I'm a little more cynical than that, I'm afraid. Most big-time sports, professional and college, have never been anything like that. And frankly I'm not sure big-time sports would be as interesting if everything was all nice and equal. I'm certainly not complaining about the Red Sox utilizing their payroll advantage the way they have. Also, I think Red Sox fans have an argument that they deserve higher payrolls because they're the ones pumping all the money into the team's accounts.