Justin Miller and his infamous tattoos get some ink in Inked Magazine (including photos).
All he’s missing is Billy the Marlin riding a Harley with a naked chick riding on the back, and he’s set. 😀
Interesting New York Times op-ed by former Chicago Cub Doug Glanville:
With contributions coming from all sources — including the Chicago Police Department — it was obvious that we had been anointed.
The problem was, the Florida Marlins thought the same thing.
They had their own reasons for feeling that way. Their manager, stodgy, cigar-smoking Jack McKeon, had been brought in at mid-season to right a wrong ship, and as the most senior manager in the league had shown a lot of whippersnappers that he knew how to run a young team. The Marlins barreled their way to the wild card berth in the playoffs fueled by fire and brimstone.
So what happens when two forces — destined, tired and playing awfully good baseball — collide in Wrigley Field?
Here is a collection of links to articles written by various papers covering their local prospects who were chosen by the Marlins in the 2008 Draft:
Here is what Deadspin’s Purple Prose has to say about the Fish.
For the record, here are some of the nicknames in the write up:
The 7-game winning stream may be over but it seems like everyone suddenly likes us:
We had read some rumors that the Marlins were looking to lock up key players (namely Hanley Ramirez) but we didn’t expect it to happen so soon.
So on to the big news:
According to a high-ranking Major League Baseball source, the Marlins have reached a tentative agreement on a six-year, $70 million contract with their star shortstop. The deal is not expected to be formally announced for at least a few days.
At an average of a little over $11 million, the current Marlins ownership did something they haven’t really done before:
They normally don’t lock up players through their arbitration years, along with buying out a few years of free agency. But they did so with Ramirez, who has accepted the leadership role on a young franchise. More
We’re going to experience a few hiccups due to a necessary update coming up in the next few hours. Don’t lose faith, we’ll be back to normal in no time.
Update: We’re back. Please contact us if anything looks broken.
Let’s all welcome Bright Orange Seats to the ever-growing family of Marlins websites.
Marlins owner Jeffery Loria was acessible to the media yesterday which meant we the fans get some more insight into what’s going on with our beloved team. I think many people spend far too much time speculating about what Loria is doing and often they are wrong.
Talking about his current roster and future payroll plans, Loria said:
“I’m not asking for patience,” Loria said before the Marlins’ season-opening 7-2 loss to Johan Santana and the New York Mets. “I’m asking people to realize we’re doing it the right way.
“We know how to build a championship team here. We’ve already done it once. When the stadium opens, we’ll be able to do the things we want to do.”
It’s clear they are following their plan of building with young talent but the main concern from fans is whether they will recycle these guys before they win again. To that, Loria responded:
“There are a lot of guys we’re going to keep,” he says, although he doesn’t say which ones.
“It’s OK to fall in love with these players,” he says, adding that this is “the most intriguing team” he’s ever been around.
We can interpret that to mean many things but in general you have to be optimistic when he encourages us “to fall in love” again.
As for the ballpark we learn that Loria, an internationally renown art dealer, is very hands on:
Loria finds himself drawing upon those early lessons more than ever as he increasingly turns his attention to planning every last intricacy of the Marlins’ future home. He spends hours each week on the phone to Kansas City, where a team of architects at the legendary HOK firm is working steadily to prepare the first set of renderings.
They aren’t expected for perhaps another year, but already certain hints are emerging.
The new park will give pitchers every chance to succeed when it opens in 2011, per the Marlins’ philosophy. But considering the day job of the club owner — international art dealer — it has the potential to be so much more than just another brick-lined playpen for millionaires.
Loria doesn’t sound interested in building yet another throwback yard.
“We’re not looking at retro,” he said. “We’d like to see a contemporary building … realizing that we’re in Florida.”
I already know that some people will complain about this. The fact is, the ballpark is located in the middle of a neighborhood without any strong architectural characteristics. Retro ballparks are great, but they’re also becoming more and more repetitive and stale. The jewels of the retro movements — Camden Yards and AT&T Park, were built sometime ago and both leverage their surroundings (the warehouse, McCovy Cove) to bring in a special feeling. Closed roof retro stadiums look like fake big airplane hangers.
The trend to modern styling, apparent in many of the new projects in Miami, is a trend around the world. Just look at Allianz Arena in Munich or the Beijing National Stadium for the latest inspiration in modern stadium design. In the end, we are better off with something that looks like the picture above then another Turner Field.
We’re going to try to live blog opening day. It’s our first real try at it so lets see what happens.
4:00 PM — We’ ready to go!
4:05 PM — FSN just showed some clips including Jeff Conine. Nice to have the team recognize him today.
4:15 PM — Player intro. Luis Gonzalez making his 18th straight opening day start.
