IN MY OPINION

GAME 5 | MARLINS 4, CUBS 0

'It's not over'

Josh Beckett's pitching keeps the Marlins alive in the playoff series, which moves to Chicago for Game 6 on Tuesday. The Cubs lead the series 3-2.

DAN LE BATARD

dlebatard@herald.com

 

 

Dan Le Batard

 

 

 

 

Mosey on over here, pardner. Closer to the crackle of this campfire. I wanna tell you about the day I saw the damndest thing I done ever seen. Saw a child throwing lightnin', swear to God I did, and heard the huge crowd around him supplyin the thunder.

 

It was a Sunday afternoon, as I recall. And the beefy Texan on the mound, he had an arm stronger than all the worlds whiskey. He was kinda cowboy and kinda country, this Josh Beckett was, all about tattered jeans and hats measured by the gallon. Boys fastball had the kind of kick youll only find on the angriest nag, and what he held was his teams whole season in his leathery right hand.

 

The Chicago Cubs, they were ready to celebrate some history on his field, but that boy, I tell you, he was not at all in the mood. Chicagos first World Series in 'bout half a century sure as hell wasnt goin through him, no sir, and it didnt take the Cubs long to realize it, neither. A Cubs pitcher named Matt Clement turned to teammate Eric Karros in the dugout and said, ''This is going to be a very, very tough day for us.'' He did this after Becketts third pitch.

 

The Cubs had a god named Sammy Sosa on their side, but that didnt make no never mind. About all you need to know about Becketts attitude that day was that he unleashed one of his chili-hot heaters very near Sammys face with a little extra spice, to get him the hell away from his plate.

 

This angered the god greatly, but Beckett just screamed things at him that cant be repeated here. Blasphemy, this was, but then Beckett put all that adrenaline in his right hand and started throwin that rawhide even harder -- 100 mph, which is harder than he ever has. And, as sure as the sun comes up, not even an angered god was going to be doing anything with that.

 

Now I know Ive got me a propensity for tall tales, but I aint the only one who cant believe what he done witnessed that day. In the booth, announcing the game for TV, was a wise man named Al Leiter. Leiter, he done started some big games. Pitched in Game 7 of the World Series for the Florida Marlins, matter of fact. But he says there aint never been a Marlin, no time, no place, to ever throw a game this good, and you gotta keep in mind the Marlins have had three no-hitters in their history, one of them by Leiter hisownself.

 

''Beckett was absolutely way, way, way better than I was in my no-hitter,'' Leiter said afterward. ``He made what we do for a living look very simple.''

 

Let me put this in some baseball terms for you. Beckett never allowed a Cub to reach second base. He allowed only two piddly singles in nine innings. Besides that, only three other hit balls got as far as the outfield. He struck out at least one Cub in every inning but the last one. A couple of times, the frozen Cubs walked back to the dugout, heads hung, before the umpire had even gotten around to signaling that they had been struck out.

 

''If he's on, nobody beats him,'' Karros said afterward. ``That's the most dominant performance weve seen this year.''

 

A man named Mark Prior, who is one of the best pitchers in this game, marveled at how teammate after teammate kept coming back to the dugout remarking about how ''nasty'' and ''filthy'' Beckett was.

 

''It got kind of repetitive,'' Prior said.

 

And Beckett did all this even though a loss would have ended his teams magic season right there. Pressure? Well, Beckett said he never felt it. Hes kind of got leather for brains that way. He's a little bit of a diva brat, arrogant as all get-out, which is why he said afterward, ``I expect this every game.''

 

You know what he did after the biggest afternoon of his life? He sat in a clubhouse recliner and, before doing any interviews, he watched cartoons. You know what he did before the game? Watched his favorite football team, the Houston Texans, on TV.

 

He said he couldn't wait to get on the plane and beat the snot out of his teammates in cards.

 

''I knew I had it,'' Beckett said. ``Cant let the negative thoughts cloud your mind. If you think about the result, it corrupts the process.''

 

Any trouble sleeping the night before?

 

''I dont have trouble sleeping,'' he said. ``One of my favorite things to do.''

 

Theres a different sound a catchers mitt makes once a baseball hits it at more than 93 mph, and Iv?n Rodr?guezs mitt made that sound a lot that day.

 

It was one of the few things Beckett said he heard on the mound even as all the fans around him stood and roared. He had gone to that quiet place athletes visit at the top of their tension, but a world of noise finally came crashing into his head after the angered god grounded out to end the game.

 

'I had to step back and say, `Wow, I hear that,' '' Beckett said.

 

It was the first time he had ever finished a game at any level of professional ball.

 

And I was there to see it, yessirree.

 

Even if I can't believe myself what I done saw

I actually think Le Batard is a great writer. I hit up the site to read his articles a lot, and I enjoy his work on ESPN. Good story, and the performance by Beckett yesterday was "one for the grandkids."

LeBatard is a talented writer with a bad attitude problem. He gets into trouble with the Marlins and their fans because he writes things like "new owners are vampires ready to suck blood out of team for good" or "adding Pudge is like adding breast implants to a dead corpse"

(both are paraphrases)

Great article!! Thanks, CapeFish!

i dont think lebatard is good. i think he gots his head up his a**

LeBatard is a talented writer with a bad attitude problem. He gets into trouble with the Marlins and their fans because he writes things like "new owners are vampires ready to suck blood out of team for good" or "adding Pudge is like adding breast implants to a dead corpse"

(both are paraphrases)

What Cape said. Good writer, just an A-hole in general.

Le Batard is a very talented, funny, and insightful columnist.

 

BUT, all of the comes in negitive article after negitive article (until now, naturally).

Yea that was a great article. He is a good writer but he can be a a**hole at times.

nice article.

I have corresponded with Le Retard several times via email - and always get the same reaction - silence. He isnt so quick on his feet when you call him on his BS - he usually just admits he is wrong, but in a slippery way. The guy is not all that talented, I have seen better writers all over the place, but they are usually located in careers that have a little more meaning that sports journalism. Le Retard needs to get slapped, several hundred times by a giant rubber marlin...