Posted November 22, 200519 yr We deserve to lose more than Josh Beckett. We deserve to lose this baseball team. We are, bar none, the worst major-league city in North America. We are the only area anywhere on this continent that could draw 800,000 fans below league average for a 2004 defending champion that was playoff-relevant until the season's last month. Tampa Bay and Kansas City were the only two major-league markets with worse attendance than Florida's last season, but at least their excuse was last place, the two worst records in the league and a combined 71 games out of first. If the Devil Rays and Royals had been one game ahead of Roger Clemens for the wild card with a month remaining, as the Marlins were, they would have been filling their stadiums as if the seats were made of cash. But last-place Pittsburgh, 33 games out, drew more fans per game than Florida last season. So did last-place Seattle, 26 games out. And last-place Colorado, which fielded a Triple A team last season. NO APPRECIATION Spoiled South Florida has zero appreciation for what the Marlins have given us. This team has won two championships in the past decade. That's as many as the White Sox and Red Sox have combined in the past 90 years. No South Florida sports franchise has earned our support more than this one. But taxpayers have built not one but two basketball arenas a few blocks from each other and a hockey arena for a sport with very little following here while never giving the Marlins anything beyond a yawn. So now Beckett and Mike Lowell go to Boston for prospects and promises, and it feels like the first step in a bitter, sad, painful dismantling. Can't blame management. It has done everything it possibly can, bleeding money. Owner Jeffrey Loria has spent plenty on baseball. The same can't be said for South Florida. So don't complain if Beckett is only the first pebble in an avalanche that sends this entire franchise eventually out of town. We lead the league in excuses. Too much rain. Too much heat. Don't like where the park is. It's a stadium built for football. (Cue the baby wailing here.) All those things were true in 1993, too, when the Marlins drew 37,838 a game for a bad team. It wasn't less hot or less wet then. Where did the people go? Thirty-four bucks for four tickets, four hot dogs, four sodas and a program is about the best value in South Florida entertainment. If we were as good at support as we are at making excuses, the Marlins would be the Yankees. Baseball continues to set attendance records while South Florida sets indifferent records. Again, no city in North America could win this way and draw this poorly. Not one. Wayne Huizenga didn't let the feel-good of 1997 echo into 1998 before his fire sale. But Loria let the cheers of 2003 echo into 2004 and 2005, trying to build a fan base, and we failed him, so now it looks like he is giving up. There likely will be a lot of noise in coming days from the likes of Carlos Delgado if he is traded about betrayal and lies, and it will make for easy headlines, but Loria deserves no wrath here. LORIA SABOTAGED He was sabotaged by a bad stadium, a bad lease, an indifferent fan base, an underachieving team and too many politicians who spent a lot of time in the great seats during the World Series and in front of the cameras at the parade but got good and lost when it came time to find the few extra million that separated this team from its new stadium. The Marlins will be worse in 2006. That seems inevitable. The prospects from Boston are good, but you can't win at this level with Jason Vargas as your second starter when you wheeze to 83-79 with him as your fourth guy behind Beckett and A.J. Burnett. Beckett is a loss that stings more than the departures of Moises Alou or Pudge Rodriguez or Derrek Lee, because he is an overwhelming, young arm headed into its prime. He has the kind of stuff, confidence and youth that could make him an All-Star for the next decade. Alas, all his future success will have to be elsewhere. Not unlike this entire Marlins team. A little bit harsh, perhaps. But I can't really disagree with the central premise.
November 22, 200519 yr If only this could actually stir the emotions of the community to get something done......... :banghead
November 22, 200519 yr They do not include parking prices in that $34 family of four deal! ahhh typical Marlins Fan response....
November 22, 200519 yr They do not include parking prices in that $34 family of four deal! But yet, you will go to a Dolphins game... And Huizinga is the person who determines parking prices so suck it up and deal with it. Take issue with Huizinga, not the Marlins.
