one of the greatest lines in sports was offered by muhammad ali. he and george foreman were having their pre-fight news conference in kinshasha, zaire before the big "rumble in the jungle" for the heavyweight title some 30-plus years ago. foreman, the reigning champ, a young guy full of himself, went on and on about how he was going to beat Ali, how he'd beat and pulverize him, - all pre-fight blabber designed to psyche himself up and frighten ali.
howard cosell then said to ali, "muhammad, do you have anything to say to that?"
ali said nothing. instead, he walked over to foreman, stared at him for a moment and then shouted, "Timmmmmmber!"
which is, after a little rope-a-dope, what happened.
well, the marlins have lumber and tonight at cba, they swung it. timmber!!!!
forget the boxscore: here's about all you need to know: the marlins' 2, 3, and 4 hitters - that would be messers craft, girardi and sohl - were a combined 12-for-14. mr. craft himself was a gaudy 5-for-5. in all, the marlins had 21 hits over 7 innings. (which didn't do one good thing for my era. not that i'm worried. just workin' out the kinks. or whatever.)
oh yes: jim latorre started, fast as ever, followed by phil gadomski, quite good too.
the peppers did, however, smack 8 hits. herb carter went 2-for-3 with a stolen base and a run scored (most of it on a sore groin) and darryl hunt went 1-for-2 with a stolen base and a run scored.
oh, two notes - first, something new: we had sun, blue skies, nice breezes and soft, green grass. what a relief after two weeks of a wet, teasing, wintery spring.
also, we played without official umpires. this was a makeup, but notice on the change was sent in five days ago. (jim bonaparte happened to be watching the game and agreed to fill in. did a very nice job.)
Something that should not be lost in the score is that this Peppers team came to do battle. They may have been out hit and out pitched and out scored, but they were not out hustled. At least three or four different Peppers made all out diving attempts to snare liners or well placed grounders. The score got out of hand early, but these guys never quit. I have seen so many teams throw in the towel and go through the motions when they get down early. Well, there was no quit in this team! They rallied with three or four hits in the bottom of the 7th and I could hear one player saying, "If we can just get 3 more grand slams, we will be right back in this." It is a great attitude and it was not lost on the Silver Marlins. We all commented on it around the cooler after the game. Keep it up guys! You will be on the right side of the score soon enough if you do.
Mike/John - Peppers/Marlins: not sure what happened to umpires, as a crew was assigned.....may have been confusion regarding a school schedule. Glad "Bones" was able to step in....he will be working with our school group and summer programs and is a great addistion to the ranks. Will see that he is taken care of for last night. Jim Dalton
