A team of nobodies
Dave Hyde: Marlins woes familiar to ex-players.
“You don’t want mentally to get stuck in that losing zone.” Mike Lowell, former Marlins third baseman, on the present team’s challenges
The alums told stories. Benito Santiago drove a red Lamborghini to that first spring training. Charlie Hough told how that first pitch in Marlins history, the one that was too low and too outside, was a perfect strike one.
But the relevant story of the Marlins 25th anniversary celebration this weekend was told Sunday as Mike Lowell came to bat. Not because of what Lowell did at the plate.
Come on, he’s 44 now, has a repaired hip, retired eight years ago and, well, he came to bat in Sunday’s alumni softball game. And he fouled out.
“What?” Cliff Floyd said, laughing at the moment in the way these alums laughed at everything. But Floyd also said something telling after the laughter died down: “We know what they’re going through.”
He meant these current Marlins. He meant him and Lowell and, well, pretty much any Marlin from any era at some point, considering all the fire sales this franchise had undergone through these 25 years. “We know it can work, too,” Floyd said. They know what hard work it is, too. To be part of a quarter century of Marlins is to at some point have been up against the problems and opportunities of a fire sale.
Lowell, for instance, got his chance when traded to the Marlins after that original fire sale. He’d never played third base until that 1999 season. He went on to be a star there for 13 years. So he knows the
good and bad presented to these Marlins.
“The plus is you have a long leash to learn what you do well and what you don’t,” he said. “I saw both sides of it. When I was in Boston, [Dustin] Pedroia basically had four weeks. If he didn’t pan out, they were going to send him down to Pawtucket to get better.
“You have a longer leash when winning isn’t the ultimate option at this point. Do you want to win every game? Of course. But sustained winning is what you want to accomplish. A guy like Lewis Brinson. For me, he’s learning. He’s too athletic and he’s too good to hit whatever he’s hitting right now. He’s going to get better.”
That’s the hope anyway. The reality is none of the Marlins who lost to San Diego on Sunday might be around in two years when their long-term plan really comes into focus. Lowell also knows the challenge these years present.
“You don’t want mentally to get stuck in that losing zone,” he said. “That’s easier said than done. You’ve got to come with a mentality that today’s going to be a day to compete hard. No matter rain, small crowds, you’re in a slump — you’ve got to be ready to win every day.”
He smiled. “I know just how hard that is.”
In a way, talking to former Marlins at
this reunion was like talking to the George Clooney character in the movie, “Up in the Air.” That character told every person he fired: “Anybody who ever built an empire or change the world sat where you are right now. And it’s because they sat there they were able to do it. That’s the truth.”
So many players who with the Marlins went through tough times after a fire sale. One on hand Sunday lived to smile about it, though.
“It’s frustrating, because the talent is in the clubhouse, but it’s not developed and they don’t know how to win,” Floyd said. “You can’t teach that. You can’t be mad at them, either. That’s the process. It’s about being patient.”
Stop me if you’ve heard that for 25 years. Still, this was a fun weekend. A lot of old names were back to tell stories and enjoy each other.
They even had a video replica of that old original scoreboard, right down to the hand-dial clock. They couldn’t make the hands move, so they set it to 3:05. Get it? The Miami area code.
But the way this weekend was relevant is these Marlins alums played through years just like this one. Some won after it. So who knows? Maybe in two decades Brinson and Brian Anderson are coming to bat in a reunion softball game.