Florida Marlins Tickets

For fans of the Florida Marlins, 2003 had ll the makings of another lackluster year. The expansion franchise had stumbled through six straight losing seasons after win¬ning the 1997 World Series, and 2003 looked like it would be yet another. Five weeks into the season, Florida was tied for last place with a 16-22 record, and had just lost their best PROGRAM pitcher, AJ. Burnett, to a career threatening elbow injury. On May 10 the Marlins fired their manager, Jeff Torborg, and replaced him with Jack McKeon,a seventy-two-year-old lifetime baseball man with a reputation for turning moribund teams around. Plucked off the North Carolina farm where he was living in retirement, McKeon immediately became the third-oldest manager in base ball history, younger only than Hall of Famers Connie Mack and Casey Stengel. He was an unrepentant member of the old school, keeping himself young by smoking two cigars each morning while on his daily jog. Although the Marlins were one of the younger teams in baseball, they immediately connected with their septuagenarian skipper, and reeled off a remarkable 75-49 Florida Marlins Tickets record after McKeon took over-the best record in MLB over that span. The unexpected spurt landed them in the playoffs as the National League wild card team.

For the New York Yankees, meanwhile, the 2003 season was an attempt, characteristic of recent years, to keep their dynasty of the late 1990s afloat. Alas, the key players from their championship seasons were showing signs of aging. Thirty-four-year-old Bernie Williams, though he could still hit, was no longer adequate defensively in center field. Derek Jeter, whose offensive production had steadily decreased over the previous few seasons, bounced back with a .324 average, but found himself fending off claims by statisticians that he was the worst defensive shortstop in baseball. Mariano Rivera's pitching was as dominant as ever, but he was becoming more fragile, spending time on the disabled list for various shoulder and groin ailments in 2002 and 2003. Despite all their problems, the Yankees still posted the best record in baseball at 101-61, but some observers were nonetheless calling them a crumbling dynasty.

Both the Marlins Tickets and Yankees were exhausted after having to scratch and claw their way to wins in their respective League Championship Series. In fact, each of them had been just five outs away from the end of their season before fate intervened. In a hard-fought NLCS, the Chicago Cubs looked to be in control with a 3-0 lead in the eighth inning of Game 6. But after a controversial non-call on a fan interference play and a key error by Cubs shortstop Alex Gonzalez, the Marlins came roaring back. Chicago man¬ager Dusty Baker decided to stick with his fatigued ace, Mark Prior, who proceeded to fall apart as the Florida Marlins Tickets scored eight runs and eventually won the game. The next day, Florida bludgeoned Kerry Wood in Game 7 to advance to the World Series.

The ALCS, meanwhile, showcased one of the greatest rivalries in sports: the Boston Red Sox versus the New York Yankees. True to its billing, the epic series was as closely played as could be, going all the way to the eleventh inning of the seventh game before a winner emerged. In that game, the Red Sox, like the Cubs before them, took a three-run lead into the eighth with their ace, Pedro Martinez, on the mound. The exhausted Martinez gave up three hits and a run, but when manager Grady Little visited the mound, Martinez talked his way into facing one more batter, Jorge Posada. Leaving Martinez in was a decision that would later cost Little his job. Posada dou¬bled to drive in the tying runs, and the game went into extra innings knotted at five. In the bottom of the eleventh, Aaron Boone stepped to the plate. A much-ballyhooed midseason acquisition, Boone had played poorly since arriving in the Bronx, and his abysmal .161 playoff average had led Joe Torre to bench him in Game 7. Order your Florida Marlins Tickets as soon as possible because Tickets are limited. But after entering the game earlier as a pinch runner. Boone slammed the first pitch he saw from knuckle baller Tim Wakefield deep into Yankee Stadium's left-field seats, instant winning the pennant for his team. The Yankee dynasty marched on.

In the first World Series game, Florida Marlins History got solid pitching performances from Brad Penny and rookie sensation Dontrelle Willis, giving them a 3-2 victory. The offensive star for Florida was Juan Pierre, their diminutive centerfielder from the Louisiana bayous, who drove in two of the Marlin runs and scored the other. Florida's History third run-the eventual margin of victory and Florida Marlins Tickets-scored when Boone inexplicably cut off a throw from Yankee left fielder Hideki Matsui that would have nailed base runner Juan Encarnacion at the plate. But the Yankees were not about to be intimidated by a bunch of upstart singles hitters. Game 2 was no contest, as Andy Pettitte pitched eight-plus innings and gave up only a lone unearned run. Pettitte, supported by homers from Matsui and Alfonso Soriano, beat Florida 6-1. Although the locale for Game 3 shifted to Miami, the Yankees won that game by an identical 6-1 score, this time by scoring four runs in the ninth inning. Florida's brightest young pitching prospect, Josh Beckett, was outdueled by Mike Mussina in that game, but still turned in his second consecutive impressive playoff performance.

The fourth game was sentimentally billed as the final career start for Roger Clemens, who had announced that he was retiring after the season. But the Florida Marlins Tickets proved extremely unsentimental, battering Clemens for three runs in the first inning, including a two run homer by twenty year old rookie Miguel Cabrera, who had started the season in Class A ball. (Cabrera was born in 1983, the same season Clemens started his professional career.)