By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FORT LAUDERDALE - Take heart, Reds fans. All you have to do is look at the Florida Marlins, and you see hope. Because the Marlins went from hopeless to World Series pretty quickly.

Mike Lowell, one of the stars of the 2003 Marlins, remembers how bad it was three years ago. The Marlins were in a rain delay vs. Pittsburgh.

"Our field soaks up pretty good," he said. " ... We had a long delay. There might have been 600 people here. We actually heard the radio guys doing the broadcast. It felt like (Class) A-ball."

It won't feel like A-ball tonight when the Marlins take on the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the World Series. There will be 65,000-plus fans at Pro Player Stadium, whooping it up.

Baseball is back in South Florida. The purge following the 1997 World Championship team is nearly forgotten.

"They had some tough experiences here after the last time they got to the World Series," Florida manager Jack McKeon said. "I think a lot of them left after the way things were handled by the prior ownership of this club."

Owner Wayne Huizenga began the fire sale before the World Series Trophy had lost its shine.

But the Marlins are back in the series six years later.

How'd they do that?

The farm system continued to produce players. Rookie sensation Miguel Cabrera, second baseman Luis Castillo, shortstop Alex Gonzalez and tonight's starter, Josh Beckett, are examples of that. They got good players when they traded away the veterans. First baseman Derrek Lee, rookie lefty Dontrelle Willis and reliever Braden Looper are examples of that.

When owner Jeffery Loria took over, he signed free agents like catcher Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez.

The Marlins put the right manager - McKeon - in place when the team started slowly under Jeff Torborg in May.

Then Loria and general manager Larry Beinfest made the moves to get the Marlins over the hump after McKeon got them back in the race. Closer Ugueth Urbina, setup man Chad Fox, pinch-hitter Lenny Harris and left fielder Jeff Conine are examples of that.

"Ownership and management, they decided, 'Hey, we've got a chance to get in the playoffs. Let's shoot the works,' '' McKeon said. "I think Larry Beinfest went out as a general manager, did one spectacular, outstanding job of acquiring Urbina, Fox, Harris, Conine and it made a big difference in our ballclub."

The Reds new GM, whether it be Omar Minaya, Wayne Krivsky or Dan O'Brien, will have to make sure the Reds produce home-grown players to turn it around after last season.

Castillo, Gonzalez and Cabrera are Latin American players. The Reds haven't had recent success finding players there. Beckett was a first-round draft pick. The Reds have struggled picking pitchers high in the draft.

The Marlins began this year with a payroll of $49 million and a slew of players under one-year contracts.

"You'd like to see this team kept together," McKeon said. "But in the way baseball operates today, it's pretty tough unless you've got a lot of people that want to put a lot of money in the ballclub.

"I understand the ownership is going to do the best they can within their means to keep as many guys as possible."