Today is Game 1 of the NLCS and it will feature two expansion teams. Tomorrow’s ALCS Game 1 features the long suffering but finally reprieved Red Sox and the long suffering Indians. The story lines are historically fascinating because Boston or Arizona may join the Marlins with their 2nd world series in the last decade, the Indians may record their first in half-a-century, or Colorado their first ever. Regardless, you have to give Bud Selig some credit because 3 out of 4 of his expansion teams have done well. This is all great for the game.

Update: It’s also great when you look at payroll:
#2 – Boston Red Sox ($143,026,214)
#23 – Cleveland Indians ($61,673,267)
#25 – Colorado Rockies ($54,424,000)
#26 – Arizona Diamondbacks ($52,067,546)

Now, a completely different issue. More

The Marlins three ownership groups deserve the marjority of the blame for the problems with the franchise. Despite two World Series, the team has seen two major fire sales and for a few years fielded terrible teams. But nothing irks me more than reading the hatchet-jobs coming out of the local South Florida media. Today’s useless drivel comes from Dave Hyde of the Sun-Sentinel.

Entitled “Brace for departure of Marlins’ star duo”, this meaningless entry leads off with:

Miguel Cabrera or Dontrelle Willis? Who goes this winter? Who stays? Can we start a pool on whether both will be traded?

Yes, it looks serious this time. And before you raise a voice in protest, understand you don’t have a voice. Nor do I.

It then goes into a stupid anecdote about Bill Murray getting free seats from scalpers. Well, Mr. Hyde, thank you for finally discovering what we’ve known for years — our attendance sucks. As you point out, we’ve drawn more fans this season than we did in the 2003 World Series season. I’m not sure what you are trying to tell us. No one expects the Marlins to average 25,000 fans per game right now with this stadium. That is one of the many reasons (and you may have read about this in your own paper) that the team is trying to get a new ballpark.

Next, Mr. Hyde goes on to suggest that since ticket sales don’t matter, the Marlins don’t care what the fans think and will get rid of players no matter how damaging it is. To be fair, this ownership has invested quite a bit of money in PR, marketing, and community relations. No matter what happens, I do think they care. You are just regurgitating anti-Loria baggage that unfairly stuck to him with the dying franchise in Montreal (note to Expos fans: the franchise died long before Loria, get over it).

But that’s not what gets to me.

What bothers me is that Mr. Hyde is essentially making all this up. He may be 100% right or 100% wrong and it doesn’t matter because he actually doesn’t know. His commentary is speculation at best. In fact, he uses question marks twelve times in this article. This kind of useless writing simply tarnishes people’s reputation and creates a negative aura around the team even though they just completed an enjoyable 3-game sweep of the Cubs who are in the midst of a pennant race. Unlike you or me (I don’t really have that many readers), Mr. Hyde’s voice matters. He has hundreds of thousands of readers who rely on him for news, even if he thinks all he’s giving is opinion. It is his responsibility, just like those covering politics or the war, to actually write responsibly. If you have definite information from reliable sources in the Marlins organization — please tell us. We expect that from you and will praise you for it. But this stuff comes across as facts when it’s not.

I don’t know what will happen to Dontrelle, Miguel, or the Marlins. But neither does Mr. Hyde.

Watching the last three games against the Cubs, I couldn’t help but notice the playoff-like atmosphere both on the field and in the stands. Clearly, having all those annoying Cubs fans yelling and screaming helped and the Cubs players were celebrating every key play, but you can clearly tell that Fredi and the gang were playing like we were in the race. Fredi’s use of the bullpen and the focus of our hitters showed what we’re all about. We even saw some big smiles after huge plays and after final outs. This should give us insight into what this team can really do. Now lets continue this in New York (and into next season). Nothing would make any Marlins fan happier than finishing off the Mets collapse.

OK, that’s enough of talking about the attendance at Wednesday’s game. We thank the NBC Nightly News for covering this story, it’s really important in light of everything else going on in the world. For all you Marlins-haters: get over it.