By Mike Kahn
CBS SportsLine Executive Editor
Nov. 17, 1998

Maybe it was inevitable.

Once television became saturated with baseball, football, basketball and now hockey, there seemed little doubt the actual teams would take on the appearance of fantasy teams.

Twenty

Mo Vaughn is about to get a very pleasing contract. (AP)

years ago, it was fun to take imaginary money and create teams and play Strat-O-Matic baseball, and pretend to be a general manager.

Who knew actual money at the close of the century, would far exceed what we used as play money.

CONSEQUENTLY, THERE IS AS MUCH player activity going on now as during the regular season except the names right now are of the marquee value: Mo Vaughn, Albert Belle, Bernie Williams, Roberto Alomar, Jose Canseco, Kevin Brown, Rickey Henderson, Randy Johnson, Rafael Palmeiro, and Will Clark for starters. All of them are free to play for the most attractive -- if not highest -- bidder (as if there's a difference between the two).

From a national perspective, this is fun in a Strat-O-Matic kind of way. When those big names, plus other guys like Tim Raines, Jack McDowell and Jimmy Key are available to anybody, doesn't this make Major League Baseball the ultimate jigsaw puzzle?

There is no salary cap or right of refusal and the transition game continues.

It is fun, just as long as you don't have an allegiance to a particular team. If that's the case, you may not even remember who's on your team. And that's where the fun stops. Unless you're a fantasy fanatic, chances are it takes until the All-Star break before all these player moves crystallize for the normal fan.

And that can really skew the loyalty factor. We have discovered in this age of free agency, that fan loyalty is at least slightly stronger than player loyalty. But it is waning and therein lies the real reason why fans and players don't have the same relationship anymore. It's too fleeting.

As a child growing up watching the Big Red Machine blossom, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Dave Concepcion and Ken Griffey Sr. all were products of the Reds farm system and most stayed for about a decade. Cesar Geronimo and Joe Morgan came from Houston in a blockbuster trade for Lee May and Tommy Helms among others. And George Foster was a steal from the San Francisco Giants.

THINK OF THAT ERA, WHEN ERNIE BANKS, Billy Williams and Ron Santo were the heart of the Cubs forever. Willie Mays, Juan Marichal and Willie McCovey were the San Francisco Giants. Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn and Eddie Matthews led the Braves and Bill Mazeroski, Willie Stargell and Roberto Clemente were lifers with the Pirates.

OK, I'm a National League guy. But the AL had just as many loyalists if not more. Brooks Robinson (22 years) and Jim Palmer (19) were the Baltimore Orioles, just as Yaz and Rico Petrocelli were always pounding the ball for the Red Sox. The list goes on and on. Year in and year out. The only difference seemed to be whether or not they decided to let their sideburns grow.

That said, go ahead and name any team with more than one player with 10 years on the same team. The players who come to mind always are Cal Ripken with the Orioles and Tony Gwynn with the Padres. But have they had any partners for a decade? Barry Larkin is a native of Cincinnati and he's screaming to get out of the Reds organization. He's had at least four full rosters of transition since coming up in 1986.

It isn't fair to just limit this to baseball. We're even seeing it happen in college basketball, where players may jump to the NBA after just one season. Unfortunately, too many high school stars think it's worth it to skip college if they can for the fortunes of the NBA.

THE LURE OF THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR certainly plays a strong role in this metamorphosis. But there is more to it than that.

It has become McSports.

Not only do young players want to play right away, make a lot of money fast and -- jeez, we almost forgot -- win. If all three prerequisites for happiness aren't met, chances are that player will be gone within three years.

In the case of guys like Vaughn, Belle, Williams, Alomar and Brown, you have guys who have experienced all of the above. They are veteran All-Stars. Vaughn says the Red Sox organization has disrespected him. Williams has made it semi-clear that he wants to play for megabucks with his first manager, Buck Showalter, in Phoenix. Belle is, well, just a ding-dong and Brown is this rather disconcerting personality who might unpredictably turn on you for blinking three times within 15 seconds.

Some of it is just a different generation of personalities that have grown up with free agency. Still, the loyalty factor is what still rings so unclear. On one hand, the players get upset when fans cheer for another team or boo their team.

Well, guys, that's what you get when your life expectancy with a particular team has shrunk from eight years to four when it comes to baseball stars.

Maybe that explains why Cal Ripken is so wildly popular. He's spent 18 years in Baltimore earning those plaudits. Don't expect that to happen again for a long time, if ever again.