---

Today the World Series returns to Miami for the first time since Craig Counsell scored on Edgar Renteria’s single to center. In 1997. Just to take you back, here was the line up for the Fish on that day, and where they are now:

Devon White - cf (retired/Milwaukee 2001)
Edgar Renteria - ss (St Louis)
Gary Sheffield - rf (Atlanta)
Darren Dalton - 1b (retired/Florida 1997)
Moises Alou - lf (Cubs)
Bobby Bonilla - 3b (retired/St Louis 2001)
Charles Johnson - c (Colorado)
Craig Counsell - 2b (Arizona)
Al Lieter - sp (Mets)

Other Marlins in that game:
Jeff Conine - Florida
John Cangelosi - retired/Colorado (1999)
Jay Powell - Texas
Greg Zaun - Houston
Dennis Cook - Didn’t play in 2003 due to injury/Anaheim
Cliff Floyd - Mets
Kurt Abbott - retired/Atlanta (2001)
Antonio Alfonseca - Cubs
Felix Heredia - Yankees
Jim Eisnereich - Los Angeles (1998)

Other fun Marlins facts…They’ve never lost a playoff series. They have won the World Series every time they’ve finished over .500. And the year their manager was born, the team that won the Series was the Philadelphia Athletics.

That whole exercise was fun, no? In the span of 11 years, the Marlins have been Devil Rays south, and every once in a while, finding themselves in a World Series. And considering their brief history, the Marlins have evoked some pretty crazy emotion. They were loved as a Cinderella story when they won, hated when the sold off their team to the highest bidder. Of their three owners, two of them have been pretty terrible guys in Wayne Huizenga and Jeffrey Loria. All and all, the Marlins have had a pretty interesting history, all things considered.

And tonight they face off the team with the history in Major League baseball, with the World Series tied at 1-1. This has the makings of the best game of the series so far, with a Josh Beckett/Mike Mussina match up. Beckett has never pitched against the Yankees, and Mussina has amassed a statistically insignificant 0-1 36.00 in 2.0 innings in the last four years. Beckett has been pitching excellently in this offseason, maybe the best stretch in his career. Mussina has been pitching well also, but he’s been struck by gopheritis.

Actually the case of Mussina, because of the city he plays in, has been deemed soft, and not a “big game pitcher,” whatever that means. If you look at balls in play, Mussina’s era this postseason would be: 1.61. That’s his ERA when he keeps the ball in play. The two ways to look at this is that Mussina was right that he only controls the 60′6″ he has to work with. The other is that in the playoffs, he chokes and gives up more homers.

I think honestly that Mussina doesn’t get scared under the bright lights of New York Postseason play. The dingers surrendered were to Manny Ramirez (no shame), David Ortiz (no shame), Trot Nixon (one of the best hitters against righties in baseball), and 2 by Todd Walker (see: Ricardo Rincon). There is no one on Florida’s team that has Ortiz or Ramirez’s power, save Mike Lowell, and the Fish have problems with righties anyway, never mind one of the best in the game.

All and all, Florida’s chances lay in Beckett’s effectiveness and Pierre/Castillo’s ability to get on base in front of Rodriguez and Lee. New York just needs to give Mussina runs and the Stanford Kid needs to keep the ball in the ball park.

Josh Beckett is fast becoming the Official Marlins Pitcher of Dewey’s House. The Yankees are the Official Team of pissing me off. Unfortunately I’m gonna go home pissed tonight, as Mussina keeps the ball out of the dark Florida sky, and Beckett wonders why he keeps getting the best pitcher on the other team. New York 3, Florida 1.

On to less pressing matters, this was in the Boston Globe today:

“As much as I love some of the Marlins’ players and root for them to win, I have no interest in watching this series,” Henry said in an e-mail statement last night. “The only interest I currently have in baseball is to prepare for next season. The supportive communications I have received from fans has been shocking and has stirred me greatly — emotionally.

“Initially, I thought New Englanders would just finally throw up their hands. But their level of commitment and resolve is astonishing and deserves our full attention to moving this franchise forward without a break. It shows you how little I know about the toughness of this region. And it shows me how tough I need to be in making sure that we accomplish our goals. So I’m riding their `wave,’ so to speak. They’ve given me the energy to move forward without having to get away from it all. I thought I would have to get away from it all to recharge and start again. But they have refocused me. And I can tell you that Theo [Epstein] and Larry [Lucchino] did not take a one-day or even a half-day break this week. I don’t think they needed an external force to recharge themselves. This franchise is in very good shape with these two leading it.

“How amazing is it, that even the angriest/saddest/most broken-hearted fans offer thanks and remain determined to see this team prevail? It’s astonishing. I’m not listening to the radio, so maybe things are different there. I just know what comes directly to me.

“There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for these people. You know, there isn’t anything these people wouldn’t do for the Red Sox. We owe them.”

Only time will tell if John Henry will live up to that e-mail, but at least he’s saying the right things so far.

I was going to use the remaining space here to review Skin, but this entry is running long. I’ll just post five quick notes I took on the show:

I liked it enough to watch again next Monday.
Some notes:
1. Kids are whiny little bitches
2. The DA is a douche
3. Ron Silver plays the part of “sympathetic pornographer” well.
4. The acting is pretty wooden, save Silver, but the writing is pretty good.
5. The camera work is cinema quality. The closest comp I can think of is Stigmata. Its actually distracting at times.
6. Actually might have a longer shelf life then I thought originally.

Enjoy the game tonight.