SoFlaFish

The Canes play 5 games a year and the Dolphins with exhibitions played 10 games a year...Huge difference from 81 games to be played there by the Marlins. Shuttles would not be an adequaqte response What in the world are you talking about? The bus service from the station to the stadium was part of the line. Miami-Dade Transit runs buses to the stadium now for baseball games, it's just that nobody uses them. Plus, we're talking about a 36,000 seat stadium, not a 78,000 seat stadium. It's not much to have one bus coordinated with the trains that runs the less than two miles from the Civic Center station to the OB site.

I hope they either extend the metro rail there or have shuttles that go from the vizcaya stop straight to the orange bowl. Vizcaya is not the closest MetroRail station. Back in the day when I went to Dolphins games at the OB, MetroBus would run shuttles from the Civic Center station.

What an ugly surrounding area.Thats about as low class as you can get :confused Give me a break. I dare you to name me ONE stadium that is located in a "high class" area! Just one! Look at aerial shots of other stadiums, and you tell me which one of these is in a "high class" neighborhood. Chase Field, Phoenix Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia Minute Maid Park, Houston Safeco Field, Seattle Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg Turner Field, Atlanta US Cellular Field, Chicago Wrigley Field, Chicago Site of new Nationals Ballpark, Washington Compare...

Wait a minute!!! Is your father going to drive (illegally) from Weston to Fort Myers Beach!?!?!?

ok. thanks. scared me for a minute..I guess ticketmaster not loading for me had nothing to do with amount of tix. Why would you even consider buying Hammerhead tickets on Ticketmaster? They average between 800 and 1000 a game. Just go to the box office before the game and get your tickets without having to pay any surcharges!

Yes there are some parts of the city that are blighted, but that's the case in ever big city. Hialeah has the best roads in the county. It has the best parks, by far, in Miami-Dade and Broward County. Hialeah has undergone a transformation in recent years that is impressive. I went to private school in Hialeah. I went to high school in Hialeah. My grandparents have been living in Hialeah for 30 years. Most of my day-to-day business occurs in Hialeah. Except for bad driving, I have never had a problem in Hialeah. Let's not forget the fact that the Hialeah Fire Department is regularly regarded as one of the best departments in the country and has repeatedly fought off take-over bids by Metro-Dade Fire! Speaking of "blight," every City in the country has some level of "blight." Then again, sometimes "blight" is in the eye of the beholder. What a Coral Gables person considers "blight" may very well be a working class neighborhood that doesn't live up to the high esteem of the City Beautiful. Perhaps our esteemed resident Hialeah bigot (who has expressed numerous times that he hasn't even driven through Hialeah) would like to take a little drive within four miles of a proposed Pompano Park stadium site. As someone who has to work with developers in Pompano Beach (and property owners who are within two miles of the Harness Track), I can show you blight and parts of that area that make Hialeah look like Pinecrest! Just for personal references, I was born and raised in Hialeah finally moving out when I was 17. In all of my time living in Hialeah, neither my home nor the home of ANY of my neighbors was ever broken into. The worst incident of "crime" in our neighborhood was when one of my friends put an M-80 "firecracker" in someone's mailbox. However, when I moved to Kendall, my house was broken into three (3) times in ONE SUMMER!!! To some folks, Kendall is "nice" while Hialeah is "blighted." Add to that fact that none of my relatives who still live in Hialeah have ever had their homes broken into or been the victims of crime within the City limits in the over 44 years they've lived there!! My biggest beef was the rash generalization of an entire community and the examples that were used to base such an "opinion." Using Camden, Gary, and Flint were specific flags that stated that blight and "non-whiteness" are hand in hand. Using the "defense" that, "..but I didn't say that being a minority meant . . ." won't carry the day because the inference was as clear as a bell. It's good to see that others are coming to the call of putting our esteemed "Hialeah Bigot" in his place.

