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*BUMP* Two days later.... FYI for the history buffs, since the advent of divisional play in 1969, the closest that it has ever been with all playoff teams being 100-win teams was 1977. In the AL, the Yankees went 100-62 and the Royals went 102-60. In the NL, the Phillies went 101-61 and the Dodgers went 98-64. Amazingly enough, the Dodgers had some ridiculous 24-4? start to the season and ended up 2 games short of 100 (and 2 games short of the Yankees in the World Series). Memories of a sportfan filled youth... Also, I think the 1961 Tigers, 1962 Dodgers, 1980 Orioles and 1993 Giants are the only teams to win 100 games in a season and not make the playoffs. I did those from memory, anyone else can correct me on that.

To me, the best manager is the one who will fit the position, no matter what their ethnicity. Spinning it to the reverse double standard, hiring a latin manager just because of the large latin population makes as much sense of hiring a white manager because of a large white population (say, Minnesota, for example). That wouldn't go over well, now would it? It's not the manager's job to go out and market the team, that's the job of the FO. You know, San Diego and San Antonio have large latin populations, so all there teams there should hire a latin manager? If you're a black manager and you finish with a bad record, you are a bad manager. If you're a white manager and you finish with a bad record, you are a bad manager. If you're a hispanic manager and you finish with a bad record, you are a bad manager. If you're an Asian manager and you finish with a bad record, you are a bad manager. Notice the trend?

OT a bit, but I had to mention it. I find it hilarious when people love to bash the 2005 team for not having heart, etc., but this is a new one - They didn't have talent. That's a classic. Fans love to see thing in 20/20 hindsight instead of using common sense. The misplaced anger that MB.com posters have towards the 2005 team for not finishing the deal is a prime example of why the "market correction" was not a wise business move. Attendance fell short of 2 million, but you had the beginnings of a fanbase that was pissed off at the end of a season (which is a good thing) at the teams shortcomings and wanted the team to do better, rather than the indifference that's been the history of this club. You want those angry fans to recoup over the off-season and come back with high optimism and bring the stability you want for a franchise. For as much joy I got out so seeing a team that everybody said was going to lose 100+ plus games play their way back into the Wild Card race at the end of the season, I enjoyed last year more watching the team in the race every day, agonizing over each loss, rejoicing after each win, watching the scoreboard every night. That's what fielding a competitive team and playing games that matter does whether the team wins or not. That's the same enjoyment people here got the last 1-2 months, as oppossed to the MB.com suicide watch during the 11-31 rough start. For one, I had no problem with Girardi, and everyone makes mistakes. If LaRussa was perfect, he would have 10+ rings now. But it is human nature for people with an ax to grind to look for a few mistakes and blow it out of proportion. If he loses 100 games with the exact same "talented" team, everybody says that's what was expected. So when he gets that "talent" to finish within 4-6 games of .500, all of a sudden, it has nothing to do with Girardi, it's all about the players "heart", etc. So what happens next year when the "talented" team finishes 70-92 (they won't, BTW) under the new manager? Well, guess what, all the Girardi bashers will turn into the new manager bashers (and still not give Girardi credit for 2006). Ah, the life of a fan...

It didn't really occur to me the "genious" of the marketing departments using basically the same slogan twice until this topic was brought up. Also, I agree the TV commericals about vandalising other teams' fans cars was childish, stupid, and not humorous in any way. You want to have a humorous commercial showing the the team? Look at the MLB/XM? commercials or using another sport - anybody remember that commercial from about 3-4 years ago with the Jets fans in a sports bar and then the Dolphin fan celebrates a touchdown and the place goes silent? That was funny. (I'm a Dolphin fan, BTW). Regarding 2007, they better not blow the opportunity to properly honor that 10-year anniversary. Maybe do like what the Mets did this year with several themes throughout the year celebrating 1986 and then having a specific 1986 celebration day (against Colorado).

