Former Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga has officially sold the Dolphins and Dolphin Stadium to Stephen Ross. Welcome our new landlord and hope he gives us a better deal because we haven’t made any progress on our Ballpark.
The folks at Microsoft just launched an update to their Live Maps Virtual Earth featuring detailed 3D renderings of buildings in major cities (I know this is not a completely new feature). This includes our very own Dolphin Stadium captured in its boring football configuration. Take a look and enjoy. More
Today may turn out to be on of the most important days in Florida Marlins history.
Following their president’s recommendation, the University of Miami Board of Trustees is expected to approve moving the football team out of the Orange Bowl and into Dolphin Stadium. This should hopefully set off a series of events culminating with the Florida Marlins announcing a new ballpark.
UM’s decision takes a $205 million package offered by the County off the table. Without that money, the stadium will be torn down. The County can now focus on saving its baseball team and overcoming two big issues: where to build the stadium and how to close a funding gap.
There are ways to close this funding gap either through MLB, the Marlins, or even some of that money the County is no longer sending to UM. As for the site, it appears that several County leaders insist on using the Orange Bowl site, despite the Marlins’ and MLB’s push for a more logical downtown location. The question is how long the Marlins will hold onto that position since a ballpark in the Orange Bowl is better than no ballpark.
Update: It’s official
May the Marlins rot in hell. UM sacrificed home field advantage for a few $$$ and to please wine & cheese and corporate folks. DS will never give the Canes a homefield advantage. In any event, if fans didn’t want to trek to Little Havana six times a year for football, why would any more than the paltry few thousand that currently go to DS show up? The OB is being torn down for nothing…everyone will regret it. But go ahead and cheer fishboy.
If you’re familiar with our frustration over UM’s impact on the ballpark situation, you can imagine our dismay as we read the latest updates.
First, we are reminded that the ballpark is on hold while the world waits for the University of Miami to make up its mind on whether to renovate the Orange Bowl or move to Dolphin Stadium.
[T]he University of Miami’s indecision over whether to stay in the Orange Bowl is stalling arrangements to move the Marlins into a Miami home, says Ian Yorty, who handles baseball negotiations for Miami-Dade County
And of course, the County wants the Marlins to play at the OB site:
Major League Baseball is “willing,” Mr. Hernandez said, to bring the Marlins to the Orange Bowl should the university choose to leave … Orange Bowl still fits the Marlins’ desired bill of “an urban ballpark setting.”
Really? More
To answer your question….because baseball sucks. I can’t wait for the Marlins to become the Las Vegas Slot Machines. i’m sure they’ll be able to get their stadium right on The Strip – next to the Mandarin.
Go CANES!!
Fine win today for the Florida Marlins against the Washington Nationals — great pitching and timely home runs will do the trick.
When we look at the Marlins today and consider all the bad things that have happened (injuries to pitching staff, strikeouts, errors, all those games Jorge Julio blew) the one stat that stands out is the poor home record (18-26). If the Fish had a decent wining home record, combined with the winning road record (25-22), they would be fighting for first place in the NL East.
So why have we failed? I think it comes down to two things — pitching and defense.
Historically, the Marlins have had good home records even in the worst of years. That has to do with the constant focus on pitching and defense. Starting with the second generation of the Marlins (around 1996), the team has always tried to have a strong defensive presence in the infield while sending out good pitchers. Dombrowski and Beinfest have both done great work bringing in talented arms throughout the years (think of the rotations in 1997, 2003, and 2006) and keeping a solid infield (think of the gold-glove caliber infield for most of this century).
Now, Joe Robbie/Pro Player/Dolphin Stadium is a pitchers park. Humid summer air combined with the a good infield, scoreboard in left, deep gaps, and the Bermuda Triangle means fewer home runs and quick outs on ground balls.
The 2007 Marlins are a great offensive team. They have power and speed in various positions. But they also have a crippled pitching staff and the defense has been horrible. So now, instead of us beating offensive teams in our defensive park with pitchers and defense, we are the offensive team without pitching and defense in a pitchers park.
This all brings us back to today’s win. Serio Mitre had 17 groundball outs and the Marlins showed some solid defense. The result? a 5-2 win.