NASHVILLE (Billboard) - Van Halen will announce a 50-date American reunion tour with original singer David Lee Roth during a news conference in Hollywood next week, sources said. ADVERTISEMENT The arena trek will begin in early October. Roth, who split from the rock group in the mid-1980s in hopes of solo stardom, will reunite with co-founders Eddie Van Halen on guitar and brother Alex Van Halen on drums. Eddie's teenage son Wolfgang will sub for Michael Anthony on bass. A proposed summer amphitheater tour by the group never got off the ground, with Eddie Van Halen entering a rehabilitation facility for undisclosed reasons in March. In the months since, the guitarist has been seen publicly looking healthy and fit. Van Halen last toured in 2004, with Roth's replacement, vocalist Sammy Hagar, grossing nearly $40 million, according to Billboard Boxscore. Reuters/Billboard Awesome news i will definatly be there if they go anywhere near florida..... Isn't this the third "reunion tour" announcement this year, alone! While I'd love to go (and if they actually do make it down here to Florida in one piece, I'm pretty much guaranteed free tickets and probably even a backstage pass), I'll believe it when I see all of them make it on stage in one piece, because with those guys they're liable to cancel the show right up to the first song in the set!

Get a grip. I was just trying to be funny. Flint, Gary, and Camden happen to be in the top 5 in the country every single year in crime. It has nothing to do with race; you are the one race-baiting. Those towns are trash cuz of the crime, not because they have minorities. You are the one who jumped to the conclusion that trash = minorities, which says a lot about you. Using derisive comments is not being funny. You have a lot to learn. I'm just sick and tired of people throwing out uninformed generalities and holding them as "truths." I'm sick and tired of people who debase an entire group or city because of their simple ignorance or generalities. You see it all the time on the internet, which is becoming the new breeding ground for racism and bigotry because of the veil of anonimity. And don't give me that crap of, "I didn't say it, you jumped to the conclusion . . . " You don't have to say it to see what you mean. Are you that dense that you don't see the common thread in your speech? Or are you so dense that you don't see how your words affect other people because you don't see the world in terms of others, but only in your own little "whiteness." You damn well know the similarities between Flint, Gary and Camden and your inference was clear as a bell when you lump in Hialeah with them. Don't try to be "funny" now, or try to backpedal from your inferences because someone called you on it. This is isn't the first time you've made posts or comments such as those. I love how you need to turn the tables to make it seem like I'm the race-baiter or bigot. Why? Because I called you out on your inferences. Puh-lease, why don't you grow up and discuss topics like an adult, instead of some ignorant redneck. As for my other comments, nobody made a reference to me about "suspensions" or "bannings," but knowing how hypersensitive most of the mods on this board are, I wouldn't be surprised. And as a matter fact, I don't even care that much if it does happen. Some of the things that are accepted here baffle me, just like what is not accepted. I won't take back what I said about you, though.

Hialeah is a dump, a craphole, a landfill that nobody ever goes to who doesn't live there. Sorry if you have an inferiority complex because you grew up there, not my problem. You are calling all residents of Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Ft. Lauderdale, Palm Beach, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, and West Palm Beach racists if you say I'm a racist for trashing Hialeah. There is no self-respecting resident of any of those communities who doesn't laugh their a$$ off at the trash dump known as Hialeah on a daily basis, and there is no self-respecting resident of any of those communities who has ever voluntarily entered that junkyard. If you want to call all of South Florida bigoted, then fine, I don't really care, you're the one who has a problem, why on earth you would live in an area that you consider entirely bigoted is beyond me. And as far as your ridiculous jump from me hating Hialeah to me being a Hispanic-hater, I said my favorite location is the city of Miami, and the city of Miami has tons of Hispanics in it, so you make no sense, just playing the race card cuz you know your hometown should be condemned and abandoned. Ban me if you want, but you're a f**kin' a$$hole because you singlehandedly labeled a city a "craphole" for no other reason because you're a tool. Have you driven through Pompano Beach lately? Plus, you obviously have no idea where the "Hialeah Site" is because of your comments. "Hialeah Heights" (which is dead as a site anyway) is located more in Miramar than Hialeah, but since you never drive your probably "lilly white ass" anywhere near the City, you have no idea what you're talking about. Instead, you're the jerk that came on here and used inflammatory language to describe a City. You could have said anything else and it would not have been an issue. But you had to go a "route" that showed you're true colors, especially when you linked cities like Flint, Gary, and Camden together. That was you playing the race card. I'm just simply exposing you for what you are, an uninformed bigot! And as far as how I feel about "my hometown," I'm willing to put my money into redeveloping certain parts of it. Since you obviously don't know me or what I do for a living (why don't you go and look it up yourself), you have no clue that I'm willing to work both financially and professionally within a City that has much potential for redevelopment. And probably a future that would be much better off without the likes of idiots like you! As for Pompano Beach, I do have my facts straight and that thing died the second it was proposed, or did you happen to forget the fact that the Pompano Beach City Commission shot it down and had no idea what was actually being proposed, and you need them to pass a stadium even if the funding is from a casino, which MLB will NEVER ALLOW (San Diego had a similar problem when the local tribe in that area was going to put up funds for a ball park, MLB didn't want to associate itself with gambling money). I'm not calling all of South Florida bigoted, only you because you're the a$$hole who simply volunteered to label an entire city and it's residents. I have no inferiority complex about where I'm from, but you obviously feel threatened by it (why else recommend "removal"). I don't need to feel "better" than you, because based on your comments, you have shown what your "worth" is and I know that you're not worth much to me anyway! Again, mods, ban me or suspend me if you want, I don't care, but I have every right to call a spade a spade, and this prick deserves all the derision he gets!

