A Note About Parity

Somewhere in Volume 2 of his Encyclopedia of Hockey, Jon talked about parity. So let's talk about it. Many people blast baseball for being too skewed in favor of a few teams, and football in particular for having too much parity. Are they right?

Measuring from 1986-2005 - a twenty-year period - here's how many different teams have won their respective league championships:

NHL: 10
NBA: 6
NFL: 13
MLB: 13 (including this year's winner, to be determined)

What's interesting to me is that baseball, which gets slammed for having a structure that favors big spending teams like the Yankees and Red Sox, has as many different champions in this period (with one less championship, incidentally, due to the 1994 strike) as the parity-laden. Basketball, in contrast, has seen the same six teams win over the last 20 years - and only 7 teams in the last 26. Only if you're a fan of the Sixers, Lakers, Celtics, Bulls, Pistons, Spurs or Rockets have you seen NBA success since the Reagan Administration.

But, you say, maybe baseball looks that way only because the first half of your analysis comes from a time before the great salary disparity in MLB. Ok, let's look at the last ten years:

NHL: 5
NBA: 4
NFL: 7
MLB: 6 (including this year's winner)

Most notably: Those six MLB winners have come from the last 6 seasons.

These numbers don't prove anything. But it illustrates something that fans know quite well, as we've discussed here often and as was proven this month: money might get you into the dance, but it doesn't get you a date with the Prom Queen.