Right now I don't think .500 is possible anymore. As it is right now, I just want to finish ahead of Atlanta (only 1 game behind us) and not slide down into 4th place. Even before this weekends events, I hope this puts to rest the common theme from this board the entire season about the Phillies about we can always sweep them when talk comes is about an upcoming stretch of opponents. I don't care if they've folded in the past, because the past is irrelevant in the current season, only what happens now matters. We were 5-8 against PHI coming into this series, and exited at 5-11. I think the same nonsense was said last year during the pennant chase about the Fish "pwning" the Braves despite the fact that they 14-5 against us in 2004 and 10-8 in 2005. 2003 was a magical season, but it is 2006 now, not 2003. I wanted 82-80 real bad so that we would have 4 straight winning seasons, but I look at it as 2-1 vs. CIN and 1-2 vs. PHI for a 79-83 finish. The Fish might be able to steal a game and go 4-2 to finish 80-82. Season would have sour ending, but it was a wonderful ride.

QUOTE: "Sure is nice to see the Mets finally clinch, but there's way too much still to accomplish to begin really celebrating." Couldn't agee with you more but I'm sure you'll get posters on MB ripping them for celebrating a divisiion title. Unlike other sports which let everybody in, playoff spots in baseball have always been precious to get and Division Titles (heck, WC berths too), have always been celebrated by the teams and fans for decades.

Oops, EL. Didn't notice that. My Post has since been edited.

Quote "The Marlins are 0-2 and have blown 2 consecutive 8th inning leads since this thread was started. Congratulations." Sometimes I wonder about all this superstition talk which tends to pervade this site. What is this, grade school? I understand some people have their superstitious beliefs, etc. but someone asks a simple question AFTER THE MARLINS announced Playoff Ticket Plans for Season Ticket Holders, and they get ripped for it, saying it is bad luck? Using that same analogy, I guess we can blame the Marlins also then mentioning playoff tickets at all this week. Its a business, and all teams in all sports announce playoff plans with a few weeks to go, etc. to get advance preparation. If the team makes it, they make it. If they don't, they don't. Nothing superstitious about that nor is someone asking a follow-up question about single-game tickets. That being said, they're not out of it yet, but if they don't make it, I want them to finish over .500. That would make 4 straight years of .500+ baseball with 2007 to continue that trend.

As the season wears on in the back of my head I worry about the young pitchers burning out, but then not seeing it happen. At this point, they are so close, my heart and my head tell me they have a chance. The brass ring is there for the taking, damn everything, full speed ahead!

Well, seeing as I had them penciled in for 50-112 with the emphasis being on the kids learning and not worrying about this year's record, anything above that is pure gravy. Now that they are this close, it's Wild Card or bust! I'm sure the rest of the baseball world is rooting against the Marlins because they don't want to have to justify their $80+ payroll for a last place finish when the Marlins made the post-season with only a $15 million outlay.

Is it just me, or has anybody noticed that the shift of the Marlins choice of game day uniforms to the more clean all-white pinstripe (home) and all grays (road) on a daily basis. I?m sure that has something to do with Girardi?s Yankee influence (the one team that doesn?t have several different uniforms), and that the team has mostly kids, not veterans who like to decide what uniforms to wear, however horrible they may look. Seeing that clean white pinstripe look (pick any team, Chisox, Phillies, etc.) just looks right. The reason I bring it up is that personally, I hate the black top unis. Hated them from day one with a passion. Makes the team look like a barnstorming club from the 1950?s or something, and the version they use is so cheap looking like they bought it at Wal-Mart. At least the Spring Training black tops ones with silver piping have some decency to them, and I don?t like them either. Now if they would bring back the teal caps with the black lids once in a while (the greatest cap ever), I would be happy. The all teal cap however, was just dreadful looking. Yes, I know it's on the webpage header. It?s sad that the Marlins don?t have much of a nostalgia following otherwise one would be able to buy those online someplace like the 1975 Red Sox, etc. My early 1990?s issue teal/black cap hasn?t fit me in years and I would very like to replace it. What is you preference on uniform set-ups? And yes, if you like the black tops, feel free to blast away. Edit: I created a poll to go with this post but it didn't work. Option #5 was "Bring back the Sleeveless Jerseys"

