HawkFan

I think it's pretty cool they did that for LoMo. As others said, Barger should be remembered, but not by retiring a number he never wore. Cool move by Loria. So, it's cool the Marlins are letting LoMo wear 5 in honor of his father, a number he didn't wear, but they shouldn't have honored Mr. Barger by retiring a number he didn't wear? This is poor logic, please try again. As Qban Castillo pointed out, without Carl, there are no Miami Marlins and no World Series title flags hanging in a beautiful new stadium. Mr. Barger's efforts to make baseball in South Florida a reality cannot be overstated. This is just another middle finger to the history of this franchise and those who have supported it through it all of these years. Why couldn't he have just paid JJ to switch to 55?

Wow, wish I could double my salary by being average. Good for him, though, he's a good guy and has had his share of heartache between his injuries and his little boy.

Thanks for the heads-up, Admin. I'm registered to receive e-mail updates from the Marlins (Marlins Insider, tickets, etc), but I never received a notice the lottery had been opened.

The past several years Topps is known for airbrushing/photoshopping players to rush them into Series I as the first brand and set to feature them in their new uniforms. Sometimes they turn out ok, other times, not so much. Wish they'd just stick to what they use to do (release a second card in the Update set). I'm with Admin, if they had the time to print cards with him as a member of the Marlins, they should have used a picture from the press conference as opposed to a non-existant picture from a non-existant game. But, that's what you get when Topps has a monopoly on the MLB license. I'm almost wondering if the Reyes card will be a short print dropped in late in the production run (kind of what Topps did with Allen & Ginter two years ago when Strasburg). On a happier note, two cards I have to own from this set (aside from the Schumacher squirrel card): Ozzie and the Andre Dawson Gold Standard insert; this one is the first card made of Hawk in 16 years NOT wearing a Cubs or Expos uniform (the picture is from his brief stint as a Sox). There's still hope that they'll produce another Marlins card in time (maybe with a Game-used piece of teal jersey, dare I dream?)

Are single-game tickets on sale yet? I'm not seeing them on the Marlins website. Nope, March 3 tentatively. Opening Day is not expected to be up for sale individually at all though. Remaining tickets for 4/4 will be handled in a lottery, or at least that was the plan a couple of months ago. When you say the remaining tickets would go up for lottery, do you mean to those signed up for the "Marlins Insider" e-mailings or to those that already have Season Tickets? I hope "avg Joes" get a chance to buy tickets. I've been such a huge fan for so long, and like many offish here, eagerly are awaiting 4/4 and want to be part of history. However, living in Orlando, I can't justify buying season tickets just so I can go to the first game. And as much as I desire to be there, I can't justify $100buying a ticket for OF seats.

Didn't see this reported anywhere, but according to "Sports Xchange" on Yahoo Sports, the Marlins are "close" to signing Vicente Padilla. Why would go this route, I thought our BP was set. I guess he could be our long-relief/spot starter guy, but I fail to see how he is any better than Baddenhop or Hensley. Probably more expensive, injury prone and overweight. If it's a minor league deal w/ an invite to ST I suppose it's a low-risk move. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AqCmp1XN6Yj45t96ls5O.HIRvLYF?slug=sportsxchange-000526680_macdougal-signs-oneyear-contract-for-1-million

Hehe, my wife is awesome. My main Christmas present this year was a super-nice bound scrapbook that she made herself; in it, it contains 2 pages for each MLB stadium with space for tickets, the box score, starting lineups, pictures, etc. as she wants our family to now undertake hitting each MLB ballpark. Total surprise, as she's not 100% into baseball, but she thinks it's going to great little adventure for us. Anyhoo, she used the team logo for each relevant page. In a little dig to the Marketing Dept and support of my stance on the new logo/colors, on the Miami Marlins page she used the Florida logo! In all seriousness, though, I have moved on. I still think it's horrendous and will not buy any new merchandise, but it is what it is and nothing (but poor long-run sales) will change it. At this point, I'm far more concerned about how the new additions will fit in the lineup then what they will look like on the field. Can't wait till 4/4!

Jeff Conine is a superb racquetball player. Yup, and I believe his wife was a former Olympian in the sport. I read in a magazine/program their love and talent for racquetball is how they met (at a tournament or something).

Is anyone surprised to hear about this? My father-in-law's company, which is considered to be one of the best geotechnical engineering firms in the southeast, put a bid on the site prep work. He told me they didn't get the job because they were "too expensive"for for the county and Marlins. It's like the old astronaut adage about sitting on a rocket with thousands of parts built by the lowest bidder.

~100 minutes till the sun rises in Dallas 100 being the number of years Pujols is going to be a Marlin multiplied by 10, of course y'know, cuz we use the metric system. because we're international now. Umm, because I'm such a math geek, multiplication is standard arithmetic and not the metric system.

