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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 2, 2001)
‘Small-ball’ teams enjoying successes ROBBIE McCALLUM If there’s one thing I hate, it’s money buying wins in profes sional sports. Last season, I shuddered every time I opened up the sports page to find the major league baseball standings. Big-money teams like Atlanta and the damn Yankees were on top and small-venue teams like Minnesota and Montre al were on the bottom. There was some consolation in seeing that the high-salary Los An geles Dodgers were among the league’s worst and penny-pinch ing Pittsburgh, for a brief moment, was in the hunt for a wild card berth. This year I have hope. The league’s best team is Seattle, who over the off-season lost All-Star shortstop Alex Rodriguez to free agency in the biggest deal in sports history. Who’s laughing now? The 20-5 Mariners or the 11-14 Rangers and their $252 million man? Some say the M’s are better off without Rodriguez, and can now play a more effective style of play: small ball. Instead of relying on Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson and a thin pitching staff, Seattle now takes advantage of a deep roster where everyone contributes to complement a strong pitching staff. While Carlos Guillen, Stan Javier and Freddy Garcia seem like poor replacements for A-Rod, the Big Unit and Junior, they are the kind of players that make Seattle tick, and they do a decent job of it. No team is better at playing small ball than the league’s sec ond-best club, the Minnesota Twins. With one of the league’s smallest venues and payrolls, the Twinkies have been in the AL Cen tral’s cellar dweller for a decade. In fact, the last time Minnesota put together a string of wins like they have this season was during their championship year of 1991 when • residents of the Twin Cities coined the familiar sounding phrase: “Worst to First.” The struggles of big-money teams like New York and Arizona, who are both trying to stay above the .500 mark, make this season all that much more fun. The really fun part about watch ing Seattle and Minnesota play is learning about the players. Not too many people outside of the Go pher State know much about play ers like Doug Mientkiewicz and Cristian Guzman. But now, Twins rightfielder Matt Lawton is on the cover of Sports Illustrated and the word is getting out: The Twins are for real. But is the success of small ball just a fluke? Will the Mariners and Twins be powers in five years? Next year? This September? Histo ry says no (to the former two). The Mariners haven’t made the play offs in consecutive years ever, and the Twins have averaged about eight years between each playoff year over the last 25 years. Alas, the Yankees, Dodgers, Rangers and all of the other merce nary teams in baseball will just buy more free agents and pluck the minor league prospects from the farm systems of small-venue teams like Montreal and Pittsburgh to shore up any weaknesses in their lineups. But at least for now, we can open up the sports page to find two small-ball teams on top of the league standings. Robbie McCallum is a sports reporter for the Emerald. He can be reached at coach_robbie@lycos.com. 011753 JAR & LOUNGE H|W PEGASUS PIZZA) MICRO MONDAYS J If® * LADIES NIGHT THURSDAY W $ 1 PIZZA SLICES (from 9pm-12 midnight) * SIMPSONS SUNDAYS. + $ 1 PIZZA SLICES (from 9pm-12 midnight) * BIG SCREEN, POOL, GOLDEN TEE *#1 PIZZA IN EUGENE TONIGHT! P ' Fathoms 790 E. 14th • "NOT YOUR ORDINARY DIVE There is a great way to get real experience in advertising right here on campus! We’re hiring creative, enthusiastic students to be sales representatives and ad designers starting fall 2001. Build skills, your resume and add to your portfolio. See if we’ve got the job for you... Come to our JOB FAIR: Thursday, May 3rd 10am-4pm Suite 300 EMU Call 346-5511 for more info
