Columnist Dean Juipe: Baseball should envy NFL’s parity

Dean Juipe

Friday, Nov. 26, 1999 | 10:36 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@vegas.com or 259-4084.

Each and every baseball season throughout the 1990s has opened with maybe half a dozen teams that are likely and logical championship material.

It's virtually the same teams every year, and the common thread amongst these teams is that they play in major population markets.

It's the same, year in and year out. As we have come to learn, more often than not the standings reflect what teams have money and what teams do not.

Those that do have it can also afford the business expertise it takes to creatively finagle with the salary cap.

And those that do not -- which is to say those not playing in big cities with new stadiums -- are constantly aware of their bottom line and how tenuous their very existence has become in the face of imposing franchises in select markets.

In baseball, money not only talks, it dictates who finishes where. It's what separates the haves from the have-nots.

While the sport on the whole continues to thrive, there is no real parity and the only way a team can rise through the standings is to spend more and more money on players and development. Free agency is a huge factor and has reached the point where a superstar like Ken Griffey can demand a trade from Seattle to a better team -- likely to be Atlanta -- not so much because he wants to be nearer his family, but because he wants to win and he knows the Mariners don't quite have the resources to do it.

Some teams -- and Montreal is the best example -- annually go into a season knowing they have no chance of making it to the World Series. They play to survive, knowing their best players will leave for greener pastures when their contracts expire.

Now compare this baseball reality with life in the National Football League, where the playing field is so level that teams in larger markets with new stadiums hold no real advantage over their less fortunate brethren.

Bettors find parity a nuisance and there are some fans who pine for a dominant team or two, but one of the great attractions of the NFL is its unpredictability.

This year, for the second consecutive season, it's possible none of the six division champions will repeat.

It's also possible that not a single team that won a Super Bowl this decade will qualify for this season's playoffs.

In addition, the teams that took part in the most recent Super Bowl, Denver and Atlanta, reside in last place in their divisions and are already out of the playoff hunt.

In the NFL, the deck is continually being shuffled. Dynasties can exist, yet unlike in baseball where a monied team like the New York Yankees merely reloads and replaces its weakest links with high-priced talent, NFL teams share much of their incomes and victories cannot always be bought.

Small-market teams are not only viable in the NFL, they can be contenders for the championship. That simply does not hold true in baseball, where the teams with the highest payrolls habitually chase the greater glories.

The NFL spreads the wealth. A fan in Nashville or Jacksonville is just as apt to have a winning team to support as one in New York or Los Angeles.

If, of course, Los Angeles even had an NFL team to support.