http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/basebal...,3501365.column

 

Dave Hyde | Sports Columnist September 28, 2007 MIAMI GARDENS

 

Miguel Cabrera or Dontrelle Willis? Who goes this winter? Who stays? Can we start a pool on whether both will be traded?

 

Yes, it looks serious this time. And before you raise a voice in protest, understand you don't have a voice. Nor do I.

 

If you need to understand why that is listen to Bill Murray's story Thursday afternoon from the Chicago Cubs' pre-game dugout. That's right, Bill Murray, the actor. Stay with me here.

 

Murray was one of about 10,000 Cubs fans who descended on the Marlins' home finale like mosquitoes or vermin or, well, real baseball fans. It was enough to make the endangered Marlins fan nauseous. And jealous.

 

Murray dropped one-liners in Chicago's pregame dugout about following his team ("If I'm not watching them, I'm still watching"), and why it's silly to think the Cubs wouldn't be the Cubs if they won it all ("That'd be like saying you wouldn't be you if you're asleep.")

 

Then he told how he got tickets to Thursday's game.

 

"I was in line to buy tickets and some guy was like, 'I'll give you a $90 ticket for $50,'" Murray said. "Then someone said, 'I can get you two $100 seats for $90.'

 

"But then somebody gave me a ticket."

 

He smiled here, maybe thinking if a Wrigley Field fan would pull such charity at a finale. Then again, maybe he was looking into right field and thinking like Carl Spackler in Caddyshack: "This place got a pool?"

 

"That happens at teams that are out of it," Murray said, making nice. "You don't get as many fans as when you win."

 

He was told the Marlins actually drew more fans this year than the 2003 World Series season.

 

"Well, they're figuring it out then," he said. "Marketing a team is an art."

 

Truth is, the Marlins figured out what they needed to know years ago: They don't have to worry about fans. They had the least-attended games in Major League Baseball this year ? nearly half the average attendance. And again: That's up from 2003.

 

If this lack of fans creates irreparable disadvantages as far as money and atmosphere, it offers one significant advantage to the Marlins: Baseball decisions can be made without considering ticket impact or public-relations backlash.

 

What, fewer Marlins fans will come if they don't like a decision? Can there be fewer than the fewest?

 

This is important to remember this offseason because, as a Marlins executive said, "We've got serious problems the way this team is constructed right now."

 

This goes beyond the health of starting pitching. The Marlins are last in the league in fielding and strike out more than every team except Tampa Bay. It's not like either of these issues are going away. Last season, the Marlins were the third-worst team in fielding and tops in striking out.

 

"Either the guys continue to work at it and get better or you find guys that will do better," Marlins General Manager Admin Beinfest said of the defense. "I still think we've got guys making young mistakes who will get better."

 

But a whole lineup of them? Back to the main issue: Cabrera and Willis will make around $10 million by next season. Each is a free agent after the '09 season, which would suggest you could keep them for another year before trading them.

 

So would a cheap Marlins organization with a flawed roster and second-to-lowest payroll ($32 million) this year want to sink $20 million into two players? Especially when it could trade one and re-make the defense with a Hanley Ramirez-type prospect and more in return?

 

Cabrera would get more in a trade. That's because he's one of the top five players in baseball. Willis has been down this season. But good pitchers bounce back. This team has starting pitching problems and he still has stuff to dominate as his win Wednesday showed.

 

Beinfest wasn't answering such questions Thursday beyond, "We'll have to see what the payroll is."

 

But that's how the winter looks. Cabrera or Willis? Willis or Cabrera? They're going to have to play a chip, not just to save payroll, but to re-make a problem roster.

 

Either that, or we'll be right back to this point next year, when the only way to enjoy a game was to watch all those Cubs fans stay to the last disappointing out.

 

Dave Hyde can be reached at dhyde@sun-sentinel.com.

Willis will not make $10 million next year or anything close to it and in a trade he wouldn't bring in a Hanley type prospect or anything close to it. It looks like Hyde needed to fill space and had nothing to write about so he filled his column with garbage.

The media down here likes beating that dead horse of attendance don't they?

 

 

What a pathetic article. What I would give for some respectable baseball journalism down here.

Isn't there a Dolphins article you should be writing, Mr. Hyde?

The media down here likes beating that dead horse of attendance don't they?

 

 

What a pathetic article. What I would give for some respectable baseball journalism down here.

At least Hyde is writing about the sport on a consistent basis. Contrast that to the Linda Robertson article the other day. Wonder how many baseball games she has been to. She just returned from a year getting a Doctorate, I believe, in Ann Arbor and speaking of negative-her first article starts with her observation of a difference between S. Florida and Ann Arbor. "people in Ann Arbor are smart...". Thanks Linda, your obnoxious, elitism showing through. Granted, S. Florida is not one big college town with Tweed coated professors drinking coffee in Starbucks, but there are many extremely bright and successful people here. Just take a walk to the UM Medical Center and speak to the people on the forefront of genetic research, on spinal research etc.

This is just a sample of the press negativism. Why did Linda come back? Does she now feel superior? Have the Hurricanes changed their name yet in honor of the victims of Hurricane Andrew? For you younger folks and newly transplanted-after Hurricane Andrew devastated S. Florida, this "intellect" wrote an article that the Canes should change their nickname so as not to bring up bad memories everytime they play.

Anyway, Linda, while you were in Ann Arbor-did you visit that friendly, full of intellect, city of love and understanding-DETROIT.

OK, enough, the point is-yes, negative press is a cheap and easy way for a writer to come up with an article. A no brainer-will make controversy. Really, seems that is all they are good for.

What a pathetic article. What I would give for some respectable baseball journalism down here.

 

 

 

and i'd like some respectable baseball fans down in Miami also.

What a pathetic article. What I would give for some respectable baseball journalism down here.

 

 

 

and i'd like some respectable baseball fans down in Miami also.

 

 

I bet you'd like to sound like a man and not a little girl too.

 

Squeakers.