‘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.
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