Were the Florida Marlins close to changing managers on Sunday?

 

According to media reports in South Florida, a disagreement between Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and manager Joe Girardi erupted during and after the Marlins' loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and at one point team employees started setting up an interview room at Dolphin Stadium for a press conference -- the same room where the team has announced managerial changes in the past.

 

The news conference was never held and Girardi is still the Marlins' manager.

 

Girardi has been widely praised for the job he has done with the youthful Marlins, which despite an offseason fire sale and the lowest payroll in the majors are still only 5? games out of the NL wild card lead. From May 23 through Thursday the Marlins were 40-26, the best record in the National League during that span.

 

But the Palm Beach Post, citing unnamed Marlins organization sources, reported that there has been tension between Girardi and Loria over strategy and philosophy since July.

 

The Marlins lost wild-card race momentum over the weekend when they were swept by the streaking Dodgers. And frustrations apparently came to a head Sunday, during a Dodgers six-run rally in the seventh inning.

 

Girardi, who was ejected Saturday for arguing balls and strikes did not leave the dugout to question home plate umpire Admin Vanover when two borderline pitches by Florida reliever Taylor Tankersley were called balls. But according to media reports, Loria, sitting in the stands next to the dugout, yelled at Vanover, prompting Girardi to turn and ask Loria to stop yelling.

 

Immediately following the game, Loria, Girardi, team President David Samson and General Manager Admin Beinfest had what two sources told the Palm Beach Post was a heated discussion. That was followed by a 90-minute team meeting, which Girardi described as a "learning session" rather than a scolding or pep talk, and players described his tone as positive.

 

Loria wouldn't talk about the meeting on Monday.

 

"It's whatever you guys want to make of it," he said. "Don't blow it up into something it isn't. There's nothing to discuss at all."

 

Girardi played it down as well.

 

"'We talked about things," he said. "We talked about it collectively as a club."

 

The Marlins, now 51-60, opened a nine-game road trip in Washington on Monday night.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

That's because there never was a news conference.

That's because there never was a news conference.

 

Funny how ESPN notices the Marlins now.Idiots.

That's an ignorant statement. Of course they are going to notice. It's big news.

 

Would you prefer they led off Baseball Tonight and Sportscenter every night w/ a sub .500 team that doesn't have a realistic shot of making the playoffs? Bet that would go over well with the country.

The Miami Gardens Zoo is open for business.

That's an ignorant statement. Of course they are going to notice. It's big news.

 

Would you prefer they led off Baseball Tonight and Sportscenter every night w/ a sub .500 team that doesn't have a realistic shot of making the playoffs? Bet that would go over well with the country.

 

a lot of people don't understand this.

I think Girardi was fired at one point, but they took it back.

That's an ignorant statement. Of course they are going to notice. It's big news.

 

Would you prefer they led off Baseball Tonight and Sportscenter every night w/ a sub .500 team that doesn't have a realistic shot of making the playoffs? Bet that would go over well with the country.

 

You do notice that they haven't shown us at all on ESPN at times on Sportscenter right?

Gee, its funny how ESPN always posts any news pertaining to the Marlins that would get NY fans amped about something.

I think Girardi was fired at one point, but they took it back.

 

A) They would never fire him, he is too valuable to the organization, and even in the worst case scenario, too valuable a trading chip, to arbitrarily dismiss him, alloing yourself to be paying two managers (he and his successor) to do one job.

 

B) This whole story has been blown so far out of proportion and is so devoid of facts, it is ridiculous on it's face.

 

Continuing to foster this in the press and here, is symptomatic of many things, but not that there's a rift between the manager and owner. I happen to mention after either Friday or Saturday's game, that after Girardi was ejected, Loria and everyone else in attendance wanted to (figuratively) kill the ump. Loria was much more demonstrative at that game than he was Sunday.

 

What happened here is rumors spread like wildfires ("oh they're setting up for a press conference...", "Loria must have fired Girardi...", "...there's bad blood in the organization..." when they were cleaning out the media room for the Dolphins' practice tonight and Girardi probably leaned over to Loria and said "Look Jeffrey I'm as frustrated as you with this umpiring crew but you aren't help the cause today...", end of story) among an incompetent press where the bulls*** got piled higher and higher and each media member became a source for the other. It reminds me of an old kid's game where a bunch of kids sit in a circle and pass a story arund, one to the other, ultimately realizing that the story in the beginning is completely different from what the last person heard.

 

There have already been admissions in the media that the whole press conference thing was reported wrong, but only those who have an agenda continue to report it.

 

This thing is silly.

03 Where are the admissions in the media that the press conference thing was wrong...not that I don't believe you, I just haven't seen anything.

 

I do believe there was a confrontation between the two and that words were exchanged, but it was probably out of frustration and just that. Then the media take over from there. I think you may be downplaying it a little 03, but obviously the media is blowing it out of proportion as well.

I think Girardi was fired at one point, but they took it back.

 

There have already been admissions in the media that the whole press conference thing was reported wrong, but only those who have an agenda continue to report it.

 

The Herald's Baxter and the PBP's Capozzi reported today that Marlins employees were preparing the interview room. I agree with you regarding Berardino having an agenda but do you think Baxter and Capozzi also have an agenda against the Marlins? I don't think they do. I think they're both bad writers but that's it.

