Sunday, December 07, 2003  
WXPort
Feedback
 Clubs TonightHot TixBand GuideMP3sBest Music PollSki GuideThe Best '03 
Music
Movies
Theater
Food & Drink
Books
Dance
Art
Comedy
Events
Home
Listings
Editors' Picks
New This Week
News and Features

Art
Astrology
Books
Dance
Food & Drink
Movies
Music
Television
Theater

Archives
Letters

Classifieds
Personals
Adult
Stuff at Night
The Providence Phoenix
The Portland Phoenix
FNX Radio Network

   
  E-Mail This Article to a Friend


Choosing between the best of baseball's two remaining evils
BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

So what do we have here? A World Series that nobody cares about, and therefore nobody is watching. Why? Simple: the two teams playing in the 2003 Fall Classic — the Yankees and Marlins — are arguably the two teams that any real baseball fan at the beginning of the season would have least liked to see play. Think about it: it’s spring training, and you’re given the choice about the most appealing teams to put in the Series, and the least. In the American League, if you were barred from picking your favorite, then you’d probably pick a team like Minnesota or maybe Oakland or even Seattle to win the AL pennant. In the National League? Perhaps Montreal, St. Louis, San Francisco, the Cubbies, Philly perhaps, or maybe even Houston.

But the least alluring? Hands down, it would have to be the Yankees in the AL, because of their recent stretch of championships (four in six seasons from 1996 to 2001), and because outside of the tri-state area, no team is more hated nationwide. Over in the Senior Circuit, while the Mets and the Braves would certainly provide stiff competition for the least-favored pennant-winner, a lot of people still hold grudges about the team out of South Florida. After all, it went out and bought a title back in 1997, then proceeded completely to dismantle that championship club in the following off-season. Throw in the fact that last season the Marlins finished next to last in the majors in attendance — with an average of just over 10,000 "fans" per game — and continued that trend this season, when they finished third to last for a team that was in the wild-card hunt from June on, and you have seeds of discontent. This season Florida averaged around 16,000 fans a game, which is half of what the wild-card Red Sox team drew this season — and Boston, you remember, has the majors’ smallest stadium and unpredictable temperatures throughout April and into May.

As you can see, baseball fans had a dilemma when long-time losers Boston and Chicago were eliminated from World Series contention. Either choose not to watch, watch with a truly neutral eye, or grit your teeth and make a choice between this pair of love-to-hate teams. Even though the Series is nearly complete and the Marlins have the upper hand after winning three of the first five, let’s break down the subject matter.

• History and tradition: the New York franchise has been around for 100 years, began to wear pinstripes in 1912, and became the "Yankees" (after a decade as the Highlanders) in 1913. Since the team acquired George Herman Ruth from its friends to the north, the Yankees have won 26 world championships and won a total of 38 pennants. They have retired 15 numbers, including the #8 twice (to Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey). The Marlins have been around for 10 years, but amazingly have yet to lose a post-season series as they head into game six of this World Series. The Marlins won the aforementioned 1997 title, but have finished below .500 in every other season until this year. This team has never finished higher than eight games behind the division winner in any given season, as both its playoff berths came though the wild-card. And its only retired numbers are showing up en masse to the early-bird specials at Denny’s.

• Fans: one set is admittedly a die-hard bunch, though at times can exhibit signs of "entitlement" and, how shall we say, obnoxiousness. Yankees fans undoubtedly support their team, but too often they feel like a season is a failure if a championship is not won, and that’s downright absurd. (Celtics fans, take note.) Marlins fans show up in minimal numbers even though the climate is always comfortable and they have, for the most part, a clean, modern stadium (albeit built for football). These playoffs, the fans who have come out of the woodwork to somehow fill up Pro Player Stadium — capacity 36,000 during the baseball season, expanded to 65,000 for the post-season — are a bunch of Johnny-come-lately bandwagon-jumping yahoos who wave towels and clap ThunderStix. Where were those jamokes all season long, when the Marlins improved from a 19-29 club to a team that finished 91-71? Neither set of fans in this series truly deserves another franchise championship, but one of them will get it, unfair as that may be to the long-suffering stadium-filling zealots in St. Louis, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and yes, Boston.

• The payrolls: hah. I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb here by saying that there has never been a World Series match-up with two more disparate team payrolls. First, the Marlins: their entire roster for the 2003 season can be paid with a $50 million bill. Their top-paid player, Ivan Rodriguez, seemed unwanted last off-season when his lifelong club, the Texas Rangers, decided not to sign the pending free agent. The Marlins nearly broke the bank by signing Pudge to a one-year $10 million contract, but the team got its money’s worth with the veteran catcher. Florida’s second-highest-paid player is second baseman Luis Castillo ($4.85 million), followed by closer Ugueth Urbina ($4.5 million), Jeff Conine and Derrek Lee ($4.25 million), and third baseman Mike Lowell, who’s making just $3.7 million — and five of those six guys are eligible for free agency this off-season. In all, just eight Marlins are making more than $2 million, of pitchers only Urbina is making more than $2.5 mil, and Pudge is the sole Marlin making more than five bills. Now the Yankees, home of the nearly $180 million payroll. The Pinstripers’ total is nearly four times that of the Marlins, and their roster this season included a remarkable seven players making more than $10 million per season, and 22 making $2 million–plus. The starting pitching rotation alone costs George Steinbrenner a lofty $42 million annually, and more than half of the 25-man roster is drawing $5 million or more this season. We could go on, but I think the point has been made: the Yankees are a mite better-paid than their Sunshine State counterparts.

