The Miami Marlins is one interesting franchise.
This is an organization whose owner Jeffrey Loria conned the city of Miami and Miami-Dade county into financing Marlins Park to the tune of $23 million and $347 million, respectively. Loria and the rest of Marlins management promised to build and finance a consistent winner if the ballpark was built.
After all, the rationale was that management could not afford to afford a competitive team while playing in that “old” stadium where the Dolphins play. Right?
Well, fast forward to this past season. The Marlins got off to a fast start, only to fade mid-season and fizzle out towards the end.
Chalk it up as one bad season and come back to refocus next season? Nope! Marlins management decided to tear the sonofabitch down and start from scratch all over again.
First, they traded stud Hanley Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers for spare parts in the middle of the season. Then they canned their high-profile manager Ozzie Guillen after only ONE SEASON. If those moves weren’t bad enough, the Marlins agreed to a multiple-player trade that sent shortstop Jose Reyes and pitchers Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle to the Toronto Blue Jays.
Remember that pledge the Marlins made in being about to afford a contending team? Well, Reyes (six years, $106 million) and Buehrle (four years, $58 million) just signed long-term deals with the Marlins last offseason.
Are you (plucking) kidding me? Do those mother(lovers) want to win or are they out to make a buck?
If I were Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, I’d contract those bastards before midnight tonight. I mean this is an absolute joke.
The sad part is, the Marlins actually have one of the best minor league systems in baseball. But give the Marlins time, and they will dump them to the highest bidder once those minor leaguers become good and expensive.
You know that saying “build it and they will come”? The hell with that bullshit.
Memo to MLB: give Loria and his cronies a $300 million severance package and tell them to go away – Frank McCourt-style…
Categories: baseball, MLB, sports story
Despite everything you said about the Marlins organization, there may be a method to the madness. The Hanley Ramirez trade was extremely “one-sided” at best, but the fan base and organization was suffering from “Hanley fatigue”. Ozzie dug his own grave with his Fidel Castro rant. He was the ideal manager for that fan base, but he went overboard with his comments. I think I may be one of the few who don’t absolutely hate the Mia-Tor Trade. Josh Johnson has a year left on his deal and wasn’t going to resign. Shipping Reyes and Buehrle off was clearly a salary dump, but you’ve got to look at who they received in return. The overwhelming majority of the players sent to Miami are Latin. I’m of the opinion that this move was also executed to bring a fresh young crop of Latin players that the community can wrap their arms around. If the Marlins organization can put a product on the field that is representative of the community (Latin, under appreciated, hardworking, under publicized, etc.) perhaps the fan base will expand and galvanize. If not, at least the Marlins aren’t on the hook for a bunch of bloated contracts. Just a thought.
Get someone else to fund your team’s dugout..genius..getting the government to raise taxes and pay for it…genius…making a ton of money on someone else’s dime..genius….not giving a shit about winning or losing…genius….making money and taking it to the bank…genius….business is about taking money out of one person’s pocket and putting it in yours…genius…Loria is a business man and I find everything he’s done a staple of business practice…granted a staple that isn’t highly talked about…but the truth is Jerry Jones did it and he puts out the same measly team year after year with honestly very little effort to improve as an organization…hell if the bottom line says losing games makes the same money as winning games does it really matter?