Welcome to the age of diluted sports

OK, this is getting almost creepy.

As of Wednesday, six National League teams were over .500.

Six!

Years ago, after the age of “parity” in professional sports was established, someone said there would come a day when every team finished at .500.

“A bit of hyperbole,” I thought at the time, “But sound logic, nonetheless.”

Now, that statement seems like it could be a dead on prediction of the (not so distant?) future.

The age of dynasties has passed. The days of short lives at the top and deep pro sports mediocrity are here.

If you want to celebrate mediocrity, look no farther than the American League Central.

As of Wednesday, there were eight teams over .500 in the AL. Two of them belonged to the Central Division.

The Chicago White Sox, at a whopping eight games above break even, lead the division. Minnesota, which had won five times more than it had lost, trailed the White Sox by a mere game-and-a-half.

The bottom two teams in the National League West, the Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres, were both just eight games out of first place.

They were both just eight games out of first place because the “front-running,” Arizona Diamondbacks led the division at 40-38.

Some TV commentators Tuesday night were talking about how things were finally starting to get to Los Angeles Dodger manager Joe Torre as his team stumbled to another loss.

“He's shaking his head in the dugout,” one of them said.

Torre may also be shaking his head over the fact that his club, at 35-41 as of Wednesday, was in second place, just four games out of first.

I think it's not unreasonable to expect any division champion to win 95 games in a season. That's a .587 winning percentage. There are all of four teams at or above that right now, including the Chicago Cubs. Brad Memberto, a Cubs fan from way back, is probably jumping up and down.

At least baseball has it right when it comes to how many teams make the post-season. The three divisional champs in each league, plus one wild card in each, are plenty. Score one for....

Oh, wait. My colleague Dan Watson has informed me that some powers-that-be in baseball are pushing for another wild card team in each league. Score another one for watered down quality.

Football is no better. The only thing 8-8 should guarantee you is a finished season and a hard look at what needs improving for the next campaign and beyond. In the modern era, 8-8 guarantees some teams a post-season berth.

The NBA? Yes, the deserving team (and it still sticks in my craw to say it), the Boston Celtics, won the title and the Celtics are from the Eastern Conference.

Year after year, though, teams under .500 in the East are fighting for playoff spots.

What can be done? Probably nothing. The cat's ditched the bag.

The salary cap has a lot to do with parity, I know, and I don't think that's a bad thing.

However, the glut of teams has done the expected - it's diluted the quality level. Commentators keep repeating - and repeating - that “NO ONE is guaranteed a repeat.”

Are a bunch of teams in the .500 neighborhood really what you want in a post-season, though?

I think professional sports consists of “too many and too long” - too many games, too many teams, too-long seasons. I thought a 154-game baseball season and a 14-game football season worked fine.

We all know expansion has boiled down to one thing: More money.

At this rate, I may tune out come playoff time until championship time - when the teams that deserve to be there are actually there.

June 26, 2008