November 22, 200519 yr LeBatard is on the money. The only way people would see this team is if they changed their name to the Miami Cubs/Red Sox/Yankees, gave away free beer, had a Mermaid for every attendee, and had helicopters pick you up from your house and take you to Dolphins Stadium.
November 22, 200519 yr They do not include parking prices in that $34 family of four deal! But yet, you will go to a Dolphins game... And Huizinga is the person who determines parking prices so suck it up and deal with it. Take issue with Huizinga, not the Marlins. How stupid is that reply? The Dolphins play a TOTAL of 8 games at home. I went to at least 15 Marlins games last season, thats almost double right there.
November 22, 200519 yr They do not include parking prices in that $34 family of four deal! But yet, you will go to a Dolphins game... And Huizinga is the person who determines parking prices so suck it up and deal with it. Take issue with Huizinga, not the Marlins. How stupid is that reply? The Dolphins play a TOTAL of 8 games at home. I went to at least 15 Marlins games last season, thats almost double right there. Than why make an innane reply to the topic like you did?
November 22, 200519 yr Beacause people are always claiming that ticket prices and what not are cheap and its just not true. Prices have gone up and not down and this isn't New York, Boston or Chicago where everybody makes more than $70,000 a year.
November 22, 200519 yr Beacause people are always claiming that ticket prices and what not are cheap and its just not true. Prices have gone up and not down and this isn't New York, Boston or Chicago where everybody makes more than $70,000 a year. New York, Boston, and Chicago all have costs of living considerably higher than Miami. Even the brokest family can afford a $34 pack of four tickets. A movie costs about the same amount of money and only lasts for 90 minutes.
November 22, 200519 yr Beacause people are always claiming that ticket prices and what not are cheap and its just not true. Prices have gone up and not down and this isn't New York, Boston or Chicago where everybody makes more than $70,000 a year. New York, Boston, and Chicago all have costs of living considerably higher than Miami. Even the brokest family can afford a $34 pack of four tickets. A movie costs about the same amount of money and only lasts for 90 minutes. Which brings me full circle to that the $34 is what it will cost them if they lived across the street and could walk to the stadium, that accounts for maybe 0.05% of the fanbase. They give out misleading numbers.
November 22, 200519 yr They do not include parking prices in that $34 family of four deal! But yet, you will go to a Dolphins game... And pay $20 to park 2 miles away.
November 22, 200519 yr They do not include parking prices in that $34 family of four deal! Therefore you don't go because it will cost you 10 dollars more, right? wow! I mean, your logic seems absolutely unargueable. Why should I go to watch a baseball game for 34 dollars with my family when I have to pay 10 extra bucks to park my car? I mean, at least they should pay for the parking since I am giving up 34 dollars, right? 34 dollars is a lot of money, man. Forget they are including the hot dogs and the drinks. They should also pay for the tolls you have to cross to get to the stadium, and the gas you use to drive over there, and that dvd you have playing in the back seat for your kids so they keep quiet while you drive, and the newspaper I bought to keep my wife entertained while I see the game... the list goes on and on... :blink:
November 22, 200519 yr We deserve to lose more than Josh Beckett. We deserve to lose this baseball team. We are, bar none, the worst major-league city in North America. We are the only area anywhere on this continent that could draw 800,000 fans below league average for a 2004 defending champion that was playoff-relevant until the season's last month. Tampa Bay and Kansas City were the only two major-league markets with worse attendance than Florida's last season, but at least their excuse was last place, the two worst records in the league and a combined 71 games out of first. If the Devil Rays and Royals had been one game ahead of Roger Clemens for the wild card with a month remaining, as the Marlins were, they would have been filling their stadiums as if the seats were made of cash. But last-place Pittsburgh, 33 games out, drew more fans per game than Florida last season. So did last-place Seattle, 26 games out. And last-place Colorado, which fielded a Triple A team last season. NO APPRECIATION Spoiled South Florida has zero appreciation for what the Marlins have given us. This team has won two championships in the past decade. That's as many as the White Sox