July 21, 200422 yr From the Philadelphia Inquirer: Phils excited about next try to reel in Marlins By MARCUS HAYES hayesm@phillynews.com ATLANTA - The Phillies might view their six games in 9 days against the world champion Florida Marlins with fear, with anxiety, with dread. They don't. Even though the Marlins have won 18 of their last 20 games against the Phillies and stole the wild-card playoff ticket the Phillies held until late September. "I think there's a lot of excitement about playing the Marlins - not just with the team, but with the fans and everyone," Jim Thome said. "The whole aura." "We all are aware of what they've done," Placido Polanco said. "But when you get in the batter's box against a pitcher, you're not thinking about that." Nor are there any thoughts of revenge, payback, validation for Florida's theft of the National League wild-card slot en route to last year's World Series championship. "I don't care if they beat us 30 out of 30 games," Mike Lieberthal said, "as long as we're ahead at the end of the season." There would be a measure of satisfaction in that, but really, the Phillies most seek respect. The Phils play host to the Marlins tonight and tomorrow afternoon and play four games at Miami next Monday through Thursday. "Let's face it," Thome said, "we need to come out at home and show people we have a good team." So, no, they don't fear the Fish. As far as we know.
July 21, 200422 yr Author This is also quite entertaining: Sam Donnellon | Our state of depression donnel@phillynews.com WE HAVE dominated Dallas. The Redskins? They are now our love puppies. To quote Bob Seger, New York is like a friendly old ghost. And Baltimore practically has become a Philadelphia suburb. We own them all. Those traditional rivals are ours, all ours, these days. Whether we are talking the Cowboys, Redskins, Giants, Jets, Rangers, Knicks, Orioles, we pretty much own the sports teams that used to own us. Even when we're bad, like the Sixers, they're worse, like the Knicks. Listening to Mets fans gripe walking down the exit ramp at Shea Stadium last Sunday - after their team had won - you would have thought you were in Philly. These are the days you dreamed of as a kid. The days your team finally was going to overtake those towns with all those championship banners, with all that pride, with all that arrogance. Yours would be the superior teams. In all sports. You would be the envy of them, not the other way around. And then... Enter Rod Serling. Or Alfred Hitchcock. Like Serling's fisherman in "Lindemann's Catch,'' you finally found a potion to put legs to your mermaid - only to find, to your horror, that you turned her beautiful face into a fishhead. A Marlin head, specifically. As they hit town for a two-game series starting tonight, the Florida Marlins have an 18-2 record in their last 20 meetings with the Phillies. They filleted your wild-card dreams last season, then salted your exposed flesh by knocking off the Giants, Cubs and Yankees en route to an improbable world championship. The Marlins, run by a 73-year-old manager who once replaced Admin Bowa in San Diego and now manhandles him on the opposite coast a decade later, now head the list of Philadelphia sports nemeses from this state of retirees, trailer parks and presidential-election shenanigans. The state where Jim Bakker hooked up with Jessica Hahn. The state where O.J. Simpson continued his pursuit of the real killers. Over the last 2 years, we have seen our Super Bowl hopes dashed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, had the opening of our new stadium ruined by this same team. We have seen our best chance for a Stanley Cup in years ruined by an underpaid Tampa Bay Lightning team. We have watched our team bypass popular St. Joe's star Jameer Nelson in the draft. Where does he end up? In Orlando, Fla. And now Shaquille O'Neal's arrival in Miami seems to assure the Sixers will not be making it out of the Eastern Conference any time in your child's adolescence. All this from a state previously so toothless and docile that Dan Le Batard, a sports columnist from the Miami Herald and frequent ESPN contributor, estimated the median age of some of its more populated communities to be "near death.'' "Century Village beats up on Rocky Balboa,'' he said gleefully. How did this happen? How could we let it? Even back in the days of Michael Irvin and Troy Aikman kicking our butts, Florida was always a place you could go to kick back, slap around their dismal no-name franchises, share some of your pain with them. Even when the Giants were winning Super Bowls and a Redskins-Cowboys game held more importance to the nation than any matchup involving the Eagles, Florida was the sunny place where you could go to feel good about your team and yourself. It was one place we always felt superior to. How did this happen? It seemed to start when we let go the heart and the soul of the Phillies, Darren Daulton and Jim Eisenreich, and helped the Marlins win their first improbable world championship in 1997. They were cute then. We didn't mind. Then our old coaches started showing up down there. Jon Gruden came first, and talked the Bucs - who used to roll on their backs like golden retrievers when the Eagles played them - into showing their teeth. Then Bill Barber took his fired, wounded ego to the Lightning as director of player personnel. Now Gruden's got that Super Bowl trophy that Andy Reid would practically give his life for. Barber's organization won the Cup that his nemesis, Keith Primeau, nearly gave his life for. And Ruslan Fedotenko, the man traded away from the Flyers? He scored six goals against the Flyers in the Eastern Conference finals. But it may boil down to a simple case of karma. Le Batard, born in South Florida, calls his homeland "the southeast branch of New York.'' "Doesn't Philadelphia have an inferiority complex about New York?'' he asked. Well, we thought we were getting over it. Heck, the Flyers even took care of their North Jersey demons this postseason. And the Phillies were picked to beat up on the Mets and the Marlins this season. And the Eagles... Well, let's not go there. Suffice it to say, there's nothing inviting about Florida anymore.
