Out of the Past

She has the most perfect tits out there. Good God! They're perfect cuz they have implants in them. Small implants like hers and Heidi's are prime. Why do you say Heidi has fakes? I'm not arguing, just asking. Is it common knowledge she has fakes and I just don't know? I hate the grapefruits on the chest look of fake boobs and have always like Heidi and thought of her boobs as natural, not store bought! I guess maybe if she had somehting to work with and then got small implants then they could still look natural.

This whole thing is completely ridiculous. As I understand it Girardi / Lieber type conversations happen all the time so I don't know why the Girardi haters choose to single out Girardi about it and furthermore I find it laughable that the Girardi haters give Girardi so much credit for helping out Lieber but don't give him any credit for helping out our own players.

On weekend nights (say a Friday), when they have a play at the performing arts center, a concert/heat game at the AAA, AND a marlins game, the traffic is going to be REAL bad on 95. Not complaining here (I probably have less drive than many of you), but just saying. Exits 1 and 3 off 95 south are going to be TIGHT. Let's hope we get some group scheduling going... Does blow that old excuse of "but the traffic flow" right out the door. Never did buy into that one. With the Heat, let's hope they go deep enough into the playoffs to affect 3-4 games. Don't know how many opera's will affect the traffic at the PAC. With the constant threat of the Marlins leaving, I can't worry about a handful of events affecting traffic. Get the stadium and guarantee baseball for decades to come. Ever go to a game at new Turner Field. There are no other facitlities and the traffice, especially leaving is a mess. I am sure it is like that in many other places. Leave earlier if you can or try getting off at 36th st and Biscayne by going east off of I-95 towards the Julia Tuttle and come south on Biscayne Blvd or one of the parallel roads just west of the Boulevard. But c'mon guys, now you don't want a stadium because the traffice MAY be bad a few nights during the season. Geez. The opera season runs from October (maybe November?) to April and the seating capacity at the PAC cannot be more than 3k so conflicts with the opera would happen maybe a couple of times a year and the imapct of those conflicts on traffic would be minimal. The PAC will have other stuff throughout the year but i doubt those other events would draw as wwell as the opera which would further minimize their impact on traffic. It's very rare for the Heat and Marlins to have home games on the same night.

Unless I'm forgetting one, the only trade that I would consider to be in the Marlins favor was the Red Sox one. Nolasco + Mitre + Pinto > Pierre

Here is the County Manager's memo: http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2007/0...ffiliate.56.pdf There's a lot of good news in it: - there's about 8,000 parking spaces within blocks of the stadium - the $490 million cost estimate is a reasonable one - the Marlins will control the design and construction - the Marlisn will be responsible for all cost overruns - the current agreement has identified $460 million from the Marlins, City and County and none of it comes from CRA funds

The Jewish population of all human beings in the world is well below one percent. And yet it seems like every other member here is Jewish just about. I find that fascinating. I agree. An actual count, then a study of why it was so would certainly be interesting. From what I've gathered you work in "hard" science research, care to dabble in the social sciences? :mischief2 I don't think a study is needed. The Jewish population in So Fla is around 600k and growing very quickly.

I think a major obstacle is / was the use of the CRA funds for the stadium and this article completely ignores the CRA funds issue. I wrote to Rabin and this is his response: Me: Are they using any CRA funds? I understood they planned on using CRA funds but the city commission has not approved using CRA funds for the stadium. Please explain as this is a major obstacle and your article makes it seem as if this obstacle doesn't exist. Rabin: Still researching that. Will update later. At a press conference now.

