© St. Petersburg Times, published October 17, 2001
They are old. They are wheezing. You fear someone will fall as they turn around second and break a hip.
Why, then, won't the Atlanta Braves leave the field?
They are rich. They are decorated. In a franchise of dynasties, theirs might be the most impressive.
How much, then, is enough for the New York Yankees?
They are yesterday's flavors. By now, we were supposed to be rid of them both. The Yankees were critical and the Braves were dead. Or was it the other way around? They were finally too old, too faded, too fat. They were finally going to be pushed out of the way by the new kids.
Weren't they?
Yet, as baseball begins its version of the Final Four, here they are again. A Braves team with a lineup that looks like a patchwork quilt. A Yankees team that lives past midnight. They are not what they were. Still, they are in the way.
They have owned the past decade, these two teams, so much so that the sight of them became unwelcome. The Yankees have dominated baseball, and the Braves have dominated the National League, and many of us have become weary of seeing them, time and again.
The more a team dominates, the more it looks like a bully, and the more people hope for a fresh face. They were the fat cats, the Yankees and Braves, and the more they won, the more you tended to notice their financial advantages. To outsiders, they were the rich kids with the great toys. How much fun was there in watching them play?
Times are different, however, and so are the teams. These are teams near the end of their run, teams that need retooling, and their mortality has made you appreciate their journey. They are older, vulnerable, and still they win. Along the way, they make you believe in such tired notions as teamwork and poise and champions' hearts.
And you think: Dang. Wouldn't it be great to see one last dance between the Yankees and Braves?
Oh, there was a time we would have pulled for the Mariners, for Ichiro Suzuki and Jay Buhner and the rest of the remarkable Mariners. They are the kids with the fast guns, the team that shipped away stars and came away stronger for it.
And there was a time we would have fallen in love with the Diamondbacks, with their overpowering pitching, with their rapid rise from the dust. (Somewhere, at this very instance, a member of the Rays' front office is telling someone that it isn't fair to compare Arizona after four seasons to Tampa Bay after four. Oh, those poor Diamondbacks. They have no inkling how much trouble they are in.)
But can't we wait on new flavors one more year?
There are different reasons we find ourselves pulling for the old guys. For one thing, I'm not as young as I used to be. For another thing, excellence is such a rare commodity these days, you hate to see it fade.
Give this to the Yankees. They have maximized their opportunities. They have held onto greatness in the hardest era to do so. They have survived free agency and injury. Perhaps more impressive, they have survived their own success.
Did you see them against the A's? Down 2-0 in games, and 2-0 in the deciding game, and they kept roaring back? Did you see the magical Derek Jeter, the biggest winner in the game? If you're wondering how a champion adds to its legacy, you do it that way. By squeezing every possible day into their era.
The Braves, on the other hand, will be remembered for minimizing their opportunities. Time after time, they have reached the World Series. Only once have they won. Most seasons, the holes in their batting order, or on their bench, have proven fatal.
Still, they keep showing up. The great staff of pitchers doesn't dominate the way it used to. Hitters that you have never heard of keep coming to the plate. They struggle to score so much that you wonder if the basepaths are uphill.
But did you see them against the Astros? They blew Houston away with a lineup of strangers, of guys named Bako, Giles and Franco. They nibbled and clawed and hung around until the Astros remembered who they were, and what they did, which is lose postseason games.
And so you wonder: In twilight, can these two heavyweights make it to the Series to face each other one more time?
It's hard to like their chances. Look at the lineups. Compare the numbers. It's hard not to like Seattle in the American League. It's hard to see Arizona losing in the National. It's hard not to tap the old boys on their shoulders and tell them their time is up.
If the playoffs have taught us anything, however, it is there is a knack to winning pressurized games. The Yankees have a lot of it. The Braves have some.
Frankly, it would be nice to see them compare. One more time.