I agree. The only real positive outcome would be downtown (either Govt Center or Miami Arena). The Orange Bowl is a horrendous site that is horrifically inconvenient to Palm Beach and Broward, is not near public transportation, and is even hard to get to from most of Dade. Downtown has great public transportation links and is right off 95, and perfect access for Dade and downtown office workers. I could also live with Pompano (although it's probably a pipe dream) because it would draw fans with the nearby beach, great access from Ft Lauderdale and Palm Beach, and the casino. Hialeah is unacceptable because it belongs with Camden, New Jersey, Gary, Indiana and Flint, Michigan in the world of Towns That Should be Sunk into the Nearest Ocean or Lake. You couldn't be more wrong on so many points! For starters, the Orange Bowl is within shuttle bus service to the Civic Center MetroRail station (which is how I used to go to Dolphins games before most of you on this board were born!). Second, the future East-West MetroRail line will most likely have a stop within a close distance to the Orange Bowl. So, to say that the OB is "even hard to get to from most of Dade" is just not correct. Next, the Pompano location shouldn't even be considered when you realize that Broward County isn't going to drop a dime on it and to expect the City of Pompano Beach to do so is more than a pipe dream, it's just as mythical as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy! Plus, what "beach" is nearby the Harness Track? Finally, your Hialeah comment is just plain ignorant and borderline racist. So you would rather see the elimination of Florida's sixth largest city just because it may be too Hispanic for your tastes? Well, as a Hispanic and a native of Hialeah who was born in Hialeah Hospital, educated in Hialeah schools, has family living, working, and paying taxes within the City limits of Hialeah, I'd like to offer you a sincere and courteous F##K YOU to your ignorant bigotted thoughts! And don't try to sugar coat it now, it's evident that your "true feelings" were in your previous post, a$$hole!

FIU studied renovating the Orange Bowl for Marlins Baseball use at the request of the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County. The results would be unacceptable for a Major League Baseball team. http://news.fiu.edu/releases/2004/05-04_stadium.htm Perhaps you should go back and check your link. What you've given doesn't match with what you're saying. The "press release" you've linked references a "senior class project" by a group of engineering students to see if the Orange Bowl could be retrofitted for baseball. To characterize that as something produced by FIU is incorrect. Also, there is no reference that this was done at the "request of the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County." As a matter of fact, the last paragraph in the "press release" states, "the students have approached the City of Miami with their proposal, but have not met with anyone in the administration. But if a meeting takes place, he believes the project will impress."

I'm sorry, but that's not an "article." That's just a glorified message board posting! Give me a break and don't put pseudo-journalism (and I'm being generous using the word "journalism") here!

