The 2003 Florida Marlins

No, I'm not going to compare the 2003 Florida Marlins to any team, especially since that version of the Marlins may be incomparable.

However, Beerleauger (an excellent Phillies blog), gives us a walk down memory lane.

It’s weird which October moments you remember most. One series I remember vividly is 2003 between the Wild Card Marlins and the heavily favored Yankees. With guys like Josh Beckett, Brad Penny, Dontrelle Willis, Carl Pavano, Juan Pierre, Mike Lowell, Pudge Rodriguez and a newborn baby named Miguel Cabrera, it was like the Marlins were set at a different speed. The Yankees looked like old men in comparison. Everyone watched Florida’s young staff in astonishment that pitchers could throw the ball that hard for that long.

Before the series started in 2003, on Baseball Tonight, they went around the table and asked the so called experts to predict the outcome.  And everyone predicted the Yankees would win, well, almost everyone.  All the other analysts had made the Yankees their choice and then it was Harold Reynolds turn, who said (and I'm paraphrasing) I don't know.  The Yankees could have trouble with the hard throwing Marlins.  They haven't seen anything like this all year.  And he picked the Marlins.

The other analysts looked at him like he had lost his mind.

Good times.