I'm beginning to have the sinking feeling that the win on Friday night over the Red Sox was the high point of the season, and now becomes inevitable dog days of summer in which teams with younger inexperienced players or just bad players begin to wilt throughout baseball history, which I've mentioned before. The painful experiences of my youth with the 1980 Mets (from 56-57 crashing to 67-95) and 1982 Mets (from 38-39 finishing at 65-97) come to memory. At least the Marlins will do well better than my original projection of 50-112 and my revised projection of 60-102 (keeping with the 10-game increments, 70-92 would be nice: 35-47 the rest of the way). But as hard as it is to go through, once again this season is not about wins, but about learning and building for 2007-08.

I'm not good on inserting pictures, but here is there front page (for now). I called them up this morning and told them about it, but it doesn't look like they are much of a hurry to fix it. http://www.790theticket.com/

Our current opponent?The Braves. On another message board a couple weeks back, this topic was brought up and I mentioned that I didn?t think there was any chance of ATL finishing last in the NL East, not with the Nationals or while our guys are in the cellar with the $14+ million payroll. I had already penciled the Marlins for 50-112 to begin the season. I still think ATL will finish at least .500 and in 3rd place. Yes, 62 games into the season, ATL is closer to last place (only 3 games ahead) than first place and the current Marlins hot streak notwithstanding, I still think the Marlins will finish last (2007 and beyond is a different story :thumbup ) as the young kids will hit a wall in August, because that?s what happens in baseball. Like many other MB.com posters have said, they figured the Marlins would play their best ball in the middle of the season, which I agree, plus this season is not about wins, but growth of the kids. I?m bumping up my guess for the season to 60-102, still losing 100 games but finishing better than the 1998 group. Of course, 70-92 would be nice , but I don?t think the kids can keep up that pace. Now my question to you all, not so much as where the Fish will end up, but do you think the Braves can finish last? Have a good day everybody!

I saw this thread and just had to post. Nothing directed at the previous posters, but it always amazes me that fans of a particular team in any sport only like a media member when they say something nice about their team. If a media members says anything negative about the fans team, as Gammons has done several times - as is his job, he's supposed to call it as he sees it, not to make fans like him - the fans jump all over him and say the guys is an idiot, call him names, etc. But if the same media member says somthing nice about said team, all of a sudden the media member is a good guy, yada, yada. To use an example from another sport, when the ESPN College Gameday crew say anything negative about UM, my brethren over on those message boards are frothing at the mouth and spewing hate. But when they say something nice (or something bad about a UM rival), well, you get the picture... :blink: I just had to laugh.

Another recent incident when someone on meds is having problems. Very sad. I hope in the end there is a good explanation as to what happened. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2272046 Tuesday, December 27, 2005 Reardon charged with armed robbery -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Associated Press PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- Jeff Reardon, one of the top relief pitchers in baseball history, apologized to officers and blamed medication he is taking for depression when he was arrested for a jewelry store robbery, police said Tuesday. Jeff Reardon in a photo released by the Palm Beach, Fla. Sheriff's Department on Tuesday. The 50-year-old Reardon, who ranks sixth in career saves, walked into Hamilton Jewelers at the Gardens Mall on Monday and handed an employee a note saying he had a gun and the store was being robbed, according to Palm Beach Gardens police. Reardon, who starred with the Montreal Expos, Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox, fled the store with an undisclosed amount of cash. Police found him at a nearby restaurant, recovered the stolen money and charged him with armed robbery. Lt. David O'Neill said Reardon did not have a gun and offered no resistance when he was handcuffed. "He said it was the medication that made him do it and that he was sorry," O'Neill said. He said Reardon has lived in the city for more than 20 years and has never caused any problems. Reardon, who made more than $11.5 million in his career, according to baseball-reference.com, was not having any known financial problems, O'Neill said. He said Reardon had a son who died of a drug overdose several years ago. The four-time All-Star was 73-77 with 367 saves and a 3.16 ERA in 16 seasons with the New York Mets, Expos, Twins, Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees. He had a save in the Twins' 1987 World Series victory over St. Louis and also appeared in the 1992 series with Atlanta. Mitchell Beers, Reardon's attorney, did not immediately return a call for comment Tuesday.

