Sunday, November 23, 1997

Stop the expansion madness -- please

Somebody, please, put a halt to expansion. Or at the very least, apply areasonable delay to it.

I'm tired of witnessing lousy major league baseball, terrible pro football and now greeting us all, and the worst of the bunch, repulsive NBA basketball.

This wouldn't have me on my soap box except for the fact that I enjoy watching all three of those sports. And the quality of the game in each is plummeting southward at an alarming rate.

The overriding reason for each of these leagues wallowing in unwatchable mediocrity is simple Ñ there just aren't enough good athletes to fill the rosters of the growing numbers of teams in each of the leagues.

Baseball's offensive numbers have been astronomical the past several years. And with the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Devil Rays coming into the league, fans in the outfield bleachers need to take cover.

Earned run averages will soar, and so will balls off the bats of 20-a-year home run hitters who evolve overnight into Roger Maris chasers. For the past several years, there have been too many Triple-A pitchers starting for major league teams.

A end to that isn't likely in the near future.

Pro football's best testament to its deteriorating state are the NFC West weaklings of New Orleans, Atlanta and St. Louis along with your one-year-wonders, the Carolina Panthers.

The NFC East has no team with a chance to be good except Dallas. The Cowboys, too, have the only decent quarterback in that division Ñ if they can keep him healthy. If Troy Aikman goes down, your next best QB in that division is Ñ I'm afraid so Ñ Gus Frerotte.

The AFC East is similarly woeful; Cincinnati, Baltimore and Tennessee dirty up the AFC Central; and Seattle, Oakland and San Diego litter the AFC West.

And your dominant teams? Well, they're just not that dominant.

Pro basketball, for lack of a stronger work, shall be termed abysmal. There are no fundamentals and no set plays. If there is a set play, it's a clear-out isolation featuring a one-on-one move that results in an airball or backboard-breaking brick.

Too many players leave college early and some high schoolers do the same. They all want to drive the lane, double-pump and try to dunk or throw up some off-balance prayer that, if it goes in, might earn them an ESPN Sportscenter highlight.

It's a game void of team players, and more and more each year, quality players. There isn't enough space here to chronicle the woes of the NBA.

No doubt, expansion will continue and many of those cities will support their teams. And then there will be more expansion. Los Angeles and Houston don't have football teams. Cincinnati doesn't have a basketball team. New Orleans doesn't have a baseball team.

The possibilities for expansion are endless. Which is why it continues.

But for the sake of the quality of pro sports, someone please put a time limit on it.

TED DUNNAM

Assistant Sports Editor