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The Spectacle Blog
With the wrapping paper barely off of a new and very controversial $634 million ballyard, paid for mostly by taxpayers, the Miami Marlins, channeling Charles O. Finley, follow an awful season with a player fire sale (See Aaron Goldstein here) and the promise of a rebuilding year or three. Miami baseball fans have every reason to be torqued, and have every reason to spend their 2013 summer evenings somewhere other than Taxpayer Stadium.
The Marlins/Blue Jays trade features seasoned and talented players learning the words to “Oh Canada” while “prospects,” aka young and cheap players, make their way south to Miami. Some of these players are talented, but have a lot of baseball to learn and still require notes from their mothers to travel to away games.
The swap put off enough of an odor to attract the attention of Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, who says he’s looking into it and will do “what’s in the best interest of the sport.” It’s not clear yet what this means, but long-time baseball fans will recall Bowie Kuhn, who likely would have already lowered the hammer on this one.
In Spanish-speaking Miami, the most exciting and dynamic city in Latin America, beisbol will not be berry berry good this summer. Minnie Minoso, who turns 87 later this month, and is probably hitting frozen ropes in some old-timer’s league, could tell you that. But perhaps if the Marlins’ youngsters hustle as hard as Minnie did in his ML years, and have a fraction of the talent Minnie had, the Marlins will salvage a few Ws before next October.
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More Blog Posts by Larry Thornberry
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/11/16/berry-berry-bad-baseball
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astorian| 11.16.12 @ 1:57PM
You do Charlie Finley as disservice.
Yes, when it was clear he was going to lose his best players to free agency, Charlie Finley tried to trade them away for cash. But he HAD to! He couldn't afford to pay Rollie Fingers or Joe Rudi what they could get on the open market, so he was desperate to get some value for those players before he lost them forever.
Bowie Kuhn voided thee trades, and was hailed for doing so. But in the end, Finley lost all those players and got NOTHING in return. Kuhn did NOT protect the intergity of baseball- all he did was deny Finley a chance to get compensation for players he was losing.
A bitter Finley found it ironic that, in 1981, when Kuhn led the owners in a lockout, their pet cause was .... getting compenation for teams that lost players to free agency! That was ALL Finley wanted, himself, but Kuhn denied him a chance to get any compensation!
The Marlins, unlike Finley, weren't just about to lose the players they got rid of. They had their star players locked up in big-money, long-term contracts. The Marlins soaked the taxpayers for a stadium nobody bothers to attend, and are now trying to save money on payroll. Charlie Finley was different- he knew he had a superb minor league system, and wanted money to invest in younger players. Remember that by 1980, the A's were pennant contenders again, due to young stars pitchers on the A's farm teams (Rickey Henderson, Tony Armas, Mike Norris, Steve McCatty, Matt Keogh, et al).).
Trinacria| 11.16.12 @ 3:36PM
It's the Miami way. You can't get a sandwich at the Pollo Tropical without getting conned, which is why I packed up and beat a path out of the northernmost tip of Cuba muy rapido ten years ago...