Most definitely yes. A ban on a particular country (in this case Cuba), is the same as boycotting and in the end serves no purpose. This is an INTERNATIONAL event, not a US sports event, and is being held in sites other than here in the mother land. If baseball is trying to grow globally, then they need to act globally and not isolationist. Some of the best competitions are the international soccer tournaments in Europe, etc. (yeah, soccer has riots, but that is not the point). Nationalism is the glorious by-product of international sports is the politics, and the rooting for/against countries because of various reasons. It's what elevates the sports to another level and gets the populace excited. Think USA-USSR (1972-Munich Basketball; 1980-Lake Placid Hockey) would have had the same meaning without the politics? Heck, when I was in high school, the soccer match-up with England-Argentina in the 1982 World Cup months after the Falklands Islands war, and all the contretemps that it brought, was a juicy delight. The point is, regardless of politics, line up and play. The only country that has a problem with Cuba is the U.S., nobody else, regardless of their communist policies. It's not like the case with South African Apartheid was in the 1960's-80's, where the country was viewed globally as a pariah and treated as such and banned from events. Countries which have actually attacked other nations, committed numerous human rights atrocities, violated nuclear policies, etc. etc. like Libya, Iran, North Korea, aren't banned from Olympic or World Cup Soccer competitions, but everybody's britches are all in a tizzy over a Cuban baseball team. This is ironic especially in light of our government's stance on torture, etc. Even though the US is the cash cow, but as we know the rest of the world doesn't like us, so if this goes through, don't look for easy US bids for hosting Winter + Summer Olympic games in the future. BTW, the next Summer Olympics are being held in Beijing, China, a communist country known for human rights atrocities. But the US won't do a Moscow 1980 because everybody is looking at China as a big untapped market and the $$$$ that brings. Even though I've lived in South Florida for 20+ years, I think about Cuba the same amount of times I think about the morning rush hour traffic delays in Albuquerque. Yes, despite the common perception nationwide, not everything in South Florida revolves around Cuba and Castro. Castro is a dictator and Cuba and its people deserve better but banning a baseball team won't solve the issue.

Set ourselves back? Yes! It took a 2nd WS title to get people caring again, and even though in incremental numbers. Even though the Marlins should have drawn 2 million this year and I have repeatedly said I'm not satisfied with the "creeping up" attendance figures, it was so hard just to get to 1.8 million and I really thought that 2006 would have finally broken the 2 million barrier for the 3rd time. It would be awesome if the attendance didn't drop past 1.5 mil although I'm not counting on it. Attendance will drop for sure. Attendance dropped 26% from 1997 to 1998 (2.364 to 1.750) so comparable drop from 2005 to 2006 would be back down to the 1.3 mil range and I think the team will go 70-92 and not 54-108. As has been mentioned many times on MB.com, the constant instability with this teams prevents the casual fan from committing their heart and their $$$ to the Fish. This latest setback won't help. I'll attend the same number of games as I do every year b/c I love baseball. Any live MLB baseball, including bad baseball, is better than no baseball, especially if they might be gone.

I would (or will) continue to root for the team (the Mets) that I followed before the Marlins and followed in the background behind the Marlins since 1993. I don't know if Sports Net NY will be available on the satellite, but at least I know in 2006 and the near future I should be able to get to watch/listen to at least 40-50 Mets game a season, so I'll survive. 18 vs. Marlins (all games radio + TV) 18 vs. Braves (or whatever amount is broadcast on TBS) 6 vs. Cubs (or whateve amount is broadcast on WGN) 6 vs. Yankees (those games are always picked up by ESPN/FOX) # vs. whatever Sunday night/Wednesday night games that ESPN broadcasts # vs. whatever FOX Saturday afternoon games. I might have to take a trip to visit the family in NYC the weekend of April 7-9 when the Mets host the Fish in Flushing. Man, I'm going to long for the days when WOR-9 was a Superstation and I used to watch the Mets on TV in Fla-ri-dah with my dear late grandpa (a Mets nut since 1962) in the late 80's.

