The "Contraction" quagmire.

• Author: Barrett, Wayne M.
• Position: Sports Scene - Eliminating struggling teams

TWO ABSOLUTELY LUDICROUS NOTIONS surfaced before the celebratory champagne was even dry following the Arizona Diamondbacks' dramatic ninth-inning, seventh-game snatching of the World Series from the three-time defending champion New York Yankees--that the Bronx Bombers' reign of terror (read utter domination) of baseball was over and that the National Pastime would be better off with contraction (the lopping off of two teams from the major league roll call). The immediate reaction here was that saner (or at least somewhat more reasonable) heads would prevail on both fronts, as the two issues are related--at least indirectly. No such luck or wisdom has surfaced, however.

While nothing would please me more than to dance on the grave of the Yankee dynasty, the fact that New York finally has lost a World Series hardly seems cause for celebration, even for the most ardent Yankee-haters (and you'll find my name near the top of that list). A single setback, albeit via a final-frame rally against perhaps the number-one closer in baseball history, surely doesn't qualify as a death knell, especially since it does nothing to dim the Yanks' astonishing performance of the past half-decade. If anything, it brings their remarkable achievements into greater focus and, therefore, greater appreciation. So why all the gleeful post-mortems?

For starters, the Yankees' latest mn to immortality entailed a multi-faceted chore required of no other powerhouse: three rounds of play-offs to earn a championship, a practice which began in 1995. Although the Yanks are not the world champions of 2001, they still won another American League pennant (their 38th overall), earned a fourth straight trip (and fifth in six years) to the Fall Classic, and made the playoffs for the seventh season in a row (including five first-place finishes). Along the way, they won a record 14 straight World Series games, shattering the previous mark (12) of the 1927-28-32 Yankees of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

How impressive, really, is all that? Practically unprecedented, actually. Winning at least three straight World Series titles has been accomplished only three times before, twice by--who else?--the Yankees (1936-39 and 1949-53) and Oakland Athletics (1972-74). Should the Yanks manage a fifth consecutive American League pennant next season (and who, may I ask, is going to stop them?), they will join the ranks of their 1949-53 and 1960-64 forefathers as the lone clubs ever to complete that...