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Revolving rosters Hometown teams aren't what they used to be
It's the New York-versus-New York World Series and I suppose everyone in the old Big Apple feels pretty proud of one team of the other or both. Justifiably so. It's a great honor for two teams from one town to be at the top of one sport at the same time, a tribute to local ingenuity, breeding and the drinking water. Except ... Well, except I keep watching these games and most of the players on the two teams seem to have come from somewhere else. Dave Justice is a hero and he came from Cleveland and Atlanta before that. Roger Clemens is untouchable, just the way he was in Toronto and Boston. He beats Mike Hampton, who is also pretty good, the same way he was in Houston a year ago. Then there's Mike Piazza, famous as a Los Angeles Dodger, and Denny Neagle, who has been a Yankee for about 35 minutes from Cincinnati, and Mike Bordick, a Met for the same time from Baltimore, and Jose Canseco and Jose Vizcaino and Armando Benitez and Al Leiter and David Cone and Robin Ventura and Glenallen Hill and ... the managers are pretty good, too. Joe Torre is doing much better than he did in St. Louis. Bobby Valentine is also better than he was in Texas. I'm not knocking either team -- and I know Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams and Andy Pettitte are homegrown thoroughbreds and n Franco, n though he came from somewhere else, has been a Met since Casey Stengel was the manager -- but I do say that things are different now. Don't you think? This is the sad truth of modern professional sport. The hometown teams are filled now with people from a lot of hometowns. Sports Illustrated senior writer Leigh Montville appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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