I was there tonight with EvenLittlerSoFlaFish. We didn't even know Johnson was pitching until we saw the starting lineups on the board. We were there because it was the annual baseball card set giveaway and EvenLittlerSoFlaFish loves to get his free cards and get them all autographed. Last year he got the entire Palm Beach Cardinals set signed, so this season we thought we'd get the Hammerheads set signed. Johnson looked okay. Not overpowering or dominating, but he did manage to keep the ball down and managed to get out of innings with grounders. I saw SoFlaFish and his son at the game getting 'graphs and all....couldn't remember his username though, so I didn't say anything. That's okay, I really only recognize a couple of people on-sight from the board if I run into them (Yes, that would be you BroncoBob27!) Anyway, here's a look at the action from tonight from my camera (and, YES, that is Josh Johnson wearing #43):

Your negativity is NOT welcomed. By the way, why does every idiot bring up parking. HELLLO!!! If it is in downtown, people would park at the nearest metro station and take the train to the game. GEEEZ :banghead EXCUSE ME!!! I will damn comment on something contrived by a delusional individual as damn well as I please, and if some moderator wants to delete this post, then so be it!!! You obviously did not read the rest of that delusional website, nor the fact that 85.5% of the people posting on this thread tended to agree with the fact that the "MVB" was some delusional pipe dream. I'm sorry if the fact that I bring some hard cold facts that aren't "teal colored" to the debate. But for a fact, a source VERY CLOSE to the stadium dealing (and many on this board know who I'm talking about!) told me two weeks ago in "point blank" fashion (I QUOTE), "Dude, this stadium deal is DEAD!"

That's a pretty "pie in the sky" or "harebrained" idea. The first problem with the guy's rationale is that he is assuming that the Miami Arena is still owned by the City of Miami, since his "manifesto" says that "public land" is being used. Plus, buying out the Miami Arena would be more expensive than using already public land. Secondly, does he think you'll "save money" by building an "elevated" stadium over the FEC tracks, N. Miami Avenue, and other assorted rights-of-way. Not to mention that you're looking at having the Metrorail and Metromover lines inside the stadium!?!?!? Plus, we have someone who actually envisions the Walt Disney Corporation building a public transportation system in a metropolitan area where they have no local investment in exchange for the ability to dock their ships away from their center of business?!?!?! It looks to me as if someone took in a little too much pixie dust!!!! As my six year old daughter says, WHATEVAH! This looks like the random ramblings of a twenty year old on a public access blog site!

No they are not. That is why some of the limited partners in the Expos got World Series rings in 2003. That is why the Marlins took our spring training home and the Nats got your old dump. La Presse had a long series of articles on this. It was done partly to speed up the sale of the Red Sox before one of the losing Boston bidders could sue. I can't see it happening but we learned the hard way what a snake Loria was. YES THEY ARE! The "franchise" that was formerly known as "les Expos" is now the "Washington Nationals". You are confusing "franchise" with "ownership group." By your flawed rationale, if the "Expos Franchise" is now in South Florida, then the franchise records would continue down here, so then the career leader in HR for the Marlins would not be Mike Lowell with 143, but Vladimir Guerrero with 234. If the Marlins are now the "Expos" then who are the "Marlins"? Are the Red Sox now the Marlins because John Henry is up there now? If that is the case, then where are the Red Sox? Do you now see the error of your ways?

Gotta give the nod to the decade of my birth! C'mon, I was born the year The Godfather came out, but that's just the tip of the iceberg of 70s cinema. The 70s were the last decade of Great American Cinema. Aside from the usual suspects (and I don't mean the movie) that are named: The Godfather (1972); The Godfather, Part II (1974); Star Wars (1977); and Rocky (1976) you have the other gems: The French Connection (1971) Serpico (1973) Dog Day Afternoon (1975) And Justice For All (1979) The Exorcist (1973) The Deer Hunter (1978) Chinatown (1974) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Apocalypse Now! (1979) Jaws (1975) The Sting (1973) Annie Hall (1977) Patton (1970) Network (1976) Young Frankenstein (1974) Papillon (1973) Being There (1979) All The President's Men (1976) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Little Big Man (1970) Blazing Saddles (1974)

"How Soon Is Now?" for Match.com :smlove I always figured hell would freeze over when I heard "How Soon Is Now" for a laxative commercial!

