Loria wears credibility on his finger

 

By Dave George, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Saturday, March 6, 2004

 

JUPITER -- Jeffrey Loria can't carry the 2003 World Series trophy around with him. That would be impractical. So would wearing the world championship flag around his shoulders like a superhero's cape.

 

There will be no mistaking, however, when the owner of the Florida Marlins is at Roger Dean Stadium this spring. He's the guy with the sparkling smile and a ring so enormous, so shockingly luminescent, that it might as well be solar-powered.

 

"This is not about me," Loria said Friday before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at the Marlins' home spring training opener against Baltimore. "It's about doing great things for the community, for South Florida."

 

And, best of all, making certain that no one down here ever tries to downsize what the Marlins did in 2003.

 

There will always be critics, those who say that ordering 85 of the largest, most elaborate sports championship rings ever designed and presenting them to the Marlins' players and administrative personnel is a poor use of money for a franchise that couldn't afford to keep all its key players from last year. I say if you got it, flaunt it, because no other sports franchise in this market can.

 

It never made much sense, anyway, when former Marlins owner John Henry made such a big deal of giving his players a tour of his incredibly opulent yacht and then whined about being bone dry on stadium construction money. Loria wears his credibility on his ring finger now, as big as a golf ball in total diameter and with a rare teal-colored diamond to dot the eye of the leaping Marlin logo on its crown. Nobody will ever be able to look him in the eye again and say he didn't know what he was doing in Montreal, or that he doesn't know what he's doing here, without first taking a glance toward that massive hunk of 14-karat credibility.

 

"Priceless," Loria called each ring, which will be hand-delivered to every player from the championship team, even those who were trimmed from the payroll in the off-season, like Pudge Rodriguez of the Detroit Tigers, Derrek Lee of the Chicago Cubs and Juan Encarnacion of the Los Angeles Dodgers. A "glorious piece of sculpture," he called it, too, and who would know better than a millionaire art dealer?

 

This has been a highly personal odyssey for Loria, who postponed trips to Milan and Rome last summer and worked his business by cellphone from Pro Player Stadium. He was in Jack McKeon's office following most home games, not second-guessing, just soaking it all in. Then, when October found the Marlins at Yankee Stadium and the baseball world at their feet, Loria celebrated like a schoolboy by chugging around the bases well past midnight of the clinching game and sliding head-first across home plate.

 

"We had a plan," Loria said Friday. "It's nice when it works out."

 

Much nicer when there's another plan to follow it. Wayne Huizenga, owner of the Marlins' inaugural world title team in 1997, was booed at Pro Player Stadium the following April as a permanent championship sign was unveiled above the left-field wall. He sold the dream to the highest bidder.

 

Loria is eager to outfit another one, adding new parts of a familiar foundation, even if it means a bejeweled heavyweight championship belt to outshine Friday's ring presentation.

 

"We're right there," Loria said of the Marlins' positioning for another playoff run. "Last year, if you think about it, no one really knew what Juan Pierre was all about. And when I talked about Luis Castillo and said I'd like to see two guys like that at the top of the lineup, people didn't quite know what to make of that. Look in the outfield with Miguel Cabrera, Juan Pierre and Jeff Conine. We're all right out there, and I mean big-time all right. Plus, we've got a kid at first base (Hee Seop Choi) who was untradeable last year. The Cubs wouldn't move him for anything."

 

Friday's crowd of 4,338 was roughly twice the attendance for last spring's home opener. Back then, Loria often wandered the ballpark in relative anonymity, settling in for a few innings wherever a box seat was empty or simply leaning against the wall at the top of the staircase where fans come and go to the concession stands underneath the seats. Funny, but he never seemed to mind going unrecognized. Why should it be different for the owner than it was for his team?

 

No more of that. Fans may grumble about the various stadium financing plans to be announced in the coming months, and about the loss of Pudge, for whom Loria said "we made a substantial offer," but it will be a while before the Marlins are summarily dismissed around here.

 

As Loria took the ball utilized for his ceremonial first pitch Friday and tossed it happily into a gaggle of cheering fans in the lower box seats, he did so with the extreme satisfaction of a promise kept.

 

And a reputation, the right kind of reputation, earned.

 

dave_george@pbpost.com

 

Link

That is one GIGANTIC ring Loria is wearing. :blink:

 

The team deserves it, and is fortunate to have an owner who knows how to reward them for their success.

 

And they are going to hand deliver them to last year's ex-Marlins....now that is a classy move.

He cut Beckett's salary to pay for Beckett's ring lol

If you look at it that way....everybody else got a $20K raise. :thumbup

If you look at it that way....everybody else got a $20K raise. :thumbup

exactly, and what about all the stuff Loria gave them. Jack got his new car, Josh got his bonus for MVP.

jack definately got his new car.

Seriously speaking, after seeing the ring on his finger on Saturday afternoon at the game, I can honestly say the ring is huuuuuuuuuuuugeeeeeee!!!

 

It's great...I'm out for a picture today....

 

*starts doing finger weights*

Are they going to have replicas of those at the April game???

The replicas are given out as a promo on April 10th...also be on the look out for fan rings which will go on sale pretty soon.

it's quite large, to say the least