Guess I probably should have included that No more than 60$ for one of the games, and no more than like 35$ or so for the other (one really good seat game, one not as much) I would recommend right behind home in the lower deck for one game and the upper deck for the other. In my opinion those are the best views. Believe it or not we do have a few restaurants in Broward County, and I've heard there's one or 2 in Palm Beach County as well. You do not have to go down to Calle Ocho in Miami for good Cuban food. There's many good spots up here. . I have no idea what hotel you're staying at that's close to the stadium. The only one I know would be El Palacio, which is a dump. You would be better off staying in a hotel further from the stadium. . A few unique restaurants, in no particular order: 1. Joe's Stone Crab...a must do at some point in your life...$100 per person 2. LeTub in Hollywood Beach....a dump of a joint, but right on the intracoastal, and it has the #1 rated hamburger in the entire country....$20 per person 3. The Rascal House...all types of food $20 each 4. Unique fast food...Pollo Tropical is good, but it's still a chain, albeit a local one mainly. How about Jack's Hamburger in Ft. Lauderdale or Pompano......$7 per person I'm not cuban but am practically addicted to cuban food. I think the best cuban restaurant in So Fla is Little Havana on Federal Highway in Deerfield Beach. They also have a location on Biscayne Blvd but I prefer the one on Deerfield. I would stay away from Joe's unless someone else is paying... I think it's waaaay overrated.

Wins - mid 70s to low 80s Hitting - 4th to 7th (based on OPS and runs scored) Starting pitching - 3rd to 8th (based on ERA and innings per start) Bullpen - 15th or 16th (based on ERA, WHIP and blown leads)

- The powers-that-be in Dade appear to favor using the CRA funds for the ballpark. First quoted confirmation from a county official Burgess doesn't have a say in the CRA funds. These funds are controlled by the 5 city commissioners. Two of them can be counted to do the opposite of what the mayor wants so I think it will be up to the black commissioner ansd whether she's willing to allow funds that are supposed to go to affordable housing to be used for a stadium.

With the exception of a few teams in the league, bullpen is a toss up. We don't know how ours will perform, we dont know if it will be in the bottom of the league again. Last year we had one of the wosrt bullpens and we lost our best reliever in Borowski. The bullpen is filled with question marks. I think unfortunately we'll lead the league in blown leads. I think the bullpen will be a much bigger problem than CF.

I think the article on the website said the decision would come down tomorrow.

Here is an excerpt from a Zimbalist interview that is relevant to this discussion. I buy into what he says but I guess some of you don't. ========================= http://www.businessofbaseball.com/zimbalist_interview.htm BizBall: A common claim among economists is that spending on sports simply shifts spending from other entertainment options (movies, etc.). This theory assumes that most individuals have a finite amount of discretionary income to spend on entertainment. Some might argue that a high percentage of Americans have enough discretionary income to choose to attend most of the entertainment events that they would like to attend. If season ticket holders of an MLB team suddenly lost their franchise, would it follow that each season ticket holder would add 81 nights of other entertainment activities annually to their life? Zimbalist: [laughter] Well, first of all, I don't think that season ticket holders go to all 81 games. Most of them don't, anyway; I think they end up sharing their ticket, or giving away their ticket to some other people, at least for some of the games. But no, I don't think it follows that way, and look, I don't think the proper argument is that there is a 1-to-1 trade off here. The argument is simply that for most people who go to ballgames they have a finite amount of discretionary income and there is a substitution effect working, but again, it's not a 1-to-1 effect, maybe it effects 80% or 90% of the money that would otherwise get spent at the ballpark. And it certainly is not the only basis for the argument that there is no positive economic impulse or developmental impulse from having a new stadium or a new team in your town. One of the reasons is the substitution effect, but another very important reason is the leakage effect. Which is to say that if money gets spent at a ballpark, something like 60% of it on average goes to players, who have an average income of $2.4 million, and when money goes to those players, and most players don't live in the town where their team is anyway, then the money leaks out, because a millionaire has a very high savings rate, much higher savings rate than somebody with ordinary income, thirty or forty thousand dollars, and that money they save goes into the world money markets, it doesn't get spent at the local cities, and even more that's true because the player doesn't live in the city, so his permanent home is elsewhere, or if he has family elsewhere, a lot of the money gets sent back to the family. And, also players are encouraged, and most of them follow the encouragement or the advice, they're encouraged to save a lot because their life in baseball and their lifetime earning the mega-salaries is a very short one. It's not like what happens to me, an economics professor. I got into the business of being an economics professor when I was 25 years old and I could do that for decades, but for professional baseball players if you're lucky you play 5 to 10 years and you don't earn the mega-salaries your whole life. So, they're encouraged to save a lot of money, and again the pattern is for the money to go into the world money markets and not to be spent in the local cities. So, there are leakages. And, of course, a lot of money goes to the owners and the owners have a similar pattern to the players, and those leakages are much higher than if the entertainment dollar gets spent at the bowling alley or restaurants, where the money ultimately goes to entrepreneurs who have a much more normal income, and who live in the local towns. So, very high leakages are another factor here. And, another factor still is that ballparks these days get financed with hundreds of millions of dollars of local tax money and if taxes go up then it means that that money is not being spent by consumers in other areas of the local economy. Either that or the city might rig -- I guess I'm not sure about this --either the services, and either higher taxes or lower services doesn't help the local economy. So, if you put all of those effects together, the empirical research suggests that the expectation should not be that you get an increase in employment or an increase in per capita income.

