This year, even more than in recent years, the key word in baseball has been parity. Just as scientists once believed that planets and stars were suspended in a luminiferous ether, baseball fans and insiders take as a given that teams and players are fixed in parity. A concept that can make sense of everything, from why the American League is better than the National League even though the latter has nearly all the game’s best players to why last week’s trade deadline was the busiest in many years, parity explains all.

To a point this makes sense. Four divisions — the East and West in the NL, the East and Central in the AL — are locked in tight races; the NL Central isn’t only because the Chicago Cubs kicked the Milwaukee Brewers around like dogs in a crucial four-game set last week, and the wild card races are as heated as any in the game. Furthermore, while many players are having great seasons, none are having the kind of otherworldly ones that have been common in recent years. There are certainly signs of equality everywhere, if you’re looking.