A World Series With Spring In Its Step Training Season Rivals Renew Fall Classic In Florida
And so, in this land where baseball always came for its spring ritual of renewal, the game has returned this fall to decide a champion.
More than seven months after the Florida Marlins and Cleveland Indians met on a meaningless March afternoon in the Sunshine State, they’re back to play for real. Suffice to say the World Series has never looked or sounded this way before.
Samba bands parading outside Pro Player Stadium, Latin treats cooking inside at the concession stands. A sultry, South Florida evening instead of October chill, with temperatures forecast in the 80s for Game 1 tonight.
A record crowd of 65,000 fans dressed in teal, the color the Marlins brought to the major league landscape. Plus a team that did not exist five years ago.
“It’s the Indians against the Marlins, who would have ever thought that?” Cleveland outfielder David Justice said Friday.
“We were eating today down at South Beach and just to see the people here in Florida so excited about the Marlins,” he said. “I think this Series already is great and we haven’t even started yet.”
Orel Hershiser, a postseason ace at 39, starts the opener for the Indians, trying to win their first World Series championship since 1948.
Hershiser is familiar with the park - on April 5, 1993, he was the losing pitcher for Los Angeles in the first game in Marlins history.
Livan Hernandez, a 22-year-old rookie who emerged as the MVP of the N.L. Championship Series, pitches Game 1 for Florida.
“I pitched against them in spring training,” Hernandez said through a translator. “They’re a team that has a lot of power, they’re a team that makes a lot of contact.”
The Marlins had never had a winning year until owner Wayne Huizenga paid out nearly $100 million in the off-season for free agents and manager Jim Leyland. Boosted by that spending spree, the Marlins became the youngest team to reach the World Series.
“When I came over here, it was to rebuild the team,” outfielder Gary Sheffield said. “And I just looked at it as a situation where they weren’t moving fast enough at the time, I thought.
“But they pulled me to the side and told me to be patient, things were going to work out and they showed me the way it was going to work,” he said.
Leyland was a big part of that success in his first season since leaving Pittsburgh. Now, after 34 years in pro ball, he’s making his first trip to the World Series, this October’s version of Joe Torre.
“I don’t think I brought anything special here,” Leyland said. “I brought some experience. I think that was the biggest thing.”
Both the Indians and Marlins made it this far despite being outscored and outpitched in the playoffs.
A rash of late-inning magic led Cleveland over Baltimore in the A.L. Championship Series. The Indians return to the Series with a team far different than the one that lost in 1995 to Atlanta - no more Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton, Carlos Baerga and Eddie Murray at the top of the lineup.
The Marlins, meanwhile, showed postseason experience beyond their years in dethroning the two-time N.L. champion Braves.
Now they meet for the first time since spring training. Oh, and by the way: Whatever happened to all that talk about interleague play taking away from the World Series?
It’s the Marlins and Indians playing the biggest games of the season at Miami, long after they met on a lazy March day at Winter Haven.
“I think the interesting thing about this World Series is there’s not quite as much history,” Hershiser said. “We’re writing history instead of reliving history.”
xxxx 1. WE’RE IN THE MONEY How teams in the league championship series ranked in their league in payroll since 1991: 1997: Baltimore, 2nd A.L.; Cleveland, 3rd A.L.; Florida, 1st N.L.; Atlanta, 2nd N.L. 1996: N.Y. Yankees, 1st A.L.; Baltimore, 2nd A.L.; Atlanta, 1st N.L.; St. Louis, 4th N.L. 1995: Cleveland, 4th A.L.; Seattle, 6th A.L.; Cincinnati, 1st N.L.; Atlanta, 2nd N.L. 1994: No postseason 1993: Toronto, 1st A.L.; Chi. White Sox, 4th A.L.; Atlanta, 1st N.L.; Philadelphia, 8th N.L. 1992: Toronto, 1st A.L.; Oakland, 2nd A.L.; Pittsburgh, 3rd N.L.; Atlanta, 4th N.L. 1991: Minnesota, 9th A.L.; Toronto, 6th A.L.; Pittsburgh, 6th N.L.; Atlanta, 9th N.L.
2. SERIES SCHEDULE All games on NBC Today: at Florida, 5:05 p.m. Sunday: at Florida, 4:35 Tuesday: at Cleveland, 5:20 Wednesday: at Cleveland, 5:20 Thursday: at Cleveland, 5:20* Oct. 25: at Florida, 5* Oct. 26: at Florida, 4:35* *-if necessary.