Weathermen Don't Determine the Seasons

It might still be hot here in Baltimore, but fall is officially here. The baseball playoffs got started this week with some regular faces but a few unusual ones. My hometown team, the $195 million (that's excluding Roger Clemens' pro-rated $28 million contract) Yankees, made it into the postseason, with the usual fanfare; if they don't make it all the way to Broadway for a ticker-tape parade, the season will be declared a failure. Meanwhile, the $54 million Colorado Rockies, $52 million Arizona Diamondbacks, and $61 million Cleveland Indians are all in the mix, too, all with a legit shot of making noise this October. Three teams--all in the bottom half in the majors in terms of team salary--with a shot at winning the World Series...sounds pretty cool, doesn't it?

As much as I want my Yankees to win (and I do), there is something attractive about the fact that a few of these second-tier teams are at least competing with the likes of the Yanks, Red Sox, Angels, and Cubs (all with salaries at or above $100 million). And, along with the fact that the $100+ million Mets, White Sox, Dodgers, and Mariners are all sitting at home this October, I think it's a compelling enough reason to silence any arguments in support of a salary cap. The playoffs are always interesting, regularly competitive, and most times exciting, due in part to the unique nature of the teams' economic (but also historical and regional) relationships with one another.

So now, fourteen days or so after the calendar said so, fall is underway. I'll still be rooting for the Yankees--seven years without a 'chip is seven years too many--but I hope the frugal Rockies or D'Backs make a run for it, as well. (I can't say I feel the same way about the Indians, whose series with the Yanks gets underway in fewer than 24 hours.) Money is one of a number of powerful tools in both baseball and life, and only time will tell if is powerful enough to vault the Yanks back into the late-October limelight.