World Series early, winning five of their six championships from 1903 to 1918. Since the 1920s, the Yankees have owned the Series, winning 26 times.
The first six years of the 21st century indicate that things might be changing in Major League Baseball. We have seen six different teams earn rings. The Yankees continue to sign every high-profile free agent available but haven’t won since 2000. Two franchises (‘01 Arizona Diamondbacks and ‘02 Anaheim Angels) were crowned for the first time. The World Series champions from 2002 to 2004 were all Wild Card winners. In 2004, the Red Sox won for the first time since 1918 while the Chicago White Sox won last year for the first time since 1917. Things are changing in baseball.
This season Major League Baseball is full of surprises. Every Red Sox fan is wondering what happened to their 2004 World Champions. This was supposed to be the year for my Cleveland Indians, but they ended up falling apart. It seems like every team in the National League has a shot at the Wild Card.
The biggest surprise this year has been the Detroit Tigers. They are leading the AL Central and have spent most of the season with the best record in baseball. This is a team whose last winning season was in 1993 and who, since then, has never been closer than 16 games back in the division. Now they are one of this year’s favorites to win it all. And if they do, we’ll be three new winners away from the first decade in MLB history with 10 different World Series champions, making baseball more exciting.
Now don’t let me get to far ahead of myself. I realize that we still have four more seasons, including this year, before the end of the decade. That’s still a long way. There are four more opportunites for some team to repeat this decade and destroy my hopes. But let’s hope this doesn’t happen. Baseball needs its new parity to continue in order to keep the sport’s fan base interested and happy.
