After every win at Marlins Park, the Marlins turn their clubhouse into Jubilation at the Disco.
Music pulses as a smoke machine clouds the room, creating a surreal bent to the colorful lights from a revolving laser ball while players don masks and cavort in a ritual that perplexes visitors who haven't witnessed the revelry.
Winning is fun, and this Marlins team did so at a higher percentage (.534) in the first half of the season than every other but the 1997 championship team.
But manager Don Mattingly wasn't joining in a celebratory dance before he retreated to the family farm in Indiana for the All-Star break with his team tied for the second wild card in the National League.
"We're not talking wild card. We want to win this division. That's really our goal," Mattingly said with the Marlins trailing the first-place Nationals by six games in the NL East.
"I'd rather be leading by six than be down, but there's enough time here, and we've got a good enough club that we can do this."
It's a manager's job to promote his team's chances. But such talk hasn't been heard here in years.
The Marlins haven't been above .500 at the break since 2009, the last time they finished with a winning record.
In his first season at the helm, Mattingly is making tangible inroads in altering the culture of an underachieving franchise. From a long career as player and coach with the Yankees and three-time division-champion manager of the Dodgers, he brought knowledge and expertise about winning that has been missing for a long time with the Marlins.
It isn't in Mattingly's DNA to accept that being just north of mediocre is good enough, nor is it in big-league seasoned coaches Tim Wallach, Barry Bonds, Juan Nieves and Brian Schneider.
"We've got to think differently, in a sense," Mattingly said. "You get the feeling of being around the club that everybody is really excited that the club's doing this well. Now we're (six over .500). We were 20 under last year.
"I don't want to sound like I'm not happy with the club. I'm very happy, but I think there's more in there with these guys. That's my job to get more out of them and to get them to reach their full potential. ... There's just another level in here. I think our guys have it in them. But there's a way to get there. It's an everyday grind-it-out focus."
Speak to players individually and they generally concur. The 4-8 record against the last-place Braves and losing two series to the Phillies has been a source of consternation.
A 16-24 record in the division is hardly the preferred path to winning it.
There have been shortcomings in the starting rotation and a maddening habit of leaving runners on base _ highest total in the majors.
The front-office showed a willingness to improve the club for a playoff run with the recent trade for veteran reliever Fernando Rodney. Mike Hill, president of baseball operations, said last weekend that he is actively pursuing another starting pitcher.
"In our eyes, we haven't exactly done our part," catcher J.T. Realmuto said. "We feel like we can play better baseball. We don't feel like we've played our best baseball yet.
"We all believe in ourselves, whether we add people or not. We feel like we have a chance to win with the club right now."
Mattingly has been focused on conveying the mindset of what it takes to win to a club that is mostly young and has little experience playing meaningful games deep into a season.
He pointed to the recent 3-6 road trip that swung the wrong way on two blowout losses in Detroit and a blown 6-0 lead in New York.
"You can't allow that to happen to you," he said. "I mean, it's going to happen now and then. But I just think we've got to make sure that we are a little more on the edge where each game is really important.
"We've got some talent; you can see it. But we have to go put that on the field every day. That's the hardest part about baseball. It's not having a good game once in a while. It's not like you play once a week, you play every day, and every game is important.
"When you play 160, sometimes they get washed aside and it gets to be ho-hum. If you're going to win, you can't have that."
In that context, the elaborate celebrations after each home win aren't excessive.
During spring training, Mattingly began stressing a high standard of expectations while at the same time creating an atmosphere in which it's OK to have fun when the work is done. He also identified a group of team leaders to be his liaison to the entire group.
Sometimes he sends the message through those leaders, such as third baseman Martin Prado, other times individually and directly.
"We're just playing 27 outs," Prado said. "That's the message that we had from Don (prior to the last home series). We've got to play 27 outs every day, and see what happens."
At 47-41, there is tangible progress. The big challenge is still to come.