What rolls down stairs Alone or in pairs... Rolls over your neighbor's dog? What's great for a snack And fits on your back? It's Log! Log! Log! It's Lo-og, it's Lo-og It's big, it's heavy It's wood! It's Lo-og, Lo-og It's better than bad It's good!!!

Keeping the somewhat theme to this thread, I'm just dying everytime I hear the great bands of my "youth" and college years being used to sell products. Certain examples that kill me: "Pictures of You" by The Cure for HP "Blister In the Sun" by Violent Femmes for Wendy's "This Is the Day" by The The for M&M's "Only You" by Yaz for JC Penney's "Bizzare Love Triange" by New Order for Reese's Peanut Cups "I Melt with You" by Modern English for Burger King It'll only be a matter of time before I'll just have to end it all on the day I hear "How Soon Is Now" being used in a commercial!

Depending on tourism solely is obviously not the best case scenerio. The Central Florida community WILL support the Marlins, but the tourism will help build a national (and INTERNATIONAL) fanbase and will help fill seats. A short list of possible relocation cities includes Las Vegas, which will depend greatly on tourism. Yet keeping the Marlins in Florida will allow for more local support than possible in Las Vegas and perhaps a Florida baseball team will elevate themselves above 29th and 30th (second to last and last) in attendance. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/attendance Planners with the firm Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin in Orlando evaluated six sites, including the existing Tinker Field, other land around the Citrus Bowl, the current location of Orlando police headquarters, property the city bought several years ago for a new police station and the site that has since been selected for a new Magic arena." - Orlando Sentinel "Serious talk has been made on bringing Major League Baseball to Orlando. Current mayor Buddy Dyer said he would like to see it in the future. Orlando was a finalist city in the expansion for the 1993 season. Ironically, they were mentioned as a possible destination for one of the 1993 expansion teams, the Florida Marlins, during that team's investigation of new locations should Miami fail to build them a new baseball stadium." - Wikipedia Last year, for braves spring training 150,465 people attended 17 Games at Walt Disney World Resort. The Braves played exhibitions against the University of Georgia and the Netherlands National team along with 15 games against other MLB opponents in 2006, averaging 8,850 fans per game. The Braves attracted seven sellout crowds of more than 10,000 fans, including a season-best 11,431 during the Braves-New York Yankees game on Mar. 27. The game also marked the highest single-game attendance total since the Braves began spring training at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in 1998. In all, the Braves' record-setting 2006 spring training season included four of the 20 best single-game attendance totals in The Ballpark history. Other top attendance games included: 10,785 (Braves-St. Louis Cardinals, Mar. 12) and 10,710 (Braves-Houston Astros, Mar. 14). The games against the Cardinals and Astros rank as the 12th and 13th best single-game attendance totals, respectively, in Braves spring training history at the Disney sports complex. The 2006 schedule included no rainouts. http://disneyworldsports.disney.go.com/dww...danceDetailPage TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) Good March weather helped spring training attendance in Florida reach a record high for the second straight year in 2007. More than 1.7 million fans saw games at 17 training sites across the state last month, an increase of 112,507 from 2006's record, the Florida Sports Foundation said Friday. There were just three rainouts, all March 16. The New York Yankees led the way with 154,661 fans attending games at their Tampa training site, an average of 10,311 fans. The Atlanta Braves drew 140,034 fans to its spring home at Disney's Wide World of Sports. The Braves and New York Mets attracted the single-game high of 11,591 fans for a March 22 game. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/20...499785912_x.htm Keep in mind that this is still a good distance away from Downtown, and a stadium closer to downtown will open up a much larger market. Orange County leaders who will be asked to approve a $1.1 billion plan for arts and sports venues next month now have another option to consider -- one that includes not only a new basketball arena but a retractable-dome baseball stadium and a grand-prix racetrack. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/community/n...story?track=rss That plan is only one on the table, and most likely won't be chosen. Yet ideas like this are very promising and show that Orlando is dedicated to building multiple sports venues in Orlando in addition to the new Magic arena. Let's break this down rationally and like "grown-ups" PUH-LEASE!!! (1) Neither the Marlins nor any other MLB franchise is moving to Las Vegas. MLB will NOT, I repeat NOT allow it. Believe me, I read the actual memorandum that was sent by MLB to the Marlins (back when I worked at the law firm that personally represents Loria and Samson) which PROHIBITED any communications or discussions with the City of Las Vegas for potential relocation. That's a dead horse that should be left alone. (2) Orlando is not a viable MLB market. Haven't we already gone over this when we see that the Magic have one of the worst average attendance in the NBA! And how has 19 years of Magic basketball cultivated an "international fan base" from tourists!?!? Plus, you're using as "sources" Wikipedia, which is as reliable and accurate as THIS message board! Geez, as my six year old daughter would say, "Whatevah!" There is nothing new here folks. I told you all that UM was holding things up. Now if you want to believe Wayne's hand is in it.....please do...as it likely is. However, MLB and the Marlins are unable to leave because there is no viable market for baseball open right now. Las Vegas and San Antonio are off limits as other MLB owners have vetoed the idea of having their television territory trampled on. The ballpark has to be under construction by early 2008. The issue is UM. The City should place a deadline on UM to make a decision to exit the lease, take the OB plan the City has offered, or stay the rest of their lease at the OB as-is. Will the City do that? We shall see. As for the Marlins, Samson said October/November would be the time he would expect deal-finishing. MLB is now handling the ballpark talks and they are only in July. So to meet Samson's goal (which is basically the 11th hour for a safe 2011 open) they have to restart these talks by August. However, if the ballpark opens mid-2011 (say in June or July) the Marlins will likely play on the road until the facility opens and then have an unbalanced schedule with more home games the rest of that season. The Braves and Expos both did it in the past, it doesn't kill anyone. And then we had this "gem"! I don't know who "vetoed" anything regarding Las Vegas or San Antonio, or whether teams have that veto power. If MLB has its sight set on relocation, it's going to happen and there isn't a damn thing any other owner is going to do about it. However, Las Vegas is off limits and the reason is NOT broadcast rights. Also, there is NO way you're going to have a major league baseball team open the season with three months worth of road games! That's as ludicrous as a four man pitching rotation! Odds are, if we're in that predicament in 2011, the Marlins would stay at Dolphin Stadium until the All-Star Break and then move downtown. That's how it's been done in other ballparks and Huizenga gets a half-way settlement as the infield will be gone by July. I wouldn't be surprised if they settle on some form of temporary solution at Roger Dean Stadium if push comes to shove. So I wonder what Greg Stoda or Dave George will have to say tomorrow explaining how the Herald has it wrong and Wayne should be considered for sainthood. He only wants what's best for you. Neither one of those two idiots would know what to write! You're actually assuming they use their brains for expert analysis or at least cogent opinion! They're probably going to just write another useless column about Dontrelle Willis being traded or another inane Daunte Culpepper column!

