A LONG VIEW OF THE MARLINS' SHORT HISTORY.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

Before the Florida Marlins were pennant winners, they were castoffs and dreamers. Before they were hitting upper-deck home runs, they were hitting 14-hoppers up the middle.

Before they were Bobby Bonilla, they were Bret Barberie.

Barberie remembers the beginning as if it were yesterday, which, in the context of baseball's long history, it was.

Opening Day for the Marlins franchise was April 5, 1993. They faced the Dodgers in front of 42,334 fans at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami. Orel Hershiser pitched against them.

``It was like it is now,'' Barberie said of the atmosphere, thick with humidity and festivity. ``It was about as crazy, after all the hype, and the people were so excited to have their own team down there after so many years of spring-training teams leaving as soon as the season started.''

In the bottom of the first inning, Barberie, a 25-year-old second baseman from Long Beach, went to the plate with teammate Scott Pose on first following an error by Dodgers second baseman Jody Reed.

Sometimes history is lost on players, but not in this case.

``We were certainly aware that everything was a first, being that this was the first game of the franchise,'' Barberie, a product of Gahr High, Cerritos Junior College, USC and the '88 Olympic team, said this week from his home in Orange County.

Barberie sent a grounder over the mound and into center field to record the first Marlins base hit.

He later lined into the first Marlins double play (in the second inning) and hit the first Marlins inside-the-park homer (June 13, 1994 at St. Louis).

Everything was new then, even if some of the players weren't - opening-day pitcher Charlie Hough, 45, and reliever Bob McClure, 41, for example.

``It was everybody making a fresh start,'' Barberie said. ``I remember, in spring training, there were a lot of guys that were good players that maybe had suffered an injury with another team and were getting a second chance.

``(Shortstop) Walt Weiss was coming from Oakland, where he'd had Mike Bordick pushing him out of (the starting job). He wanted to show he was better than they thought.

``It was fun. It was all young people in management, and everybody was excited . . . to go out and compete and not make fools of ourselves.''

Barberie didn't just have the first Marlins hit. You could say he was the first Marlin, period.

He was selected from the Montreal Expos with the third pick of the first round of the November '92 expansion draft; neither of the top two made the opening-night roster.

Barberie was chosen eight picks ahead of Jeff Conine, still the team's first baseman.

And going to an expansion team didn't feel like a demotion at all.

``I tell you, I was kind of hoping i would be drafted, seeing that I was a second baseman by trade and I was playing third for Expos. It was great opportunity to go and start at second,'' Barberie said.

``Coming from the Expos, where they really didn't have the money to indulge in the glamorous planes and things, going to the Marlins, where (owner) Wayne (Huizenga) had his own plane and crew, it was just a lot different.

``You could tell it was being done right.''

The Marlins didn't finish last in their first season, but their five-year rise hasn't been a steady flight. Huizenga might have bought himself a champion in '97 with offseason signings, but he wasn't always so generous to his players.

``If you recall, in the strike year, Wayne granted all the strike (replacement) players $25,000 each just for going through their trouble, and then he didn't give a raise to any of the (regular) players from the previous year,'' Barberie said. ``It appeared he wouldn't spend the money to put a winning product on the field. So what he did (last winter) kind of surprised me.''

By then, Barberie was no longer a Marlin, having been traded to the Baltimore Orioles for pitcher Jay Powell following his .301, five-home-run season in '94. Let go by the Orioles after '95, he signed with the Chicago Cubs, had '96 ruined by injuries and, at 29, made up his mind to retire.

``I was having a hard enough time just walking,'' he said. ``I just gave in.''

Then, this summer, he was persuaded to join the minor-league Mission Viejo Vigilantes, and now his career is in limbo.

Another expansion is coming up. Is he ready to be the first for a second time?

``I don't know what I'm going to do,'' said Barberie, who enjoys restoring cars and has entertained offers to coach college baseball.

One thing he's been doing is following the World Series on TV and rooting in particularly for Marlins reliever Rob Nen, a friend from the early days, and Bonilla, a teammate in Baltimore.

He roots for the Marlins but would been happy for the Cleveland Indians to win, too. The Indians haven't had too many chances to win a World Series and who knows when the next chance will come? The Marlins could be perennial contenders.

``It really is remarkable when you think about it,'' Barberie said of the Marlins' quick ascent. ``I was part of the beginning of the whole thing. I don't regret anything that's happened, but to see all this unfold, I'd be stupid not to say I'd like to still be part of it.''