Last week, within 24 hours of each other, Randy Moss and Chris Webber were traded. Combined with the arrival of Sammy Sosa to Orioles training camp (admittedly not the actual execution of his trade), there was an odd convergence of three modern superstars.

As I subconsciously digested what it meant to have all three "superstar" names making headlines in one edition of the newspaper, the realization finally dawned on me.

They are all the same guy. The same player. They are poured from the same sporting archetype. While the games they play are different, the essence of all three is almost exactly the same.

Put bluntly, all three are the quintessential "show pony" player.

Looks great. Everybody seems to want them. But they don't win. The stats they post ought to extinguish any argument about their true "value" to teams, but they don't. In fact, the numbers often start fresh arguments about what they mean, how they are acquired, and if they might be a product of something other than the player's greatness.

In short, Moss, Webber and Sosa were not so much "traded" recently as they were "dumped." All three teams that once possessed them, seemed oddly in a rush to get rid of their version of "the precious."

While they may all end up in their respective Halls of Fame someday (Sosa is a lock, Webber is a "probably" since the BHOF also counts college, and Moss is a "wait and see" since receiver numbers have been exploding in the NFL the last 10 years), there will always be arguments about their "greatness" as players.

To me, all three have simply been "great" not "Great." It is that capital "G" that makes all the difference. All three have been achingly close to stamping their legacy with a championship. Webber cut short by the Lakers, the Mavs and a knee injury on various occasions. Sosa went down with the Cubs in the "Bartman Series." Moss fell twice in the NFC title game.

But near misses and All-Star appearances aside, it is hard to successfully argue that any of them bring anything more than just gaudy stats and flashy plays to the table.

And all three players were the very "face" of their franchises at one time or another. The Cubbies without Sosa? Gasp! Bite your tongue! Remember the billboards erected in Sacramento to keep Webber from leaving? And who can forget the two most ill-conceived words since "New Coke": "Randy Ratio."

In all three cities, all three players were catered to by their organizations, in an almost sick display of team subservience to individuals who were playing in their own personal orbit.

And yet, last week the sum total of talent surrendered for all three, wouldn't have been enough three years ago to pry away just one of them. The answers are: "Jerry Hairston, Napoleon Harris, Brian Skinner, Corliss Williamson, Kenny Thomas -- plus a few picks and scrubs to even things out." These are stone-cold sure bar-bet winners in less than five years when you challenge a buddy to "name that trade."

Figuring out how and why Moss-Webber-Sosa, will never compare to say Rice-Duncan-Jeter is a difficult and vague exercise. Maybe the former were cursed with the bad luck of playing with losers. Maybe they will win a ring yet. Maybe it was injury. Maybe.... well, you can always make up your own "maybe..."