Remember When...

[Wild Card]

Does anybody remember when Pudge first signed?

 

"My goal is to take this team to the playoffs."

 

Well done, Pudge. Well done.

[Guest Juanky]

his speech yesterday at the party was awesome. Pudge owns.

[FishFan24]

Pudge has been through so much! Remember when they signed him and everyone said it was a stupid move because he gets injured all the time and alot of people were complaining in Texas that he can't handle a young pitching rotation? :mischief2 \

 

 

 

 

:banghead

[McMillan Marlins]

he also say "this is the jear of the marlin" at the singing at shulas

[Marlins2003]

Let us not forget what Dan LeBatard said about the signing of Pudge, that it was the equivalent of "breast implants on a corpse".

 

Only in the Miami Herald, America's worst major market daily newspaper, would the season start with that and end with Jeff Miller's comment today that if Jeffrey Loria was an MVP, as Miller put it that stood for "Most Vile Parasite".

 

I was disgusted by that and hope all of you are too.

[Wild Card]

Jeffrey Loria is the biggest reason we are here.

[CapeFish]

Let us not forget what Dan LeBatard said about the signing of Pudge, that it was the equivalent of "breast implants on a corpse".

 

Only in the Miami Herald, America's worst major market daily newspaper, would the season start with that and end with Jeff Miller's comment today that if Jeffrey Loria was an MVP, as Miller put it that stood for "Most Vile Parasite".

 

I was disgusted by that and hope all of you are too.

There are only three outlets that, in my view, have the right to cover the Marlins based on loyalty.

 

1) Fox Sports Net Florida

2) FloridaMarlins.com (not run by team, but by company that has deal with MLB)

3) This message board

 

-The radio network is not on here because the affiliates are not loyal and the flagship, WQAM, is crap.

-The Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and to a certain extent the Palm Beach Post have nothing but poison to this team.

-The local TV Sports media in Miami (namely Jim Berry) were making fun of McKeon and trying to make the team seem like the villain.

 

The villain in the drama is the media who tries to act as if they have nothing to do with anything, but have to with everything, except that the team is succeeding. As witnessed by the crowds since before the trading deadline, the Media covering the Marlins in Miami except for those 3 I listed above, have lost all credibility on anything but the box scores (and they haven't lost that because those are provided by MLB)

[KJC]

the message board on FloridaMarlins.com should be destroyed, its a discrase to any real fan to read that stupidity...

[CapeFish]

the message board on FloridaMarlins.com should be destroyed, its a discrase to any real fan to read that stupidity...

I wasn't talking about the Message Board on the official site, I was talking about the newswires, audio, video, and press release archives.

[Marlins2003]

Cape, I couldn't agree more with your assessment of the local media, after three years of spewing poison regarding this franchise the new mantra is "look at the ticket sales, there's no fanbase here". Kinda makes you want to puke.

[CapeFish]

Cape, I couldn't agree more with your assessment of the local media, after three years of spewing poison regarding this franchise the new mantra is "look at the ticket sales, there's no fanbase here". Kinda makes you want to puke.

All the fans who have shown up from 1998's first game to today's game and on forth shall be doing this... :fyou to the media.

 

BTW,

Herald's Daily circulation + Sun-Sentinel's Daily Circulation < 1/2 Marlins average TV ratings

 

The consumers have spoken.

[CapeFish]

Tuning into Marlins, tuning out critics

 

by Jim Sarni

Sun-Sentinel Sports Broadcasting Columnist

Posted September 26 2003

 

The sports talk hosts were ripping Marlins fans Thursday. Only 25,311 Tuesday and 28,250 Wednesday for the big games against the Phillies.

 

Never mind that these have been great, crazy-in-love crowds and nice numbers, considering that the team has a puny season-ticket base to start with and the games were on school nights.

 

The fans are out there. They're watching in record numbers on television.

 

Tuesday's Pax telecast did a 8.1 rating in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market, peaking at 13 in the final innings.

 

Wednesday's Fox Sports Network telecast did a 8.6, the highest rating in history for the team on the cable network. It beat the 8.1-rating record, set during the 1997 World Series season, and was the most-viewed program in nine out of the 13 quarter-hour rating periods between 7-10:15 p.m., peaking at 11.9 at 10 p.m.

 

"Marlins ratings on Fox Sports Net are up 60 percent over last season, said Jeff Genthner, Senior Vice President and General Manager for Fox Sports Net Florida. "The bitter history of the 1998 season can finally be put to rest. For the first time in six years South Florida baseball fans now have plans in October."

 

Living the moment

 

Dave Van Horne was a Montreal Expos announcer during their glory years, 1979-81. He got used to doing games that mattered.

 

But then came a big dry spell.

 

The Expos were in a few pennant races, but not in the thick of it. When Van Horne came to the Marlins in 2001, the losing continued. Now, all of a sudden it's September and the games count again.