One of my other favorite "old" musical genres is the sound that was before grunge, that "Minneapolis Punk/Rock" that brought forth H?sker D? and The Replacements! Good call!!! But you only named 2/3 of the "holy trifecta". No matter what people's opinions are of their work in the 90's, Soul Asylum made great music in the 80's. While You Were Out is one of my favorite records of that era. And out of the "big three", Soul Asylum was the best live. Still, The Replacements and Husker Du remain at the top of my list of reunion shows I'd like to see. The twin cities have produced some of the best American music. It's probably my favorite music scene. (I just hate the Twins, though. I can't go with you on that one. I will never be able to put Soul Asylum in the same room with H?sker D? and The Replacements. I do enjoy Bob Mould's solo work, as well as his work with Sugar. Someone else mentioned the Afghan Whigs, and I can listen to "Debonair" over and over and over again and not get sick of it. Finally, on a side personal note, I'm getting pretty excited about the July slate of shows coming up down here. The week after the 4th of July is going to be busy as I've got tickets to see The Police on Tuesday the 10th and Morrissey on Saturday the 14th. I still find it hilarious that I'm going to see Morrissey at Mizner Park. The last time I went and saw Morrissey, I was in college and my girlfriend, at the time, and I drove from Sarasota to Orlando to see him at the UCF Arena. It was a good show (not a great one, though), but what was hilarious (and simultaneously frightening) was a mob bum rush of the stage by wave after wave of folks on the floor. My G/F back then was all of 98lbs (yes, she was waifish but could eat like a racehorse) and I had to pull her out of the "pit" and we made our way over to the seats on the side. Apparently, though, for this tour Morrissey has five (5) Smiths' songs on the playlist.

