marlin2266

"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

I'd actually love to see him go upper tank to RF - THAT has never been done -

Counsel

I'm in deep south dade & it's really storming here. What's happening around DS? (I hate to burn $15 gas for a rainout). Thanks.............

This is what i did that I get a lot of praise for: I took the marlins metal decal that they sell at the stadium and I placed it over the orange in the license plate....You can't even see the picture of the orange so it looks like a customized license plate...just throwing that out there Careful - it's actually illegal to deface your tag in any way, including covering any part of the surface with magnets or stickers. Trust me - I know.........

I live about a mile from Sean's house on Old Cutler Road. It is not a bad neighborhood (Palmetto Bay). Many houses top $1MM (not mine). Sean's murder was an isolated random and unfortunate incident. I'm not sure exactly where Andino's house is, but I can say that I have never felt unsafe in my area. Local police presence is excellent and response time is among the best in all of SoFla.

All Things Considered just did a segment on the Marlins & the new Manatees. Actually pretty objective - they interviewed Sean Flynn, who said the Marlins market themselves as (essentially) "baseball plus". Nice to hear a semi-positive segment on the team.

Any info on Metro Dade bus "Park & Ride" for 2008? I used Dadeland North 2 years ago, but it wasn't available last year. Thanks.

Dempster, anyone?

It's not a bad play by them, really. Build anticipation for the season and reason to "see it live" in Jupiter & JRS. I've always thought they over-TV the games (even reg season), but I guess the $$ is just to big to blow off.

KoolAid & OMG had nice/great springs - it's not a solid predicter of success.

Seriously, the biggest complaint most people have is the parking fees. I'd offer a "free" soda (or cerveza) if you bring in your parking ticket. You could stamp (or tear) it so it couldn't be re-used. Even "buy one get one free" would be good. Yeah - I know they're supposed to be displayed on the dashboard, but I never display mine and have never had a problem.

MiLB 3B Fielding Pct = .914 WOW

Did LGon get a no-trade in the deal? A hot first half could pay dividends on 7/31.

I saw on here some time ago speculation that day-of-game parking would be $15. Was that just grousing/speculation, or has it been confirmed? Thx -

So, I'll miss the old girl and wanted to walk through just one more time. Last Sunday, I drove over and took a few pics of the facade outside the west end zone. I asked the security guard if (please) I could go inside, but she wouldn't allow it. But she did say the stadium is open to the public M-F 8:00-5:00. I went back yesterday, and entered thru the stadium manager's office at Gate 14. All they asked for was my drivers license, which they kept until I was done. Then they let me & my spouse have full access. I walked the 50 yard line, and the upper deck. Got some cool pictures and met a member of the 1980 Eagles who was visiting as well. No one went with us so we were totally on our own for the self-guided tour. Of course, the locker rooms & press box were off limits. All in all, a great opportunity to see the old place and get some final snaps before the end. I highly recommend it. PS - Just to be sure, if you want to go, call the stadium managers office in advance at 305-643-7100 for holiday days & hours.

The problem is that the operating losses cited above are paid mostly with cash. So, any investor has to be reasonably sure the franchise value run-up exceeds (by a good margin) the annual expenses. Thus, the need for deep pockets and available cash. Loria's pockets are clearly shallow. But, remember that he got into the Expos for about 40MM, seized the franchise when the minority owners failed to deliver on a cash call, and now has an asset which (arguably) is worth 250-300MM. This is offset by his annual out-of-pocket (see cash) contributions for operating losses. It's an unusual (but not totally unheard of) way to finance the acquisition of a money-losing enterprise. As witnessed in today's equity markets, run-up is unpredictible, and can easily deflate over short-to-moderate periods of time. And, DelGOT, no one is offering Loria an interest free loan. An alternate way to raise that cash would be to take in a limited partner, which he clearly isn't going to do without increased pressure from MLB. I don't understand for the life of me why MLB doesn't force him to sell or take a partner.

Well, we've talked about it so much, I decided to pull some history I saved regarding annual profits/losses for the Marlins. This was disclosed by John Henry back in 2001. He claims to have lost about 10MM in 2000, and here's the breakdown (all rounded to nearest MM): Income: Media 15MM Gate 14MM Sponsors 3MM Con/Park 2MM Other 34MM (includes rev sharing, merch, & national TV) Expenses: Players 24MM Dev/Scout 18MM Team 10MM (includes travel & FO salaries) Mktg 7MM NewPark 4MM (legal, lobbying, HOK design, etc) G&A 4MM StadOps 4MM CapitalInv 3MM ToHWH 2MM (contractual for stadium improvements) Other 2MM While I understand that some may doubt these figures, they seem reasonable to me on the surface. JH was a financial guy, and I have no reason to believe he wasn't being truthful as he sought to gain financial support from governmant for a new stadium circa 2000. Of course, many of these numbers would be different today, but one cannot ignore the second expense (player development & scouting). So much of the budget is in that bucket that it cannot be ignored as we debate the current state of the team's finances. I welcome anyone's attempt to update these numbers to 2007 reality.

I remember AJ used to call him "Coyote". Think Road Runner cartoons.............

What? No hefty bag?

The other thing is that the Port of Miami is dead set against a baseball stadium at BP. Considering they may never get their tunnel-link to 395, the port truck traffic won't stand for 81+ home dates, clogging roadways where they now are pretty empty every single night after 8 PM.

(see Mike Lowell)

just a thought how about clint barmes at ss - rox obviously dont need him.... and move hr to cf

I heard it and was , what, the Marlins? This would be amazing, the stadium would sell out a lot more often. Imagine in a few years, going to the ballpark to catch his 763rd HR! See Alex Fernandez circa 1997. Cuban, hometown hero, UM, etc.... Absolutely no attendence bump at all resulted. None. Next -

I liked Joe Angel, but he is an acquired taste. I've like a number of Marlins radio broadcasters, I can't say that about DVH. Joe Angel fell out of favor with John Henry circa 2000 - back when JH wanted to build an expandable 25K seat stadium and Angel called it bush league (in so many words). That was it for Angel, and the next year OB took over (for a year before he defected to ESPN). So, his beef was with prior ownership. While I'd love to see Angel back, I'm not sure we could afford him, or if he'd want to be the radio #1 guy. I think he's beyond that.