Wouldn't it be something if they called it to publicly announce that Delgado was not going to be traded? That B4Prz, would be the ultimate shocker. Especially as fans have been clamoring for the FO to say something public on the Delgado issue for weeks now and all they got in return was dead silence. FWIW, the FO probably would do that on purpose as an appeasement to the post Beckett/Lowell trade fallout to keep the sports fan like me to give them a share of my sports entertainment dollar in 2006. Wouldn't put it past them...

Uhhh....No I remember during Spring 1998 when Dombroski was on the talk shows giving the spin that the team will be competitive and not as bad as people thought. If 54-108 was being competitive, I would have hated to see how bad the team was if it wasn't competitive. Yes, they may still have D-Train and Cabrera, put pitching is what matters, and having D-Train teamed on a staff with up and comers isn't going to cut it. Yes, Vargas cut his teeth last year, and even then once eh got around the league the second time, it was hard for him to get to the 6th or 7th inning and we had the useless middle relief come in an lose the games. If the firesale continues, I don't think they will sink to depths of .333 ball, but I would look at 70 wins being the goal or to be greedy, not to lose 90 games at 73-89.

First time posting in a while as I?m not much of a hot stove person (I?m a football watcher at this time of year). Very disturbing trends as the constant news reports (whether posters like the reporters or not is irrelevant) on a daily basis about the potential dismantling of the team. I know changes will and have to be made, but hopefully not the franchise crushing ones which will further drive the miniscule fanbase away. It?s kind of interesting that MB.com was loaded with attendance apologists who took to task anyone such as myself and others who dared speak the truth, and now that changes are coming, in part because of pathetic attendance, all of a sudden everyone has come to the realization that drawing 1.8 million is nothing to be happy about especially after a WS Championship and 3 straight winning seasons. The Marlins should have drawn 2.0-2.5 million in both 2004 + 2005, no matter how low it had been before 2003. Sorry, the 1998 firesale was 7 years ago, get over it. As I mentioned during the season, even though the team waddled during the season and then faded down the stretch, teams like Pittsburgh who were eliminated from pennant contention on Opening Day still outdrew us. And save the ?they have a new stadium? excuse, the novelty of that wore off a long time ago in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, etc. Being able to watch a baseball season and not have every conversation have a attendance/stadium discussion in it would be enjoyable, but as long as the Marlins are the in the low rent welfare attendance neighborhood that they reside, that will always be the case. To the casual South Florida sports fan, not the hardcore Marlins fan, all they ever hear or read about the Marlins is gloom and doom, no $$$, team wants to move, etc. With that enviromenment, they'll never commit their heart or $$$ to the team. Don't take the east way out blame the media for that, the team takes some responsibility too - see John Henry. Yes, my other team, the Mets (or Mutts, Mess, whatever you want to call them) have the NY market behind them, but even in the early 1990's when they stunk and the attendance was around the 1.5 million mark, the talk was always about the action on the field, not the number of people showing up.

Girardi needs to make up his mind quickly, so that we don't loose out on other good candidates. And yes, he deserves the right to choose his own staff. The sports world is littered (including two of the local football teams - Dolphins and UM) where the field general didn't have a coaching staff that was totally of his choice, and the results weren't good.

Royce Clayton? Sure, if this was 1996. We're talking about 2006. I say keep AGonz.

Re: The 1992 Yankees The 1992 Yankees were never in the race and it was like the 3rd year in a row the Yankees finished at or near the cellar of the AL East some 20+ games out of first, before the teams current rebirth. Yes, even New York teams have crappy attendance when the team stinks. 1994 (114 games) and 1995 (144 games) were strike seasons so any comparison of stats and numbers to full seasons is not really meaninglful.