Baseball 2003: Marlins spoil the party

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SportsTicker

 

By Anthony Mormile SportsTicker Baseball Editor

 

JERSEY CITY, New Jersey - It is kind of fitting that a team called the Marlins won the World Series, because baseball in 2003 was all about the one that got away.

 

A year after a series of public relations disasters almost overshadowed a great season on the field, baseball bounced back in a big way. From the "feel good" election of Gary Carter to the Hall of Fame in January to a thrilling rivalry between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox that appears ready to run right up until toasts on New Year's Eve.

 

Every button baseball seemed to push in 2003 worked. With security concerns in March, the league pulled out of a proposed season-opening series in Japan and came off as caring about its players and their families. The stance on steroid testing made the league look concerned and not vindictive. And Commissioner Bud Selig appeared compassionate in, at least, reviewing the sport's stance on banished former star Pete Rose.

 

But it was on the field where things worked best, and no moment worked better than Selig's decision to make the All-Star Game "count." With home-field advantage in the World Series on the line, Selig could not have written a better script as the American League rallied against the National League's vaunted bullpen and pulled out a dramatic 7-6 win.

 

Not even the fact that Hank Blalock of Texas, who hit a two-run, eighth-inning homer to give the AL the lead, came from a last-place team could take away from the drama of seeing the the leagues compete with something on the line.

 

There were special moments during the regular season as Roger Clemens became just the 21st pitcher - and first in nearly 13 years - to reach 300 wins. His quest to become the first since Nolan Ryan to achieve the feat was compelling and dramatic as he had cracks at No. 300 at home against the Red Sox and at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

 

And while there were a number of individual accomplishments on the field - a four-homer game by Carlos Delgado, a no-hitter by Philadelphia's Kevin Millwood and a combined no-hitter by the Houston Astros at Yankee Stadium - baseball saved its best for last.

 

The wild card races were compelling as the AL featured a two-team showdown between the Red Sox and Seattle Mariners, won by Boston in the final week. The NL was even tighter as 10 teams finished with at least 83 wins. Florida managed to survive that wild scramble - a portent of thing to come.

 

Behind the calm of 72-year-old manager Jack McKeon, the Marlins were the surprise team of the NL but figured to be overmatched in their Division Series with the NL West champion San Francisco Giants, who won 100 games. The Giants appeared well on their way after a shutout in Game One, but the Marlins rallied late in Game Two and posted a pair of thrilling final at-bat victories in Games Three and Four to advance.

 

Their opponent in the NL Championship Series was the Chicago Cubs, baseball's lovable losers who flourished under the guidance of new manager Dusty Baker. Behind a pair of special road perfomances by righthander Kerry Wood, the Cubs won their first postseason series in nearly a century, closing out the Atlanta Braves in five games.

 

The two AL Division Series featured a blowout, as the Yankees bounced back after a series-opening loss to paste the Minnesota Twins in four games, and a classic between the Red Sox and Oakland Athletics. The A's were trying to finally get over the opening-round hump and seemed to have done so after taking the first two games of the best-of-five series at home.

 

When the series shifted to Boston, so did the momentum as the Red Sox also posted two final at-bat victories to force a Game Five. And in a memorable matchup between former Cy Young Award winners Pedro Martinez and Barry Zito, it came down to a brilliant pitch from Game Three starter Derek Lowe with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning that sealed the win for Boston.

 

Chicago was a series win from the World Series opposite a Yankees-Red Sox AL Championship Series. All was right with the game and the rating were showing it. Baseball was back and on the verge of giving everyone a dream matchup. But as television executives were planning on how to spend their bonus checks, the Marlins had other ideas.

 

Behind its two aces - Wood and fellow stud righthander Mark Prior - Chicago raced to a 3-1 series lead. With a chance to have the series closed out in its ballpark, Florida handed the ball to 23-year-old Josh Beckett, who had exactly zero postseason wins. All the cocky righthander did was piece together a brilliant two-hitter that sent the series back to Chicago.

 

With a chance to clinch the series in front of their success-starved fans, the Cubs took a 3-0 lead into the eighth inning of Game Six. With Prior on the mound, the party was all but started.

 

Again the Marlins were party crashers, rallying for eight runs in an eighth inning highlighted by some clutch hits but - more notably - fan Steve Bartman interfering with a foul ball down the left field line. Bartman's reaching up to steal a potential out from Moises Alou might have been the most memorable play of the season, and it took place in the stands.

 

Chicago had a 5-3 lead in the seventh game, but it was Beckett who once again stepped up, allowing one run in four innings of relief. The stellar performance on two days' rest enabled Florida to rally for a 9-6 series-clinching win.

 

Thanks to Blalock, the Marlins were left waiting at the airport as Boston and New York staged another classic battle. The seven-game confrontation featured everything through the first five games, including a dramatic appearance by Clemens at Fenway Park in Game Three. That game also feature Boston ace Pedro Martinez flinging Yankees 72-year-old bench coach Don Zimmer to the ground and two Yankees involved in a wild scuffle with a member of the Fenway Park grounds crew.

 

With their feud at an even more dramatic pitch, Boston headed to New York needing to win twice - a feat no team had accomplished in the postseason since 1926. But after rallying for victory in Game Six, the Red Sox appeared to have New York right where it wanted in Game Seven.

 

Boston was ready to rid itself of at least some of its postseason demons when David Ortiz's homer provided a 5-2 lead in the eighth. But these were the Red Sox, who, like the Cubs, know heartbreak better than anyone. A couple of dramatic moments later and the game was tied, and when Aaron Boone delivered his most important hit as a Yankee - a solo homer off Tim Wakefield leading off the 11th inning - Boston fans again were left to ponder "The Curse of the Bambino."

 

Sitting in the ballpark, it was tough to tell which was more significant - New York's high or Boston's low. One thing was certain, however, this scintillating postseason had come to an end; the Yankees would steamroll the Marlins for their fifth world title in eight years.

 

Only the Marlins again spoiled the punch, winning a dramatic Game Four in 12 innings and taking advantage of an injury to Yankees starter David Wells to win Game Five.

 

Even with the lead, most figured closing out the Yankees in their own ballpark would be a difficult chore - especially when McKeon opted to go with Beckett on three days' rest. But as he did all season, McKeon made the right call and Beckett pieced together one of the great playoff performances of all time, throttling the Yankees in a five-hit shutout that gave Florida its second World Series title in six years.

 

After teasing the nation with a dream matchup of Cubs-Yankees or Cubs-Red Sox, baseball offered up what it does best - unpredictability. It's the name of the game and, in 2003, it didn't matter a bit to the Marlins.

 

 

Great article about this year in Baseball. I love how it kept shifting back to the Marlins as spoilers.. :cool

its was one hell of a playoff man the best ever

 

from the marlins getting shut-out in game 1 vs.schmidt to beckett tagging posada out.