 

"I've got great appreciation for these games," said Van Horne, the Marlins radio broadcaster.

 

All the Marlins announcers are living in the delirious moment.

 

"You can't let yourself get spoiled," said Len Kasper, the team's second-year TV announcer. "I've got friends in the business who have never had the chance to broadcast big games at the end of the season."

 

Jon "Boog" Sciambi was back in the radio booth Wednesday after missing a game with a stomach virus Tuesday.

 

Bill Beck, the Marlins' director of team travel, filled in Wednesday and had a nice call on Jeff Conine's home run.

[McMillan Marlins]

Jeffrey Loria is the biggest reason we are here.

stop kissing a**.

[Arnie1941]

Channel 5, NBC affiliate, and Palm Beach County "powerhouse," mentioned the Marlins last week. Specifically, the sports reporter said "Chris Redmond" would be on the mound.

[CapeFish]

Channel 5, NBC affiliate, and Palm Beach County "powerhouse," mentioned the Marlins last week. Specifically, the sports reporter said "Chris Redmond" would be on the mound.

Yes, WPTV runs PAX67 through a Joint Marketing Agreement up there and is playing catchup on Marlins coverage because they used the FSN crew and footage for their reports previously, but now they must actually provide in depth coverage and Len and Tommy won't be there.

 

NBC6 has Joe Rose who covers the Fish well and they run PAX35 through a Joint Marketing Agreement.

[Wild Card]

stop kissing a**.

Kissing a** to who? Loria? What is he gonna do if I tell him he's a jackass, fire me?

 

If Loria had never given Bienfest the green light for all of those deals, we wouldn't be where we are. Jeffrey is the main reason we are here.

[FishFan24]

stop kissing a**

 

 

Why? Because he's right?

 

 

If it wasn't for Jeff Loria, we would be sitting here talking about next year already. Things could have easily have gone from bad to worse if he didn't make the Coaching Change and gone out and got players like Jeff Conine and Ugeth Urbina.

 

 

So who would you like to thank for this season? Other than the players of course. :mischief2

[Wild Card]

Why? Because he's right?

 

 

If it wasn't for Jeff Loria, we would be sitting here talking about next year already. Things could have easily have gone from bad to worse if he didn't make the Coaching Change and gone out and got players like Jeff Conine and Ugeth Urbina.

 

 

So who would you like to thank for this season? Other than the players of course. :mischief2

Exactly. The credit keeps going to Beinfest, but he could have never done what he did if Jeffrey didn't say he could.

[FishFan24]

Exactly. The credit keeps going to Beinfest, but he could have never done what he did if Jeffrey didn't say he could

 

 

Exactly. It was his money after all. Beinfest put together the team, but with was Jeff who signed off on all those trades and the signing of Pudge in the offseason.

[Mave]

Wildcard is completely right, Loria is a big reason of why the Marlins got to the postseason.

 

I've said this before, I was AMAZED and extremely DELIGHTED that Loria did not trade off any players and then ADDING players to this team down the stretch was icing on the cake. Mr. Loria, and the rest of Marlins ownership have done a great job this year.

[Wild Card]

Speaking of this...

 

Hats off to hands-on boss

 

BY CLARK SPENCER

 

 

He's got the best seat in the house, a front-row box adjacent to the Marlins dugout. His choice location offers him a close-up view of the baseball action on the diamond while, with a right swivel of his head, enabling him to keep apprised of what's happening on the bench.

 

From time to time, though, Jeffrey Loria stands and turns and gazes around at the stands inside cavernous Pro Player Stadium. He's accustomed to seeing the big glob of empty orange seats that prevailed during his first season-and-a-half as owner of the club. But in the past few months -- as the Marlins surged toward the franchise's first postseason berth in six years, renewing interest in the team that was rumored for contraction as recently as two years ago -- he's discovered something new: people.

 

''The biggest thrill that I get -- and it happened a couple of days ago and it's been happening for a while -- is when I stand and look around and see the faces of the kids,'' Loria said. ``It's a great feeling. We're all getting excited together, and I get a big thrill out of that.''

 

Loria -- the franchise's third owner -- is far more visible than either of his two predecessors and more hands-on than either Wayne Huizenga or John Henry, as well. He's taken every one of the team's road trips since July, and frequents the clubhouse to rub elbows and chat with his players.

 

''He wants to know the game,'' said Marlins utility infielder Andy Fox. ``He wants to learn the game. And most of all, he wants to win.''

 

Said pitcher Josh Beckett: ``He's in the clubhouse, he hangs out, and he's approachable.''

 

And, players say, he's generous.