What about Edwin jackson. Haven't heard much about him lately. Can he hit like Pujols or not? Well, he is a converted OF...

I'm enjoying the facebook comments on the photos, mainly the one saying he needs to be renamed from Billy the Marlin to Billy the Clownfish and the one giving the team propos from recycleing a paid of hammer pants.

All I know, CanesCop, is I showed the above picture to my son (who is 6 and whose favorite color is yellow). Quote-en-quote, "What happened to Billy?" Just because kids like colors doesn't mean they'll like the new look. Also, it just dawned on me the new yellow and orange swirls on his pants are meant to invoke the crest toothpaste tail fin on the new logo.

Not good. Poor Billy.

Best: Andre Dawson Phone Card on Andre Dawson Night (who would have guessed I would have gone in that direction) Worst: Pompoms

Not to mention, Replicas do not have a sleeve patch, any relevant commemorative patches or the "logoman" mlb patch at the neck, and do not come in "Cool Base" or "Therma Base" fabrics. I will say, though, that Replicas at least have improved in quality from the "old days" and it's hard to tell the difference except up close.

Yeah, I'm not surprised. In fact, that's exactly what that dude here said who got fired from the team. Supposedly all of the people in the focus groups wanted teal but Loria wanted to go his own way. For years on this board (the last 5 years or so) people bitched about the increasing prominence of orange being used in the team's branding (mostly marketing--the website among other things). When everyone realized that teal would be dropped, the mentality seemed to become "as long as orange doesn't become the main color." Ironically that's what we got in the end. Did fisheatcats mention that (about the focus groups), or was it mentioned in one of those insider articles? The reason I ask is I don't buy into that notion. I think Loria and Smason are quite shrewd businessmen and I seriously doubt they would jeopardize future revenue by going in this direction if the focus groups overwhemingly told them to keep the teal. Loria is opinionated and stubborn, but he's not stupid. In addition, one could argue you he's been more focused on marketing (what with the Mermaids, Manatees, Super Saturday Concerts, etc.) than putting together a winning ballclub the past couple of years, so I'm betting he would put far more weight on what the focus groups told him than what his employees said. That being said, I still believe they were looking for a specific demographic in these focus groups (mainly, young males from Miami Dade) as opposed to going after a wider sample size that is more representative of the Marlins' fanbase, and the results were pure confirmation bias. It's not a stretch to say that the Marlins as an orgnaization are going "all in" on the 305'ers, almost to the exclusion of everyone else in or outside of So.FL. They're banking on, rightfully so, the main population center to flock to Marlins games now that the ballpark is in their own back yard. They're looking purely at the potential of the market size, playing a game of numbers. They know they will lose fans from Broward/Dade because of the stadium location and will lose revenue from those who do not like the new merchandise, but they are expecting the new fans and revenue to provide a net gain. As long as the people they're targeting like the new identity, they've won in their minds. Time will tell if this is the right move or not; as an economist and business consultant, I think it's unwise to go in a direction that is so polarizing and divise amongst your customers. The brand equity the Marlins have built up over 20 years, no matter how small, should be capitalized on, not tossed aside. Then again, I don't live in So.FL and don't fully understand the dynamics down there, so I could be mistaken. What's done is done.

I fail to see how that's any better than our previous uniforms, so once again, I ask "What's the point?" If they were hell-bent on getting rid of every trace of the Florida Marlins in terms of colors, logo and uniform design, I would have much preferred to have a modernized version of the original Miami Marlins look. Anyone notice the "IAMI" in the picture looks like it's solely using Orange (instead of the Orange, Blue and Yellow in the "M") while the "IAMI" in the graphic is all blue. This identity just looks disjointed and confused, in my opinion, especially if they have different wordmarks that switch out the dominant color like that. Not gaudy and obnoxious like I was expecting, just poorly designed.

But seriously, are you buying the hat? THE HAT WILL BE PURCHASED ON 11/11/11/ (or 11/12/11 if my friend gets out of work after midnight.) HOW ABOUT YOU?? Wow. Ceased to be funny on the other thread. How old are you guys, 12?

