By Mike Lopresti
Gannett News Service

MIAMI - He has dreamed about this moment. Through the big leagues and the little leagues. Through the all-star games and the trade rumors and the broken hand and the cancer.

He has thought about this moment. When it took 20 rounds for anyone to draft him, when he ended up a Major League player in his hometown, and the stands were so empty and quiet, you could hear idle conversations in the box seats.

Now it is October in Florida. The ballpark is full and alive, even if it has ads for a casino on the leftfield wall instead of ivy. The Marlins are playing for a pennant. He has worked for this moment.

He is Mike Lowell. And there is no room on the field for him.

"The frustrating thing is, guys play 18 years in the big leagues, and don't get to the playoffs," said the third baseman who lost his job because of a broken left hand and cannot get it back. "And we're here now. That's the only thing that burns me a little."

Lowell hit 32 homers and drove in 105 runs this season. He was an all-star. When the Marlins decided not to deal him at midseason - many were interested, including the Chicago team that Florida is currently trying to outwhack - it was a clear and important signal to customers and clubhouse that management was serious.

And now that it's October, he can't even get in the lineup?

"It is," he said, "an awkward baseball situation."

With Lowell on the bench in the first round because manager Jack McKeon thought him too rusty to play, a 20-year-old flash named Miguel Cabrera had four hits in Game 4 against San Francisco.

Cabrera hit a home run in Game1 against the Cubs (so, lest we forget, did pinch-hitter Lowell, to settle the night in the 11th inning). Cabrera hit a home run in Game 2. He has eight hits in his last 15 at-bats.

Can't blame the manager, really. But that's Lowell's playing time, going up in Jack McKeon's cigar smoke.

"I don't hide the fact that I want to play," Lowell said. "It's Jack's call. It's hard to argue with anything he does. Every move he makes turns out good for us."

McKeon is growing cranky at the question about getting Lowell in the lineup.

"Who," he asked, "do I take out?"

The irony is that Lowell is precisely the kind of player who has made this team a box office hit.

The Marlins had the popularity of a telemarketer after Wayne Huizenga dismantled the 1997 champions, price tag by price tag. It has taken years - and another playoff run - to gain back trust. Now there will be 60,000-plus towel-wavers this weekend.

"People respond," current owner Jeffrey Loria said, "to guys who don't quit."

Who better, then, than a guy who beat testicular cancer four years ago, and had a relapse scare this season when his groin hurt?

But Lowell must now wait for either McKeon to change his mind, or Cabrera to cool, or maybe the World Series, where some of the games will have the designated hitter.