Theres a huge article on this in todays herald

03 Where are the admissions in the media that the press conference thing was wrong...not that I don't believe you, I just haven't seen anything.

 

I do believe there was a confrontation between the two and that words were exchanged, but it was probably out of frustration and just that. Then the media take over from there. I think you may be downplaying it a little 03, but obviously the media is blowing it out of proportion as well.

 

Of all places I heard Hank Goldberg mention this morning that in today's Mike Berardino piece (as opposed to yesterday's) he now says the that wasn't the case... Hank was talking about it in the context that Linda Robertson's Miami Herald hatchet piece this morning was so frought with errors he wondered out loud if they even employ editors or fact checkers at the Herald anymore.

 

Anyways, here's what it said in the SS this morning and the link to Berardino's piece...

 

" There have been published reports of a Marlins news conference being hastily prepared in a side room at Dolphin Stadium, but sources on hand rejected any notion the team was preparing to announce a managerial change."

 

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/basebal...-sports-marlins

 

 

Personally I still believe that all the moving of stuff around and setting up AV stuff after the game was just prep for tonight's Dolphins scrimmage/ticket promotion and the media room was cleared out because you gotta know Nick Saban will be fielding questions afterward.

 

remember we're going into that part of the year where both teams will be using DS more or less simultaneously.

That's an ignorant statement. Of course they are going to notice. It's big news.

 

Would you prefer they led off Baseball Tonight and Sportscenter every night w/ a sub .500 team that doesn't have a realistic shot of making the playoffs? Bet that would go over well with the country.

 

a lot of people don't understand this.

 

Then why do they always talk about Houston or even philly at times???

Because Houston is a veteran/proven (2nd half) team led by Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt

Ah thanks 03...missed that article this morning

 

Who knows...hopefully it's that and all is good between the two. It would be nice, if Loria made the trip to DC, that the two go out of their way to 'talk' to each other or something like that just to show that there's nothing wrong.

Well, I personally think that Loria let his emotions get the best of him, he ordered Girardi fired, and then out Lord and Savior Admin Bienfest came in and cooled things down!

 

I feel that Loria and Girardi are on 2 different pages, and with what McKeeon has said about he wants to come back, you never know if thats what Loria wanted.

 

Again, its just speculation, but I think there is a good chance this happened and then it all got blown out of proportion.

That's an ignorant statement. Of course they are going to notice. It's big news.

 

Would you prefer they led off Baseball Tonight and Sportscenter every night w/ a sub .500 team that doesn't have a realistic shot of making the playoffs? Bet that would go over well with the country.

 

I'd rather they lead off SC with the Marlins rather than lead it off covering every waking second of Terrell Owens' life. I don't know about the rest of the country but I'm sick of hearing about him.

Because Houston is a veteran/proven (2nd half) team led by Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt

 

 

 

 

 

It could be said that a team that has won 2 World Championships in 10 years, and the last National League team to win a championship, is newsworthy as well.

 

 

Houston didnt even show up for the World Series in 2005 and Roger Clemens has retired about as many times as Michael Jordan.

 

 

:whistle

Because Houston is a veteran/proven (2nd half) team led by Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt

 

 

 

 

 

It could be said that a team that has won 2 World Championships in 10 years, and the last National League team to win a championship, is newsworthy as well.

 

 

Houston didnt even show up for the World Series in 2005 and Roger Clemens has retired about as many times as Michael Jordan.

 

 

:whistle

 

Yup its because ESPN chooses what they think the public wants to see. If the marlins were on everyday about how these young guys have outperformed, theyd be media darlings, and everyone in the naiton would be rooting for them. Instead the media continues to pound out how horrible we are and how we cant get fans to the park

this is all over the place. its even on The Hot List as a top story. well at least they mention that we are in the wild card

That's an ignorant statement. Of course they are going to notice. It's big news.

 

Would you prefer they led off Baseball Tonight and Sportscenter every night w/ a sub .500 team that doesn't have a realistic shot of making the playoffs? Bet that would go over well with the country.

 

a lot of people don't understand this.

 

Then why do they always talk about Houston or even philly at times???

because the marlins are supposed to be a bottom feeder team and houston and philly info will have more appeal to people.

Well, at this point the story is so out there that I wouldn't be surprised if the Marlins made some kind of statement whether official or not to say things are OK and try to subdue this story. I do believe the situation was overblown and I find it very difficult to believe that the Marlins would be so hastily preparing for a press conference moments after an argument. It just doesn't seem realistic. However, I do believe there was some kind of disagreement and friction there. It's not ALL coming from Berardino and it's not a complete fabrication.

1st off, I want to say that I don't like Girardi very much as a manager.

 

When we started 11-31, I said on the boards that we should fire him. I think he gets too much credit because he was "in the Yankees organization". Don't get me wrong, he's done a good job, but our record is an indication of our great GM Admin Beinfest and our great scouts....not Joe Girardi.

 

I think he's a control freak. He doesn't let our players have facial hair. He doesn't like celebrations from players. And now he tells his boss to be quiet?!?!

 

Not to mention, while under contract with the Marlins, he tells the press that the Chicago Cubs managing position is his "dream job"??? This guy doesn't bleed teal like we do and like McKeon and Leyland did! This guy is using us as a stepping stone to get back to New York!

 

I just don't like this guy.....I've always liked Fredi Gonzalez (2 time minor league manager of the year and Latino influence) as a better option. It's not too late to get him!