Firing Line
Let's Play The Games
By Ellis G. Cannon
Publisher, Pittsburgh Sports Report
ESPN Radio 1250 Talk Show Host

The Florida Marlins are baseball's world champions. They're thrilled with their status. That they defeated the New York Yankees to win their championship makes them feel even better.

Last year, the Anaheim Angels were reigning champions. They too were thrilled as they entered spring training. That the Angels got past the Yankees to get to the Series made it even sweeter.

Two springs ago the Arizona Diamondbacks started Cactus League action as defending champs. That they downed the Yanks made their crown all the more satisfying.

That's what happens when you knock off The King. And with 26 world championships, the Yankees have been and remain King, regardless of who won the previous World Series.

That's also what happens when the last two world champions have budgets in the $50-60 million range as opposed to 150-plus.

Which is why you have to like the Yankees' signing of Alex Rodriguez. At the very least, it keeps the Yanks as the target, which is much better than those bozos in Boston. Of course, that's if you appreciate one of the few remaining dynasties. If you appreciate the power of having a team you can emotionally root for or against. If you enjoy watching a team expand the spirit, if not the letter, of the rules in its commitment to winning. If you appreciate David vs. Goliath.

If it took George Steinbrenner bringing Alex Rodriguez to Gotham to remind you of those things, fine.

Face it. A-Rod in the Bronx is much more fun than A-Rod in Texas. He was only a rumor to most fans as long as he was trapped in Arlington. He put himself in that position, of course, but it's still better to have him front and center.

His acquisition by George Steinbrenner once again created gasps around baseball. Pittsburgh and other small markets perceived it as killing their teams' chances, when in reality, the two are completely unrelated. One organization's ability to spend money, albeit with advantages against which other markets can't compete, doesn't affect what another organization spends.

Read that again, because it is fundamental to understanding this contrarian's view of baseball: what one organization spends or doesn't spend does not affect what another organization spends.

What affects other organizations and their revenues, specifically the allocation of them, has everything to do with management, personnel development, fiscal responsibility and local economies. It has nothing to do with the New York Yankees or their decision to spend revenue to accumulate assets. If there's any relationship, it's the small markets being on the receiving end of revenue sharing and luxury tax payments by the Yankees, and sold out parks when they come to town.

What's worse than financial disparity is how some organizations handle it. Disparity is not new. Those that recognize it and work to outsmart it win. Those that don't, won't or can't, lose. Play the doomed card, lose with the doomed card.

It's limited to point to the Yankees' spending as the excuse for your team's problems. Don't believe it's only New York, look around to teams in the Pirates' division. Check out teams with as much as Pittsburgh who make it work. Recognize the Mets, spending money poorly and failing. Scorn those teams that make a big profit but don't reinvest it, instead soaking up revenue year after losing year.

And don't forget the Diamondbacks, Angels and Marlins.

"Ellis Cannon's Sportsline Pittsburgh" airs weeknights, 6-8 p.m. on FM NewsTalk 104.7. Ellis is also a regular contributor on the #1 Cochran Sports Showdown, aired Sundays at 11:35 on KDKA-TV .