MLB Teams: Florida Marlins
There are two sides to the Florida Marlins. Let’s start with the positive perspective.
Firstly, Florida is obviously a wonderful tourist destination, providing ample opportunity for you to book up a well-priced holiday that allows you to take in a few games at your adopted team’s home.
The Marlins assure you an exciting season as they play in an extremely competitive division: the National League East. The Washington Nationals may be struggling at the moment, but their other three division mates are formidable opponents. Just as importantly, Florida often go into battle against the Braves, Mets and Phillies with a talented young team that are full of promise and exciting to watch.
Sadly, the Marlins aren’t backed by a large number of fans in Florida, but that can be seen in a positive light from a Brit’s point of view. The Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Cubs and their ilk already have plenty of backers to call on. If you are going to pick a team, why not plump for one that could really do with your support.
Okay, there’s the positive spin on the Marlins. Unfortunately, most of these points can be looked at from a less appealing angle.
While the allure of Florida can’t be denied, Dolphin Stadium (recently renamed Land Shark Stadium, which I was oblivious to before checking for this blog post) isn’t very high on the list of great ballparks to visit. That’s primarily because it’s an NFL stadium first, ballpark second. This is scheduled to change over the next few years as the Marlins appear to have finally received full consent to build a new, baseball-only stadium. This has been a long and bitter battle, with the Marlins’ ownership group constantly playing the ‘give us public funding or we’ll take the team elsewhere’ card. That doesn’t go down well with anyone, let alone British fans that see the idea of moving a team as being nothing short of scandalous.
The NL East is exciting so long as you’re not one of the teams being bullied by the big boys. The Marlins have never won the division since coming into existence in 1993, although that hasn’t stopped them winning two World Series. Florida were able to defy the odds in 1997 and 2003, but whether they can do so again anytime soon is up for question.
That’s partly because the current ownership run the team on the lowest payroll in the Majors. The Marlins do have some talented youngsters, but they are there primarily because proven players cost more money. All fans of smaller-market teams accept that they are likely to lose their star players when they approach free agency, yet the Marlins take a more brutal approach to roster construction. Once a player becomes arbitration eligible, it’s normally only a matter of time before they are traded away. Fans in Florida have learned that it doesn’t pay to become too attached to any individuals.
And that final point is one of the reasons why the Marlins’ home attendances are so poor. It’s hard to commit yourself to a team that is so blatantly not committed to winning, particularly when combined with the classless handling of the new ballpark. The Front Office claim that their payroll reflects their economic situation and that a new ballpark will offer them greater flexibility to sign and keep players. Only time will tell whether that promise will be kept.
You have to be keen for a challenge if you want to adopt the Florida Marlins as your team. However, despite my pessimism, there are signs that the future may be brighter.
The new ballpark will be a vast improvement on their current home and, when it opens in 2012 (subject to anything changing that date), it will be a great place to visit even for Brits without much interest in baseball currently. The team is also going to be re-named as the Miami Marlins at the same time, although it’s up to you to decide whether that’s an improvement or not.
More than anything, the Marlins have been uniquely successful despite their underdog status. Only the Yankees have won more World Series than the Marlins since their debut season in 1993 (the Red Sox have also won the Fall Classic twice during that stretch, although they had to wait 86 years for their 2004 success).
So the Marlins do have some history to be proud of and maybe some Brits will feel that, for all the pluses and minuses, they would like to be a part of any future success too.
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