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Florida Marlins

Fishing for Sympathy

When asked how he chose his franchise name, former Florida Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga, an avid deep-sea fisher, explained, “I choose Marlin because the fish is a fierce fighter and an adversary that tests your mettle.” After gutting $41 million out of a $60 million payroll, current Marlins ownership announced a 30.7 percent price hike on tickets. Originally, Huizenga’s chosen metaphor may have been aimed at player performance, but with Florida fans moaning, the mettle being tested is in the stands, not on the field. Gone from the team are A.J. Burnett, Carlos Delgado, former World Series MVP Josh Beckett, Juan Pierre, Luis Castillo, Mike Lowell and Paul Lo Duca and while blame can’t be placed on Florida ownership for wanting to dump cargo off a sinking ship, should Marlins’ ticket holders have to pay major league prices for a minor league product? The Marlins say yes.

Fish fans are screaming: Dontrelle Willis corkscrewing his way into the CY Young debate is not enough to offset the other four days a week when they get to watch a triple-A team and Miguel Cabrera. “This is not what we bought a ticket for,” Miami Beach resident and Marlins season ticket holder Andrew Gordon told the Miami Herald. “It’s a shame … The Marlins don’t care. We’re not getting what we paid for.”

For those who spoon their Billy the Marlin doll at night, I say suck it up.

Betrayal, disrespect, heartbreak … nothing says “I love you” like shipping off what means most to you, but the Marlins’ purge has nothing to do with the dedicated fan. The team’s average attendance ranks 28 out of 30 not because of the season ticket holder, but because the Marlins play in a city more dedicated to its tan than its team. That said, Florida fans should be the last to seek sympathy for their team’s performance on the field.

Two championships in ten years! The last time the Cubs won their second championship in ten years, 1908. The Red Sox, 1918. Teams to never win a World Series include: the San Diego Padres, Washington Nationals, Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners, Colorado Rockies, and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The entire state of Texas has never won a World Series. The Marlins could find company with Major League doormats like the Royals and Pirates, payrolls holding steady around $160 million below the Yankees, but striving for greatness every five years seems better than resolving yourself to never win more than 70 games.

It’s a shame what’s happening in South Florida. Marlins’ Owner Jeffrey Loria claims a shortfall of between $80 and $100 million since taking over the team four year ago from now Red Sox owner John Henry. A constant battle with state officials over funding for a new stadium, an argument dating back to the Huizenga era, has eclipsed the future of a franchise once hoping to dominate the Latin American market. Blame for this misfortune may reach from City Hall to Bud Selig’s office, the owner’s box and the Dolphin Stadium seats, but ticket holders shouldn’t seek financial relief for their lamentable fate. Speculation is running rampant; will the Marlins relocate to San Antonio or Portland? Instead of questioning the Marlins for raising ticket prices, diehard fans, spoiled by winning, should bind together in an effort to save their beleaguered franchise.

Legendary broadcaster Harry Caray once joked, “What does a mama bear have in common with the World Series? No cubs.” Sadly, Marlins’ fans have never had to deal with sustained ineptitude, never had the chance to wax philosophical about their team’s perpetual futility and as a result, never understood baseball’s tie that binds, compromised expectations. Yes, the Marlins have struggled at times. They even lost 108 games the season after winning the World Series in ’97, the most pitiful effort by a defending champion in baseball history. However, every time a Marlins’ fan can’t sleep imagining an infield rotation populated with such major league stalwarts as Joe Dillon, Dan Uggla and Hanley Ramirez, they can remember one thing, their team has a system: break, rebuild, break, rebuild.

Act One

In the mid-90s, they formed a nucleus of promising young players, Edgar Renteria, Louis Castillo, Livan Hernandez, and surrounded them with every star player money could buy, Gary Sheffield, Moises Alou, Bobby Bonilla, Darin “Dutch” Dalton, Devon White, Kevin Brown and Al Leiter. World Series won, they dismantled the team, sold while the price was high for every blue-chip prospect a veteran could buy.

Act Two

They watched Cliff Floyd, Preston Wilson, Mike Lowell, A.J. Burnett, Josh Beckett, among others, climb through the minor league ranks and establish themselves in the major leagues. They decided which players to keep and which to ship off, like Floyd and Wilson, to acquire the pieces necessary to make a title run. A nucleus established, they bought Pudge Rodriguez and Juan Pierre, traded for Ugueth Urbina and Jeff Conine and raised their payroll nearly $20 million. World Series won.

So now begins act three. They’ve gotten lucky at times. It’s not often a prospect makes an immediate impact in the majors mid-season, three last year, Jeff Francoeur, Ryan Howard and Felix Hernandez. In ’03, the Marlins had two, D-train and Cabrera. Both in ’97 and ’03 they rode a scorching young pitcher to the championship, Hernandez and Beckett respectively. Maybe the Marlins’ luck will run out this time, unable to rebuild what they’ve broken. But, for all those fans that’ve watched their team, year after year, flirt with greatness only to rest comfortably somewhere south of mediocrity, we don’t want to hear Marlins’ fans gripe, no matter the perceived sin.

Cubs’ fans never sought a refund when Kerry Wood and Mark Prior went down the past two seasons and Red Sox’ fans never received compensation when Ted Williams reported for aviation training in ’43. The consequences of financial failing are as much a part of modern baseball as war once was and injury still is. It’s terrible that Marlins’ fans will have to watch their team lose 80, 90, 100 games next year. But Marlins’ fans fight their fate, thinking their complaints can change their standing on baseball’s financial ladder. If they want to save their franchise from impending doom, they should stop complaining about the imagined injustice and start voicing their support for the organization. Only one fan should have the audacity to balk when their excellence bears holes and that’s just allowed so the rest of the league can rally around a collective loathing for the Yankees.  

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