Normally a series against the defending World Series champions would be one to mark on the calendar, but the 1998 Marlins were not your typical reigning champs. They would only win 54 games, the first World Series winner to lose more than 100 games the next season, as the stench of one of the sport’s most famous teardowns lingered over Jim Leyland’s squad.
To have one of the worst baseball teams of all time take on perhaps the best seems cruel from the go, and sure enough the Yankees swept the Marlins right out of town.