July 21, 200422 yr Author This is the last column I'll post: On Baseball | McKeon stays cool in heat of the race By Jim Salisbury Inquirer Columnist NEW YORK - For Jack McKeon, keeping physically fit is a key to staying spry at age 73. That's why he was at Shea Stadium early Monday afternoon, grinding out a 31/2-mile power walk. Don't misunderstand, though. As committed as the folksy Florida Marlins manager is to staying in shape - or at least trying to - he's not some cucumber-juice drinking Jack LaLanne disciple. Hence, the lit cigar during those fitness walks. McKeon smokes while he sweats. Sneak into Citizens Bank Park early this afternoon, about the time the Amoroso rolls arrive, and see for yourself. McKeon will be out there, puffing and perspiring. "Most of the time it's a one-cigar walk," he said. "But I always carry a backup in case it's longer." McKeon also likes to light up after a Marlins win. He's done it every time his team has played the Phillies this season. Six games. Six victory cigars. Last year, McKeon was in charge of the Marlins for 12 games against the Phillies. The Marlins won 10 of them. If you listen carefully, you'll hear McKeon's lungs begging for mercy as the Marlins arrive tonight in Philadelphia for a two-game series. The two teams, both wheel-spinning contenders in the mud-wrestling match that is the National League East race, play each other six times over a nine-day span. Cough. Cough. "I don't know why we've had success against the Phillies," McKeon said. "We can't beat Pittsburgh and they're a club at the bottom of the standings. "We've just been lucky against the Phillies, I guess. We've pitched good against them and for some reason we've hit against them. I hope it holds true." In their six games this season, the Marlins have hit .291 to the Phils' .223. The Marlins have outhomered the Phils, 11-3. All six games have been decided by two or fewer runs. Depending on your perspective, that's a credit to the Marlins' pitching (3.00 ERA in the six games) or a condemnation of the Phils' offense, which has a dreadful .295 on-base percentage in the six games. A pretty intense rivalry has developed between the two teams the last couple of seasons. Last year, the Marlins swept the Phils twice in July as they turned their season around, outdistanced the Phils and Astros for the NL wild card, then rocketed Planet Baseball by winning the World Series. In the teams' last meeting on April 22, bad blood seeped into the rivalry with a bench-clearing brawl at the Bank. "That happened so long ago, I'd forgotten about it," McKeon said. "Those things happen. No harm. No foul." The Phils and Marlins have no time for grudges right now. They have both been models of inconsistency as they've watched the Atlanta Braves - the team that knows more about winning than any other in the league - surge to the top of the division. Lately, the Marlins have had trouble scoring runs. Entering last night, they had scored two or fewer runs in eight of their previous 11 losses. The Marlins can't be too unhappy that they'll face Kevin Millwood tonight. Since the start of the 2000 season, he has a 5.72 ERA against Florida. After being swept over the weekend in Pittsburgh, the Marlins rallied late to beat the Mets on Monday night. The Marlins hoped that was the start of something good. It needs to be because ownership is undecided whether it will buy talent or sell it at the end of the month. If the Marlins fall out of the race, starter Carl Pavano and closer Armando Benitez, both free-agents-to-be, could be traded. Starter Brad Penny, who is eligible for salary arbitration, also could be dealt. "I don't know what direction we'll go," McKeon said. "Our players will help determine that. I hope they will break through." The Marlins are in the middle of a 14-game stretch against the Mets, Phillies and Expos. Entering last night, they were 19-4 against those clubs, so maybe this could be their breakthrough stretch. Last year, everything was storybook for the Marlins. This year has been a struggle. They clearly miss catcher Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, who helped the team win the World Series in his one season in Miami, then went off to Detroit (where he was leading the American League in hitting at .361 entering last night) as a free agent. Rodriguez guided the pitching staff and hit .297 with 85 RBIs. This year, Marlins catchers are hitting just .218. "This is a different kind of team," third baseman Mike Lowell said. "Nothing against our catchers, but anyone would come up short against Pudge." Without Pudge, some Marlins have pressed. "Last year, there was a lot more talent out there, so you didn't have everybody trying to do it all," McKeon said. These next two nights, the Marlins will face another team that has done its share of pressing recently. The Phillies have felt the heat of expectations this year and come up short. They are fortunate no other team has taken control of the division. "On paper, the Phillies might be the best team," Marlins outfielder Juan Pierre said. "But baseball is a wacky sport. The best personnel doesn't always win. You've got to go play." And play, the Marlins and Phillies will - six times over the next nine days. Jack McKeon's lungs are on guard.
July 21, 200422 yr What bulls*** the marlins never stold the Wild Card their loser players weren't tough enough and good enough to beat the Marlins or take advantage of that streak the Marlins had the we lost 9 of 10 in the last couple weeks of the season. Phillies= CHOKERS
July 21, 200422 yr I cant wait for this games, bring it on already. Nothing like important baseball games in July, I cant even imagine what that last week of the season is going to be like.
July 21, 200422 yr Let's keep this Phillies bashing and not the city of Philadelphia...I happen to like the other teams in the city and have died hard many times with the Eagles.
July 21, 200422 yr Phillies aren't scared of the Fish? Good. That way it'll be a shocker to them all when they get smacked around a bit in the next week. Hey Phillies, you're going down! :thumbdown
July 22, 200422 yr how can someone create this article and publish it?! what, did you expect them to write about the phillies fear and title it: News: Phillies s*** their pants in anticipation of the Marlins stupid philly
July 22, 200422 yr Suuuuuuure they don't. :lol 468345[/snapback] What is this two for you in one day?
July 22, 200422 yr so what.....we're 18-3 now against them....our luck...when they come to Florida, we miss Milton, their only solid pitcher...we shell Millwood, Abbott, Myers and Wolf and send them on their way.
July 22, 200422 yr Abbot is allowed in the phillies rotation??? :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol
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