 

Even though the Marlins' $50 million payroll is one of the lowest in baseball, a direct derivative of the team's small season-ticket base, Loria has reached into his pockets when players have least expected it, like when he took the entire team out to dinner at Morton's in San Francisco and again on that same trip when he stood up on the team's charter and told players he planned to make a quick stopover on their way to Pittsburgh: in Las Vegas.

 

''I think the one thing that stunned us was in the middle of that tough trip and we stop off in Vegas,'' Fox said. 'We got on that plane, and here we were 1-6 on the trip, and he gets up and says, `I know it's been a rough road trip, but we're going to stop in Vegas and have some fun.' When you have someone that does stuff like that, you try to repay him and you try to win and make the effort.''

 

IMAGE DIFFICULTY

 

And, yet, the public image of Loria hasn't always been favorable, especially when he first gained control of the team in 2001 and skeptics abounded. He remains scorned in Montreal, where he owned the Expos for two seasons before selling off the struggling franchise to Major League Baseball, then using the proceeds from that sale to buy the Marlins from John Henry. (Henry, in turn, bought the Boston Red Sox.)

 

Loria was regarded as tight-fisted, a perception that seemed to gather evidence almost from the moment he took over the Marlins. The franchise cut corners, eliminating the use of a radar gun to register pitches on road trips, and firing the original Billy the Marlin mascot for a lower-paid version who does other work for the team besides wear the familiar costume. One of the first trades made by the Marlins under Loria's new regime was the deal that sent high-priced pitchers Matt Clement and Antonio Alfonseca to the Cubs for Julian Tavarez and a handful of minor-league prospects. One of those turned out to be pitcher Dontrelle Willis, who has emerged into a star and a Rookie of the Year candidate.

 

Loria said the early criticisms didn't come as any surprise to him, in large part because he knew the troubled club he was buying had turned off a community angered by the dismantling of the 1997 World Series team and numbed from the constant pleas for public financing to help build a new ballpark. Loria was attacked by sports pundits on air and in print before he hardly set foot in the door. He said he ignored it all.

 

''I can either spend my time listening to all of that, or get everyone together and motivate this organization to work toward what we wanted to do, which was to guarantee the long-term success of this franchise,'' he said. ``I think the new kid on the block always has to prove himself. I'm sure the fans had an unpleasant situation, disenchanted with what had gone on here. We had nothing to do with that, but we knew we had a job to do.''

 

BUILDING A WINNER

 

Loria said his goal was to build a winner, knowing that would bring back fans. Attendance dropped to an all-time franchise low last season but has increased more than 40 percent this year. Even though the Marlins have drawn more than 1.2 million fans this season, they will still finish the season ahead of only the orphaned Expos and cross-state Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

 

''We're fine with these numbers,'' Loria said, noting the improvement over last season. ``We are where we are until the horizon presents a new vista for us.''

 

But Loria refuses to discuss any plans to seek public financing support for a new stadium. Nor does he address next season's player payroll, which would range around $90 million -- up from this season's $50 million -- simply to keep the current team intact. He says only that he's committed to ensuring the team's future in South Florida and trying to field winning teams.

 

''I don't really want to talk about payroll,'' he said. ``We don't know what we're going to do. We haven't discussed it. What we are focused on is getting to California [to face the Giants in the playoffs]. That's our first step. I never like to have my focus interrupted, because otherwise it takes away from the fun.''

 

APPROVING KEY DEALS

 

Loria approved the money to sign free agent Ivan Rodriguez in the offseason, gave the go-ahead to trade for reliever Ugueth Urbina and didn't hesitate one second to go after Jeff Conine when All-Star third baseman Mike Lowell went down with an injury. He even approved the firing of Jeff Torborg in May even though the former manager was his personal friend.

 

''We're still friends,'' said Loria, adding he remains in regular contact with Torborg. ``He's excited for the team. It [the firing] was difficult, but it was necessary because I had to put the organization, the team and the franchise above my personal friendship. The community deserves to see this team do better, and they have. [New manager Jack McKeon] has done a spectacular job of motivating everyone, and that's one of the ingredients we felt was missing early on when we made the change.''

 

Loria said he's confident South Florida can support Major League Baseball.

 

''I'm here because I want to be here,'' Loria said. ``We're trying to make a major-league franchise here something special. Why should it not have a major-league team?''

[FishFan24]

^

 

Yeah I read that in the morning paper. People were real harsh on him when they first got here and everyone thought it was going to destroy this team like he did the Expos.

 

 

And for awhile it looked like he was going to do it, but after seeing him add players and make a run for the championship like he has. Many people in South Florida owe him an apology and should personally thank him for doing this whether it be for a year or more.

[Arnie1941]

Good article! Thanks WC.

[AJBurnett34]

Pudge has been big for this team. With Pierre and Castillo on base he does alot of damage to the oposing team. He has also done great with the pitchers this year which he has a bad reputation in the past.