MIAMI -- To get to the World Series down here in Sunblock Country, you exit the Florida Turnpike, turn onto Dan Marino Boulevard and pull into the parking lot. You walk past the statues of Marino and Don Shula and into a Miami Dolphins-colored stadium with reminders of Marino, Nick Buoniconti, Bob Griese, Larry Csonka and just about any other great Dolphin of the past you can name everywhere you look.
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| Marlins starter Josh Beckett leaves in the eighth, but the bullpen fails to bail him out.(Getty Images) |
But that's OK. They came out 65,731 strong anyway for Game 3 of the World Series, more than a few wearing their Florida Marlins’ Gary Sheffield shirts and Livan Hernandez jerseys. History was everywhere. The New York Yankees have the ghosts of Ruth, Gehrig and DiMaggio.
The Marlins have the ghosts of Huizenga, who actually had the audacity to show up here Tuesday night and watch the team he stripped as bare as a '03 Cadillac left too long in a bad-neighborhood alley.
Which probably helps explain the downpour that drenched the game (the baseball gods were rightfully indignant), which explains the crowd thinning and Juan Pierre getting thrown out attempting to steal second in the fifth inning of a tie game, and, well, the rest of the Marlins' night was downhill from there.
Yes, the World Series returned to South Florida on a warm and wet Tuesday night, but it didn't look much like 1997. The New York Yankees scaled the Fish 6-1 for a second consecutive game, surviving a 39-minute rain delay (the first delay in a World Series since 1993), setting Florida up for its greatest trick yet.
Now down two games to one, it will be quite a feat for the Marlins to storm back and win -- which, if you paid any attention in Rich Marlins History 101, you know they’re primed to do.
It's what they do: Every time they’ve finished better than .500 in their history, they've won the World Series.
"It was kind of a cruddy night," said Jeff Conine, the one link back to the '97 world champions on the current Marlins. "It was a shame to see the first World Series game here in six years be rained on."
Yeah, those fans in Boston and Chicago probably feel that way, too.
Anyway, for Florida -- and for baseball fans hoping for a long, exciting series -- it was equally a shame that ace Josh Beckett couldn't hold the Yankees longer than he did. Given their flawed pitching staff, the Marlins can't afford not to win when Beckett is on the mound.
Even though he retired the first 10 Yankees he faced in order, the Yankees squeezed two runs out of him in 7 1/3 innings, which would have been enough even had the Marlins' bullpen not self-destructed.
"We've been down before," Beckett said. "We're not quitting."
There were a couple of key points on this night, starting with the Yankees hitting against Beckett in the fourth. After Derek Jeter belted a one-out double to snap the perfect game, Beckett worked a full-count on Jason Giambi before walking him.
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Then, after Bernie Williams popped out, Beckett hit Hideki Matsui with a misplaced curve ball and then lost Jorge Posada to a walk on another full-count ball the Marlins thought surely was a strike.
"No question about it," manager Jack McKeon said. "We thought they were strikes. They certainly were high enough. We're not going to get into that….
"You saw both clubs arguing about the calls, so take it from there. That's all I have to say."
Beckett, the Texan with the 'tude, brushed it off.
"(Darling's) job is as hard as mine," Beckett said. "People that bitch about the umpire all the time are people who look for excuses. I'm not one of those guys."
The Yankees' rally came shortly after a 39-minute rain delay. Beckett said the pause did not affect him. He threw one 20-pitch session in the indoor batting cage to keep loose and was prepared to throw another if he needed to.
"I was going back in there," he said. "It didn't matter."
There was a part of the Marlins game the rain did affect, though -- a very crucial part.
With two out in the fifth, leadoff man Pierre singled. Then, with Luis Castillo at the plate, he set sail for second. And Posada nailed him.
"It was pretty slippery, kind of like running in cement," said Pierre, who slipped on his initial takeoff. "I got a decent jump, and I thought I could make it up.
"But it was like running in quicksand, or sand. We knew then that we were going to have to swing the bats because our running game was not going to be involved."
Which is like taking away Roger Clemens' right arm, or McKeon's cigar.
And on a night when Beckett was pitching, it might wind up being a mortal wound. The margin for error against the Yankees is tinier than Marlins president David Samson.
"It would be nice to win 'em, but we're comfortable with anybody," Pierre said. "We can score runs, and our pitching can stop you."
The only other development on this night when the Fall Classic returned to Marlin Country was that the lack of voter knowledge in Florida remains evident. A few years after voters here found the presidential ballots awfully difficult to wrestle with, a fan in the outfield persisted Tuesday night in holding up a sign lobbying for "Pudge for President."
Pudge Rodriguez, of course, is not eligible for the presidency, because he was not born on U.S. soil. He was born in Puerto Rico, and neither of his parents were U.S. citizens.
So, get back to helping the grounds crew with the tarp already, or something.
The Marlins, after flying so high in winning Game 1 in Yankee Stadium, need all hands on deck right now. It isn't going to be easy to continue their postseason winning ways. Among other things going against them Tuesday -- there was no Bip Roberts to take himself out of the opposing lineup with flu-like symptoms (who can forget that courageous decision in the last World Series game played here in '97?).
"It's frustrating," first baseman Derrek Lee said. "You get that first one in Yankee Stadium, then you look to try to get two in New York. Then, you say you're happy with a split, and then you lose one at home."
Blame that vast reservoir of Yankees talent. Blame a bullpen that turned a tight game into a rout. Or if necessary, blame Wayne Huizenga for bringing on the wrath of the baseball gods.
Current Florida owner Jeffrey Loria said before the game he had no idea whether Huizenga was planning to attend Game 3, and added he doesn't see him too often at baseball games.
"I saw him once," Loria said.
There was a hint of disdain in his voice as he said it. And if you get that guy looking askew at you, well, then, you'd keep a low profile, too.
