The Eagle County Baseball League doesn't charge admission to its championship series.

It should have this year.

Not because it was the finals, or that it went the full five games.

Saxonburg vs. Mars. That's the only advertising this league needs to bring out a crowd appreciative of old-style baseball.

Forget about pitch counts or pitchers being allowed to throw 10 innings in 72 hours or whatever that politically correct rule is these days.

Curt Schnur and Rob Fester — two guys who have been mainstays for Saxonburg and Mars, respectively, for years now — tossed three complete games in less than a week.

Schnur struck out 16, walked three and allowed 22 hits in his three outings for Saxonburg.

Fester struck out 16, walked three and permitted 20 hits in his three outings for Mars.

Schnur outdueled Fester twice, winnings Games 4 and 5 by the count of 4-2 to give Saxonburg its record fourth consecutive league title.

But all due respect to to Dan Cunningham's bunch, those four league championships aren't the real story here.

The rivalry is.

After Saxonburg won Game 4 by that 4-2 score, Cunningham said that a number of pitchers on his staff — without naming Schnur — would be available for Monday's Game 5.

Fester retorted that everyone on both teams knew it'd be he and Schnur toeing the rubber again Monday.

Because rain postponed Game 5 for two days, we'll never really know if Schnur and Fester could have bounced back that quickly to pitch for their teams with the title on the line.

We don't know that they could have. We probably know that they would have tried.

"If Robby's gonna throw, I'm gonna throw,"were Schnur's comments after Game 4. And he wasn't smiling when he said it.

Great theatre.

Dodgers-Giants, Red Sox-Yankees, they have nothing on this rivalry. Saxonburg and Mars have met for the Eagle County league title two straight years now and they've met in the finals a few times before that.

Mars plays a power game. Saxonburg plays a finesse game. Both rosters are filled with players wearing those respective uniforms long enough to appreciate what this rivalry is all about.

Let the Dodgers play the Giants for the National League title and allow Don Drysdale and Juan Marichal to face each other in the final two games.

Or how about the Yankees and Red Sox in a series for the American League crown with Curt Schilling and Roger Clemens facing each other repeatedly?

Of course, the Eagle County League is not on a parallel with the major leagues.

But the competition is just as fierce.

I still believe Karns City vs. Moniteau is the best sports rivalry in Butler County.

Saxonburg and Mars stated a pretty good case for that distinction during the past week.

And if you happened to see it, the price was definitely right.