Not for anything....but read today's LeBatard article and then if you have time, look at the last column I wrote. :plain A little scary.

Herald link

my column

Yes, it's August -- but the Marlins are giving us reason to dream

 

Dan Le Batard

 

Traffic and tailgating? Buzz before the game, noise during it and fireworks after it? Fans salsa-ing outside the stadium because of a pitcher who makes them dance inside it, too? The $125 seats selling out? In August?

 

For baseball? For the Marlins?

 

It is a strange time indeed in our sports town when more than 26,000 people are spending their Saturday night partaking in the unprecedented and vaguely tribal chant of ``Ugie! Ugie!''

 

After the betrayal of 1998, did you ever again think you'd see the day when this many fans would not only delight in the appearance of a setup reliever but also create a chanting nickname for Ugueth Urbina, too?

 

At this time of year, South Florida usually is too busy fretting about the long snapper's knee to notice that the baseball team is still playing, never mind who is coming out of its bullpen.

 

The Marlins would be the strangest story going in this entire sport if not for that whole thing involving Ted Williams' head.

 

And speaking of the Splendid Cerrebellum, isn't it about time for some more nicknames on this team? Why does Dontrelle get to hog them all? We need something a little more menacing than ''Pudge'' and ''Ugie,'' no? And, because of Florida's bullpen improvement since the trade, shouldn't Urbina instead become ``U-turn?''?

 

OK, perhaps not.

 

Anyway, it is always amazing, the magic that follows winning. There's still plenty of room on the bandwagon, as those pathetic weekday crowds against the Dodgers showed this week, but this thing is gathering momentum now in the way the best sports stories always do. The Marlins are 13 games over .500 for the first time since 1997, the year they won the championship. This team hasn't felt as good as it does today since Craig Counsell crossed that plate in Game 7.

 

Willis labored Saturday and left trailing, but the Marlins rallied because an outfield drawn in against slap-hitting Juan Pierre couldn't catch up to a ball he smoked into the gap for a two-out, two-run triple. Pierre's shot was both symbol and warning: Underestimate us at your own risk.

 

Pierre, the tiny overachiever with the sideways cap tilted on his too-small head, is the personification of this team. The brilliant catch he made Saturday to keep Willis' ERA from inflating had the Marlins' motto written all over it -- You don't think we can get there, but we think we can.

 

It might appear, given Willis' ERA of 6.09 since the All-Star break, that the league has adjusted to his funkadelic fluorescence. It has not.

 

........

 

Still, though, the Marlins won, as they always seem to do behind Willis. Manager Jack McKeon has been receiving an inordinate amount of the credit for this turnaround because it coincided with his arrival, but even he knows that's misplaced. McKeon says he wins, at max, one or two games a year with his moves, leadership and guidance. And he says he blows one or two a year, too.

 

''So it balances out,'' he says.

 

The crusty McKeon, 72, is a charming story, smoking 10 to 12 cigars daily and even smoking one during his daily jog. But he isn't the difference here. (You know how many conversations he has had with his right fielder, Juan Encarnaci?n? That would be zero.)

 

McKeon inherited what was essentially an underachieving .500 team. And he inherited Willis, too, a pitcher the fired Jeff Torborg didn't have. The Marlins are 15-4 when Willis pitches. That 11-game difference is the margin between being the middle of everything wild card and being two games over .500.

 

You want to know the real reason the Marlins keep winning?

 

Because of an unprecedented confluence of excellence.

 

Mike Lowell already has more home runs and RBI than he has ever had in a season.

 

Brad Penny has more wins than he has ever had.

 

Mark Redman has a lower ERA than he has ever had.

 

A healthy Carl Pavano has thrown more innings than he ever had.

 

Pierre has more stolen bases than he has ever had.

 

Encarnaci?n and Alex Gonz?lez have driven in more runs than they ever have.

 

Braden Looper has more saves and a better ERA than he has ever had.

 

Pudge has walked more times than he ever has.

 

And we still have more than a month left for them to add to all those numbers.

 

More than a month for this thing to keep gathering noise and momentum, the way avalanches do.

Dan, is that you?

i just loooove that now he's decided that apparently McKeon "inherited an underachieving .500 team" when I'm quite sure LeBatard had this team pegged for a loser like most other writers out there.

The Marlins FO were probably forcing LeREtard to write that article.

 

j/p

Le Retard still cant give credit. The guy is just a hack of a writer, in love with how he says things more than what he is actually saying. Geez, anyone, and I mean that in a bad way - like a monkey in an alligator suit or a yeti or some other animal - could do his job.

as long as he is paying attention. the way ive been thinking the entire year when everyone was trashing the Herald or Espn for not paying attention, was who cares? lets make them pay attention. the team has done that. the team cant be ignored right now.

The great thing about what we are doing now, is that we won w/o Lee (or w/o him performing), and we have continued to win even though Dontrelle hasn't been his normal self lately.

Le Retard still though wants to say something negative about this team. He cant, but he still tries to find ways. It is funny how he makes D Train out in his toilet paper - er, I mean column. Screw this guy, he thinks we actually need his opinion. If he had any kind of dignity, he would stand by what he wrote earlier in the year. But he cant, and I dont respect him then nor now. Same goes for Berardinosaur. Another guy who had to write something today in order to cover his butt.

Le Retard still though wants to say something negative about this team. He cant, but he still tries to find ways. It is funny how he makes D Train out in his toilet paper - er, I mean column. Screw this guy, he thinks we actually need his opinion. If he had any kind of dignity, he would stand by what he wrote earlier in the year. But he cant, and I dont respect him then nor now. Same goes for Berardinosaur. Another guy who had to write something today in order to cover his butt.

I know, he can't stand by what he said earlier. Did you see what he wrote in his questionaire column? What a loser. He said the reason why he said that before was because the marlins were 10 games under .500.

 

That is just a lame excuse for him, he just doesn't want to admit that he was a jackass. He also bashed the FO for the firing of Torborg and thats when we first started to come up. Lebastard is wrong and always has been. Anybody can say the marlins suck when they are 10 games under, he even said they sucked when they got to .500 with Mckeon.

 

Le Retard has no credibility.