Predicting struggles for Nolasco, JJ, and Anibal wasn't that hard to anyone who looked at anything but ERA last year. They didn't have great peripherals. Period. They had flukey ERA's, especially Anibal and JJ. And most of that article is a rambling mess. It really made no sense. "The marlins struggled. They were going to be contracted, but then won a World Series. But they have been struggling ever since the contraction talks. Josh Johnson is going to make sure nobody ever comes to games. Dontrelle Willis isn't crappy this year." Gotta love crap sports journalism. How much longer do we, the readers of The Palm Beach Post have to deal with the idiotic ramblings of Dave George and Greg Stoda! They are two of the stupidest and inane writers out there. They have no point and no in depth "analysis" in order to consider yourself a columnist. For the last three weeks, both Stoda and George have been writing the dumbest columns around. It's not a "column" if my six year old can write it. Why don't those two idiots use their position and "experience" to provide us something that is not obvious. Instead, most of their columns simply look like message board regurgitations, complete with innaccurate facts and hyperbole! Seriously, it's like their only purpose is to rile up negativity about local sports, except for The Palm Beach Post's beloved Florida Gators, of which you NEVER read anything negative about in the Post. Comparing Stoda and George's columns about Billy Donovan and Nick Saban are laughable in their partisan opinions! I love The Palm Beach Post, don't get me wrong. I think their overall sports coverage is vastly superior to that of the Sun-Sentinel, but when it comes to their two sports columnists, they can get better! Geez, at least Mike Beradumbo of the Sentinel provides some insight through his "phantom" sources that are always wrong about the information they provide (ahem, Ken Rosenthal, ahem).

I consider everything south of Lake Okeechobee as southern Florida. The east coast is SE Florida. The west coast is SW Florida. So, by county: Miami-Dade (SEFL) Broward (SEFL) Monroe (SEFL) Palm Beach (SEFL) Martin (SEFL) Collier (SWFL) Lee (SWFL) Hendry (SWFL) Glades (SWFL) Charlotte (SWFL) Indian River, St. Lucie, Desoto, and Brevard Counties are "distant cousins" to SoFla....but they are heavily influenced by SoFla. I'm with Bob on his point and will concur that you're WAY OFF POINT on this. For starters, "South Florida" is pretty much Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach. Martin, St. Lucie, Okeechobee, and Indian River are basically considered "The Treasure Coast" and are very adamant about their "independence" from South Florida. To say that IR, SLC, and Brevard are "heavily influenced by South Florida" is to be plainly "speaking out of your arse!" I lived and worked in Martin County for four years, and there was no way I could say that anything there was "heavily influenced" by South Florida. As for "media related" stuff, the Palm Beach Post really only covers professional sports that are centered around Miami-Dade and Broward. Aside from that, there is no "heavy influence" of news or features from "South Florida", i.e. Miami-Dade or Broward. And then you have the Scripps papers of the Treasure Coast (The Stuart News, The St. Lucie/Ft. Pierce Tribune, and The Vero Beach Press-Journal) which are completely "independent" from "South Florida" and are in no way "heavily influenced" by "South Florida." And then there's Brevard which isn't even in the "South Florida" media markets. C'mon, Melbourne is the closest you can get to us in order to watch a blacked out Dolphins game. I've now said my peace on this.

im in marco island... pretty much same lattitude as miami. i consider myself in south florida. For the sake of semantics, while you're at the "same lattitude as Miami", you're not in "South Florida" as that is referred to the geographical and social area of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties. The proper term for you would be "southern Florida" without the capital "S".