First, you're really taking internet message board comments way too seriously. This would be a fair stop for an Internet: Serious Business meme. Second, it's possible to be a whiner for other reasons simply beyond not liking the new uniforms. Whether or not people ITT have risen to that standard is a separate question; I personally think that 1 or 2 posters have, but that's not my point. I also don't know from where you derived your sociological definition and analysis of "whiner" behavior. Nonetheless, opting to not purchase something seems like pretty passive-aggressive behavior, as per your own analysis. Finally, I think your idea of a rebranding that would have stayed fairly true to the old identity is an interesting idea, and you are certainly right that revenue will ultimately be the deciding factor on whether this was a good decision. I'm fully aware I'm taking this whole thing too seriously. I, like most of the people on this board, have a lot of passion for this team. While I'm a pretty even-tempered guy, I get really fired up for the things I care about: my family, group insurance and Marlins baseball. The passive aggressive approach would be to sit here and complain and expect things to change just because I'm upset, or to complain but end up purchasing the new stuff anyways. No, I prefer an assertive approach: as a customer, informing the business I'm not happy with their product (still awaiting a response from Mr. Loria), ceasing purchase of that product and finally, using logic-backed arguments to try and convince others to do the same. Finally, when I win Powerball Wednesday night, I will invest my millions in a diversified asset plan so I can buy the Marlins within 10 years and revert them back oncemore.

I don't think people saying they like it or don't like it is the problem, its when they say it over and over again sometimes on the same page where it gets annoying. Those saying they like it have said it once, and left after the person who didn't says it again and proclaims it horrible. Personally, I like the differing opinions, t's good for the team to finally get a rise out of some of the bandwagon fans. But I don't see a need to say it over and over again how it's bad (or good). Say it once, then add something to the conversation the next time you write something. Woh, wait, we still have bandwagon fans? When did this happen?

And, of course, people who actually like the stuff have been doing the same thing, so I don't see what you are bitching about. You took the words right out of my mouth in responding to Piazza. There are just as many people in this thread repeatedly expressing their extreme approval as those expressing their extreme disapproval. Somehow, though, it's ok for those who like it to say they'll buy the hat in a heartbeat or that they love it, but those of us who think it's a dud are to remain silent? That's not the way America works.

I'm buying the hat! There are a ton of whiners in this thread... Agree, tons of whiners!! Honestly if the club wins, what colors they wear and the logo on their hats is irrelevent. You know what's ironic as well, back in 07' when the dbacks did the whole redesign of their colors and logo fans could not stand it! They wanted to keep the traditonal purple and teal. If you look at it now, espically this year, fans DO NOT CARE, and are wearing nothing but the new gear. Change is difficult, espically in the MLB. Years from now nobody will give a rats ass what the teams colors are, especially if they are winners. Not to mention down the road, throwback night will be that much better. Whiners with good taste. FIFY So, if someone disagrees with you they're automatically whiners? What a close-minded, intellectually dishonest and ignorant view to have, Ctina, Fish4Life and MarlinKidd. Your views are no more or less valid than Penguino, Fishes on the Pond, Qban or anyone else's doesn't like the logo or colors. It's not right to use pejorative terms to describe those that differ from you. Society and politics, in general have become far more polarized and less tolerant of diverse opinions, so I'm not surprised it's happening here. It bums me out, but doesn't surprise me. This illustrates my critism of the need for a complete rebranding, however. The Marlins are fully aware this look was going to divide the fanbase; Samson's said as much in interviews when asked about some of the negative reactions the leaked logo was receiving. At a time when all Marlins fans (old, current and future) should be united and excited for the upcoming move into our new home, ownership decided to go forward with a bold revision to the identity that's been in place for 20 years. Time and revenue will ultimately be the deciding factor if this was the right approach or not, but I believe an identity far closer to the current logo and color scheme would have been a better strategy. In the end, going back to calling us "whiners," whiners complain and take a passive aggressive approach their problems. I believe we have been clear in our intent to act by not purchasing the new mercandise. If more people buy the stuff than stop purchasing it, so be it. However, I can tell you it's gong to take several new fans (assuming average So.Fl household income) to offset my annual Marlins memorabilia expenditures. If that holds true for many of us who won't buy the new stuff, the Marlins are in for an uphill climb and might have made a mistake with this rebranding.

Those DVDs you talk of were actually give-a-ways. First at games, then they seemed to be in everything the team would send season ticket holders over the year(s) until they apparently ran out of them. There is also a one song CD that Gloria Estafan made after the '97 series, and that she sang during the party at Joe Robbie celebrating that championship. I don't remember if that was ever a give-a-way or if I actually bought it. But if you want to feel nostalgic it's a pretty good song. As far as a written history, there are several books out there, as you stated. Some good, some bad. But if a book of the firsts, lasts, mosts, and entire stats is wanted, just buy the 2011 Media Guide. Technically, the '97 WS DVD was the giveaway (and was just a DVD version of the original VHS WS video available in retail outlets). I'm not saying the '03 WS DVD hasn't been given out by the Marlins since its release (as a season ticket holder, you'd have far more knowledge of this than me), but unlike the '97 video (which is only available as a giveaway), the '03 video has always been available on DVD for purchase. I bought mine at Best Buy when they came out at the end of '03.

I doubt it, as it would take away from the birth of the Miami Marlins. Plus, apparently the Florida Marlins aren't worth celebrating in any shape or form.