Marlins

SARASOTA, Fla. -- Birdie Tebbetts, one of baseball's great storytellers after 57 years in the game, is something of a double agent these days.A longtime special assignment scout, with a playing, coaching and managing background, Tebbetts has been given permission by the Orioles to work in a similar capacity with the Florida Marlins. The National League expansion club, which begins play next year, will rely on Tebbetts' expertise in setting up its organization."He has a wealth of baseball knowledge," Orioles general manager Roland Hemond said of Tebbetts.

Former Orioles president Larry Lucchino, who guided the club's planning of Camden Yards, is reviving that role in South Florida.Lucchino began work last week as a part-time consultant to Florida Marlins owner H. Wayne Huizenga. Lucchino will assist in the development of a baseball stadium for the Marlins and a proposed arena for another Huizenga-owned sports franchise, the NHL's Florida Panthers."I have a pretty keen interest in sports facilities," Lucchino said yesterday. "There are some things from our experiences in Baltimore that I think can be quite useful."

Empty seats. Fewer television appearances. Unknown players.The Florida Marlins? No, the Chicago Bulls.Just like the Marlins after they won the World Series, the Bulls have been dismantled. But unlike the Marlins -- who were basically a one-year wonder -- the Bulls have been the dominant team in the NBA with six championships this decade. Watching a Chicago team that will have sunk to the level of, say, the Toronto Raptors, will be tough to stomach."They're obviously planning to bottom out and rebuild," said guard Steve Kerr, who signed with the San Antonio Spurs.

Nasty stuff Erik Bedard extended his scoreless-innings streak to five yesterday by blanking the Florida Marlins until Hayden Penn replaced him in the fourth. Bedard allowed one hit, a leadoff single by Josh Willingham in the second, and struck out four. Bedard has retired 15 of the 16 batters he's faced in two starts. "I felt OK," he said. "I was locating and throwing all my pitches for strikes." Scraping for runs Neither team scored until the seventh inning, when the floodgates opened.

MIAMI - After watching Josh Beckett duel inning for inning until the eighth with Yankees veteran Mike Mussina in Game 3 of the World Series last night, it was easy to see how the Florida Marlins got this far in the post-season. Beckett had a no-hitter, except for the three hits Yankees spark plug Derek Jeter rapped out, including the fateful double that finally knocked Beckett out of the game. It wasn't a matter of solving Beckett. No other Yankee could catch up to the fastballs he blew by them.

MARLINS PITCHING VS. CUBS HITTING The Marlins feature one of the best young starting rotations in the business, with plenty of depth for a seven-game series. Manager Jack McKeon chose to open the Division Series against the San Francisco Giants with big right-hander Josh Beckett, who emerged as a dominant force in the second half of the season, but the Marlins got strong seasons from Rookie of the Year candidate Dontrelle Willis, offseason steal Mark Redman and right-hander Brad Penny.

NEW YORK - Wait, didn't the Marlins already do this? Did they not already cause wincing, snide asides and jealous scowls at the sight of their brash, impervious youthfulness charging headlong into territory few of the established elders in this sometimes musty and ghost-riddled sport could stomach? Uninvited guests. Impostors. Mercenaries. Yes. Yes. Yes. And hallelujah, because this time, six years after the Marlins played in their first World Series five years into their existence, here they are again.

MIAMI - No one will deny that South Florida knows how to party. You could smell the scents of Cuba and the Dominican Republic last night at Pro Player Stadium. You could hear the melodious sounds of Haiti and Jamaica, with more than a few Noo Yawk accents wrecking the melting pot music. The return of the World Series seemed like a pretty good excuse to party, which is one realistic way to look at things in this non-baseball region. For most of this season, the Marlins were attracting a paltry average of 16,000 "fans," and that was quite a spike from 10,000 in the previous few years.

The eighth-inning sequence symbolized the most dominating night of Erik Bedard's career. After retiring 11 straight Florida Marlins, the Orioles pitcher allowed an infield single and then hit Jeremy Hermida with a 3-0 pitch. For the first time all game against Bedard, the Marlins had a runner in scoring position. Bedard responded by striking out Miguel Olivo, who flailed at a curveball. Then, it was Chris Aguila's turn to swing through another curveball. Finally, with a good portion of the crowd of 16,135 standing, Bedard fanned Reggie Abercrombie on an outside fastball, his catcher Ramon Hernandez pumping his fist on the way to the dugout.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Florida Marlins president Carl Barge collapsed during an owners meeting at the winter meetings yesterday and was pronounced dead three hours later from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.Barger, 62, was given cardiopulmonary resuscitation by American League president Bobby Brown at the Galt House Hotel and taken by paramedics to the Humana Hospital University, but he died while doctors attempted to perform emergency surgery."His heart had almost stopped by the time of the surgery," said Dr. Robert Fulton, a professor of thoracic surgery at the University of Louisville.