The NYT's Harvey Araton shoots down Risible Ralphie's silly charges about fixed refereeing. Via Ken Layne.

Oh, and for those who like to bemoan the lack of competitive balance in baseball, check out this Jayson Stark column which talks about the abject lack of such balanced in the salary-capped NBA. Stark goes right to the heart of the issue here:

If the Yankees are so bad for baseball, how come they're on national TV every time you turn on your set? If the Yankees are so bad for baseball, how come they outdraw every team in the sport in road attendance? If the Yankees are so bad for baseball, why were we all so worked up last weekend when Barry Bonds finally came to the Bronx?

Because, in so many ways, they're not bad for baseball. They're great for baseball.

So what bothers us about the way Bud Selig's crowd complains about the Yankees isn't the merits of their arguments. It's all in the attitude with which they make those arguments.

It's about time baseball started doing more to sell everything that's right about its sport instead of everything that's wrong. The NBA has problems, too. It just doesn't turn them into a national marketing campaign.

So listen closely as David Stern presents the championship trophy to Jerry Buss and Shaq and Kobe this week. We bet he won't mention competitive balance for one mili-second -- even though his league has had so little of it, it makes baseball look like the World Cup.