moves on, and sports gradually evolve, but

This story is part of ESPN The Magazines Oct. 31 NBA Preview Issue. Subscribe today!Philadelphia PhilliesOverall: 88 Title track: 32 Ownership: 70 Coaching: 78 Players: 96 Fan relations: 92 Affordability: 75 Stadium experience: 63 Bang for the buck: 118 Change from last year: +30After four straight years of backsliding, the Phillies won 71 games and drew 1.9 million fans to Citizens Bank Park in 2016. Those numbers might not sound like much, but any step in the right direction is good news after several years of disrepair -- or at least, fans think so, based on a 30-spot jump in these rankings. This is a classic light at the end of the tunnel scenario.Whats goodBesides a title track of 32 (we see you, 2008 title!), the teams best showing comes in stadium experience (63rd). Citizens Bank Park is a fun place to watch a game, and Phillies fans are passionate enough to come back in droves once the team starts winning. That might not be too far off: The front office made some tough calls by trading Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels and Chase Utley in 2015. This year, Ryan Howard and Carlos Ruiz, the final links to the teams glory days, finished their tenures in Phillies red. The Phillies have made a greater commitment to analytics, and theyve done a good enough job of stockpiling young talent that their farm system ranks among the top 10 in the majors.Whats badThe Phillies average ticket price of $41.50 ranks fourth-highest among MLB teams, behind that of only the Red Sox, Yankees and Cubs and $15 less than the average price for the division-rival Mets. The franchise has posted a .432 aggregate win percentage the past four seasons, so its no wonder the Phils rank 118th in bang for the buck. Although the system has plenty of depth, it remains to be seen if Maikel Franco, J.P. Crawford, Odubel Herrera, Aaron Nola and the next wave of players have the talent to get the franchise over the top. The Phillies went 11-18 in September and October under manager Pete Mackanin to squander some of the good vibes generated earlier in the season.Whats newDespite the late swoon, Philly fanatics clearly feel better about Mackanin than they ever did Ryne Sandberg (coaching is up 44 spots to 78th from, yes, 122nd in 2015). Ownership, too, is on the rise -- up 30 spots -- and could continue to rise if the Phillies step up on the free-agent market this year. The departures of Howard and Ruiz (who made a combined $33.5 million in 2016) give president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail and general manager Matt Klentak latitude to make some waves. The Phillies are likely to pursue a veteran starter and a bat this winter, though its hard to imagine them going too crazy in a weak year for free agents.Next: Tampa Bay Rays?| Full rankings Daniel Alfredsson Jersey . Kyle Denbrook, a soccer player from Saint Marys University, took the CIS male athlete of the week honour. Stanley, a fourth-year business administration student from Charlottetown, scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Dalhousie on Friday and tallied again in a 1-0 win over Saint Marys on Sunday. Jean-Gabriel Pageau Jersey . The players spoke Jan. 13 during a Major League Baseball Players Association conference call after Rodriguez sued the union and Major League Baseball to overturn an arbitrators decision suspending him for the 2014 season and post-season. http://www.authenticsenatorspro.com/Bobby-ryan-senators-jersey/ . Jay Feely kicked a 41-yard field goal in overtime, and the Cardinals edged the Tennessee Titans 37-34 in overtime after blowing a 17-point lead late in the fourth quarter. Jason Spezza Jersey . Scott Kazmir allowed four hits in seven shutout innings, Michael Brantley hit a two-run homer in a three-run first inning and the Indians maintained their hold on an AL wild-card spot with a 4-1 win over the Houston Astros on Saturday night. Ottawa Senators Jerseys . Self was acquired from the Buffalo Bandits in a trade for Alex Hill midway through last season, and made his debut in Rochester on March 16, 2013. HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- I dont know about you, but Im ready to see a racing championship resolved the old-fashioned way.Im tired of the artificial elements that have been introduced to the sport in an effort to create or maintain excitement instead of letting things take their natural course.Nothing happens organically anymore. So much effort is put into creating the ultimate finish -- whether its for a race or a championship -- that things are rarely allowed to evolve naturally.Take the overtime rule. Without it, last weeks NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix would have ended under yellow, and Matt Kenseth would have been the winner. Its a system that worked well for decades.Same with season-long championships. How do you think William Byron feels right now? The talented 18-year-old rookie won seven Camping World Truck Series races this year, yet it was Johnny Sauter hoisting the championship trophy Friday night at Homestead-Miami Speedway.Make no mistake, Sauter put together a quality season with three wins, 12 top-5 and 19 top-10 finishes in 23 starts.But Byrons numbers are arguably better. There are those seven wins, plus he nearly matched Sauter with 11 top-5s. Byron led 727 laps over the course of the year compared to Sauters 130.The title was decided in Sauters favor because this is the first year NASCAR thrust a Chase format into the Truck Series championship. Sauter earned two of his three wins late in the season when only six drivers were eligible for the championship. ?Byron was eliminated from contention when his Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota blew an engine while he was leading with a handful of laps to go at Phoenix a week ago in the race that cut the Truck Chase field from six to four.I just feel so bad for William and the way this point situation worked out this year and not having an opportunity to come out here and race for the title, said team owner Busch, who successfully negotiated the Cup