Bring on a New Champ

For the sixth year in a row -- seventh if my beloved Yankees somehow fail in their relentless march to the Canyon of Heroes -- baseball will have a brand new champion.

Which is to say: Over the last five years five different teams have done the big, scrummy, infield dance at the end of the last game. And before the first playoff pitch is thrown we can say as an absolute certainty that in year six a sixth different team will take a champagne shower with Bud Selig some time later this month.

By my count, this is at least the fourth such stretch that baseball has enjoyed. By contrast football -- the supposed model of a competitively balanced pro sports league -- has had one such stretch, three decades ago.

As I argue more extensively on my sports blog, this is yet another strike against the myth of baseball's competitive imbalance.