BASEBALL : Braves’ Run to Top Has Been Especially Heartening

Competitive balance? The ’99 season has produced it at the top, at least.

Among the eight to 10 teams still in contention, there is a stronger sense of parity and the promise of a playoff free-for-all.

“No question about it,” New York Yankee General Manager Brian Cashman said. “A lot of teams are in position to control their own destiny and direct it in a positive way. Anybody can beat anybody. There’s no clear-cut favorite. The playoffs are going to be a dogfight.”

With three weeks left in the regular season, 12 teams are 20 or more games behind their division leaders, and another seven are 10 or more. Many of those 19 were realistically eliminated before the first pitch of the first game.

Equality at the top is reflected by the following:

* The American League’s division-leading Yankees, Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers began the weekend separated by only two games in pursuit of the league’s best record and home-field advantage in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

* Five teams--the Atlanta Braves, New York Mets, Houston Astros, Arizona Diamondbacks and Cincinnati Reds (a stretch, perhaps)--are in contention for the same plum in the National League.

At this point, with the Yankees still looking for their 114-victory form of last year and most of the October contenders dogged by questions of pitching depth, it is the Braves who have emerged again as potentially the best of the best. It’s a familiar role, given their seven consecutive division titles, but an unlikely development, considering a numbing injury wave.

“This is probably the most rewarding and exciting team response that I’ve ever seen,” General Manager John Schuerholz said. “These guys have dug deeper and played harder every time they’ve lost one of their important teammates.”

First baseman Andres Galarraga was found to have cancer and was lost for the season before it started. Then closer Kerry Ligtenberg had elbow reconstruction, catcher Javier Lopez tore a knee ligament, starter Odalis Perez tore an elbow ligament, and set-up man Rudy Seanez developed a bone spur in his elbow and went down for the season. Now the vital Brian Jordan is battling a hand injury that has restricted him to two extra-base hits and no home runs since Aug. 16.

Through it all, the Braves have risen to the challenge of the New York Mets in the NL East, shelving a reputation as a team that conducted business as business, without any real spirit or heart.

Boasting a three-game lead over the Mets before a weekend series in San Francisco, the Braves had baseball’s best record, 89-52.

They had just completed a three-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals--after earlier winning 10 in a row--and were 30-11 since July 25.

“We’re at the top of our game in every facet,” Schuerholz said. “From a team standpoint, we’re playing as well as any team we’ve had since I came here [in 1991]. It’s an invigorating environment. We know we’re in a tight pennant race with no margin of error, and you can almost feel how their spirit and energy has been lifted to a higher level each time they lost a teammate.”

Schuerholz calls it a remarkable response and a tribute to Manager Bobby Cox and every player, but particularly to third baseman Chipper Jones.

“[He] has recognized his responsibility as a longtime Brave and stepped up to do what was needed,” Schuerholz said, calling it an MVP-caliber season in which Jones had 39 homers, 94 runs batted in, 108 walks and a .323 batting average before the weekend.

“What we’ve done this year says to the world that we have a team of real pros, and what we’ve done over the years is a reflection of the ability and character,” Schuerholz said. “You don’t win as consistently as we have by accident, and you don’t win as consistently as we have without spirit and emotion.

“Anyone who says the Braves haven’t had it is simply dead wrong. You can’t win 73 games more than any other team in this decade and play in seven consecutive league championship series and have as many Cy Young winners as we have had and been strictly workmanlike. It takes ability, dedication and spirit, and we’ve had that.

“In this environment, with the volatility around player contracts and roster management, to assimilate a dramatically large turnover of key players into a championship effort, as we’ve done every year, is remarkable. Little has been made of it, but if it’s so easy, so ho-hum, why hasn’t anyone else done it?”

The Mets are trying. They committed more than $160 million during the off-season in the attempt to end Atlanta’s division dominance. The Braves, however, won five of their first six meetings this year and now have their pitching back in familiar form as they contemplate six more games with the Mets during the final three weeks.

Greg Maddux--18-6 and again challenging for a Cy Young--and Tom Glavine have rebounded from early-season struggles. John Smoltz has been able to adjust his delivery to relieve the elbow discomfort that has twice put him on the disabled list. All-star Kevin Millwood is 16-7 with one of the league’s best earned-run averages. Terry Mulholland was rescued from the Chicago Cubs at the trade deadline and has provided left-handed depth to the rotation and versatility to the bullpen. John Rocker has 33 saves in Ligtenberg’s absence.

Only the Astros and Diamondbacks have a better team ERA than the Braves, whose roster management, as Schuerholz put it, has always been aimed at providing the financial resources to retain their vaunted pitchers. They have had those wings, and a prayer, going for them in this year of injuries, not to mention a resolve that some believed had been missing.