and Red Sox have combined in the past 90 years. No South Florida sports franchise has earned our support more than this one. But taxpayers have built not one but two basketball arenas a few blocks from each other and a hockey arena for a sport with very little following here while never giving the Marlins anything beyond a yawn. So now Beckett and Mike Lowell go to Boston for prospects and promises, and it feels like the first step in a bitter, sad, painful dismantling. Can't blame management. It has done everything it possibly can, bleeding money. Owner Jeffrey Loria has spent plenty on baseball. The same can't be said for South Florida. So don't complain if Beckett is only the first pebble in an avalanche that sends this entire franchise eventually out of town. We lead the league in excuses. Too much rain. Too much heat. Don't like where the park is. It's a stadium built for football. (Cue the baby wailing here.) All those things were true in 1993, too, when the Marlins drew 37,838 a game for a bad team. It wasn't less hot or less wet then. Where did the people go? Thirty-four bucks for four tickets, four hot dogs, four sodas and a program is about the best value in South Florida entertainment. If we were as good at support as we are at making excuses, the Marlins would be the Yankees. Baseball continues to set attendance records while South Florida sets indifferent records. Again, no city in North America could win this way and draw this poorly. Not one. Wayne Huizenga didn't let the feel-good of 1997 echo into 1998 before his fire sale. But Loria let the cheers of 2003 echo into 2004 and 2005, trying to build a fan base, and we failed him, so now it looks like he is giving up. There likely will be a lot of noise in coming days from the likes of Carlos Delgado if he is traded about betrayal and lies, and it will make for easy headlines, but Loria deserves no wrath here. LORIA SABOTAGED He was sabotaged by a bad stadium, a bad lease, an indifferent fan base, an underachieving team and too many politicians who spent a lot of time in the great seats during the World Series and in front of the cameras at the parade but got good and lost when it came time to find the few extra million that separated this team from its new stadium. The Marlins will be worse in 2006. That seems inevitable. The prospects from Boston are good, but you can't win at this level with Jason Vargas as your second starter when you wheeze to 83-79 with him as your fourth guy behind Beckett and A.J. Burnett. Beckett is a loss that stings more than the departures of Moises Alou or Pudge Rodriguez or Derrek Lee, because he is an overwhelming, young arm headed into its prime. He has the kind of stuff, confidence and youth that could make him an All-Star for the next decade. Alas, all his future success will have to be elsewhere. Not unlike this entire Marlins team. A little bit harsh, perhaps. But I can't really disagree with the central premise. :thumbup
November 22, 200519 yr Man you guys are suckers for taking the flame-bait of a troll named LORIALOVESVEGAS. lmao! I find this article next to impossible to refute. Even the best fans here have been spoiled. Though I think the only people this will get riled up to go to games are the people who are already going to games in the first place. Though, I hope this is a wake-up call to all the people watching at home that this team isn't going ot be here much longer. Unfortunately though, the Marlins, the best pro-franchise in this state, are just a seasonal blip on the South Florida radar.
November 22, 200519 yr Author Man you guys are suckers for taking the flame-bait of a troll named LORIALOVESVEGAS. lmao! I find this article next to impossible to refute. Even the best fans here have been spoiled. Though I think the only people this will get riled up to go to games are the people who are already going to games in the first place. Though, I hope this is a wake-up call to all the people watching at home that this team isn't going ot be here much longer. Unfortunately though, the Marlins, the best pro-franchise in this state, are just a seasonal blip on the South Florida radar. Well, I think that Samson's comments and Manny Alvarez's tepid reaction make that a pretty sure bet.
November 22, 200519 yr Again, a spot-on article by LeBetard, but he just wrote pretty much the exact same thing the day before. How many of these will we have to read this off-season?
November 22, 200519 yr He is 100% on this one... And geemoney, let him write one of these every day, hoping someone with authority reads it...
November 22, 200519 yr Ok rant, but that doesn't save the team from moving. Can the media or polititians down here come up with creative ideas?
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