I don't have much to say today for a change. The only thing I feel like writing about, in fact, is the Marlins, and not much about that. The Mets series was as good of baseball as you're ever going to see. Josh Willingham's walk-off home run in the ninth inning off Billy Wagner. Wagner's bounce-back the next night to strike out a scorching Miguel Cabrera to end a neck-and-neck game. And then last night, Cabrera's revenge, a three run double in the eighth to break open a ridiculously intense pitching duel between Dontrelle Willis and Pedro Martinez.
Speaking of Willingham, he's got a "blog" on the Palm Beach Post website that's not terrible. The reason I put that in quotes is because it's really just a weekly essay. Some weeks it's dull (with lines like "It's important to stay hydrated when it's so hot"), but he occasionally you get some good stuff. Like the entry where he wrote about facing Roger Clemens for the first time: "Roger Clemens threw me a first-pitch slider Friday, but I let it go. It was called a strike and I struck out. But I got a hit off him later in the game. I didn't think about asking for the ball. If I had done that, he probably would have drilled me in my next at-bat, but it was nice to get a hit off him."
Willingham's team is starting to get a glow about it. Sort of reminds me of the 2003 team, only with fewer veterans (Cabrera, a baby-faced rook during the Series run is now one the old vets on the team). The guys play hard all the time. They're having fun. Half of them are doing this for the first time. And they're contending, if barely. It's a long shot, but I think they're gonna make a strong charge for the wild card.
