An interesting thing happens when a team wins a World Series, especially if it hasn't won in many years. The fans come to idolize the players. This makes it difficult for the general manager to alter the composition of the team. It's rare for a roster to remain the same in consecutive years. Players come and players go. Old players retire or get released; young players come up from the minors; trades are made. But after a World Series title, the fans don't want to let go. They cling to the players, the very sight of whom brings back pleasant (perhaps even ecstatic) memories. The players become walking symbols of success.
Steve Walsh mentions Jason Varitek as being in this category. Rat Sox fans refuse to let him go, even though his skills have declined precipitously. He is the Rat Sox captain, the man who used to make the team go. I told Steve that Derek Jeter will be a Yankee for as long as he wants to. No Yankee general manager would dare trade or release him, for he connects Yankee fans to their glorious (but rapidly receding) past (1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000). The same is true of Mariano Rivera. Weren't there howls when Tino Martinez, Paul O'Neill, and Bernie Williams left the team?
Can you think of other cases in which championship teams declined faster than they should have, because they didn't rejuvenate themselves? It's the fault of the fans, I say. They need to realize that even winning teams must change personnel if they are to continue winning. There is no room for sentimentality in a sport as competitive as baseball.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 