McKeon's Marlins still smokin'

[djm305]

Blend of phenoms, veterans continue remarkable run

 

 

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's a good thing cigar smoke doesn't waft from the standings page. Otherwise, folks might realize the Marlins are burning up the National League again this year.

There's certainly no mistaking when the Marlins are in town. One whiff from about 100 feet outside the Marlins' clubhouse tells you that Jack McKeon, his cigar and his merry band of defending World Series champions are in the house.

 

McKeon, for one, doesn't mind one bit that the nation hasn't quite turned its full attention toward the Marlins.

 

"People around the country don't think we're the world champions," said McKeon, the manager who at 73 and getting younger is a breath of fresh air despite that famous stogie. "That's fine. Keep us under the radar. We'll just sneak in and do our thing."

 

Their thing, clearly, is winning baseball games. After Thursday's gutty 4-3 victory over the Giants -- the team they shocked in the National League Division Series last year -- the Marlins now have 15 victories, more than any other team in the Majors.

 

Believe this: The Yankees win the World Series and go 15-7 to start the next season, the word "dynasty" gets tossed in the air like confetti.

 

The Marlins? Eh, not so much.

 

All of which, of course, begs the question: Is there any such thing as flying over the radar?

 

These are the defending World Series champions, after all. Sure, they lost a couple of key players from their championship team. But they have an amazing core of young talent that has October experience that some 15-year veterans don't. Their youngest players -- Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis -- are only getting better, seemingly by the day.

 

In essence, this nice start by the Marlins is just a continuation of the finish to 2003. Actually, last year's Fish story wasn't only about the remarkable run through October and the giddy dogpile at Yankee Stadium after Game 6 that capped it off. The Marlins started cranking things up, well, about this time last year.

 

The Marlins were a .500 team exactly one year ago, but after they lost eight of their next 10 games they moved Jeff Torborg out, and brought McKeon out of retirement on May 11. There's no question the mix of the old sage and the mostly young crew was a perfect combination, as the Marlins went 75-49 the rest of the way.

 

Now retooled with Ramon Castro, a prospect the Marlins protected this winter, taking over behind the plate for Pudge Rodriguez, Hee Seop Choi hitting his eighth homer Thursday as he replaces Derrek Lee at first and closer Armando Benitez picking up where Ugueth Urbina left off, the Marlins are probably stronger and more dangerous than when McKeon assumed the helm last year.

 

But McKeon will quickly tell you it's not his doing.

 

"All the tribute goes to those guys," McKeon says, echoing the sentiments he shared last October.

 

McKeon says he recognized that this year's team had the right approach as soon as Spring Training opened this February.

 

"They came into Spring Training very businesslike, no messing around," McKeon said. "It looked like they all came in on a mission. They enjoyed what happened last year. They realized the hard work they had to put in to get there, and they came in dedicated to doing it again."

 

Take Cabrera, for instance. Having turned the ripe age of 21 just 11 days ago, Cabrera experienced it all in his rookie year. He went home to Venezuela a huge star, and came back to Florida for Spring Training a lock to be part of the Marlins' encore lineup.

 

Now all he wants to do is experience more, and he knows what he has to do to make that happen.

 

"I need to work hard, man," Cabrera said. "Being a young player, I need to learn more and more all the time. You can never stop working every day."

 

McKeon traces the beginning of this continuing run of good baseball by the Marlins to when Cabrera and his elder teammate Willis (all of 22 now) made the jump to the big leagues before last year's All-Star break.

 

Their talent and performances stood out, of course. Their unflappable makeup stood out even more.

 

"The thing about both of those guys is they have that air of confidence about them," McKeon said. "They're not intimidated by any situation. They have no fear whatsoever of failure. They're just having a good time."

 

In May, Willis joined a rotation that already included top young talent in Josh Beckett and Brad Penny but had lost A.J. Burnett for the season. In June, Cabrera joined a core of hitters that included longtime Florida stalwarts Luis Castillo, Mike Lowell, Alex Gonzalez and Lee, along with leadoff hitter Juan Pierre and Pudge.

 

By October, everyone knew the Fish story, and the rest became history.

 

But by the end of April 2004, it seems like the Marlins are unknowns again.

 

They're barely a blip on the national radar, but they don't seem to care. As McKeon said, they're just doing their thing.

 

This isn't a case of being too young to know any better. This is a case of being young and knowing better.

 

Check the standings. Look for Florida at the top of the NL East.

 

Hey, forget the blip on the radar. Just look for the puff of cigar smoke.

[QuickGold]

Great article, but we all knew about this a long time ago

[Fishin2004]

i love how every time we go to a new city, the local newspaper writes an article about us like we're some undiscovered gem. "hey, d'ya hear about the scrappy little team called the Marlins? don't look now, but those kids can play!"

[Ashley]

:lol Good article. We have an amzing team...