Columnist Dean Juipe: Record pace has Yankees feeling great

AS THE WORLD evolves, everything is supposed to get better.

Mousetraps, automobiles ... you name it, in theory today's version is an improvement on what has come before it.

The parallel sometimes extends to sports, where the athletes are better than ever. This year's all-star teams in any of the major sports could probably whip their predecessors.

But that doesn't mean the New York Yankees, even if they finish this season with the best record in the history of baseball, can overcome the built-in biases and prejudices that would allow them to be labeled the sport's greatest team ever.

At the exact midpoint of their season, the Yankees are 61-20. Should they match that record in the second half, their 122-40 record would be six wins better than the previous best single-season record in history, established by the Chicago Cubs (116-36) in 1906.

You may have seen the '98 Yankees live or on TV. They're impressive with 12 current or former all-stars, plus they're second in the American League in such divergent statistics as runs scored and team batting average and ERA.

They're an experienced although relatively young team with the second highest payroll in the sport. They're peaking after having the best record in the AL in 1994 and 90-plus victories in each of the last two seasons, including a world championship in 1996.

But there's no way they're the greatest team in baseball history.

The greatest team in baseball history wore baggy uniforms and played when film was black and white, if it existed at all.

Maybe it was the 1907 Cubs or the 1909 Pirates, the only teams prior to this year's Yankees to open a season 61-20. The '07 Cubs, who finished 107-45, had four of the top five National League ERA leaders and were so loaded that 18-game winner Carl Lundgren didn't even pitch in a World Series in which Chicago held Detroit to six runs. The Honus Wagner-led '09 Pirates finished 110-42 and capped a season in which they led from May 5 by edging Detroit in what is regarded as the first great seven-game World Series.

Or maybe it was the 1927 Yankees, the consensus choice as the greatest team ever on the strength of a 110-44 record and 107 home runs from Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Those men accounted for 25 percent of the total home runs hit in the American League that season.

Other possibilities: the 1931 Philadelphia A's (107-45) and such modern teams as the 1954 Cleveland Indians (111-43), the 1961 Yankees (109-53), the 1969 Baltimore Orioles (109-53), the 1970 Orioles (108-54) and the 1975 Cincinnati Reds (108-54).

Or maybe it was this ancient team: the 1902 Pittsburgh Pirates, whose .741 winning percentage (on a 103-36 record) still stands as baseball's best.

The '98 Yankees? Come on.

They're sleek, although lowly Toronto (46-42) has as many stolen bases.

They're productive, although nine AL teams have more home runs.

They're strong with starting and closing pitching, although their three primary middle relievers have ERAs between 4.50 and 5.40.

They're good, but it'll take 122 wins for a sentimentalist raised on the grainy, uneven footage of Ruth in his jubilant home-run trot to upgrade them to great.

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