Josh Johnson was incredible tonight, throwing the Marlins second complete game of the season holding the Braves to one run and striking out eight. I know the Fish have a long way to go to catchup to the Phillies and we’ve all heard about the 18 arbitration eligible players but when you look at Johnson, Ricky Nolasco, Anibal Sanchez, Chris Volstad, Scott Olsen and even Andrew Miller you have to believe that this team is going to do really well very soon.

I admit that I stopped following last night’s game somewhere in the 6th inning (sorry, had to drive home and was following the Democratic convention) and I lost complete track until the final score email arrived in my inbox. I was stunned. I think my reaction has to do with me finally coming to grips with where the season is going (and for that matter, not going).

The circus surrounding the Norm Braman trial continued today when Judge Jeri Beth Cohen postponed a decision on one of the two remaining issues for at least 5 weeks. The issue in question is whether money can be reallocated for a different purpose without a referendum. The Judge wants to wait for a Florida Supreme Court reconsideration of case concerning reallocation of bond funds.

Frankly, this seems like the only real legal issue left in this case so everything else that happened is irrelevant (hence the term “circus” in this post). The issue of whether the stadium is a good public use of money is not an issue for a court to decide, that’s why we have elected officials. Now, if Braman wanted to challenge the elected official’s authority to make such decisions, that’s a legal challenge. But in this case, debating whether the Marlins will leave town without a stadium or whether they cannot afford to pay more is not an issue for the court to decide.

Anyway, Judge Cohen is scared to make a decision because she doesn’t want her ruling overturned but the end result of her decision is to give the Braman a big victory.

It looks like Braman’s lawsuit is going down in flames (as expected) but a big concern may be his decision to continue wasting his money by appealing the decision.

We are not happy with the prospect, but we are not concerned. One thing to keep in mind is that Braman did not obtain an injunction (and no court has issued an injunction) against the projects. Absent that, the county, the city, and the Marlins are going ahead full steam. Even if Braman ultimately prevails in some sort of appeal (keep in mind that appeals can’t just be a disagreement with the ruling, there has to be an obvious error), the city/county will have to find a way to pay for the ballpark or else they would have to pay the Marlins for all costs incurred as well as damages.

We’ve previously discussed the concern that the Ballpark may be facing obstacles at the County level. Now comes word from Bob DuPuy that this is potentially a real problem:

DuPuy said “the coalition at county commission level is tenuous” for the Florida Marlins’ proposed new ballpark.

The City and County did a great job trying to ram the ballpark through as quickly as possible but it’s clear that some politicians are ready to sink this ship. I don’t know if they are sincere in their concerns or merely grandstanding for cheap political tricks but it’s time to pick sides.

Consider me worried.

Greg Cote wrote a good commentary in Today’s Miami Herald asking why South Florida fans are not coming to ball games.

South Floridians were able to cheer a division-leading, first-place professional sports team at home Tuesday night. Ordinarily, this would not qualify as news, let alone a revelation, but the recent rarity makes it so.

Considering how bad South Florida teams were this year (except for the Panthers but they still didn’t make the playoffs) it’s legitimate to ask why people aren’t showing up to watch a first place team with an 8-5 record who is playing entertaining baseball. You can make excuses about the payroll but it’s on the field performance that matters and unlike the Dolphins, who won 1 game all year long, and the Heat, who will likely end up with 15 wins, the Marlins are winning more than they are losing.

Cote points out that rather than complain about the low payroll, shouldn’t South Florida appreciate that the winning team is an underdog that doesn’t waste money on a $20MM fat useless center or millions of dollars on cornerbacks who get burned every time?

Yes, the Fish are far from perfect: they don’t hit for average, they don’t have a major superstar (although Hanley is getting there), their starters have a high ERA and can’t seem to make it to the 6th inning, and their defense is scary at best. But they are trying really hard, having fun, and winning.

So is South Florida so lame as to ignore something good simply because they are not happy with the payroll? Do you really skip a game because you don’t like the ownership? (really? then why do you go to Dolphins games?)

Regardless, this commentary (Cote’s and mine) says alot about South Florida sports fans.

Marlins win with home runs. Once again starting pitching can’t get to the 6th (or out of the 4th, for that matter). If we solve that problem we’ll continue to be the first-place Florida Marlins.

Note to MLB: Having a day off tomorrow is not cool. Why not just start the series tomorrow? And why do the Nationals have a one-game opening day, then another home game a week later followed by another day off before their third home game?

Local media, instead of unequivocally supporting the hometown team, again find the most inappropriate time to attack the team. After all, nothing helps a team desperately in need of public support more than a public attack on perhaps their most visible day of the year.

Today is the best day of they year. America’s pastime and our obsession begins. Today we’re all undefeated and in first place (except for the Red Sox and A’s, but we won’t get into that). Even though all the analysts have decided how we will do (hint: last in the NL East), today we look ahead and wonder. We’ve seen veteran teams achieve (1997) and underachieve (2005) and we’ve seen young teams fail (1998), struggle (2006), and win it all (2003). So today we celebrate the best day of the year because:

• We win with pitching and no one in baseball has a deep collection of young talented starting pitchers like we do: Andrew Miller, Scott Olsen, Chris Volstad, Josh Johnson, Anibal Sanchez, Rick VandenHurk, Ricky Nolasco, Sergio Mitre, Burke Badenhop, and more (note: Tampa Bay has quite a few, but not as many)
• If our pitchers can overcome the 5th inning wall we will win more games.
• We have the best bullpen in the division.
• Our unfairly maligned owner, Jeffrey Loria, has given us all we could ever ask for: a World Series, a ballpark, and the Marlins Mermaids
• Larry Beinfest.
• Jeff Conine was a Marlins once more, even for a day and can now retire into the South Florida sunset.
• Half the stadium today will probably root for the Mets, but the rest of us will keep smiling as we remember what we did to the them at the end of last season.
• Every game we play from now until 2011 is one less day for Wayne Huizenga to take our stadium revenues
• It reminds me of the early days and Charlie Hough, who recently turned 60.

The Sun-Sentinel had an interesting take on last night’s exhibition game against the Yankees:

I’m pretty sure the headline is wrong. Here is what the Miami Herald said:

I wonder who got it right?

We kid of course. Unlike the headline, Juan C. Rodriguez’s article accurately captured the result of the game. The rest of the article though, hmm… Check out this nugget:

Either A-Rod was born in 1985 (rather than 1975) or the Marlins played in the NLDS against the Giants in 1987, before they existed. Maybe they meant yesterday’s starting pitcher, Andrew Miller, who attended the 2003 World Series. I’m sure it’s a common mistake to confuse Alex Rodriguez with Andrew Miller. Happened to me on my Fantasy Team. Maybe A-Rod plays for the Marlins now. We seem to remember covering it this past fall.

I’m sure by the time you read this, they fixed it. Don’t worry, we all make mistakes (thankfully, I’m a hack not a journalist).