The Marlins became the second straight wild card team to win the World Series; the Anaheim Angels won in 2002.

The Marlins started the season 16–22 when they fired manager Jeff Torborg and hired McKeon, who had been retired from baseball for over two years.

They lost the first game of the National League Division Series to the San Francisco Giants, but came back to win the final three.

The Marlins struck early off New York starter Mike Mussina with Miguel Cabrera singling in Juan Pierre in the bottom of the first.

Reliever Dontrelle Willis entered the 1–1 game and got one out, but gave up an opposite-field single to Hideki Matsui to give the Yankees their first lead of the night.

Yankees closer Mariano Rivera pitched the final two innings for his record 30th career postseason save.

Pinch-hitter Rubén Sierra fouled off two full-count pitches before tripling into the right-field corner to score Williams and pinch-runner David Dellucci to tie the ball game.

Before a sellout crowd of 65,975, the Yankees did not appear very sharp, botching a rundown play in the fifth inning that led to two Marlin runs.

In the second, the Marlins scored on an RBI double by Álex González and Brad Penny helped his own cause by singling in two more runs.

They scored again on a Juan Pierre double in the fourth and a two-run single by Mike Lowell in the fifth, to give the Marlins a 6–1 lead.

In the ninth, Jason Giambi hit a pinch-hit home run to right field off reliever Braden Looper.

The Atlanta Braves had won the NL East every year since 1995 going into this World Series, a strike ended the 1994 season without division winners, and the Philadelphia Phillies won the Marlins' division in 1993 (that streak would end in 2006, when the New York Mets claimed the NL East title).

There were slight tweaks to the Marlins over the next two years as they traded away Derrek Lee, Mark Redman and Brad Penny and lost Carl Pavano and Ivan Rodriguez to free agency.

They let Burnett, Todd Jones, Antonio Alfonseca, Jeff Conine and Juan Encarnación leave as free agents.

They then traded Carlos Delgado and Paul Lo Duca to the New York Mets in two separate deals that brought in prospects Mike Jacobs and Yusmeiro Petit.

Just days after that deal, second baseman Luis Castillo was sent to the Minnesota Twins for Travis Bowyer and Scott Tyler.

For his part, outfielder Juan Pierre was then sent to the Chicago Cubs for Sergio Mitre, Ricky Nolasco and Renyel Pinto.

[10] This was in stark contrast to their terrible performance in 1998, in which they lost 108 games one year after their original post-World Series fire sale that followed their first championship.

The fire-sale continued into the 2007-2008 off-season, when the Marlins sent Miguel Cabrera to Detroit along with Dontrelle Willis for Burke Badenhop, Frankie De La Cruz, Cameron Maybin, Andrew Miller and Mike Rabelo (plus a minor leaguer).

Following the sale of the Marlins by Jeffrey Loria to Bruce Sherman and the installation of Derek Jeter as team president, after the 2017 season, there was some hope that the Miami franchise was about to turn a new leaf and make a serious effort at putting a competitive product on the field in order to rebuild its fan base's shattered confidence.

During the 2017-2018 off-season, the team traded its star outfield consisting of Marcel Ozuna, Christian Yelich, and Giancarlo Stanton.

Despite two World championships in a seven year span and a state of the art ballpark in 2012, the Marlins still have not been able to build a sizable fanbase, mainly due to the two ill-advised post-World Series fire-sales.

In January 2004, Aaron Boone tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a pick-up basketball game in his hometown in Newport Beach, California.

In the game, Boone caught a pass from his teammate on the court and an opponent wiped him out on his side in a violent manner.

Boone, who disobeyed the terms of his contract with the Yankees by playing basketball, was released fourteen days after the incident and ended up missing the entirety of the 2004 season.

Despite this, he was often the most criticized on the team when the Yankees flamed out in post-season, such as blowing a 3-0 lead to the Red Sox in the 2004 American League Championship Series.

Boone’s job prior to becoming manager was a color analyst for ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, in which he was ironically replaced again by Alex Rodriguez.

They would not get back to the World Series until 2009 when they beat the defending Champion Philadelphia Phillies in six games, this time with second-year manager Joe Girardi (Torre had stepped down after the 2007 season).

Braden Looper and Juan Encarnación also won a second World Series title as members of the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals.

On the Yankees' side, Jeff Weaver played alongside Looper and Encarnación on the Cardinals' 2006 title team, and José Contreras won a World Series ring with the 2005 Chicago White Sox.