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.
