Future of Florida Marlins a Big Question
By TIM REYNOLDS, AP Sports Writer
Tue Nov 29, 2:54 PM ET
MIAMI - The offseason is usually when hope truly springs eternal for most baseball fans, the time when rumors run wild about which players will be acquired and when championship dreams are hatched. Not in Miami this year.
That traditional wait-'til-next-year mantra doesn't apply these days in South Florida, where three high-priced stars already have been traded, where more roster shakeups are likely. And the team says it may move after the 2007 season.
"I believe it's a market that can handle baseball," said third baseman Mike Lowell, who spent seven seasons with the Marlins before being traded last week to the Boston Red Sox. "I'm just not sure if it's a baseball market yet."
Years of plans for a baseball-only stadium went nowhere, and the Marlins have abandoned their hopes of building a new $420 million, retractable-roof facility adjacent to the Orange Bowl in downtown Miami. The team's lease at Dolphins Stadium expires in 2010. The Marlins will not renew that deal.
They could stay in the area, which owner Jeffrey Loria says is his preference. Other cities mentioned as potential Marlins suitors include Las Vegas, Portland, Ore., and Charlotte, N.C.
"I don't think baseball can abandon the Miami market," said Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College. "If MLB does let that market go vacant, I think it'll be one of the biggest mistakes they ever made."
The Marlins have led a cyclical existence since their first game in 1993, with two World Series titles eventually followed two roster dismantlings ??? many called them fire sales.
They won the World Series in 1997, after former owner Wayne Huizenga took a bit of a gamble and loaded up on big-ticket players such as Bobby Bonilla and Moises Alou. Huizenga won a trophy, but said he lost more than $30 million that season ??? so the team was broken up that winter, and the 1998 club went 54-108. by far the worst ever for a defending World Series champion.
Now, two years removed from the 2003 World Series title, Florida officials call this offseason's plan a "market correction."
But most observers simply say "fire sale" again.
"Unfortunately, here we are," Loria said in a statement last week. "Four years after purchasing the Marlins, with no new stadium and no sure prospects on the horizon for such a facility."
The only real prospects the Marlins have now are the ones arriving in trades.
Last week, the Marlins sent Lowell and Josh Beckett to Boston, only a few hours after moving Carlos Delgado to the New York Mets. Florida received seven prospects in those deals, and it's probable the Marlins will make many more moves before opening day.
Starting pitcher A.J. Burnett became a free agent. Todd Jones, who had a breakout season as a closer, may not be back. Jeff Conine wanted to finish his career in Florida; he could prove too costly. Juan Pierre has been mentioned in trade rumors.
"Before I took the job, we talked about going younger this year. We didn't talk to what degree," said new Marlins manager Joe Girardi, who took over shortly after Jack McKeon retired in October. "But I'm still excited about this opportunity and I'll manage whatever team they give me."
Even when his team was in a playoff chase, Lowell knew the Marlins were in real trouble.
Back in August, the Marlins were only three games out of the wild-card lead when they came home from road trips to Cincinnati and Colorado, two clubs long out of playoff contention. Burnett was on the mound for the homestand opener against Arizona's Javier Vazquez, making an attractive pitching matchup.
That night, 17,551 fans showed up to watch. Each of the meaningless games Florida had played against the woebegone Reds and Rockies lured more.
"These teams are out of it in May and they're way outdrawing us," Lowell said. "And even in September we're coming down to the wire, leading the wild card with about three weeks left and we're playing in front of 17,000 against the Braves on a weekend. That's where it becomes very frustrating."
There's frustration on a number of levels when talking about the Marlins.
Dolphins Stadium is located about 12 miles north of downtown Miami. Late-afternoon traffic is awful in that direction, something that probably disuades many people from attending games and contributes to the team annually ranking among the worst in attendance (the Marlins were 28th among the 30 teams last season).
Plus, during the steamy, humid summer months, rain is common. The Marlins endured 24 rain delays this year, most at home, and those stoppages lasted 1,333 minutes.
"It rains every day. People wake up and they have tickets to the game and they just decide, `Hey, I'm not going to go. I'm not going to go sit out there,'" Beckett said. "And the day games, it's so hot, it's ridiculous to try to sit out there."
But Zimbalist thinks most Marlins fans are still scarred by the initial fire sale.
The combination of that dismantling, along with other no-new-stadium disappointments along the way hasn't exactly endeared the Marlins to the South Florida fan base ??? and this offseason's moves may widen that divide.
"Everybody got excited in 1997 and then they got smacked in the face," Zimbalist said. "They won't go back for another round when that happens. ... If every time you went to McDonald's there was someone there who threw water in your face, you wouldn't go back, either