• The teams: ah, this is where it gets interesting. On paper, and based on the above payroll figures, there is no reason in hell why the Yankees shouldn’t have whitewashed the Floridians in four straight. The Empire Staters have All-Stars at every single position except for right field, and their pitching staff boasts three certain Hall-of-Famers (Roger Clemens, Mike Mussina, and closer Mariano Rivera) and two borderliners (149-game winner Andy Pettitte and 200-game winner David Wells). The Marlins? Hmmm. You familiar with the immortal Juans, Encarnacion and Pierre? How about Tim Spooneybarger? Braden Looper? The Nunezes, Abraham and Vladimir? Todd Hollandaise, er, Hollandsworth? How about the Marlins’ starting rotation: Dontrelle Willis, Josh Beckett, Brad Penny, Carl Pavano, and Mark Redman? After all, those guys combined for 63 regular-season wins. Not familiar to you? Join the club.

• The stats: here are some of the key statistics comparing the two teams. In hitting, the Yanks were fifth overall in the American League in average (.271), third in home runs (230), second in on-base percentage (.349), and fourth in slugging (.453). The Marlins batters ranked fifth overall in the NL in average (.266), 11th in HRs (157), eighth in OBP (.333), and sixth in slugging (.421). Pitching-wise, the Yanks were third in the league in ERA (4.02), first in saves (49), and second in strikeouts (1119). The Marlins’ staff was seventh in ERA (4.04), 13th in saves (36), and fifth in strikeouts (1139). New York was only the 11th-best fielding team in the AL, while the Marlins topped the NL charts with a .987 fielding percentage.

• Managers: Joe Torre has been the best field manager, bar none, since he came aboard for the New Yorkers in 1996 and led them to their first championship in the previous 18 seasons. The Bombers have won the AL East for six straight seasons, and have made the playoffs in every year of Torre’s tenure. Nonetheless, it may be worth noting that the Pinstripers have not won the whole enchilada since 2000. The Marlins, meanwhile, have not had a sniff of the post-season since their improbable title six years ago, and their victory totals since 1997 are 54, 64, 79, 76, and 79. Seventy-two-year-old Jack McKeon, fresh from a stretch as manager of the underachieving Cincinnati Reds two years ago, was brought on board to take the helm in Florida in May, and the team obviously responded, going 75-49 under him and surviving a contentious September to emerge with the wild-card crown. McKeon is the oldest manager to participate in the post-season, and this is his first shot at it after six full seasons and seven partial seasons managing KC, Oakland, San Diego, Cincinnati, and now Florida.

Given all this, how is it possible that the New York Yankees are at the brink of losing the 2003 World Series to the Florida Marlins? Forget the Yanks’ injuries and their weariness after their seven-game jihad with the Red Sox. They’re now facing the Florida Marlins, a team that threw out on the pitching mound three straight ex–Red Sox players the other night (Pavano, Urbina, and Chad Fox) — and still won! Could it happen that a team with a $180 million payroll could potentially lose to a squad with a $49 million roster? The team laden with All-Stars and multimillionaires and future Hall-of-Famers losing to a patchwork squad that finished 10 games out of first in their division, and went 38-43 on the road this season?

Could the Florida Marlins become the second expansion team in three years to defeat the sport’s most heralded team?

It just doesn’t seem possible that they could, but by Sunday evening we’ll know one way or the other. One thing’s clear, though: even if you don’t like the Marlins’ history, their ownership, or their fan base, you’ve got to like the Florida players themselves. This team that knocked off the NL West champs (the Giants) and the NL Central champs (the Cubs) just to get to the World Series is doing it the right way: through spunk and spark. And even if the New Yorkers come back to win both games this weekend to secure their 27th title, you’ve still got to tip your caps to the boys from South Florida, because they managed to play over their heads and out-scrap the high-priced all-star team from the Bronx to capture a nation’s attention (well, maybe not capture).

Yup, even though many would have liked to find a way for both these teams to lose — and Lord knows the Yanks will probably still find a way to win it — if you’ve got to go with somebody, go with the underdog.

Woof!

"Sporting Eye" runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com


Issue Date: October 24 - 30, 2003
"Sporting Eye" archives: 2003 |2002
For more News & Features, click here
  E-Mail This Article to a Friend







about the phoenix |  find the phoenix |  advertising info |  privacy policy |  the masthead |  feedback |  work for us

 © 2000 - 2003 Phoenix Media Communications Group