Marlins' theme song: You and me against the world
Nation will be root, root, rootin' for those Cubs I t gets harder now. Much, much harder. Because it isn't just Sammy Sosa on deck.
( 10/07/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

McKnight's play: shades of Dante
McKnight's TD run: 'It was like driving a car'
We complicate this game. Consumed coaches prepare obsessive-compulsively all week, losing sleep. Scouts spy on opponents, stealing tendencies. Players immerse themselves in film study, re-re-rewinding in search of any sliver of light in a world of darkness.
( BY DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 10/06/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

What a rush!
Marlins will play for National League title after catcher Ivan Rodriguez slays Giants
This was at the intersection of chaos and insanity . . . after the violent collision at home plate . . . after South Floridas deafening roar . . . after Florida Marlins catcher Ivan Rodriguez had broken the San Francisco Giants over his knee . . . after Marlins reliever Ugueth Urbina had watched Rodriguez's crash and then immediately tackled Rodriguez yet again in celebration . . . after every onrushing Marlins teammate had swept in to embrace Rodriguezs...
( BY DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 10/05/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

One more to go!
'Mr. Marlin' can't bear to watch as Iván Rodríguez, down to his last strike, drives in the tying and winning runs in the 11th inning.
This was the height of unbearable tension: As this death match playoff baseball game was being decided.
( BY DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 10/04/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Marlins head home feeling 'alive'
The Marlins make an improbable comeback to ensure they'll play the next two games for huge home crowds.
This was at the epicenter of the chaos. Florida Marlins pitcher Carl Pavano held the baseball, the game and maybe the entire season in his right hand.
( DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 10/02/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Not enough to win
The Marlins' Josh Beckett pitches well, but Florida can't score against the Giants' Jason Schmidt.
One mistake. That's all it takes this time of year. One flinch. One oops. One `Nooooooo!' And you lose.
( BY DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 10/01/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Bonds long on confidence -- and power
Bonds saves biggest insults for opposing pitchers
If they didn't shift the infielders to the right? ''I'd hit .400,'' Barry Bonds says.
( COMMENTARY / DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/30/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Celebrating all night long a new thing to these Marlins
Marlins want to give fans more to celebrate T his was just before midnight. Cinderella wasn't merely still standing. She was singing on stage.
( 09/28/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Winner? For MVP, it's A-Rod
Why not rename the award already? Why not dispense with this ''Most Valuable Player'' nonsense and just make the acronym RGPWHTBFETPWGTAAW?
( IN MY OPINION / DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/28/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

LET THE PLAYOFF PARTY BEGIN!
The Marlins and their growing army of fans celebrate as the improbable comes true.
Improbable comes true This is what avalanches do. They gather momentum. ''Felt it in a hair salon,'' Florida Marlins left fielder Jeff Conine says.
( 09/27/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Let the playoff party begin
This is what avalanches do. They gather momentum. ''Felt it in a hair salon,'' Florida Marlins left fielder Jeff Conine says. A hair salon?
( By Dan Le Batard, 09/27/2003 01:26 AM EDT)