4:19 PM — Quickly switched over to see that Miguel Cabrera hit a solo home run for the Tigers. He also just struck out with the chance to win the game. Anyway, back to the Fish.
4:27 PM — And the Marlins take the field on this windy day at Dolphin Stadium. Mark Hendrickson is a veteran but this is his first opening day day. I’m sure it feels a bit different from your average start. He still is a serviceable number 3 or 4 starter.
4:29 PM — First pitch strike down the middle… three pitches… three strikes… one out
4:30 PM — First walk of the year. Luis Castillo on first (it’s amazing to think that Luis was a member of the Marlins for 10 seasons)
4:33 PM — We said Gonzalez is making 18th straight opening day start. We didn’t know that he has never played in Right Field. Wow.
4:35 PM — Cody Ross made a great dive but then dropped the ball. Thankfully Castillo didn’t make it beyond third.
4:40 PM — Hanley Ramirez leading off with a huge swing off Johan Santana. Rich reminds us that Santana was a Marlins Rule 5 pick (then traded).
4:41 PM — Nasty stuff from Santana strikes out Hanley.
4:43 PM — Three up, three down. That’s the first inning.
4:45 PM — FSN just did us all a huge favor by showing some video from the 1993 opening day. I really miss the teal caps and pinstripes (not really, just nostalgic).
5:01 PM — Luis Castillo is a trouble maker, we know that well. He just dropped a perfect bunt single.
5:02 PM — … and he stole second…
5:03 PM — … but another pop fly to center ends the inning. Still scoreless.
5:10 PM — Santana just plowed through our entire lineup. Hopefully we’ll do better second time around.
5:17 PM — Runners on first and second with no outs and Hendrickson seems like he may be in trouble. He dropped a nice curveball that for some reason was called a ball.
5:18 PM — Crap, ball goes down the third base line and the Mets are up 1-0 and still have runners on second and third with no outs.
5:19 PM — Fredi just had some words for the home plate umpire. Maybe he’s asking about those curveballs that the ump keeps missing.
5:21 PM — Another run. Time to warm up the bullpen? Wiley out for a chat.
5:22 PM — Great diving stab by Jacobs. He was so close to tagging church for the DP.
5:29 PM — This inning will never end. Hendrickson seems to be hitting the Marlins 5-inning wall here in the 4th.
5:30 PM — First shot of the fat guys who dance. Like us, they’re waiting for this inning to end.
5:31 PM — Ricky Nolasco warming up… fast…
5:32 PM — Hendrickson has thrown 30 pitches this inning (total of 71) and he’s not hitting he plate right now. It’s disturbing to watch pitchers just fall apart like that. Bases load so he better get some strikes.
5:34 PM — you can hear all those Mets fans in the crowd root as 3 more runs come in. It’s 6-0 Mets.
5:35 PM — Top of the inning finally over. So painful.
5:40 PM — First base runner for the Fish as Hanley manages a walk. Still looking for a a hit.
5:45 PM — GONE!!! Willingham with a 2-run home run for the first hit, home-run, RBIs, and runs of the season. And this against a Cy Young award winning lefty!
5:46 PM — Now Cantu thinks he can swing for the fences. We’ll see.
5:53 PM — Hendrickson gets a much needed 1-2-3 top of the 5th. Marlins coming up and Jeff Conine will be in the broadcast booth.
5:57 PM — Niner says that Dave Samson suggested the sign and retire to him about a month ago. He said they’re also going to talk about a job (I assume after he completes his Ironman competition).
5:58 PM — Meanwhile, Luis Gonzalez gets a hit.
6:00 PM — Jason Wood on deck. Hendrickson is done after 5 innings and 6 runs allowed.
6:07 PM — Hanley looks lost out there facing Santana. Marlins strand 2 base runners.
6:10 PM — Ricky Nolasco is now pitching for the Marlins. It’s easy to forget that he was one of the five young starting pitchers who won more than 10 games for us in 2006 (along with Willis, Johnson, Olsen, and Sanchez).
6:16 PM — Treanor guns down Reyes trying to steal second. Nice way to end the top of the inning.
6:29 PM — Treanor guns down Wright trying to steal third. (Wright was safe, he just sneaked behind Cantu’s glove).
6:51 PM — At least Santana is out of the game. Alfredo leads off with a pinch hit.
6:54 PM — Not a fun day for Hanley (0-4). At least this time he managed to actually put the ball in play.
7:10 PM — Treanor throws one away and a run comes in. The Marlins are down 5 in the ninth. Doesn’t look promising.
7:16 PM — Nice place by Uggla. Showed both range and speed. We’re going to the bottom of the ninth.
7:22 PM — It’s over. The Marlins lose to the Mets 7-2. 1 down 161 to go.