August 16, 200323 yr Flying Fish By: Christopher Baysore MarlinsBaseball.com Columnist Chris' Columnist Page It?s mid-August. Fans are scrambling for the morning newspaper to check the sports section, lining up to buy tickets for upcoming games in September, and waiting for the latest quotes from the coach. The buzz is evident on the television news, the talk radio circuit and through all the newspapers. Sure, that's normal for this time of year; Dolphins football is just around the corner right? Guess again. That buzz is none other than Marlins baseball fever. Okay that's not entirely accurate. The Dolphins will get their usual excessive amount of coverage in the coming weeks, (including every bit of minutiae from what color shorts Jason Taylor's wearing at practice to how serious that hangnail injury is on the third-string long snapper). And yes, stadium attendance during the week still dips under 15,000 at times, but unless you've been asleep for the summer, you've heard the buzz too. The Marlins are making a playoff push for the first time in five years. Can this be possible? A team picked to finish anywhere from third to fifth in the NL East contending for the postseason? A team with an opening day payroll near the bottom of the league? Whose highest paid player pitches for the Atlanta Braves? You heard correctly, the Marlins are in this race and you?re all invited along for the ride. Shaking off a slow start and a rash of pitching injuries, the Marlins have fought their way back from ten games under .500 in May all the way to twelve over .500 in about twelve weeks. As of this morning they?ve now passed 11 teams to lead the race for the wild card playoff birth. To grasp what an accomplishment this is, understand that since May 23rd no team in baseball has a better record. Not the Braves, not the Giants, not even the Yankees. That?s not a hot streak of a week or two, that?s 72 games. Aboard a train of momentum and a wave of confidence, suddenly the Marlins are the talk of the town. The first instinct is to point to Dontrelle's 11-3 record as the difference (and deservedly so), but there are deeper reasons behind the Marlins surge. Would this be possible if the shortstop hit .240 again? If age had suddenly caught up to Pudge Rodriguez the way it seemed to with Charles Johnson? What if Braden Looper hadn't been able to entrench himself as the full-time closer? Would we still be seeing this kind of season? Doubtful. The Marlins are winning as a team. Nearly every player is having a career year, or close to it. Pierre leads baseball in steals. Pudge is hitting over .400 with men in scoring position. Derek Lee and Juan Encarnacion will likely surpass their highest RBI totals in a season. Lowell and Alex Gonzalez are having their best years ever, as are pitchers Mark Redman and Carl Pavano. Even unheralded players are making a difference. Little-used utility infielder Mike Mordecai has 2 extra-inning, game-winning home runs in less than a month, after not homering in nearly 2 years. Tuesday night backup catcher Ramon Castro finished off the Dodgers with a 13th inning walk-off blast. Rookie Miguel Cabrera came up from AA Carolina, learned a new position, and has 31 RBIs in 44 games. Nate Bump has come out of nowhere to help solidify the bullpen as the 7th inning setup man. Two weeks ago I sat in upper deck for an all-universe matchup between ?D-Train? Dontrelle Willis and ?The Big Unit? Randy Johnson with 38,000 screaming friends. Was this actually a Marlins game? Countless fans nearby were commenting on how they hadn?t been to a game in a year or two, as they jumped out of their seats to cheer for another Willis strikeout. This finally looked like a baseball stadium. Once again we were a baseball town with a good team and a star pitcher. Naysayers be damned, our team was going to win today. And win they did. There's seven weeks left in the regular season. The wild card race is as crowded as the starting gate at a horse race, as many as eight teams still in the running. Keep an eye on that horse that just took the lead at the far turn. It's the one in teal.
August 16, 200323 yr Awesome Article Better than the tripe served up daily in the Hwrald and Sentinel.
August 16, 200323 yr We need to start our own newspaper :lol We can knock off the Herald and Sentinel any day of the week. lol
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