I'll go on record as predicting that Cabs will win his arbitration. My only comment is that his agents did him a disservice in not putting in a higher number. 9-10 Million would have been interesting. A few days ago you said somehting similar and I thought you were a bit off but after thinking about it I tend to agree because Teixeira will make over $9 million this year and Miguel can use Teixeira's salary as a base for his salary. I think he'll win and I REALLY hope he wins. Hasn't Teixeira been in the league one year longer than Cabrera, thus making the two situations not comparable? Teixeira only has a couple of months more of service time. Cabrera can use him for comparison. =========================== http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/...out-arbitration The Really Important Thing to Remember According to the Basic Agreement, an arbitrator is supposed to consider several things when deciding upon a case. Most importantly, he/she is directed to consider: The player's contribution to his team His previous salary The salaries of players in a similar class The last two points are extremely important -- in arbitration, players are not all equal. When making a case for a player, the arbitrators are instructed to consider only the salaries of players with the same amount of major league experience, or one year more.

With league average production from CF and the bullpen we would content. As things are right now (probably league worst CF and bullpen) I think we'll be in the high 70s in wins.

One side of the fence is right and the other side is unknowledgeable and therefore disagrees with the people that are right. That economist (Zimbalist?) that's always quoted in articles on baseball economics says that the money spent in a ballpark would be spent elsewhere if there was no ballpark so he would disagree with you.

I'll go on record as predicting that Cabs will win his arbitration. My only comment is that his agents did him a disservice in not putting in a higher number. 9-10 Million would have been interesting. A few days ago you said somehting similar and I thought you were a bit off but after thinking about it I tend to agree because Teixeira will make over $9 million this year and Miguel can use Teixeira's salary as a base for his salary. I think he'll win and I REALLY hope he wins.

I think there's room to disagree. There are many people on both sides of the fence on this issue.

Marlins2003, I'm not here to fight so I apologize for taking a shot. Anyways I guess we'll never agree on this as I think at the state level the incremental spending with a new stadium would be negligible meaning the incremental state taxes collected with a new stadium would also be negligible but obvioulsy you see it differently. I also don't agree with you regarding the funding for the CRA. According to their financial statements their primary source of revenue is computed by applying the city's and county's operating tax rate to a base which is derived from the property value of the property located within the CRA. Maybe there's more to it thatn that but this jibes with what I had previously read.

David, the fact is property taxes fund the CRA but don't let the facts get in the way and the fact is the overwhelming majority of the $2 million in sales taxes rebated would still be collected with or without a stadium as the money spent at the stadium would be spent elsewhere if we don't get the stadium. This may come as news to you but our savings rates are anemic - people spend all their money one way or another. Regarding the Marlins contributing at least half, you still haven't provided any proof. Now you say Burgess said $228 million. How is it that you figure that $228 million is at least half of $500 million? This could be fun. RFerry, if Loria was using the huge profits he is now making to secure a stadium then that would be a good long-term investment but I haven't seen anything that would indicate that's what he's doing.

