Those were the days...

By John Roberts Sports Central Columnist

Sitting here warming my feet by the hot stove.

I remember a simpler time.

Baseball's newest offseason has me yearning for it again -- as I always do this time of year, at least for the past decade or so.

It was a time when I would sit on my front porch as a youngster, tearing into my fresh new packs of baseball cards. They were four packs for a buck back then, and I even ate the gum -- no matter how hard or tastless it might be.

There was a comfort in this ritual. Each season would bring a new design on the cards, but the players for the most part would still be in the same uniforms.

Not so anymore.

Free-agency has run amok again. Since the season ended, more than 200 players have filed for their freedom.

The freedom for some to cash in on a big payday.

The freedom for others -- read 37-year-old lefthanded relievers with plus-5.00 ERAs -- to continue their fleecing in yet another town.

No offense to the Dan Plesacs of the baseball world -- and good luck in your overdue retirement, Dan. Free-agency is a well-earned right by the players.

But I hardly think Curt Flood had this in mind. The nomadic wanderings of players year to year tarnishes the game, let alone confuses the fans.

It takes me a good two months each year before I can get a firm grip on who's playing where. Players have no loyalty for the cities in which they play. Why and how can fans have loyalty for their teams?

I used to be able to recite the starting lineup for my beloved Cincinnati Reds, and most of the rest of the teams, for that matter.

Now, I'm lucky if I can name a few players on their roster before July. A nice five-year run with a team holding onto the primary core of its players shouldn't be too much to expect in this day and age.

Nowadays, it's a series of one-year stopovers for several stars.

Players go where the money is, and that's natural. It's just a poor structure when all the money's in the same place -- with the big-market teams.

That leaves my Reds, and your Brewers, Pirates, and Expos with whatever is left at the end of the free-agent feeding frenzy.

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2004 All-Stop Gap team.

Leading off, Chris Stynes. Batting second, Reggie Sanders.

These guys wake up every morning and can't remember where they're playing until they've had their coffee.

Don't misunderstand. I think revenue sharing is wrong. The luxury tax is the right way to go. But you won't beat an owner who doesn't care how much he spends -- and can easily afford to do so.

I can just see it now.

Have fun with the Yankees next season, Gary Sheffield, Kenny Lofton, etc. Nothing a $12M luxury tax can't cure.

I have no perfect solution to the problem. I simply lament it has come to this.

No more old reliable Big Red Machine. No more Garvey-Lopes-Russell-Cey mainstay infields.

No more of the mulleted wonders that were the Phillies of the early 1990s.

I'll try to calm my self by digging out some old baseball cards.

Here's my Reds just as I remember them.

Pete Rose. Ken Griffey. Joe Morgan. George Foster. Johnny Bench. Dan Driessen. Cesar Geronimo. Dave Concepcion.

Ahhh. I remember the times.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.