Beckett's potential yields results
It is certainly a charming story line. The Marlins as overachievers. Except for this one problem. Every fifth day, it is an enormous lie.
( COMMENTARY / DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/25/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Picture of Tuesday's game: priceless
`That's the most fun I've ever had' One snapshot? For the center of the scrapbook? Here it is, eighth inning of what would become an enormous 5-4 victory, but now the Marlins are clinging to the side of the cliff. They have the thinnest margin in this sport, up a run with a man on third, a tie score less than 90 feet away once Jimmy Rollins, Philadelphia's fastest player, bobs with his substantive lead.
( DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/24/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Longest 5 yards of Fiedler's life? You be the judge
One play defines Fiedler's night You want to know what Sunday night looked like through Jay Fiedler's face mask? Take one play, just one, from the second quarter of Miami's 17-7 victory over Buffalo, for it was representative of just how difficult the acquisition of real estate was during an evening when both offenses had to feel like they were operating within the confines of an airplane bathroom.
( COMMENTARY / DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/22/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Hidden humility
Barry Bonds talks about his biggest loss
SAN DIEGO -- Everything hurts. ''I've played most of the season with a hamstring tear,'' Barry Bonds says. ``My knees ache. My hands are done. Two bulging disks in my back. My legs don't work. I make a strong throw, I feel it all over the rest of the game. Willie and my dad always said the thing that knocked them out of baseball would knock me out, too -- when the pain became too much.''
( COMMENTARY / DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/21/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Paterno has earned the right to stay
Joe Paterno has won more games than any college coach ever. He has the second-highest winning percentage of any college coach ever.
( IN MY OPINION | DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/21/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Wild-card lead is going, going, going, nearly gone with the wind
Winds of wild-card change blow away Marlins P HILADELPHIA -- It took a hurricane. It took the wind and the rain and the force of a natural disaster to finally knock the tiny Florida Marlins down Thursday.
( IN MY OPINION | DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/19/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Conine plays Philly-buster amid torrid one-man show
Conine sinks Phillies with bat, glove
PHILADELPHIA -- Place this one in the pantheon. Put it right up there with the best individual performances in the infant history of the Florida Marlins.
( IN MY OPINION | DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/18/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

The pain of losing hurts much more than you know
PHILADELPHIA -- What hurts? ''What doesn't?'' Marlins first baseman Derrek Lee says. He laughs. ''Shoulder, back, knee, butt, but that's nothing,'' Lee says. ``You talk to Castillo?''
( DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/17/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Win two now, and there will be more magic in Florida's season
Magic numbers? Marlins need two wins to halt Phillies Two out of three. That's all the Marlins need to do to now. Take two of three in Philadelphia beginning tonight and you not only finish the Phillies but you also get, as a special bonus, the very real possibility that calm, reasonable, Wannstedt-ian Philadelphia manager Larry Bowa will spontaneously combust immediately, spewing lava, bile and innards all over the National League East.
( COMMENTARY | DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/16/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

No gloating from Wannstedt
This was after the crushing loss, after the hate mail, after the radio poison, after all the accusations of incompetence and after South Florida's rabid, relentless calls for his firing.
( COMMENTARY / DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/15/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Dolphins talent? It must be hidden
The oxygen masks have fallen from above, the alarm sirens are wailing and South Florida's hyperventilating masses have dialed 911 in search of heart paddles.
( COMMENTARY / DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/08/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

A roller coaster of magnificent drama
They were winded and wheezing, careening between hopeful and hopeless, bodies sagging from the emotional and physical drain. And that was just the fans watching this game of human pinball.
( COMMENTARY / DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/07/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Threat of pain hovers for fans and Chambers
You recognize these symptoms? ''A lot of nausea,'' Dolphins receiver Chris Chambers says. And? ''Relentless headaches,'' he says. And?
( COMMENTARY / DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/07/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Schedule to prove undoing of Marlins
Let me preface this by saying I would like to see the Marlins in the playoffs, would like to see bandwagon, big-event South Florida swept up by postseason fever again and would like to be very much wrong about what I'm about to write:
( COMMENTARY / DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/07/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

We're not worthy! No, really -- we're not
What's the complaint you hear most often about professional athletes? That they're overpaid, spoiled, indifferent? Well, very quietly, much too quietly, the Marlins are proving an aberration in ways that stretch beyond the scoreboard.
( COMMENTARY / DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 09/05/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

People forgive a lot quicker if you win, Odom says
Twenty questions with $65 million investment Lamar Odom, who talks a very good game: 1. What do you say to South Floridians who are worried you won't behave yourself here after a couple of substance-abuse violations?
( By DAN LEBATARD, Herald Sports Columnist, 09/01/2003 03:01 AM EDT)

Fleeting fame can become lasting infamy
We don't know what Marlins catcher Ramón Castro did or didn't do, though athletes have betrayed our trust so often that he immediately gets sucked into the smearing vortex of guilty-until-proven-innocent because justice might indeed wait for a verdict but judgment most certainly does not.
( COMMENTARY / DAN LE BATARD, dlebatard@herald.com, 08/31/2003 03:01 AM EDT)