You don't throw money into weak investments. Kenny Lofton and Danys Baez are weak investments. I'm a fan of the team and not a fan of Loria's wallet. Lofton along with Borowski and R. Soriano could have been had for around $13 million and these additions would have solidified our gaping holes in the bullpen and CF while allowing Loria to still make a nice profit.

First of all, it's really a misnomer to call the proposed stadium plan primarily "taxpayer" or "publically" funded when a) the Marlns will putting in at least half and b) neither the public nor the taxpayers of Miami-Dade county will be footing the bill and c, when most people hear those terms they think of themselves as residents (and local taxpayers) of this county even though for the most part they're immune to it. The only "taxpayers" paying are all the tourists visiting the Magic City when a portion of their bed tax is designated to the Professional Sports Facility Franchise Tax fund. As the name implies the purpose is to finance projects just like this. Last I read the stadium was expected to cost $500 million and the Marlins are putting in $210 million. Where are you getting that the Marlins are contributing at least half? Do you have anything to back this up? I copied a recent article at the bottom. Your second paragraph is obviously not true. The CRA funds and the state rebate do not come from any tourist taxes. You sound like David Samson. ========================================= http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sport...ll/16639693.htm The Marlins and Miami-Dade County officials remain optimistic about completing a deal for a nearly $500 million stadium, though key steps remain -- including commission approval and the state allocating funds. (Neither is guaranteed.) But even if the stadium materializes, the payroll will remain low during construction years, president David Samson revealed Tuesday. Samson said getting state money ($60 million from a sales tax rebate) remains ''critical.'' The Marlins, who have increased their contribution above $210 million, appear to have a decent chance after five failed attempts in Tallahassee. RFerry, what you fail to understand is that Loria could be making a profit with a payroll in the $40 millions.

I don't have time to check your numbers, but I would certainly hope that the Marlins profited. While it may shock some people, it's alright to profit. It's not a bad thing. It doesn't make you evil or uncaring. I would also hope those profits would go to pay their debts, making minority owners happy and towards new investments, such as planning, funding and insuring a new baseball stadium. And from what I've read, that's what they're planning on doing. There's absolutely nothing wrong with making a profit but I find it wrong to cry poverty with your hands out for a new taxpayer funded stadium when your making a huge profit. If I was the city, county or state I would make him open up his books before giving him a penny for a stadium. I think prinmenito's numbers are a bit off but I still think Loria will end up with a profit somewhere in the low $30 millions for the '06 season which makes his justification for the firesale and his refusal to improve the '07 team outright lies. I find that wrong.

I also liked his answer to an Alzegary question regarding players not being here long enough for fans to become attached to them, referencing Willis and Cabrera and implying the Marlins should sign both to longterm deals. Beinfest's comment was "they're part of this team for at least three more seasons" (end of 2009). That's a nice answer but the fact is in '09 Miguel and DTrain stand to make at least $30 million between them and almost all the good '06 rookies will be arbitration eligible so althoguh it was a nice answer I don't think it was a realistic one based on the Midget's recent comments regarding payroll. I think you're taking those comments out of context. They were more likely to prove the Marlins' commitment to the new stadium than any threat of a hard cap. Do you honestly think this team would toss aside good players when they have a legitimate chance of winning a World Series? Samson on payroll: ''It would not go up at all during construction.'' I don't know about you but to me that means payroll will not go up during construction. I guess we'll agree to disagree over what he meant. I don't think the team will toss any good players aside. I think they'll trade them before they get too expensive - there's a difference. Regarding winning a WS, I think this off-season proves that nowadays Loria sole concern is making money. With an extra $15 million in payroll we could have a CF and a couple of additional reliable bullpen arms and these additions would have made this team a legitimate contender whle allowing him to still make a lot of money.

Hide hit a homerun. He was right on on just about everything. If I remember correctly last year he swallowed the BS that the Marlins to cut payroll to $15 million because they were losing money.