Joe Sheehan SI.com takes a look at five things that are real, five that aren’t and five things that the month of April didn’t tell us regarding MLB. Among the five things he lists that are “real”, parity comes in at No. 5.
5) Parity. The last few years have seen the spread between the best and worst teams in the game narrow considerably, as natural cycles of aging and unnatural wealth-redistribution mechanisms serve to bring the extremes toward the middle. Throw in a National League in which three quarters of the teams can see themselves as one trade-deadline deal away from playing in October, and you have 1980s-style parity. The Diamondbacks and Cubs have so far separated themselves at the top, while the Nationals and Rangers have yet to reach 10 wins. Everyone else, from No. 3 to No. 28, is separated by just 6½ games.
That’s not a fluke: MLB has spent most of the 2000s working toward NFL-style competitive balance, and that’s what it now has. Whether that’s best for baseball remains to be seen — the game is at its best when great teams fight out great races in the regular season — but it does provide a heaping helping of hope and faith.
I can go either way on parity in sports. While I appreciate a late season series between the Yankees and Red Sox with a division on the line, I also enjoy seeing fresh teams in the mix from time to time. So I guess what it boils down to is if your favorite team was out of the running, would you rather have the same old rivalries or would you rather see teams like the 2006 Colorado Rockies make a run?
