It had all the prerequisites for World Series greatness.
It had an underdog winner, went the seven-game distance and was capped by an 11th-inning RBI single that sent a home crowd into a frenzy.
What the 1997 World Series between the Marlins and Indians didn't include, however, was a team with the words "New York," "Boston" or "Los Angeles" written on either jersey. For that reason, it has a tendency to get lost in the shuffle.
"I've said to this day," said Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who managed that '97 Marlins team, "had that been the Yankees and Mets playing, it would have gone down as one of the greatest World Series in the history of baseball. But because it was us and Cleveland, it never got the credit it deserves."
Those who were a part of it, though, know it was something special. And 10 years later, as Florida and Cleveland face each other in Interleague Play, the memories of that exciting Series linger on.
Of course, those memories are more painful for some than others.
Former Tribe closer Jose Mesa, who has been a goat in Cleveland ever since he gave up a one-run lead in the bottom of Game 7's ninth inning, wanted no part of a conversation about '97.
"I don't talk about that team," Mesa said, shortly before his recent release by the Tigers. "That's in the past."
The past still haunts Indians fans, who have been waiting patiently since 1948 for their home club to bring them a World Series title. Ironically enough, Leyland was once one of those long-suffering fans, and he knew, coming into the Series, that he could lend a hand in extending that misery.
"I grew up down the road [in Perrysburg, Ohio] as a Cleveland fan," Leyland said. "So I kind of had mixed emotions. I was glad the Indians got in, but I was sure hoping they didn't win it."
The Indians, who went 86-75 during the regular season and bounced the vaunted Yankees and the Orioles in the playoffs, certainly had the pieces to win it. Their lineup featured the likes of David Justice, Matt Williams, Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Omar Vizquel and Sandy Alomar Jr., and their pitching staff blended the experience of Orel Hershiser with the up-and-coming talent of Jaret Wright.
And having reached the Series two years earlier and fallen short, Mike Hargrove's club was an especially hungry bunch.
"The '95 team was probably a stronger team," Hargrove said, "but I think the '97 team was a gutsier team. It was more of a grinder-type team. It was a real enjoyable team to be around and manage and watch play and probably the team I got the most satisfaction out of."
That's not to say the Marlins, in just their fifth season of existence, weren't pretty hungry themselves. Sure, it was a Wild Card team, but it was nonetheless a team that won 92 games in the regular season, swept the Giants in the National League Division Series and beat the Braves in the NL Championship Series.
"By the end of the regular season," Leyland said, "I felt we were the best team in the National League."
The Marlins wasted no time taking advantage of their home-field advantage at Pro Player Stadium, beating up Hershiser for four fourth-inning runs, en route to a 7-4 victory in Game 1.
But the Indians set the tone for what would be a back-and-forth affair with a 6-1 win in Game 2, and the Series shifted from sunny Miami to wintry Cleveland. Game 3 at Jacobs Field featured one of the more bizarre ninth innings in Series history, as the Marlins scored seven runs in the top of the inning to go up 14-7, then fended off the Indians, who put up four runs in their final at-bat.
Ask players from either team what they remember most about the '97 Series, aside from Game 7, and inevitably they'll point to Game 4, if only for the fact that it featured a veritable blizzard during batting practice and a first-pitch temperature of 38 degrees -- a record low for the Series.
"I remember being out there shagging for batting practice," former Indians reliever Brian Anderson said. "I had a hard time seeing home plate because of the snow."
Recalled Leyland: "They were playing 'Jingle Bells' out there during BP."
Behind a strong performance from Wright, the Indians rung the Marlins' bell with a 10-3 victory. But in Game 5, the veteran Hershiser was outpitched by 22-year-old Livan Hernandez, who would go on to win the Series MVP, and the Marlins grabbed an 8-7 win.
Back in Florida for Game 6, the Indians were on the verge of elimination, but they took a 4-1 lead. In the sixth, reliever Mike Jackson was on the hill with two Marlins runners in scoring position. Charles Johnson hit a ground ball to Vizquel's far left, and the shortstop dove, caught it and threw a perfect strike to first to get the final out of the inning and end the threat.
If not for that memorable play, who knows if Game 7 would have happened?
"It's one of the proudest moments in my career," said Vizquel, now with the Giants. "Not only because we got to play Game 7, which is the most exciting thing that can happen to you. But with all the pressure, when you make a play like that and look back, I can't believe I made that play in that situation."
Game 7 was one for the ages. Tony Fernandez's two-run single off Al Leiter gave the Tribe a 2-0 lead in the third, but Bobby Bonilla's solo homer off Wright in the seventh cut that lead in half.
The 2-1 lead was the one handed to Mesa in the ninth. Famously, he couldn't preserve it.
Moises Alou led off the bottom of the ninth with a single, and one out later, he moved to third on Johnson's single to right.
The Indians were two outs away from glory, the Marlins two outs from misery. The championship trophy had already been wheeled into the visitor's clubhouse. In the home dugout, Florida outfielder Jeff Conine couldn't even bear to look at the field.
"That's the tensest moment of your life," said Conine, now with the Reds. "I had to watch it on a TV monitor, because I couldn't stand watching it [in person]."
Conine should have watched. He would have been relieved to see Craig Counsell send a sacrifice fly to right, sending the game to extras.
For the Indians, Mesa's performance was no relief at all.
"It was like a stab right in your heart," recalled Vizquel, who to this day is embroiled in a feud with Mesa over the shortstop's comments about Game 7 in his autobiography.
The Marlins clearly had the momentum, though the Indians did have a chance to take a lead in the 10th. Alomar was on third with one out and the infield drawn in, and Marquis Grissom hit a grounder to shortstop Edgar Renteria, who fired the ball home to nab a streaking Alomar.
The Indians would pay for that missed opportunity an inning later. Hargrove inserted Nagy as a reliever, and a one-out single from Bonilla got the decisive 11th going. When Counsell hit a grounder to second, Fernandez couldn't get his glove on the ball. The error was just as costly as anything Mesa did, because it put runners on the corners.
Nagy had no choice but to intentionally walk Jim Eisenreich to load the bases, but he got the second out by getting Devon White to hit into a 4-2 force play.
Up came Renteria, who had been a clutch performer for the Marlins all season. He buckled at Nagy's first-pitch slider.
"I think [Renteria] set Nagy up," Leyland said. "He jumped back at the first pitch. I think he was really looking for it again on the second pitch. He never admitted that to me, but I think he did."
It seems a bit preposterous that Renteria could have had such foresight, but he nonetheless backed up Leyland's claim.
"Yeah, I knew if I flinched at the first one, he would throw me another one," said Renteria, now with the Braves. "He'd thrown it to me earlier in the Series, and I went up there expecting to see it."
He saw it, and he lined that second pitch over Nagy's head. The ball ricocheted off Nagy's extended glove and into center field, and Counsell ran home with his fists pumping in the air.
The Marlins were champs.
"I still think about it all the time," Renteria said. "It's something that you dream about."
Florida lived the dream again in 2003 with a World Series win over the Yankees. And the Indians? Well, they're still waiting to get back.
Leyland, meanwhile, is waiting for the '97 Series -- and Game 7, in particular -- to get the credit it's due.
"It was one of the great games of baseball, in my opinion," Leyland said. "But it never got the recognition it deserves and never will."
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I hate the Marlins.
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