Hi all. I don't post much, but interesting topic... I think the lines have blurred too much to make much of a distinction between "buying" or "earning/growing" a championship team. To wit, what would you say of the 04 Red Sox, who needed to bring in a hired gun in Schilling to get it done. Did they buy their championship, or just shrewdly find the final piece to the puzzle? Free agency has made pro sports just a little bit less fun for me. I suppose it's great for ratings that your team can go from worst-to-first over any given offseason, but I'll echo the sentiment that it doesn't seem as "sporting" to me. As a Chicago sports fan it was pretty exciting to watch as the Bears improved over the course of a couple years before winning a Super Bowl with mostly the same core group of guys. I mean, how long did that offensive line play together? (Covert, Bortz, Hilgenberg, Thayer, VanHorn - I can probably name 3 of the current OLine). Does that ever happen anymore? Ditto for the Bulls, though I'm not as big of an NBA fan. So, I'd rather see the Cubs win a World Series in a similar manner but like others have pointed out, something about begging & choosing comes to mind.