When a team rises unexpectedly from the lower or mid-payroll ashes to compete or even win against the BIG payroll BOYS (ie, Skanks, Braves, Red Sox, Dodgers), then the other denizens of payroll hell feel a cool breeze of hope that their turn might be next. In the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Indians beat writer Paul Hoynes seeks to disabuse the faithful of this notion:

There's no way the Tribe can dance with the Yankees and their $185 million payroll. It doesn't matter that New York lost to the Marlins in six games Saturday. Their monetary edge is too great for any team in the big leagues to offer consistent resistance.

The Marlins approach the problem from a different angle. They started this year with a payroll of $48 million. The Indians were at an almost identical figure.

By the time the regular season ended, the Marlins payroll had risen to $54 million. The Tribe's fell to about $45 million, but that kind of gap can be closed quickly.

....The Marlins won their second World Series on Saturday in their 11th year of existence. That's as many World Series titles as the Indians have won in 103 seasons as a charter member of the American League.

Florida has had two winning seasons since becoming a big- league club in 1993. Each year they've won a World Series. The Indians have had 53 winning seasons since 1901 and appeared in five World Series.

True Indians fans are not surprised by this. But they do have the right to ask how the Marlins not only returned to the World Series, but won it, before the Indians. The two teams met in the 1997 World Series and were so evenly matched that a winner wasn't decided until the 11th inning of the seventh game.

....anyone who thinks they'll be able to re-create Florida's October run in 2004 just because their payrolls are similar should compare the teams' starting lineups from this year.

First base: Florida's Derrek Lee vs. Ben Broussard and Travis Hafner.

Comment: Lee outhomered Broussard and Hafner, 31-30, and plays rings around them on defense.

Edge: Marlins.

page 1 | 2 | 3