Baseball Mania:
As an old American League diehard, Red Sox fan (even a Yankees fan for some years of my childhood), getting interested in the Marlins has been a stretch. The '97 win was exciting, but that was a bought-to-go-to-the-Series team. This team is different. I've been hooked on them since I watched Dontrelle Willis pitch for the first time. I can't get enough of Jean Pierre. And Jack McKeon personifies the old baseball I used to love.

So for all the rest of you non-Marlins fans, I say: No matter who you root for, check out The Miami Herald's World Series coverage. This is some entertaining stuff. If nothing else, read Dan Le Batard's front-page game summaries every day. Today's column is a classic:
First he tells us about the Marlins kids on the bus, hanging out the windows, shouting "''Here come the Fish!'' and ''Get out of the way!'' and ``Here we come to ruin New York's day!''", like a high-school team on the way to the county playoffs. Then this:
"And you know what Wells' reaction was as soon as Castillo's little bloop dropped?
In front of the nation's television cameras, Wells screamed at the top of his lungs, ``You've got to be [bleeping] kidding me!''
Mr. Wells, welcome to what it feels like to play the Marlins."