Series Chase eliminations to make the Final Four for the second year in a row.The bitter part is this kid is the champion, and hes not going to get the big trophy, added Rudy Fugle, crew chief of Byrons No. 9 KBM Toyota.???It could happen again today in the Xfinity Series. Erik Jones claimed nine poles, won four races, scored 15 top-5s and has led 624 laps to date this year. Yet thanks to an elimination-style Chase, also in its first year in Xfinity competition, Justin Allgaier (no wins, and just 28 laps led) could emerge as the champion.Of course thats ignoring the fact that despite notching up nine poles and leading 2,052 laps on the way to 10 wins (in just 17 starts), Busch is flat-out ineligible for the Xfinity championship.Ironically, NASCAR created the original Chase in 2004 for this very reason. Ryan Newman won eight Cup Series races in 2003, claimed 11 poles and led 1,173 laps, yet finished a distant sixth in the championship standings to Matt Kenseth, who never started from pole once, had six fewer top-5s and led just 354 laps.That statistical imbalance, and the perception that Kenseth was somehow a less worthy champion than Newman, was what pushed NASCAR into action. Since then, the Chase has grown -- to 10, 12, 13, and finally 16 drivers, with the additional artificiality of a series of eliminations intended to mimic the format successfully used in stick-and-ball sports.To NASCARs credit, there has not been an unworthy champion during the Chase era. The Chase created the classic 2011 championship battle between Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart, which Stewart would not have been in if the traditional season-long format had been used.But its going to happen in the Cup Series one of these days. Newman nearly pulled it off in 2014 in the first year for the elimination Chase -- and wouldnt that have been the ultimate demonstration of poetic justice?What it all comes down to is a philosophy of managed competition, and NASCAR has long been the industry leader in that regard.You hear a lot of talk in America today about too much government, and that certainly applies in NASCARs case.?From makinng small adjustments to cars to ensure that no manufacturer gains the slightest advantage, to instituting increasingly gimmicky ways to guarantee the season championship goes down to the wire, NASCAR has always had a heavy hand when it comes to artificially spicing up the show.ddddddddddddIts not worth going back to add up the points the old way to figure out who would have been any Chase years moral champion -- though it can be fun -- because the advent of the various forms of the Chase fundamentally changed the way people raced throughout the season. It changed the entire dynamic of racing for a championship.And thats what is so frustrating. These days, once a team locks itself into the Chase, the rest of the regular season becomes pretty much irrelevant. The focus shifts to preparing for the final 10 races of the year rather than putting in 100 percent effort trying to be competitive and build a points cushion throughout the summer.One or two bad races used to be a bump in the road for a championship contender. But now, if it happens at the wrong time, it can ruin a whole years worth of work.I look back at 2007, my final year at Hendrick [Motorsports], and we were running pretty good, Busch recalled.?I think we were third in the Chase at the time, and we were either leading or running third at Kansas, and I think Junior [Dale Earnhardt Jr.] came off of 2 and wrecked me. From there on, that killed the rest of our mojo, our momentum, the things that we had going for us in that season.Then in 2008, right the exact year after that, we got into the Chase as the top seed, Busch continued. We won eight races, and then boom, right out of the gate in the Chase we tried to start doing things a different way. It messed us up, and we totally lost what we were doing and what our focus was. That killed us there.Im not saying that going back to a season-long championship slog is automatically going to make racing great again.But it would at least do a better job of recognizing greatness over the course of a calendar year rather than through a smaller sampling of a few weeks.This years Cup Series Final Four is representative of the best the 2016 season had to offer because there was a fair amount of parity throughout the field and no driver won more than four races. But that wont always be the case, and even this year, some drivers could argue that the system has been unfair to them -- among them, four-time winners Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr.Busch and Joey Logano would still be in the top four in the standings using the classic point standings, but Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson would rank seventh and ninth respectively. Points leader Kevin Harvick would theoretically clinch the championship Sunday with a top 20 finish under the old system, but hes not title-eligible.Time moves on, and sports gradually evolve, but you can be certain that NASCAR will never backtrack and revert to a classic, season-long championship format -- even though the advent of the Chase is the number one reason fans cite when asked about their declining interest in stock car racing.The Chase is here to stay, and if the drivers dont necessarily like it, they still generally respect the results it produces.Weve worked really hard to get here, said Logano.?I dont think its ever easy, and everyone is here for a reason.?These are the four best teams this year. Its been proven that theyve either been consistent, or can win when they have to.?If they had some troubles earlier in one of the rounds, everyone was able to get through. Theres not many guys who are able to do it, and obviously it was so close.?Theres a lot of pressure thats been put on these race teams, and these are the race teams that were able to handle it, he added.?A lot of people can go a different way when theres pressure put on them, but these teams here seem to be the ones that are best this year, and one of them will prevail at the end. ' ' '